Reply to Does the school pyramid really make a difference in the long run?

Forum Index » VA Public Schools other than FCPS

Reply to "Does the school pyramid really make a difference in the long run? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Around here it's tough because [b]if you put your kid in a really good pyramid, they face incredible competition when it comes to college applications[/b].  So I'm not sure there is a right answer.

In terms of resale value, generally if you are buying in a lower pyramid and selling in a lower pyramid, yes, you'll get less for your house on resale but you'll also pay less.  The trick there is to not buy in a pyramid that is going to get worse (or perceived) as worse during the time you hold it.  (Think about the folks who were fighting being rezoned from Abingdon to Drew because they knew Drew was perceived as a lesser school.)[/quote]

I've never understood that as a reason to avoid a good pyramid.  There are many good colleges and universities, and [b]what matters the most is how well prepared (in terms of subject-matter knowledge and study skills) the student is at the college they attend.  The best pyramids give kids a leg up in both respects:  they will have studied with a stronger peer group and they will have been surrounded during some of their most important formative years by other students who take academics seriously.  [/b]

At least this is my take-away from having had kids in two FCPS pyramids.  In the higher ranked pyramid, the courses (even if the same in name) were more challenging and the teachers had higher expectations.  And the peer group challenged each other more to excel without, in our observation, spilling into cut-throat competitiveness.

I think these threads turn negative when they come across as if posters are suggesting that others are just flat-out screwed if they can only afford to buy in a small handful of pyramids.  But it's very clear that the market assigns higher value to higher ranked pyramids, other things being equal, and there are reasons for that. [/quote]

There is no evidence that students from any FCPS school enter college unprepared.  All schools in Fairfax County offer differentiation, and good students at any school will have no problem finding a cohort of similarly intelligent and motivated peers.  College choices are far more likely to impact a student’s job prospects/earning power than the high school they attend within a given NoVA district, and this is where students from schools like Justice will have a leg up.
[/quote]

Gee if this is true, why aren’t hordes of justice students taking advantage of it??[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics