Reply to what is the difference between Madison HS, Oakton, and Reston high schools?

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "what is the difference between Madison HS, Oakton, and Reston high schools?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]I taught at South Lakes for several years. There are several excellent programs - fine and performing arts, marketing/DECA, culinary arts, geospatial and others. Every high school is going to have its cliques, but having also taught at another school more similar to the others you're asking about, I find that it's "safer to be different" at SL, if that makes any sense.

Your child does not need to take any IB classes, or can pick and choose certain content areas. There are even IB arts courses available. One of the challenges of IB schools is how the course progression works for some of the core subject areas, particularly math, and how it causes some segregation. For instance, if your child takes regular Algebra 2 as opposed to honors, you may find yourself battling to let them progress into precalculus, much less any IB math class. Rather, they may find themselves funneled into a more "auxiliary" math class like Prob/Stat, which if your child is 4-year college bound, makes them look a little less competitive against peers from nearby schools. If you peek into the various math classrooms, you can look at the demographics and probably guess what level is being taught in there.

That said, I've had hundreds of students both on and off the STEM track who have gone on to flourishing careers. The school is highly community-oriented and aims to be student friendly. Many of the staff attended the school themselves - more than at any other school I've worked. It may not get the best GreatSchools rating, and yes, your child will attend the same building as students from rougher neighborhoods (gasp!), but as far as public schools go it's a good place for kids to find their path.
[/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