Reply to Arlington vs Fairfax vs MoCo schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The W schools have the highest test scores in the area, so that makes people assume they are the best schools.  But when adjusted for demographics (race, income and education level of parents) they're no better than the Arlington or Fairfax schools.  Plus unless you want to shell out $$$ after graduation for private, your best college option is essentially commuting to University of Maryland.  No other in state school is any good at all.  In Virginia you have access to UVA, William & Mary, and Tech -- plus JMU, Mary Washington and VCU among others.  You'd be crazy to walk away from that.[/quote]

TJ has the highest test scores in the area, followed some some of the W schools, followed by Langley and McLean, followed by other W schools, followed by some of the Arlington schools.

TJ is a much larger STEM magnet than the magnet programs at Blair and Poolesville, so if you reallocated the magnet kids to their base schools, you'd end up with about the same number of "top" schools in Montgomery and Fairfax.  The difference between MCPS and FCPS is that FCPS has more high schools that are considered very good, even if not at the W school/Langley/McLean level.  Both systems have some lower-performing schools as well. [/quote]

I love the argument that the Fairfax neighborhood schools would be better than they are if TJ didn't exist and the TJ kids went to them instead.  First, that's not a given -- many would probably go private.  Second, a school is only as good as the students it has, not the ones that it doesn't.[/quote]

OK, let's look at the students the schools have.  According to the latest US News national rankings, TJ is currently #1 in the country, Whitman is #104, Langley is #136, McLean is #157, Wootton is #167, Churchill is #294, and Walter Johnson is #707.

Eliminate the TJ magnet, however, and Langley and McLean would likely be ranked even higher.  Fairfax has a lot more jobs than Montgomery and people would still want to live close to their jobs even if there weren't a TJHSST.  [/quote]

Do you really think ranking these school based on a standardized test average is that meaningful?[/quote]

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