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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP I’m like you. Small town, elite college, even an engineer.

Did fine? So your HHI is like $200k — guessing from being in a condo looking at lower price SFH.

[b]That is fine but going to a better pyramid opens up a network of people to learn and benefit from, peers who succeed and can refer you, parents with even more successful careers to give advice to their kids friends. I saw it at my elite college, having others from your circle helps a lot. [/b]

You did fine, but a better school let’s your kids do better. [/quote]

+1. You may have “did fine,” but it doesn’t sound like you’ve done great. Wouldn’t you like your kids to do better than just fine?[/quote]

Control for income and there is no evidence that similar kids do better at Langley than at Justice.[/quote]

I went to Justice HS as a refugee when it was still under the name Stuart.  The school was terrible, lot of fighting between Asians and white kids, Asians and black kids, Asians and Hispanics, etc...  I did OK.  I have been living in Mclean for the past twenty years and I have one kid at Potomac school and two kids at Langley HS.

[b]Going to a better pyramid is so much better at many levels.  There are so many successful people with kids at both Potomac school and Langley HS and they are more than willing to help my kids with both professional and personal finance advises.  Several families offer my kids summer internships.  I lost my job last year and one of the parents who is a CEO of a consultant company hired me and my salary increased by 40%.  
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Those opportunities are not likely to happen at Justice.[/quote]

This is probably the biggest legitimate difference between high and lower-income pyramids.  Other factors mentioned here--not so much.  If this is something that matters strongly to you, then you should probably spend more for a "top" school. If you care more about things like avoiding entitlement and fostering empathy for those who are less fortunate, you're probably better off at a school like Justice.  [/quote]

TJ and Langley are the only two high schools in FCPS with very few "less fortunate" kids.  Any other school will have roughly 10% or greater low-income kids - i.e., McLean has a Title I feeder, Madison has kids from a heavily Hispanic apartment complex near Cedar/Park; Oakton has kids from lower-income complexes off Blake Lane; Woodson has some modest townhouse complexes from the Fairfax Villa area, etc.  Every morning kids from families with more resources at those schools see some of their less fortunate classmates getting free breakfasts, and every afternoon they'll have activities with kids who may need to leave early because they have after-school jobs to support their families.

FCPS spends considerably more money on the schools with more low-income kids, but the schools end up directing a large chunk of those funds towards trying to help kids gain fluency in English, stay in school, and graduate.  The academic opportunities generally are not as robust for the other kids.  For example, here's a list of the foreign languages offered at Langley next year:  Chinese, French, German (being phased out), Japanese, Latin, Russian, and Spanish.   And here are the options at Justice:  Arabic, French, and Spanish.  Similarly, if you compare the science courses at McLean to those at Justice, McLean offers all the science courses available at Justice, plus electives in Astronomy and Oceanography not offered at Justice.  And there are no doubt other examples involving other schools and subject areas.

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