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[quote=Anonymous]OP, do a search for TC Williams. There's a lot of info. I'm an Alexandria parent of kids currently at a private pre-k-8 school (that is: I'm someone with no dog in this fight, beyond wanting to be informed so that when the time comes, we can make choices that work for our kids!) Here's the bottom line, as it seems to me:

TC is an interesting and unusual school, with significant challenges and significant strengths. It's large and extremely diverse, both socio-economically and ethnically/linguistically, and that is a challenge: how does a school serve an incredibly diverse population? You've got children of doctors and lawyers and professors, and children who were child soldiers in their countries of origin before arriving here as refugees. Wow. That is also a strength, of course: how cool is it for your kids to go to school with teens from all over the world, and many different walks of life?

TC sounds like it has schools within the school. That is, high-performing kids (sadly, yes, this is correlated with white kids from affluent families) tend to be in honors and AP classes with other high performing kids. Clearly there are some great teachers; clearly plenty of high-performing kids go to TC. Their test scores and college placement records are impressive for the "school within a school" made up of kids who are already high performers. (An earlier post had some stats, and you can see for yourself on the state's website... it has scores broken out by demographic groups, too).

So... a kid who is a) already a strong performer and b) assertive enough to be comfortable in a large school will probably be absolutely fine at TC. Indeed, their college prospects may well be a lot better than those of a kid coming from one of the uber-competitive private high schools, or their public counterparts in Arlington or Montgomery County.

And/but... a shy kid, or a kid who is just in the middle of the pack academically, might be intimidated or get a bit lost at TC.

This is just my sense, looking at it from the outside, so I could be wrong. My own feeling, right now, is that if my kids are doing well in school by the end of 7th grade, and are self-confident, they will go to TC. If they are less stellar and shyer, I'll probably keep them in private school and look for somewhere known for being nurturing.

I hope that helps![/quote]

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