Reply to Langley vs McLean vs Madison

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "Langley vs McLean vs Madison"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Good morning!
We are currently zoned for Langley with kiddos mid elementary age. We are extremely happy with our elementary school, but are a little wary about Cooper and Langley based on what neighbors have shared

We are looking to move homes (for reasons unrelated to schools) and are now reconsidering whether we want to stay zoned for Langely. 
We are currently looking at homes zoned for Langley, Mclean and Madison.

All other non school things being equal (housing prices, commute, etc) if you could chose to be zoned for Langley, McLean or Madison which would you choose and why? 
[/quote]

Main difference between the 3 now are these negatives Thoreau-Madison and AAP,  Mclean decrepit/overcapacity,  Kent Gardens a mess and JIP at Great Falls.  And IB looms as a bookend for Madison with Marshall /South Lakes on either side. Not good.

Boundary absurdities can be seen on Coates maps: https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/Coates-Area-Boundary-Maps.pdf That's 16 elementary schools with student counts per SPA.

[/quote]

Disagree.  Biggest issues are the administrative turnover at Langley and Cooper (new principal at Langley and Cooper principal just left suddenly for another middle school) and continued angst over part of Langley possibly getting reassigned to Herndon.

McLean and Longfellow have stable leadership and no one at Madison cares if it’s bordered by two IB schools.  Marshall shares boundaries with Langley and McLean and South Lakes also shares a boundary with Langley.

The immersion programs at Kent Gardens (French) and Great Falls (Japanese) are generally viewed as positives, not negatives. [/quote]

Site based administrators come and go.  Some are fine and others average or poor.  So I stand by my post on the pyramid negatives but am adding the Madison split feeders.   So on immersion.  Kent Gardens French is a &quot;hot&quot; program located at a site with a concise base school boundary- 2 lane residential streets leading to the site.  12 trailers.   No breakdown on FLI immersion: enrollment totals at either site - in or out of boundary, budgets, class sizes.  JIP 28 transfers in for immersion and over 15 schools transferring in. All Great Falls transfer numbers &lt;10 including Forestville and Colvin Run.  Transfer numbers would be higher especially from those 2 if the program was desired.  [/quote]

You say site-based administrators “come and go” but the McLean principal has been there for over 12 years and the administration is held in high enough regard that the current principals of Falls Church, Justice, and Oakton all cut their teeth as APs under the McLean principal.  The Longfellow principal also has a long history with the pyramid, apart from a few years he spent at Lake Braddock.  [b]The KG principal has a great reputation, too, and it’s not easy to run an immersion program and keep others happy. [/b]Sure, they won’t be there forever, but it’s a group of very solid administrators.  The Haycock principal also just won the Region 2 “principal of the year” award.[/quote]

Immersion used to get 1 extra teacher and an aid.  Full load classes for all grades 1-6 immersion should mean NO extra staffing. 
How many immersion students in and out of boundary at each site per grade level?  Class sizes for immersion and non immersion subjects?  Kent Gardens split on out of boundary immersion for Langley, Mclean, and other pyramids?[/quote]

Kent Gardens has out of boundary kids for immersion.  Langley also has over 100 kids this year pupil placed from other pyramids.  It’s a positive for these schools, not a negative, that they attract kids from other pyramids. [/quote]

Of course anyone can see the transfer data. That was not the question.  FCPS used to give details on AAP per sending school and program enrollment per grade level. But that information is/was omitted on immersion.  CIP capacity on Kent Gardens should have more details.  Design and program capacity plus enrollment do not provide a clear picture on the site.

Clearly the French Immersion is an established program that is desired.  It should be able to field 2 or 1 [attrition?] full load classes per grade level without negatively impacting staffing ratios for non immersion students.  That is the real challenge and negative in these programs.  [/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