Public school teacher, we pulled our oldest in HS out of FCPS for private. I’m staying teaching but it’s changed so much in the past twenty years and the focus is on the crazy theme of the month instead of academics. My kid wasn’t happy. Our younger kids seem to be doing okay and will likely stay in FCPS through graduation. We will see what happens when they get to high school.

DH and I often talk about if we should move to Loudoun or someplace farther out. We won’t because we don’t know if it would be better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:False. FCPS is not better than LCPS or really any other local county. They love to hype themselves, but in our experience FCPS is just not great at all.

would you care to share a little more of your experience? Is this for elementary/middle/high ? And if there are more specifics on what you liked or disliked about either ?

10 years as an FCPS teacher, 10 years as an FCPS mom (that's not including a few that we did in private, because our FCPS elementary was so bad).

What I disliked as a teacher: bad teachers, no accountability for administrators, constant instructional fads pushed on teachers, tons of time wasted in pointless meetings and "trainings"
What I liked: good teachers (FCPS is about 70% good and 30% awful)

What I disliked as a parent: horrible administrators with no accountability, bad teachers, instructional fads that were forced on teachers who had no idea how to use them, PTA bullies who were given special privileges by horrible administrators
What I liked: a couple of really good teachers (gone now thanks to the horrible administrators)

That's for elementary and some middle. I never taught in high school, and we went private before then.

No- they are both mediocre but have great PR machines to tell parents how great it is

What grades in ES? We are at Fox Mill for the Japanese Immersion and love it. I think the language immersion opportunities in FCPS are great but you have to start in K or 1, depends on the program. I am not sure if LCPS has something similar, I would guess that they do but I don’t know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:False. FCPS is not better than LCPS or really any other local county. They love to hype themselves, but in our experience FCPS is just not great at all.

would you care to share a little more of your experience? Is this for elementary/middle/high ? And if there are more specifics on what you liked or disliked about either ?

Very little esol/FARMs/multifamily housing in lcps

Anonymous wrote:False. FCPS is not better than LCPS or really any other local county. They love to hype themselves, but in our experience FCPS is just not great at all.

would you care to share a little more of your experience? Is this for elementary/middle/high ? And if there are more specifics on what you liked or disliked about either ?

False. FCPS is not better than LCPS or really any other local county. They love to hype themselves, but in our experience FCPS is just not great at all.

Oakton just got a massive reno. I'm pretty sure the trailers are all gone.

LCPS is more homogeneous economically. Fewer rich or more people.

Also look at school size and physical plant. Oakton and Chantilly are significantly larger than Briar Woods (and Oakton has lots of trailers).

Realtors aren’t allowed to make those comments, so I’d take whatever she said with a grain of salt.

If you are looking for gifted programming, FCPS is much more robust in elementary.

If you’re looking at high school, it’s the same.

Anonymous wrote:Depends on which schools you are comparing.

thanks, I just added that detail

OP here, I have been looking at the following pyramids..

LCPS
Hillside ES > Eagle Ridge > Briar Woods

FCPS
Navy ES > Franklin > Oakton / Chantilly

Depends on which schools you are comparing.

I was told by a realtor that the quality of education at FCPS is so much better than at LCPS. How true is that if you are not in the AAP program? Seeking feedback for elementary schools especially.