op here - thank you guys sooo much for this info, really.

What happens after primary/middle school? I didn't think TC Williams had an IB program at the high school level.

Ok I found the info on the website about the changes at Houston:

http://www.acps.k12.va.us/houston/
"Home » News Releases » 2009-2010 » February 26, 2010

Letter from Dr. Sherman to Jefferson-Houston Community

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Dear Jefferson-Houston Staff and Community:

Last evening the Alexandria School Board voted unanimously to designate Jefferson-Houston Elementary School as a focus school for International Baccalaureate PYP and MYP Programmes as well as for the K-8 model. Students throughout the city will have the opportunity to opt into Jefferson-Houston for its unique programs, and ACPS will provide transportation. It was a proud moment, truly a celebratory moment, for all of us who were there.

I commend you — the staff, students, and parents who have worked diligently for a long time — for your dedication to Jefferson-Houston. You held fast to the belief that Jefferson-Houston would one day be a dynamic and successful school that the people of Alexandria would choose for their children. Thanks especially to Principal Kim Graves, who brings such energy and passion to the task of ensuring that each and every child will be successful.

We have not yet reached our goals for Jefferson-Houston, but we are on our way. You are to be commended for your willingness to embark on the International Baccalaureate PYP and MYP Programmes — not a small task but one that can carry you further toward your goal of making Jefferson-Houston an exemplary school.

Thank you for all that you do for the children in the Jefferson-Houston community. And thank you to the students who work very hard to improve academically. You have a bright future.

Sincerely,

Morton Sherman
Superintendent of Schools"

I am the PP who read the blurb in the paper(I believe it was the Gazette) - I can't find any reference to this on the school's website though - but they did say Houston was supposed to have been an Arts focus school but lost the funding to stay a focus school.

I have seen signs -actual physical signs not proverbial ones - that the area that is at the end of Old Town going towards Potmac Yards is going to be redevloped this Spring. I am actually glad to see that and also think that the other section of Old Town that has public housing is ridiculous. Prime Real Estate like that needs to go to someone who can pay taxes on it so that the city gets some benefit out of it. Besides, public housing as a concept is terrible IMO and they are better off with the mixed development communities or whatever they call them now.

Really interesting posts about Alexandria and I agree with each of them to a certain degree. I'm not sure what it is that makes the Alexandria system so dysfunctional - but Arlington does appear to be much more together in comparison.


There are a number of good elementary schools in ACPS, but the other posters are right that many middle and upper middle class kids take off in middle school (I'm one of those and I have absolutely no regrets). We will consider TC for HS, but it will depend on what we believe to be best for our kids. Our entire time in the public school system was a series of ups and downs - good teachers and then very bad teachers. One thing that really bothered me was the way the teachers, even the really good ones, constantly complained about central office and the administration. Great programs one year are cut the next - you just never knew what lay around the corner. We met fabulous parents and totally psycho parents. Parents that start off as public school cheerleaders until one thing goes wrong and they have tantrums that rattle an entire grade. From what I have seen and heard, Arlington seems so much more balanced. I'm happy to write the private school check just because I know what I'm getting and our administrators actually can make decisions without all of the ridiculous standards (and of course, the testing complicates things too).

That said, I would still recommend ACPS for the early years (k-2 or 3)- after that it's a game of roulette. . Once testing is introduced in 3rd, and TAG in 4th, elementary becomes another animal completely. That said, my kids were extremely well prepared for private, so if you can take the unpredictability the academics are sound. As for Jefferson Houston becoming the school for the "troubled" kids, my guess is the complete opposite. If it becomes a focus IB school, it will more likely become a haven for middle class families trying to avoid GW and Hammond. I agree that segregation has been the glue keeping many parents in the system - check out the "open honors" classes at GW sometime.

Anonymous wrote:I recently read a blurb in the paper that said Alexandria City is considering "re-focusing" their focus school Charles Houston to be a K-8 school and use the IB program. I thought that was an interesting idea and if it works I might actually consider using the City schools

Alexandria city only has one choice for public school - TC Willimas - and I have heard varying opinions.

I'm way more cynical than you. Alexandria used to bus students from its poorest neighborhood (i.e. the Charles Houston school district) throughout the city. Parents and community leaders of the white school districts absolutely hated this and thought these poor students were causing discipline problems, diverting resources, etc. The solution was to build a fantastic elementary school facility, so they could move back to the inner city core and not be accused of segregation. Despite the fanstastic facilities, Charles Houston is one of the worst performing schools in NOVA.

A lot of middle class and affluent parents will not send their children to George Washington Middle School because that is where most of the public housing children end up. The city loses lots of state money when parents opt to go private. The solution? Is it to make Charles Houston a middle school and divert public housing students there, so George Washington Middle School will be more palatable for the middle class? The IB program, will middle class students from other areas of Alexandria choose to go to Charles Houston for the program or is it just a smokescreen to further the segregation process.

Alexandria is basically seggregated. It has 800 public housing units in north old town. It has a lot of low income apartments in the north end and some on the very west end that cater towards el salvadorean immigrants. In the middle is where the rich white families live (George Mason & MacArthur). So not surprisingly the test scores at George Mason & MaArthur are terrific while those at Houston, Kelly, Maury, etc. are terrible. When it comes time to merge elementary students into Middle schools, white flight takes hold and affluent families flee to the many private middle and high schools in the area. The high schools (they have a 9th grade H.S. and a 10-12 H.S.) is a mix of middle class students (of all races), really poor el salvadorean immigrants, and really poor black children living in public housing. The end result is those middle class students end up doing pretty good and are pretty much separated from the rest. The other 2/3's is kind of like a remedial school with lots of problems.

Arlington is similar except it does not have many public housing units and twice the number of El Salvadorean immigrants living south of Rt. 50. The schools in south Arlington have significant populations of ESL students and they devote a lot of resources trying get them up to speed. The middle class families in South Arlington aggressively try to get into magnet programs or opt for private school. The north side of Arlington is pretty affluent and those schools score through the roof. The middle portion Arlington (i.e. just south of Wilson Blvd., towards Ballston) is much more of a mix. So the test scores for Yorktown are extremely high (among the highest in the country), Washington Lee (high but nowhere near the best schools in the area), and Wakefield is very low. But each schools caters to a widely different demographic and are pretty successful with what they are dealt.

I recently read a blurb in the paper that said Alexandria City is considering "re-focusing" their focus school Charles Houston to be a K-8 school and use the IB program. I thought that was an interesting idea and if it works I might actually consider using the City schools

Alexandria city only has one choice for public school - TC Willimas - and I have heard varying opinions.

Anonymous wrote:
It is possible to get a great education at any of these schools. There are definite differences between them though. But a child can have a fabulous experience at a mediocre school and even the very best school can be terrible for a particular student. They all have better and worse teachers, better and worse admins, etc. Test scores tell a very small part of the story.

Good luck, OP.

Very true, although you might consider what makes a public school "mediocre," and what makes it among "the very best." There are schools with lower average test scores that have far more caring teachers and administrators, and schools with higher test scores that are very concerned with maintaining high rankings, but largely indifferent to the needs of individual students. You really need to do your homework.

Anonymous wrote: - Arlington has more flexibility and more options in school choice, including a much larger variety of specialized programs and alternative school choices.
- Buying a 2+ bedroom house in a "good" N.Arlington public school zone will cost you $150K+ more than precisely the same house in a "good" Alexandria zone.
- Alexandria has skewed enrollment problems, with some schools over-subscribed and some very under-subscribed, so re-zoning or some other re-structuring may occur within the next several years.
- Cohort sizes at the "good" elementary schools in both districts are growing with the reputation of that elementary school. The Taylor/Key/Sci Focus grouping in Arlington has been affected by this, for example, as have George Mason and Douglas MacArthur in Alexandria.The number of kindergarten classes has jumped (i.e. from 2 to 4) over the course of just a few years in some of these schools, as people with young kids move into the district that they hear is so good.
- I believe that Alexandria does have a lower cap than Arlington on the number of kids in the non-Title I classrooms, 22 max in Alexandria v. 25 max in Arl, maybe?
- In Alexandria, it seems the middle schools can be an issue (there are only 2 of them). Then again, some of the Arlington middle schools have issues too -- the big oral sex episode several years back was in one of the N. Arl middle schools.
- Because there is only one public high school in Alexandria, it has all the bells and whistles, including a brand-new facility. But it ain't anywhere on the list of great high schools that US News or Jay Matthews put together, while a few of the Arlington high schools are fantastic according to those lists.
- Alexandria has a LOT of private schools, not all Catholic. In Arlington, there are Catholic schools, but really no other privates it seems.

Yes, I would say to really look into this before you move anywhere, OP. N. Arlington is facing somewhat of a crisis in that the number of students at their schools keep growing and growing, and many schools don't seem to have anticipated it. Case in point, Taylor like the PP mentioned got 40+ more kindergarten students than they were expecting this past fall - meaning they had to add two new classes and didn't really have the room for it. I think they took away an art room for one of the classrooms. Glebe, which is going to be my son's school this fall, got 20+ more students than they were expecting and had to add another kindergarten class as well. They took away the computer lab. So, while these schools are still great, I am concerned that if the population keeps growing and growing, the schools will suffer because they will keep taking away art/computer/music classrooms to make room for all the new students. The county has since revised its predictions for class size in most schools, but because of the budget crisis there is not really a way to fix it anytime soon.

- Arlington has more flexibility and more options in school choice, including a much larger variety of specialized programs and alternative school choices.
- Buying a 2+ bedroom house in a "good" N.Arlington public school zone will cost you $150K+ more than precisely the same house in a "good" Alexandria zone.
- Alexandria has skewed enrollment problems, with some schools over-subscribed and some very under-subscribed, so re-zoning or some other re-structuring may occur within the next several years.
- Cohort sizes at the "good" elementary schools in both districts are growing with the reputation of that elementary school. The Taylor/Key/Sci Focus grouping in Arlington has been affected by this, for example, as have George Mason and Douglas MacArthur in Alexandria.The number of kindergarten classes has jumped (i.e. from 2 to 4) over the course of just a few years in some of these schools, as people with young kids move into the district that they hear is so good.
- I believe that Alexandria does have a lower cap than Arlington on the number of kids in the non-Title I classrooms, 22 max in Alexandria v. 25 max in Arl, maybe?
- In Alexandria, it seems the middle schools can be an issue (there are only 2 of them). Then again, some of the Arlington middle schools have issues too -- the big oral sex episode several years back was in one of the N. Arl middle schools.
- Because there is only one public high school in Alexandria, it has all the bells and whistles, including a brand-new facility. But it ain't anywhere on the list of great high schools that US News or Jay Matthews put together, while a few of the Arlington high schools are fantastic according to those lists.
- Alexandria has a LOT of private schools, not all Catholic. In Arlington, there are Catholic schools, but really no other privates it seems.

Anonymous wrote:All the districts in NoVA are relatively large and you cannot speak broadly for every school in a district. But as long as we recognize that we are talking in broad generalities....

Alexandria City Schools, in general, have a worse reputation than Arlington County Public Schools. However, part of Alexandria goes to Fairfax County Public Schools. If this is of interest to you, children in Alexandria City Schools are not eligible to apply to Thomas Jefferson, the public Science & Technology magnet in Fairfax County, that is generally considered one of the very best public high schools in the country. Kids in the other NoVA districts are eligible to apply to TJ.

Falls Church City Schools also have a very good reputation and it is a very small system. Some people like that, some don't.

Fairfax County is the largest system. It's best schools are probably considered the best in NoVA and among the best in the country. It's mediocre schools are still considered some of the best in the country, but they will not awe your friends.

It is possible to get a great education at any of these schools. There are definite differences between them though. But a child can have a fabulous experience at a mediocre school and even the very best school can be terrible for a particular student. They all have better and worse teachers, better and worse admins, etc. Test scores tell a very small part of the story.

Good luck, OP.

two of Arlington counties (very small county) were among the best in the country. Yorktown is FABULOUS. Washington&Lee is also great.
I would rate Arlington as much better than Alex.city and most of the county if we are talking about NorthArlington. ArlingtonCo. elementary schools are also amazing and many districts let you choose among 3 different team schools.

Private. Small classes in public schools are a thing of the past, at least until tax revenues recover.

All the districts in NoVA are relatively large and you cannot speak broadly for every school in a district. But as long as we recognize that we are talking in broad generalities....

Alexandria City Schools, in general, have a worse reputation than Arlington County Public Schools. However, part of Alexandria goes to Fairfax County Public Schools. If this is of interest to you, children in Alexandria City Schools are not eligible to apply to Thomas Jefferson, the public Science & Technology magnet in Fairfax County, that is generally considered one of the very best public high schools in the country. Kids in the other NoVA districts are eligible to apply to TJ.

Falls Church City Schools also have a very good reputation and it is a very small system. Some people like that, some don't.

Fairfax County is the largest system. It's best schools are probably considered the best in NoVA and among the best in the country. It's mediocre schools are still considered some of the best in the country, but they will not awe your friends.

It is possible to get a great education at any of these schools. There are definite differences between them though. But a child can have a fabulous experience at a mediocre school and even the very best school can be terrible for a particular student. They all have better and worse teachers, better and worse admins, etc. Test scores tell a very small part of the story.

Good luck, OP.

i know this post might bring on some emotion so i apologize in advance. just trying to get some feedback from parents that have some first hand experience. my husband and i are trying to figure out where the best public schools are in N.va. we're leaning more toward arlington and alexandria. i've seen a lot of posts on arlington but not as much on alexandria. we're just looking for a school w/a good reputation (as shallow as that sounds, i'm sorry, pls just accept it as me being honest?), awesome teachers, and small class sizes. i'm sure that sounds vague to some but that's where i'm at. any advice?