Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax has its own issues. Elementary and middle is extremely segregated between AAP and “regular”. Larger class sizes.

The dichotomy between AAP and regular can be socially devastating and humiliating to families whose kids don’t make the cut.

OP, please take posts about how "devastating" AAP is with a huge grain of salt. You're going to get a LOT of this AAP-bashing on here. The whole "dichotomy, segregation, social humiliation" line. Angry, grossly generalized, vague claims. DCUM is rife with posters who come here mostly to write posts like this for whatever reason. Families who had or have kids in AAP can tell a different story about the positives--and families with kids in general ed at AAP center schools do not all resent AAP, no matter what some posters will claim. Every AAP center school is different and there surely are some with "us versus them" parents, but that doesn't mean Every. Single. Center. is a segregated nightmare of haves and have nots. That wasn't our experience or the experience of the many families we knew through six years of AAP.

Make your choice based on the overall pyramid. Don't rely much on DCUM other than as general guidelines and treat intensely negative posts like you'd treat extreme outlier reviews on a travel web site--set aside the extreme ones. Put in a lot of time in the actual areas you'd consider. I know parents who moved and who attended a PTA meeting or two at schools they were considering. Any way you can meet people in real life is better than taking our word (including mine) on an anonymous forum known for posters with axes to grind.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax has its own issues. Elementary and middle is extremely segregated between AAP and “regular”. Larger class sizes.

The dichotomy between AAP and regular can be socially devastating and humiliating to families whose kids don’t make the cut.

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax has its own issues. Elementary and middle is extremely segregated between AAP and “regular”. Larger class sizes.

Anonymous wrote:What are the FARMS number for FCPS as a whole? I can’t find that data anywhere on their website. Do they have school-by-school figures published anywhere?

Anonymous wrote:The top schools in the area are in FCPS, not APS.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/virginia

Anonymous wrote:^ FCPS has schools with higher FRL percentages than Yorktown, but they have better scores.
Why is that?
- APS parent

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Anonymous wrote:FFX is a sprawling, overly large almost impossible to comprehend entity, spanning from the sad backwaters of the Springfield area to the gleaming McMansions of western FFX. You must choose your pyramid extremely carefully. But in general, the FFX high schools run circles around Arlington high schools.

Based on what? Certainly not based on the Holy Grail of NOVA high schools: admission to UVA and William & Mary. Virtually all the top students in NOVA apply to one or the other, and often both, and the admit rates last year were 42 and 47 percent for FCPS and 37 and 53 percent for APS. No discernible difference. But I wonder what FCPS would look like if TJ students were excluded? I bet FCPS would fall below APS.

Outside of Langley, which has an extraordinarily privileged population, no school in Fairfax even arguably "runs circles" around APS.

TJ students are FCPS students, for the most part. Why exclude them?

Because Arlington students can go to TJ just as easily as Fairfax kids. It’s open to both. Duh.

Is it really open, though? The small numbers of Latino and African American students suggest that something is woefully unfair about the process.

There is nothing woefully unfair in the process. There are families that invest a significant amount financially into getting tutors, having their kids attend Johns Hopkins CYT math camps, and participating in robotics and science camps. All of this costs money. Many minority families can't afford this, so their kids have a harder time competing for TJ slots. That's not something wrong with the TJ admissions process, it's just a result of wealth disparity. TJ applicants are also a self selecting group. All the Asian families I know start preparing from a very young age. TJ is probably at least 60 percent Asian. I also don't worry about whether there is anything woefully wrong with TJ admissions because I'm not sure that in its current state it's somewhere I think kids should aspire to be. I would worry more about making sure that minority kids across the board are getting a good education and forget about the hand wringing regarding whether minorities make it into TJ.

What you have described sounds like inequality — inequality of opportunity, to begin with. It should be the highest priority of decision makers and policy makers to better integrate this school via a holistic review that can take into account underrepresented minorities’ status. The numbers are gut wrenching. Justice O’Connor correctly observed that there must be room at elite institutions made possible via affirmative action.

DP. TJ isn't an elite institution, it's a STEM school. And from what I've heard about their math classes (so needlessly difficult), I will not encourage my DC who loves math to go there. Why should kids who do not want a STEM school go there?

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FFX is a sprawling, overly large almost impossible to comprehend entity, spanning from the sad backwaters of the Springfield area to the gleaming McMansions of western FFX. You must choose your pyramid extremely carefully. But in general, the FFX high schools run circles around Arlington high schools.

Based on what? Certainly not based on the Holy Grail of NOVA high schools: admission to UVA and William & Mary. Virtually all the top students in NOVA apply to one or the other, and often both, and the admit rates last year were 42 and 47 percent for FCPS and 37 and 53 percent for APS. No discernible difference. But I wonder what FCPS would look like if TJ students were excluded? I bet FCPS would fall below APS.

Outside of Langley, which has an extraordinarily privileged population, no school in Fairfax even arguably "runs circles" around APS.

TJ students are FCPS students, for the most part. Why exclude them?

Because Arlington students can go to TJ just as easily as Fairfax kids. It’s open to both. Duh.

Is it really open, though? The small numbers of Latino and African American students suggest that something is woefully unfair about the process.

There is nothing woefully unfair in the process. There are families that invest a significant amount financially into getting tutors, having their kids attend Johns Hopkins CYT math camps, and participating in robotics and science camps. All of this costs money. Many minority families can't afford this, so their kids have a harder time competing for TJ slots. That's not something wrong with the TJ admissions process, it's just a result of wealth disparity. TJ applicants are also a self selecting group. All the Asian families I know start preparing from a very young age. TJ is probably at least 60 percent Asian. I also don't worry about whether there is anything woefully wrong with TJ admissions because I'm not sure that in its current state it's somewhere I think kids should aspire to be. I would worry more about making sure that minority kids across the board are getting a good education and forget about the hand wringing regarding whether minorities make it into TJ.

What you have described sounds like inequality — inequality of opportunity, to begin with. It should be the highest priority of decision makers and policy makers to better integrate this school via a holistic review that can take into account underrepresented minorities’ status. The numbers are gut wrenching. Justice O’Connor correctly observed that there must be room at elite institutions made possible via affirmative action.

Anonymous wrote:Flee APS for FCPS? My kids are I elementary school in APS and i wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FFX is a sprawling, overly large almost impossible to comprehend entity, spanning from the sad backwaters of the Springfield area to the gleaming McMansions of western FFX. You must choose your pyramid extremely carefully. But in general, the FFX high schools run circles around Arlington high schools.

Based on what? Certainly not based on the Holy Grail of NOVA high schools: admission to UVA and William & Mary. Virtually all the top students in NOVA apply to one or the other, and often both, and the admit rates last year were 42 and 47 percent for FCPS and 37 and 53 percent for APS. No discernible difference. But I wonder what FCPS would look like if TJ students were excluded? I bet FCPS would fall below APS.

Outside of Langley, which has an extraordinarily privileged population, no school in Fairfax even arguably "runs circles" around APS.

TJ students are FCPS students, for the most part. Why exclude them?

Because Arlington students can go to TJ just as easily as Fairfax kids. It’s open to both. Duh.

Is it really open, though? The small numbers of Latino and African American students suggest that something is woefully unfair about the process.

There is nothing woefully unfair in the process. There are families that invest a significant amount financially into getting tutors, having their kids attend Johns Hopkins CYT math camps, and participating in robotics and science camps. All of this costs money. Many minority families can't afford this, so their kids have a harder time competing for TJ slots. That's not something wrong with the TJ admissions process, it's just a result of wealth disparity. TJ applicants are also a self selecting group. All the Asian families I know start preparing from a very young age. TJ is probably at least 60 percent Asian. I also don't worry about whether there is anything woefully wrong with TJ admissions because I'm not sure that in its current state it's somewhere I think kids should aspire to be. I would worry more about making sure that minority kids across the board are getting a good education and forget about the hand wringing regarding whether minorities make it into TJ.