Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St. Mary’s, St. Louis, St. James, St. Mark

St Louis is where kids who don't get aap go

This is silly. St. Louis prepares students well for high school. Many people transfer in before 5th or 6th grade because of the reputation of the middle school.

On top of that, they offer the kids loads of leadership and public speaking opportunities.

Nice school.

They transfer in for 4th (3rd if the can manage to get in late) when they don’t get into AAP. It happened to both my kids’ classes at a local public

That may have been one or two kids in that particular year but it’s not a trend. There generally are only a few openings in a whole grade each year due to people moving out of the area. There’s not some mass exodus of kids rejected from FCPS AAP coming to 4th grade at St. Louis. There are only two 4th grade classes.

I don't know anything about St. Louis, but I interpreted the original comment as a compliment. Meaning if kids miss AAP, parents of those kids (who are probably very bright) chose St. Louis. If they consider it the next best thing, that's a good thing. Obviously, no catholic school will come close to AAP, and I say this as a happy catholic school mom with very smart children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St. Mary’s, St. Louis, St. James, St. Mark

St Louis is where kids who don't get aap go

This is silly. St. Louis prepares students well for high school. Many people transfer in before 5th or 6th grade because of the reputation of the middle school.

On top of that, they offer the kids loads of leadership and public speaking opportunities.

Nice school.

They transfer in for 4th (3rd if the can manage to get in late) when they don’t get into AAP. It happened to both my kids’ classes at a local public

That may have been one or two kids in that particular year but it’s not a trend. There generally are only a few openings in a whole grade each year due to people moving out of the area. There’s not some mass exodus of kids rejected from FCPS AAP coming to 4th grade at St. Louis. There are only two 4th grade classes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St. Mary’s, St. Louis, St. James, St. Mark

St Louis is where kids who don't get aap go

This is silly. St. Louis prepares students well for high school. Many people transfer in before 5th or 6th grade because of the reputation of the middle school.

On top of that, they offer the kids loads of leadership and public speaking opportunities.

Nice school.

They transfer in for 4th (3rd if the can manage to get in late) when they don’t get into AAP. It happened to both my kids’ classes at a local public

Anonymous wrote:Ask to see the school's HSPT scores. I am only familiar with St. Agnes, but its students have done exceptionally well over the past few years. (And the school is more diverse economically than you imagine it to be.)

This reflects the parents ability to pay for private tutors for the HSPT.

Anonymous wrote:We have had a very different experience for our children and 100% do not agree that St Luke is academically rigorous, especially in their middle school. Look at the test scores. Yes, each school in the Arlington Diocese can share overall test score results for their schools.

A math track for Geometry in 8th grade is advanced. Recent science has been outstanding. My kids have been well prepared for their competitive high schools.
In the end, I suggest you just go with your parish school.

We have had a very different experience for our children and 100% do not agree that St Luke is academically rigorous, especially in their middle school. Look at the test scores. Yes, each school in the Arlington Diocese can share overall test score results for their schools.

In our experience at OLGC the English was truly fantastic… my 9th grader was asked by her English teacher where she went to lower school as her writing was so strong grammatically.

Everything else was, I would say, on par with fcps.

Does the number of Blue Ribbons accumulated by the school correlate with any metric? It looks like St. James has more than the others, but not sure if this means anything.

Anonymous wrote:Ask to see the school's HSPT scores. I am only familiar with St. Agnes, but its students have done exceptionally well over the past few years. (And the school is more diverse economically than you imagine it to be.)

They should NOT share that!!!

If they have 2 or 3 "shining stars" who come in later in middle school, they can't take credit for that.

Also, if they make room for 2 or 3 children who wanted to come to Catholic School after a hardship, a Catholic school's mission is to avoid turning them away.

Tacky.

Anonymous wrote:The diocesan schools in NoVA follow the same curriculum, so I wouldn’t expect a wide variety between the K-8 ones. And I don’t think the high schools vary all that much either.

+1

It's teacher dependent though on how tough the grading is and how the subject gets taught .
My 8th grader had to memorize the Gettysburg Address. Two years when there was a new 8th grade teacher, my other DD had to interpret/summarize what it meant, the context, etc. No memorizing.
And both were scored differently.

Ask to see the school's HSPT scores. I am only familiar with St. Agnes, but its students have done exceptionally well over the past few years. (And the school is more diverse economically than you imagine it to be.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St Agnes is quite rigorous. Excellent high school placement this year with almost half the class going to Visitation or Gonzaga this year.

A lot of that could also be attributed to having a lot of students with parents who have the ability to pay the higher tuition rate for the independent Catholic high schools.

+1. This fact is relatively meaningless. Catholic K-8 students almost always get into their first choice of Catholic high schools because they receive an admissions preference. Visitation and Gonzaga placement stats those have more to do with the relative wealth of that particular parish.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St. Mary’s, St. Louis, St. James, St. Mark

St Louis is where kids who don't get aap go

This is silly. St. Louis prepares students well for high school. Many people transfer in before 5th or 6th grade because of the reputation of the middle school.

On top of that, they offer the kids loads of leadership and public speaking opportunities.

Nice school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St. Mary’s, St. Louis, St. James, St. Mark

Not St. Mary's.

Why not? Any specifics/experience there with your kids?

Anonymous wrote:St. Mary’s, St. Louis, St. James, St. Mark

Not St. Mary's.