Anonymous wrote:Yorktown is better but WL is ok if you are ok with going with an average school. Many people only want top schools. In the end I think that the more competitive top schools prepare your kids for college better than a lower less competitive school.

I think you have a skewed idea of what is "average" and are going by what people say vs. real data. Yorktown and WL are both excellent and very competitive schools. The only real difference is that WL has more poorer kids who have the challenges that go along with that (33% FARMS vs 14%). Looking at the SOL data and SAT scores for white students at both schools (white, unfortunately, serving as a proxy for not economically disadvantaged since that group isn't broken out in the school report cards), Yorktown and WL are virtually the same, and substantially higher than the "average". However, if you want to be picky about the data, WL has a higher SAT score and higher "pass advanced" rate on most tests. Yorktown has a higher pass-advanced rate for US History and Earth Science. WL is higher on every other subject. Yorktown does have a higher overall pass rate for most subjects but on the order of 99% pass for English vs. 97%. 93% pass for math vs. WL's 92%. Whichever one is higher, it's not generally by much and certainly not a meaningful difference.

I actually spent time looking into the data when we were deciding where to live rather than relying on meaningless rankings. We are now in the WL zone, mainly for the good commute. I concluded that my kids would get a great education at either school.

Yorktown is better but WL is ok if you are ok with going with an average school. Many people only want top schools. In the end I think that the more competitive top schools prepare your kids for college better than a lower less competitive school.

We also wanted more recess, more PE, art, music and smaller class sizes that the public schools can't offer us. The overcrowding is WAY out of control.

I've been actually surprised by how much PE, art and extra curricular opportunities there are at Williamsburg(we aren't at Yorktown yet)--as in a lot. Overcrowding is an issue, however. APS is a victim of its own success on that front.

We are zoned for W-L, and our mortgage would go down if we moved into the Yorktoen zone.

This really depends on the neighborhood, not the zip.

For the under 850k range yiu get more house 8n WL so I thought entry level house buyers/the market thought Yorktown was superior.

My DH is one of those. I keep on telling him a lot has changed since his friend went to WL (when reportedly there was gang activity at WL) but he says 20 years doesn't change that much.

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Anonymous wrote:Your affluent kid with educated parents will do equally well in both.

This. Except in the very worst of schools, kids who come from homes where the parents value education will do fine anywhere. There is no need to be at the very "best" or highest ranked school to get a good education.

+1

The $1.5-3 million+ neighborhoods in 22201 all go to W-L. Nobody does private.

Many do send to W-L but there are a solid amount at privates too. Holy Trinity, St. Patrick's, GDS, Burgundy, etc.

But is that to avoid W-L, or because they would have done private either way? For what they're paying for private, they probably could have afforded the increased mortgage to get into Yorktown if they really felt Yorktown was superior, so the fact that some people living there send their kids to private doesn't really tell us anything.

We are zoned for W-L, and our mortgage would go down if we moved into the Yorktoen zone. We paid a premium for metro access because we like the lifestyle. We're happy with W-L and thought about but decided against private.

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Anonymous wrote:Your affluent kid with educated parents will do equally well in both.

This. Except in the very worst of schools, kids who come from homes where the parents value education will do fine anywhere. There is no need to be at the very "best" or highest ranked school to get a good education.

+1

The $1.5-3 million+ neighborhoods in 22201 all go to W-L. Nobody does private.

Many do send to W-L but there are a solid amount at privates too. Holy Trinity, St. Patrick's, GDS, Burgundy, etc.

But is that to avoid W-L, or because they would have done private either way? For what they're paying for private, they probably could have afforded the increased mortgage to get into Yorktown if they really felt Yorktown was superior, so the fact that some people living there send their kids to private doesn't really tell us anything.

Those private schools listed only go through 8th grade...

FWIW my kids go to private school now because we tried APS and found that there was too great a focus on testing and too little on social/emotional learning. We also wanted more recess, more PE, art, music and smaller class sizes that the public schools can't offer us. The overcrowding is WAY out of control.

Our school is JK-8. Not sure what we will do for high school. We have some time though.

We are zoned for Wakefiekd. Our kids will either go there or they'll stay in private school.

WL is more brown. UMC kids will do well anywhere.

Does yorktown still have a big drug problem?

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Anonymous wrote:Your affluent kid with educated parents will do equally well in both.

This. Except in the very worst of schools, kids who come from homes where the parents value education will do fine anywhere. There is no need to be at the very "best" or highest ranked school to get a good education.

+1

The $1.5-3 million+ neighborhoods in 22201 all go to W-L. Nobody does private.

Many do send to W-L but there are a solid amount at privates too. Holy Trinity, St. Patrick's, GDS, Burgundy, etc.

But is that to avoid W-L, or because they would have done private either way? For what they're paying for private, they probably could have afforded the increased mortgage to get into Yorktown if they really felt Yorktown was superior, so the fact that some people living there send their kids to private doesn't really tell us anything.

We were deciding between private vs. public and W-L vs. Yorktown was not a factor in our decision at all. The advantages of private (smaller classes, less testing, etc.) were not available anywhere in APS. The only thing that comes to mind that might differentiate Yorktown vs. W-L is that some families might seek out IB. The houses we looked at in W-L were no less expensive.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your affluent kid with educated parents will do equally well in both.

This. Except in the very worst of schools, kids who come from homes where the parents value education will do fine anywhere. There is no need to be at the very "best" or highest ranked school to get a good education.

+1

The $1.5-3 million+ neighborhoods in 22201 all go to W-L. Nobody does private.

Many do send to W-L but there are a solid amount at privates too. Holy Trinity, St. Patrick's, GDS, Burgundy, etc.

But is that to avoid W-L, or because they would have done private either way? For what they're paying for private, they probably could have afforded the increased mortgage to get into Yorktown if they really felt Yorktown was superior, so the fact that some people living there send their kids to private doesn't really tell us anything.

Anonymous wrote:We're zoned for W-L and have no concerns. Our neighbors with older kids have been very happy with it.

If you want a better understanding of the differences based on quantitative data, spend some time looking at the VA state report cards with data by subgroups, and the site-based surveys. On standardized tests there is very little difference between the two schools for not-economically disadvantaged students. And in the latest SAT scores, white students score higher at WL than at Yorktown. That's not to say Yorktown is "bad". Both are good schools and students have good SATs. (1860 and 1805 vs state and national averages in the 1500s for white students). Really, don't get hung up on rankings. When you rank a bunch of high performing schools, some have to rank lower even if there is no meaningful difference in scores.

I'd make the WL vs. Yorktown choice more on preference for style of neighborhood (Yorktown area tends to have larger lots and feel more suburban while more of the WL area tends toward urbanish) and commute (parts of NW are easier to reach via chain bridge while my commute to Union Station is easier from Lyon Park).

True.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your affluent kid with educated parents will do equally well in both.

This. Except in the very worst of schools, kids who come from homes where the parents value education will do fine anywhere. There is no need to be at the very "best" or highest ranked school to get a good education.

Choose the less competitive option.

We're zoned for W-L and have no concerns. Our neighbors with older kids have been very happy with it.

If you want a better understanding of the differences based on quantitative data, spend some time looking at the VA state report cards with data by subgroups, and the site-based surveys. On standardized tests there is very little difference between the two schools for not-economically disadvantaged students. And in the latest SAT scores, white students score higher at WL than at Yorktown. That's not to say Yorktown is "bad". Both are good schools and students have good SATs. (1860 and 1805 vs state and national averages in the 1500s for white students). Really, don't get hung up on rankings. When you rank a bunch of high performing schools, some have to rank lower even if there is no meaningful difference in scores.

I'd make the WL vs. Yorktown choice more on preference for style of neighborhood (Yorktown area tends to have larger lots and feel more suburban while more of the WL area tends toward urbanish) and commute (parts of NW are easier to reach via chain bridge while my commute to Union Station is easier from Lyon Park).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your affluent kid with educated parents will do equally well in both.

This. Except in the very worst of schools, kids who come from homes where the parents value education will do fine anywhere. There is no need to be at the very "best" or highest ranked school to get a good education.

+1

The $1.5-3 million+ neighborhoods in 22201 all go to W-L. Nobody does private.

Many do send to W-L but there are a solid amount at privates too. Holy Trinity, St. Patrick's, GDS, Burgundy, etc.