Anonymous wrote:

+1, this sums it up

Anonymous wrote:

I agree - the academy classes in the FCPS high schools are the best kept secret around. My son left his base school (Centreville) to attend the Chantilly High School Engineering Academy and it rocked. He is graduating from college with a double major in Electrical engineering and Physics and going on to Cornell for Applied Physics. The academy was great for advanced engineering and physics. Fairfax High School has great arts "academy" classes. No matter what FCPS High School you are zoned for, your children can attend the academies if they finish their requirements the first two years of high school (and meet competitive standards...of course).


http://www.fcps.edu/ChantillyAcademy/Courses/Courses.html

thank you for this. I had wondered how the academies work - we're many years from HS, but I was interested when I ran across them on the FCPS site. Congrats to your son on his success!

Anonymous wrote:One bonus of FHS is that the FCPS "academy" classes are there. FHS houses most of the arts classes (and also chinese I think) Graphic Design, Musical Theatre, Dance, Fashion, Music Production, etc. Because of that it has a spectacular arts program if that is something your child may eventually be interested in.

After the recent renovation I think it's a beautiful and well thoughtout space and I would send my child there in a heartbeat. Like other "mega schools" -- Robinson/Lake Braddock there is something to be said about how large a student body it has (I understand the other two have 7th and 8th, but just in terms of sheer number of students) But by being seperated by grades, and then teams it makes it much more do-able for freshman.

I agree - the academy classes in the FCPS high schools are the best kept secret around. My son left his base school (Centreville) to attend the Chantilly High School Engineering Academy and it rocked. He is graduating from college with a double major in Electrical engineering and Physics and going on to Cornell for Applied Physics. The academy was great for advanced engineering and physics. Fairfax High School has great arts "academy" classes. No matter what FCPS High School you are zoned for, your children can attend the academies if they finish their requirements the first two years of high school (and meet competitive standards...of course).


http://www.fcps.edu/ChantillyAcademy/Courses/Courses.html

I agree.

Anonymous wrote:It's not that anyone is cheering for mediocrity. It's that when looking at a school, it's obvious that a school with 33% FARMS kids is going to have lower scores than a school with 2% FARMS kids. That's a no-brainer. Yes, ON the whole (when you average ALL the scores of the students), students at Langley score higher than students at Fairfax HS.

But, you have to compare similar groups to similar groups so that your not just skewing the averages based on economics. That's what you want right? The question was whether the TEACHING at Fairfax was good... Not just whether the students at Fairfax have high household incomes and are native English speakers.

If you control for those variables (loosely using race to identify students with higher household income and native speakers), you see that there are many schools, including Fairfax HS, that have comparably high SAT scores. That is the "apples to apples" comparison you should be making if you want to know whether the teaching at different schools is better/worse.

I'd suggest that it's even a bit more subtle than this. The schools don't really undertake to prepare students for the SATs, which in theory are designed to measure aptitude, rather than achievement. Lots of kids in this area take classes outside of school to prepare for the SATs. Instead, as a practical matter, SAT scores become a proxy for what does matter to many parents, which is whether their kids will be surrounded by high-achieving peers.

The people who focus on the overall averages tend to believe that their (presumably brilliant) kids will suffer if they attend school with other students who are less motivated or come from more challenged backgrounds. The people who break down the scores into demographic sub-groups often do so because it reinforces their belief that their kids will find a sufficient cohort of motivated peers at a particular school to succeed. Because most whites in FCPS come from middle or upper-income families, the performance of white students often becomes the default measure of how a typical kid who has parental support and doesn't have to work three jobs after school will fare.

It's not that anyone is cheering for mediocrity. It's that when looking at a school, it's obvious that a school with 33% FARMS kids is going to have lower scores than a school with 2% FARMS kids. That's a no-brainer. Yes, ON the whole (when you average ALL the scores of the students), students at Langley score higher than students at Fairfax HS.

But, you have to compare similar groups to similar groups so that your not just skewing the averages based on economics. That's what you want right? The question was whether the TEACHING at Fairfax was good... Not just whether the students at Fairfax have high household incomes and are native English speakers.

If you control for those variables (loosely using race to identify students with higher household income and native speakers), you see that there are many schools, including Fairfax HS, that have comparably high SAT scores. That is the "apples to apples" comparison you should be making if you want to know whether the teaching at different schools is better/worse.

Anonymous wrote:Huh, looks like we have a lot of people cheering for mediocrity on this forum.

No wonder American Public Eduction is going down the drain.

These same people will be OK if their child goes to GMU instead of UVa.

I guess that's not fine with some folks and fine with others.

Darwinism is at play everywhere.

....or perhaps we have enough confidence in our offspring's abilities and our own parenting to know that they can/will excel anywhere - even a FCPS middle of the pack school.

Anonymous wrote:Huh, looks like we have a lot of people cheering for mediocrity on this forum.

No wonder American Public Eduction is going down the drain.

These same people will be OK if their child goes to GMU instead of UVa.

I guess that's not fine with some folks and fine with others.

Darwinism is at play everywhere.

why settle for UVa???? Ivy or bust!!

Anonymous wrote:Huh, looks like we have a lot of people cheering for mediocrity on this forum.

No wonder American Public Eduction is going down the drain.

These same people will be OK if their child goes to GMU instead of UVa.

I guess that's not fine with some folks and fine with others.

Darwinism is at play everywhere.

I bet you scream at your DD for getting an F in gender.

Anonymous wrote:Huh, looks like we have a lot of people cheering for mediocrity on this forum.

No wonder American Public Eduction is going down the drain.

These same people will be OK if their child goes to GMU instead of UVa.

I guess that's not fine with some folks and fine with others.

Darwinism is at play everywhere.

\

Thanks for that. And some people on this forum would be happy raising kids like George Huguely, so long as they get into U. Va.

I went to a school that you'd likely find acceptable, but in my professional life I often find that GMU graduates outperform U. Va and Ivy graduates.

Huh, looks like we have a lot of people cheering for mediocrity on this forum.

No wonder American Public Eduction is going down the drain.

These same people will be OK if their child goes to GMU instead of UVa.

I guess that's not fine with some folks and fine with others.

Darwinism is at play everywhere.

Anonymous wrote:Nope 12:43 has it right. FHS is average, middle of the pack, IN-SPITE of good programs.

My child will be attending FHS and I am not fooling myself into thinking "Oh, FHS has diversity, so that makes up for its SAT scores being just average".

I much rather have a diverse HS that ALSO shows top notch academic performance. FHS does not.

And btw, after reading through the entire thread, the real point of contention was whether ANY FCPS HS will suffice. And clearly the SAT scores show that this is not the case.

So, continue to harp on diversity, when the real issue is performance.

Should we arrange a screening of "Race to Nowhere" now, or wait until you've got a completely stressed-out child on your hands?

and just average test scores? They are above the state and national average by quite a bit. They are only "mid-range" when compared to high schools filled with some of the most affluent and priviledged children in the country.

And the point about comparing to other counties is valid. Only one HS is Arlington and one in Loudoun has better scores.

But sure, it's a lousy school.

Because test scores are clearly the ONLY way to judge performance

Anonymous wrote:Nope 12:43 has it right. FHS is average, middle of the pack, IN-SPITE of good programs.

My child will be attending FHS and I am not fooling myself into thinking "Oh, FHS has diversity, so that makes up for its SAT scores being just average".

I much rather have a diverse HS that ALSO shows top notch academic performance. FHS does not.

And btw, after reading through the entire thread, the real point of contention was whether ANY FCPS HS will suffice. And clearly the SAT scores show that this is not the case.

So, continue to harp on diversity, when the real issue is performance.

Makes no sense. FCPS generally has good programs, so some schools have to be in the middle of the FCPS pack. It's been pointed out before that, if Fairfax were in either Arlington or Loudoun, it would be considered the second-best school in either county.

Sorry that's not good enough for you. Hope your child sets the world on fire despite being relegated to Fairfax. Assuming, that is, that you actually have a kid who will attend that school.