Anonymous
07/06/2012 19:31
Subject: Re:If you could live anywhere in NoVa....
If I could find a great house there that I could afford, that is my number one pick for the No Va area. Many pleasant streets, walkable area with shops and restaurants, close to DC and major malls, a bit more liberal than conservative, little crime in most areas, good schools, community and cultural activities that can put you in touch with your neighbors. Not a perfect place, but IMO, better than all others.
Anonymous
07/06/2012 18:56
Subject: Re:If you could live anywhere in NoVa....
Anonymous wrote:I agree with 12:53, and add two other cons:
FCC is a small town, which has its advantages. The con: Everybody knows everybody else's business.
Unlike in FFX, there's no full-time AAP program. Teachers mostly do a very good job pre-assessing kids and differentiating in the classroom, and the elementary school TAAP teacher is wonderful and runs a truly engaging pull-out program, but it's not full-time AAP. Mean CogAT's are well above average (around the 85th percentile) so the level of instruction and enrichment is high despite the lack of AAP, but the real outliers remain largely unchallenged until later in middle school and high school.
Pro: very little school bureaucracy and almost everyone at the schools is friendly and helpful. You won't run into a situation like today's poster from Longfellow: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/245451.page
Also, class sizes are small relative to McLean.
Does anyone honestly believe that people who "could live anywhere in NoVa" would pick FCC? It seems like a nice, middle-brow area, but that's about it.
Anonymous
07/06/2012 16:44
Subject: Re:If you could live anywhere in NoVa....
Just curious. Do the Falls Church city parents like the way the schools are split up with only a couple of grades per school?
Anonymous
07/06/2012 16:42
Subject: Re:If you could live anywhere in NoVa....
Honestly, if I could live anywhere, it wouldn't be in the DC area. Mainly here for the jobs.
Anonymous
07/06/2012 16:29
Subject: Re:If you could live anywhere in NoVa....
You really would rather no trailers but have large classrooms with teachers who are overwhelmed? The ratios are calculated across the entire school, so it rarely requires multiple trailers for each school due to a student drop in class size. According to some parents at Haycock for instance they are fine if classes were in a tent, so I'm not sure the trailer verses classroom is a huge issue at those overcrowded schools. I'm not familiar with high schools to know if the current ratios are fine or not. I only hear complaints at the elementary school level. I think there are just too many children attending specific schools like AAP centers and that is a result of more than class size ratios.
Anonymous
07/06/2012 15:36
Subject: If you could live anywhere in NoVa....
Anonymous wrote:How diverse is it? I've been told it is overwhelmingly white and religious Christian. The community centers around a lot of the churches.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Quite a few Falls Church lovers here. never considered Falls Church. Tell me the pros/cons of FC Please
Pros:
Small and excellent school district. Small class sizes, very good reputation. Many live here specifically for the schools.
Walkable - from many areas you can walk to stuff. Lots of restaurants, live music, parks, W&OD trail, etc (although not charming like some other walkable areas).
Location - My commute from FC is the same as it was from N. Arlington. Right near 66, super close to the beltway, an easy/traffic-less drive to Chain Bridge.
Small town feel - because it's a small area and the small schools, people really seem to know each other. Your child won't get lost in the schools, even High School. You'll bump into people all the time that you know.
Events - they have great events in Cherry Hill Park. Fall festival, summer concerts, summer movies, Memorial Day festivities, Halloween stuff. Again - a small town feel,but the convenience of being close to DC
Cons:
The walkable area isn't cute or quaint.
Many places are about a mile to the metro or more, so you're not right at the metro.
Property taxes - they fund the schools very very well - and we pay for it!! FC taxes are way higher then Arlington.
School sports - because the high school is so small, the sports teams play other high schools very far away (since all the other schools in this area are huge). So away games can be a 2 hour bus ride...
That's all I can think of for now
Not very diverse unfortunately. But not focused on the churches at all - at least from what I can see. It's a pretty liberal area.
Anonymous
07/06/2012 15:35
Subject: If you could live anywhere in NoVa....
Anonymous wrote:PP, which zip code in falls church should I look at?
I really appreciate your list of pros/cons!
Sure thing! There's only one zipcode : 22046. Not all of 22046 is in the city though, some is Falls Church in FFX (which feeds to the Mclean pyramid). That area is great too - many of the same Pros, also awesome schools, with the pros/cons of being in FFX county.... When you are looking at listings, the Falls Church City ones start with FA and the Fairfax ones start with FX....
Anonymous
07/06/2012 13:14
Subject: Re:If you could live anywhere in NoVa....
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Mantua Hills
Mantua
Frost
Woodson
That area is very bland and just mediocre. grew up there, no one picks those as their dream , maybe as what they can afford
Well if we are talking about a dream location, then Great Falls a few doors down from L'Auberge. But I have to believe that the OP is interested in schools, primarily. I'll stand by that trio of schools.
A lot of discussion about Falls Church. I believe that Falls Church was incorporated - and collects additional income taxes - primarily to have control over their school system. It has a great reputation because of this but, frankly, the statistics do not show a significant difference between FC schools and some of the other good schools in the area. I'd still take the trio above over the FC pyramid.
Anonymous
07/06/2012 13:09
Subject: Re:If you could live anywhere in NoVa....
I agree with 12:53, and add two other cons:
FCC is a small town, which has its advantages. The con: Everybody knows everybody else's business.
Unlike in FFX, there's no full-time AAP program. Teachers mostly do a very good job pre-assessing kids and differentiating in the classroom, and the elementary school TAAP teacher is wonderful and runs a truly engaging pull-out program, but it's not full-time AAP. Mean CogAT's are well above average (around the 85th percentile) so the level of instruction and enrichment is high despite the lack of AAP, but the real outliers remain largely unchallenged until later in middle school and high school.
Pro: very little school bureaucracy and almost everyone at the schools is friendly and helpful. You won't run into a situation like today's poster from Longfellow: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/245451.page
Also, class sizes are small relative to McLean.
FCC is a small town, which has its advantages. The con: Everybody knows everybody else's business.
Unlike in FFX, there's no full-time AAP program. Teachers mostly do a very good job pre-assessing kids and differentiating in the classroom, and the elementary school TAAP teacher is wonderful and runs a truly engaging pull-out program, but it's not full-time AAP. Mean CogAT's are well above average (around the 85th percentile) so the level of instruction and enrichment is high despite the lack of AAP, but the real outliers remain largely unchallenged until later in middle school and high school.
Pro: very little school bureaucracy and almost everyone at the schools is friendly and helpful. You won't run into a situation like today's poster from Longfellow: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/245451.page
Also, class sizes are small relative to McLean.
Anonymous
07/06/2012 12:59
Subject: If you could live anywhere in NoVa....
PP, which zip code in falls church should I look at?
I really appreciate your list of pros/cons!
I really appreciate your list of pros/cons!
Anonymous
07/06/2012 12:59
Subject: If you could live anywhere in NoVa....
How diverse is it? I've been told it is overwhelmingly white and religious Christian. The community centers around a lot of the churches.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Quite a few Falls Church lovers here. never considered Falls Church. Tell me the pros/cons of FC Please
Pros:
Small and excellent school district. Small class sizes, very good reputation. Many live here specifically for the schools.
Walkable - from many areas you can walk to stuff. Lots of restaurants, live music, parks, W&OD trail, etc (although not charming like some other walkable areas).
Location - My commute from FC is the same as it was from N. Arlington. Right near 66, super close to the beltway, an easy/traffic-less drive to Chain Bridge.
Small town feel - because it's a small area and the small schools, people really seem to know each other. Your child won't get lost in the schools, even High School. You'll bump into people all the time that you know.
Events - they have great events in Cherry Hill Park. Fall festival, summer concerts, summer movies, Memorial Day festivities, Halloween stuff. Again - a small town feel,but the convenience of being close to DC
Cons:
The walkable area isn't cute or quaint.
Many places are about a mile to the metro or more, so you're not right at the metro.
Property taxes - they fund the schools very very well - and we pay for it!! FC taxes are way higher then Arlington.
School sports - because the high school is so small, the sports teams play other high schools very far away (since all the other schools in this area are huge). So away games can be a 2 hour bus ride...
That's all I can think of for now
Anonymous
07/06/2012 12:53
Subject: If you could live anywhere in NoVa....
Anonymous wrote:Quite a few Falls Church lovers here. never considered Falls Church. Tell me the pros/cons of FC Please
Pros:
Small and excellent school district. Small class sizes, very good reputation. Many live here specifically for the schools.
Walkable - from many areas you can walk to stuff. Lots of restaurants, live music, parks, W&OD trail, etc (although not charming like some other walkable areas).
Location - My commute from FC is the same as it was from N. Arlington. Right near 66, super close to the beltway, an easy/traffic-less drive to Chain Bridge.
Small town feel - because it's a small area and the small schools, people really seem to know each other. Your child won't get lost in the schools, even High School. You'll bump into people all the time that you know.
Events - they have great events in Cherry Hill Park. Fall festival, summer concerts, summer movies, Memorial Day festivities, Halloween stuff. Again - a small town feel,but the convenience of being close to DC
Cons:
The walkable area isn't cute or quaint.
Many places are about a mile to the metro or more, so you're not right at the metro.
Property taxes - they fund the schools very very well - and we pay for it!! FC taxes are way higher then Arlington.
School sports - because the high school is so small, the sports teams play other high schools very far away (since all the other schools in this area are huge). So away games can be a 2 hour bus ride...
That's all I can think of for now
Anonymous
07/06/2012 12:46
Subject: Re:If you could live anywhere in NoVa....
Anonymous wrote:I don't know about the perfect place to live, but why is everyone complacent about class size? Can't we get this on the FCPS budget for next year to at least reduce it to the levels we were at before the recession? Everything else has been restored that I can see. Even if a teacher can teach to all those students (and I don't believe they can), the classrooms are overcrowded and stuffy. They weren't built to house this many students in each of them. Please ask the school board to reconsider this if you think class size is important.
How many more trailers do you want at your school?
Anonymous
07/06/2012 12:39
Subject: Re:If you could live anywhere in NoVa....
10:53 A couple of years ago the class size was increased by a student among other cuts. Many of the program cuts have been restored except restoring the class size. Class size will never be changed so that 35 student classrooms will have 25 students. I'm just saying people last year talked about bringing this up to the school board but there wasn't enough of a push to do anything. It is a strain on the students, teachers, and classrooms themselves to have so many students in each class. There is no reason to think children will be bussed all around the County just to accommodate one less student which might result in a total of one more classroom as a result. The boundaries are pretty gerrymandered as it is anyway. Anyone know why there is a donut hole within the Robinson high school boundary with a small area inside that attends Woodson? Or the strange boundaries for McLean high school?
Anonymous
07/06/2012 12:19
Subject: If you could live anywhere in NoVa....
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:OP Here - I'm going by what I'm reading on Greatschools.net
I'm jut trying to educate myself, so please please be kind and don't get riled up. I have always understood Arlington schools to be top notch so I was really sad to read the contrary. I'm happy to hear at least one parent saying that Arlington schools are still solid - with the exception of the wakefield pyramid. That is very helpful.
Eh. Greatschools isn't worth reading. There's a lot of disinformation. I would never rely on it as an accurate barometer of any school/school system.
So if not Greatschools, where do I get accurate info on schools? For ex: Lots of negative reviews on Langley HS in McLean, yet I thought it was ranked one of the best in the country. so confusing.