OP, as an Alexandria/Old Town resident, I can tell you honestly the bottom line is that you don't move to Alexandria City for the public schools. Anyone who tells you otherwise is delusional.

You DO move to McLean, Vienna, Falls Church, and North Arlington for public schools. But not Alexandria City. Or I would wager to say even the part of Alexandria that is in Fairfax County, south of GW Parkway and Old Town. The area is beautiful and elementary schools are decent, but beyond that, middle schools and high schools are meh. That's not to say that students don't do well at those schools, but they are neither nationally ranked nor ranked well even in the state.

As of now, residents aren't eligible for Thomas Jefferson, though the city has discussed the possibility of forming a relationship with the school vis-a-vis paying money to Fairfax County.

Anyone who moves to Alexandria does so because it's a historic, vibrant, ecclectic, and unique community in NoVA. It's location along the Potomac River is unparallelled, and there is a great sense of community in Old Town/Del Ray, with lots of community feel and variety of activities, shops, places, museums to visit. There are huge supporters of the AREA and, thus, supporters of the local schools. Many of our neighbors send their children to public school and have been pleased with the outcome. But....I would be hard pressed to say people move to Alexandria BECAUSE of schools. Not the case. We know several folks who have left the area because of the schools....despite all the other benefits the community has. Like anything else, it's a cost/benefit analysis, depending on what your priorities are.

We stay in Alexandria, despite the public schools, because we love the area itself and the strong sense of community, walkability, ease of commute to CD, history, culture, diversity, and opportunities for things to do near the water. We have considered moving to McLean or Arlington, but just cannot bear to part with Alexandria, despite the schools. So we are giving it a go and seeing how our kids do.

We live in Del Ray and know several folks who are zoned between Del Ray/Rosemont/Potomac Yard / Potomac Green who are all electing private school or moving over public ACPS. The folks we know who live near Masonic Temple, Beverly Hills, and up close to Fairlington are mostly (but not all) opting for public (e.g., McArthur, George Mason, Barrett). We know several families in all areas who are choosing St. Marys, Blessed Sacrament, St. Stephens, and ACDS over public.

We also personally know four families who moved to McLean or Arlington to avoid ACPS. But I think they were zoned for Jefferson-Houston and weren't getting the feedback they wanted from the superintendent re: transferring. They didn't want to risk it, so they moved before they were told whether they could transfer to another school. Some of these folks were die-hard Alexandria supporters, but found dealing with the administration too stressful and risky.

We too are zoned for Mount Vernon, and have a rising Kindergartener in 2014. We are bit surprised to see that MVCS test scores and state ranking dropped even more than in previous years. I think now MVCS is joining Jefferson Houston as being in the bottom 3% in the state.

PP, they haven't had a lottery for Lyles Crouch in at least three years. It actually may have been last held 4-5 years ago. So, it's possible that things may have changed some in the last few years.

Anonymous wrote:Let me guess... You live in Old Town. There is quite a significant cultural difference between those families living in Old Town versus the rest of Alexandria, such as the West End, Del Ray, Rosemont, etc. It seems that those of us who don't live in Old Town are, for whatever reason, much more supportive of ACPS (in general, of course!).

Actually, my friends who opted out mostly lived in Del Ray and Rosemont and surrounding areas. My friends that had good experiences at Lyles-Crouch mostly went there through the lottery (when that was possible.)

We chose ACPS over private and are loving it.

Anonymous wrote:OP, your best bet is probably to ask people who have experienced both ACPS and some other school system and see what they have to say. In my experience, the only happy ACPS people have literally never experienced another system so they don't really know how bad ACPS is relatively speaking.

Well, we're happy with ACPS, and we've experienced private and another system. The total percentage of Alexandria's kids enrolled in ACPS is very nearly the same as the total percentage of Fairfax's kids enrolled in FCPS, so I'm not sure there's a parent consensus of hostility toward ACPS (outside this board and a few blogs).

Anonymous wrote:OP, your best bet is probably to ask people who have experienced both ACPS and some other school system and see what they have to say. In my experience, the only happy ACPS people have literally never experienced another system so they don't really know how bad ACPS is relatively speaking.

I agree with this.

We moved from private to ACPS and really this is a huge problem. Also, I find that a lot of parents really just don't care and these are upper middle class parents that I am talking about.

OP, your best bet is probably to ask people who have experienced both ACPS and some other school system and see what they have to say. In my experience, the only happy ACPS people have literally never experienced another system so they don't really know how bad ACPS is relatively speaking.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Wrong. [b] Plenty, and I mean plenty, of ACPS parents pulled their DCs from private schools [/b]because the social and academic environments at most ACPS schools are simply better than what is available at most privates in this region. In fact, several ACPS elementaries are well known to take in multiple ex-privates every year. It's not just about money, and it's not limited to one or two privates losing kids to publics. It happens every year.
[/quote]

This might be the case but I don't believe that those parents then send their kids to ACPS. They send them to Arlington or Fairfax schools.

In ACPS , The decline of students starts in 4th grade and continues through high school. You can look at historical data from the schools and see this happen every year for the past few years. The growth in enrollment over the past couple of years has been in the grades K-3 and mostly concentrated in K and 1st.

BTW SOL scores released today showed 18% of 8th graders passed the Math SOL. Down from 22% last year. Is that the better academic environment you would be referring to that surpasses the area private schools?[/quote]


OK, I regularly bash ACPS, but this math SOL score you cite is bullshit. It's because they push more 8th graders into Algebra -- so the sample size of kids taking "math" is tiny to begin with.

Let me guess... You live in Old Town. There is quite a significant cultural difference between those families living in Old Town versus the rest of Alexandria, such as the West End, Del Ray, Rosemont, etc. It seems that those of us who don't live in Old Town are, for whatever reason, much more supportive of ACPS (in general, of course!).

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Who are you people? Why the hate? I dont get it at all. Just one more opinion, but I would never move my terrific kids out of ACPS - and - for the record, we moved from an expensive "well thoght of" private if that makes any difference. The move was our choice -and by that, I mean both kids and parents decided together. Why leave private? Our choice may seem strange since the kids were doing well - excelling in fact- and no social, financial or "learning" concerns - if that is on your mind - they were popular, engaged, top of the class etc. We moved for the neighborhood cohort - yes- we thought the friends and social situation in public was better because both the kids and parents seemed more mature - and more intellectual - a better peer group all around. We got sucked into the private school machine in pre school, but after a few years the kool-aid was sour. We thought the private teachers and administration were sub-par - and not worth the money. Our kids play sports and wanted to be with their team mates - lots of drama in our small private that seemed so silly - even to kids not yet in middle school. In public math and Science are much better, History and Language arts are equal, foreign language, art and music are much much better and field trips are about the same. I'm not afraid to say it - if you met my kids and their friends you would say wow- what great kids - polite, smart, poised, caring and motivated to help out and excel - little go getters that self organize and collaborate in ways that many adults would envy. They love their school and the environment it provides. They have bonded with some amazing teachers and have empathy for those less fortunate. Reading some of these posts I can't help but wonder where you negative types were raised and went to school ... I'm guessing not Alexandria City or ACPS.[/quote]

This doesn't quite ring true. Either you wanted to save the money, or your kids weren't really thriving at their schools, but no one really moves kids who are excelling in private school to APS because the peer group is "more mature" (except for the large number of chidren repeating grades) or "more intellectual." Not saying they may not be doing OK where they are, but this is just a sales job to try and convince people to send their kids to APS by playing to their fantasies. [/quote]

Wrong. Plenty, and I mean plenty, of ACPS parents pulled their DCs from private schools because the social and academic environments at most ACPS schools are simply better than what is available at most privates in this region. In fact, several ACPS elementaries are well known to take in multiple ex-privates every year. It's not just about money, and it's not limited to one or two privates losing kids to publics. It happens every year.
[/quote]

That's possible. There are many reasons people leave private school. Whether or not a private school is worth the money to YOU is a very personal decision. However, as a long-time Alexandria resident, I know orders of magnitude more people who started out in ACPS and switched to private or moved to Arlington, Falls Church, etc. Some had a great experience in ES (mainly Lyles-Crouch), but only stayed a year in middle school. Some only made it a year or two in ES. They were all very positive about ACPS. Until they weren't.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
No. The change in Math occurred last year not this year. So the scores should actually be better this year not worse.

And there are private schools outside of Alexandria which children may attend so leaving an Alexandria private doesn't mean automatically going to a City school. It could mean going to another private elsewhere.[/quote]

I couldn't find the statistic that PP quoted saying that 18% of 8th grade ACPS students passed the math SOL. Everything I read on the subject said that math scores were up in ACPS and reading scores were down (since reading tests changed this year). For example, in this chart it says that, for Algebra II, there was a 72% pass rate in ACPS, which is up 10% from last year. That's actually the most improvement of any county listed.

www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/lower-scores-on-new-virginia-sols/2013/08/20/336343b4-09f1-11e3-b87c-476db8ac34cd_graphic.html

The same article says that "Alexandria City Schools saw improvements in seven out of nine of its math assessments."[/quote]


You can find the stat I mentioned here:

http://www.alexandrianews.org/vdoe-releases-sol-results/[/quote]

It's really odd to have that one really low score two years in a row. I wonder what's going on there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've said this before... if your child requires hand-holding, go elsewhere. If your child is self-confident and mature, TC is a great choice.

Other schools, of course, may be great choices for self-confident and mature kids, as well as those who benefit from extra assistance.

I know you're trying to make TC sound like the "Ninja Warrior" of high schools by suggesting it's not for the weak and the feeble, but it just underscores that a lot of kids would be lost or ignored there.

You're reading an awful lot into her statement. I take it as, if you like where you live and have a motivated kid, you don't have to move out of the ACPS system. That's pretty much what I've heard from everyone I've talked to.

Anonymous wrote:I've said this before... if your child requires hand-holding, go elsewhere. If your child is self-confident and mature, TC is a great choice.

Other schools, of course, may be great choices for self-confident and mature kids, as well as those who benefit from extra assistance.

I know you're trying to make TC sound like the "Ninja Warrior" of high schools by suggesting it's not for the weak and the feeble, but it just underscores that a lot of kids would be lost or ignored there.

I've said this before... if your child requires hand-holding, go elsewhere. If your child is self-confident and mature, TC is a great choice.