Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Langely is by far the best regular high school in Fairfax County. TJ is a magnet school and is in a different league. McLean or Madison are a step down. This is not a put down-- its just the truth. Colleges recognize the quality of Langely and think of it in the same league as any private school in the area save perhaps Epicopal, St. Albans or GTown Prep. Look at the SAT scores-- they say it all. Challenging studies and highly motivated students make for a top notch program at Langely.

Seriously, the above is pure spin. "Langely" HS has a reputation for an arrogance that pervades its pampered school community. Colleges have become very aware of the spoiled, difficult students and their equally difficult, control-freak parents.L

http://mclean.patch.com/articles/langley-students-vandalize-mclean-high-insult-step-team

Wow. The principal's comments in that article say enough to me. They basically amounted to "yeah, everybody makes fun of them..."

EXACTLY why I pay for private high schools instead of sending my kids here. I found that reprehensible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is a smart, highly motivated, self-starter, s/he will do very well at Lanley and will end up at a great college (Princeton, Ale, Wake Forest, UVa among them).

Where is Ale University located?

It's the upscale rival to my alma mater, Beer U.

Anonymous wrote:Langely is by far the best regular high school in Fairfax County. TJ is a magnet school and is in a different league. McLean or Madison are a step down. This is not a put down-- its just the truth. Colleges recognize the quality of Langely and think of it in the same league as any private school in the area save perhaps Epicopal, St. Albans or GTown Prep. Look at the SAT scores-- they say it all. Challenging studies and highly motivated students make for a top notch program at Langely.

Keep telling yourself that

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Langely is by far the best regular high school in Fairfax County. TJ is a magnet school and is in a different league. McLean or Madison are a step down. This is not a put down-- its just the truth. Colleges recognize the quality of Langely and think of it in the same league as any private school in the area save perhaps Epicopal, St. Albans or GTown Prep. Look at the SAT scores-- they say it all. Challenging studies and highly motivated students make for a top notch program at Langely.

Seriously, the above is pure spin. "Langely" HS has a reputation for an arrogance that pervades its pampered school community. Colleges have become very aware of the spoiled, difficult students and their equally difficult, control-freak parents.L

http://mclean.patch.com/articles/langley-students-vandalize-mclean-high-insult-step-team

Wow. The principal's comments in that article say enough to me. They basically amounted to "yeah, everybody makes fun of them..."

Anonymous wrote:Langely is by far the best regular high school in Fairfax County. TJ is a magnet school and is in a different league. McLean or Madison are a step down. This is not a put down-- its just the truth. Colleges recognize the quality of Langely and think of it in the same league as any private school in the area save perhaps Epicopal, St. Albans or GTown Prep. Look at the SAT scores-- they say it all. Challenging studies and highly motivated students make for a top notch program at Langely.

Seriously, the above is pure spin. "Langely" HS has a reputation for an arrogance that pervades its pampered school community. Colleges have become very aware of the spoiled, difficult students and their equally difficult, control-freak parents.

http://mclean.patch.com/articles/langley-students-vandalize-mclean-high-insult-step-team

Well that was random

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Langely is by far the best regular high school in Fairfax County. TJ is a magnet school and is in a different league. McLean or Madison are a step down. This is not a put down-- its just the truth. Colleges recognize the quality of Langely and think of it in the same league as any private school in the area save perhaps Epicopal, St. Albans or GTown Prep. Look at the SAT scores-- they say it all. Challenging studies and highly motivated students make for a top notch program at Langely.

I'm a Langley parent, but this attitude is over the top. 'Best SAT' does not equal 'Best High School'. Langley teachers are great ... but if a child is having difficulty you better believe parents seek out and pay for tutoring. This doesn't mean Langley's program is 'better', it just means parents have more resources. It can also mean kids have more stress. And thank goodness many top-notch colleges are forgoing SAT scores, because they really tell very little about how a student will succeed in life.
Langley and McLean are both strong schools. 'Best' in this case is the environment in which your DC can best succeed.

We can all agree that langley students have the best cars , but thats about it

Anonymous wrote:Langely is by far the best regular high school in Fairfax County. TJ is a magnet school and is in a different league. McLean or Madison are a step down. This is not a put down-- its just the truth. Colleges recognize the quality of Langely and think of it in the same league as any private school in the area save perhaps Epicopal, St. Albans or GTown Prep. Look at the SAT scores-- they say it all. Challenging studies and highly motivated students make for a top notch program at Langely.

I'm a Langley parent, but this attitude is over the top. 'Best SAT' does not equal 'Best High School'. Langley teachers are great ... but if a child is having difficulty you better believe parents seek out and pay for tutoring. This doesn't mean Langley's program is 'better', it just means parents have more resources. It can also mean kids have more stress. And thank goodness many top-notch colleges are forgoing SAT scores, because they really tell very little about how a student will succeed in life.
Langley and McLean are both strong schools. 'Best' in this case is the environment in which your DC can best succeed.

It depends on what you mean by "best." Langly and McLean are both very good schools with slightly different demographics. McLean average SAT scores are slightly lower than Langly, buy McLean also has a slightly higher number of FARMs students. If one were to control for SES, the kids from equal SES groups likely perform the same.

I'm biased as we chose to purchase in the McLean pyramid over Langly, though we could afford either. McLean pyramid has Longfellow for middle school, with the AAP center. This center has historically sent the most or nearly the most students to TJ.

Regarding college admissions, does anyone have a link to the local newspapers that list where the graduates are attending? I would be curious to see if they were much different between the schools.

Langely is by far the best regular high school in Fairfax County. TJ is a magnet school and is in a different league. McLean or Madison are a step down. This is not a put down-- its just the truth. Colleges recognize the quality of Langely and think of it in the same league as any private school in the area save perhaps Epicopal, St. Albans or GTown Prep. Look at the SAT scores-- they say it all. Challenging studies and highly motivated students make for a top notch program at Langely.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does community support equal quality education in your eyes?

Parades, community newspapers, team sports fans, and the small town feel may be something that some people seek, and other people feel is irrelevant.

I think there's a benefit to having your kids attend a school where the community pride in the school is more palpable, but others may think it's largely irrelevant. I can't think of many who would view it as a negative.

Agree that community sense of loyalty and ownership to a school is important. But let's not kid ourselves. The large school districts like Fairfax and MoCo are nothing like the smaller town-based school districts found in the northeast, such as New England, New York or New Jersey. In those places there really is a sense of town pride for public schools. Around here, not so much.

It's one more reason why the county schools that manage to create something similar tend to be more sought after.

True but doesn't the city of manassas have a single high school with a greatschools rating of 1 and you don't see people felling the beltway to move out there.

Manassas Park gets a "4" on Great Schools, and their soccer team is supposed to be pretty good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does community support equal quality education in your eyes?

Parades, community newspapers, team sports fans, and the small town feel may be something that some people seek, and other people feel is irrelevant.

I think there's a benefit to having your kids attend a school where the community pride in the school is more palpable, but others may think it's largely irrelevant. I can't think of many who would view it as a negative.

Agree that community sense of loyalty and ownership to a school is important. But let's not kid ourselves. The large school districts like Fairfax and MoCo are nothing like the smaller town-based school districts found in the northeast, such as New England, New York or New Jersey. In those places there really is a sense of town pride for public schools. Around here, not so much.

It's one more reason why the county schools that manage to create something similar tend to be more sought after.

True but doesn't the city of manassas have a single high school with a greatschools rating of 1 and you don't see people felling the beltway to move out there.

Anonymous wrote:I agree with PP about Marshall when they say it has less community feel. While the test scores are not affected, I think it absolutely affects what people think of the school on this board. However, while I am not Crazy Marshall Lady, I do think that the school's reputation will increase as Tysons becomes more built-up. It will theoretically at some point become a real community that doesn't just center around the malls like it does now, and I think Marshall will reap major benefits from that growth down the road. But who knows - that could be 20+ years away.

This article notes that some at Marshall are trying to get the school's mailing address changed from Falls Church to Tysons. I think that's consistent with the observation that the school is trying to forge more of an identity, so that people will associate it with Tysons the same way that they already associate Madison with Vienna.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2012/sep/12/marshall-renovation-celebration-goes/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does community support equal quality education in your eyes?

Parades, community newspapers, team sports fans, and the small town feel may be something that some people seek, and other people feel is irrelevant.

I think there's a benefit to having your kids attend a school where the community pride in the school is more palpable, but others may think it's largely irrelevant. I can't think of many who would view it as a negative.

Agree that community sense of loyalty and ownership to a school is important. But let's not kid ourselves. The large school districts like Fairfax and MoCo are nothing like the smaller town-based school districts found in the northeast, such as New England, New York or New Jersey. In those places there really is a sense of town pride for public schools. Around here, not so much.

It's one more reason why the county schools that manage to create something similar tend to be more sought after.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does community support equal quality education in your eyes?

Parades, community newspapers, team sports fans, and the small town feel may be something that some people seek, and other people feel is irrelevant.

I think there's a benefit to having your kids attend a school where the community pride in the school is more palpable, but others may think it's largely irrelevant. I can't think of many who would view it as a negative.

Agree that community sense of loyalty and ownership to a school is important. But let's not kid ourselves. The large school districts like Fairfax and MoCo are nothing like the smaller town-based school districts found in the northeast, such as New England, New York or New Jersey. In those places there really is a sense of town pride for public schools. Around here, not so much.