Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ offers math above the AP level - after calculus, you can do multivariate calculus, differential equations, and numerical analysis. There are also computer science courses above the AP computer science level and post-AP science classeses like optics. Even if a regular school offered all AP classes, there's still no comparison.

I don't think anyone on here is trying to say that TC is better than TJ. Not sure why you felt the need to post this. Everyone knows that TJ is, hands down, the best school in the area, and one of the best schools in the entire country.

Anonymous wrote:TJ offers math above the AP level - after calculus, you can do multivariate calculus, differential equations, and numerical analysis. There are also computer science courses above the AP computer science level and post-AP science classeses like optics. Even if a regular school offered all AP classes, there's still no comparison.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like TJ as much as the next striving parent but come on, to tell a person to move to an fcps feeder middle school because TJ is the best HS in Alexandria is just a troll job.

TCW is fine, but if you could afford to change your commute and move elsewhere then do so.

It’s a joke. Clearly if you want to live in Alexandria, you don’t move to Chantilly so your kid can commute to an Alexandria school.

But don’t to TC either. Even a meh FCPS area Alexandria HS in a much better call.

BTW— I have lived here 12 years and followed schools pretty closely as my kids have gotten older. I get how badly FCPS screwed over the Eastern County with IB and redistricting. And I get how Arlington got itself into its overcrowding problem. But Alexandria is in a great location with some nice neighborhoods and educated citizens. How can TC be so BAD? It just makes no sense. From the outside it seems like they make some jaw droppingly bad decisions about public education. Like pulling out of TJ, which pulls parents who care about education out of ACPS. Why can’t they get their sh*t together? If the schools were any good it would be an incredibly desirable location.

TC is so "bad" because it's the only high school in the city with many under-privileged kids in attendance. TC is not lacking for qualified and dedicated staff, so those who also have support at home do well at the school. But teachers cannot undo years of neglect at home, so those who attend TC from impoverished backgrounds give the school the reputation it has. The school board does not have a panacea for this social problem, and it should bot be expected to have one. And I'm not sure how opting into TJ would help TC. What exactly is your point here, PP?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like TJ as much as the next striving parent but come on, to tell a person to move to an fcps feeder middle school because TJ is the best HS in Alexandria is just a troll job.

TCW is fine, but if you could afford to change your commute and move elsewhere then do so.

It’s a joke. Clearly if you want to live in Alexandria, you don’t move to Chantilly so your kid can commute to an Alexandria school.

But don’t to TC either. Even a meh FCPS area Alexandria HS in a much better call.

BTW— I have lived here 12 years and followed schools pretty closely as my kids have gotten older. I get how badly FCPS screwed over the Eastern County with IB and redistricting. And I get how Arlington got itself into its overcrowding problem. But Alexandria is in a great location with some nice neighborhoods and educated citizens. How can TC be so BAD? It just makes no sense. From the outside it seems like they make some jaw droppingly bad decisions about public education. Like pulling out of TJ, which pulls parents who care about education out of ACPS. Why can’t they get their sh*t together? If the schools were any good it would be an incredibly desirable location.

It is because of Alexandria's school board. Talk to one of them. A bunch of real idiots. Everybody hates them but they've turned the job into full time, so no one else can afford to run.

You mean the same school board that exempts their own children from redistricting all the while telling families that they need to uproot and attend another school after 10 years at their current school? And to do so for two grades?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like TJ as much as the next striving parent but come on, to tell a person to move to an fcps feeder middle school because TJ is the best HS in Alexandria is just a troll job.

TCW is fine, but if you could afford to change your commute and move elsewhere then do so.

It’s a joke. Clearly if you want to live in Alexandria, you don’t move to Chantilly so your kid can commute to an Alexandria school.

But don’t to TC either. Even a meh FCPS area Alexandria HS in a much better call.

BTW— I have lived here 12 years and followed schools pretty closely as my kids have gotten older. I get how badly FCPS screwed over the Eastern County with IB and redistricting. And I get how Arlington got itself into its overcrowding problem. But Alexandria is in a great location with some nice neighborhoods and educated citizens. How can TC be so BAD? It just makes no sense. From the outside it seems like they make some jaw droppingly bad decisions about public education. Like pulling out of TJ, which pulls parents who care about education out of ACPS. Why can’t they get their sh*t together? If the schools were any good it would be an incredibly desirable location.

It is because of Alexandria's school board. Talk to one of them. A bunch of real idiots. Everybody hates them but they've turned the job into full time, so no one else can afford to run.

Anonymous wrote:Here’s the thing w/ TC- the teachers are doing the best they can with the resources they have available to them. Any progress they make is in spite of, not thanks to, the support of both building admin and central office. The central office is made up of people who’ve either never worked in a classroom and don’t understand the basics of a teacher’s day OR people who’ve only ever worked in ACPS and thus don’t have the frame of reference to realize that there are other, perhaps better, ways to do things (or they DO realize and just don’t care). Building admin is a mess too. The new principal is trying- he really is- but in an oversized, overcrowded cluster-eff that is a school of that size, he needs a top-notch admin staff under him. Unfortunately, they waited until almost summer to fill his roster; if you know anything about the school hiring process, you know that by May, for the most part, you’re stuck with the dregs and leftovers- the people who nobody else wanted to hire. There are exceptions of course, but for the most part that’s what TCW was stuck with- either administrators that flamed out in other districts (*cough* PG *cough* DCPS *cough*) or a bunch of people who’ve bounced around ACPS for years, never staying terribly long in one job, and in a couple cases had been demoted from significantly more senior positions. I won’t name names but a quick glance at the leadership team on the school website will tell you who’s who.

So until this cycle is broken, TCW will continue to struggle. They have two potential things working in their favor: a first-year principal who’s a marked upgrade over his predecessor and an incoming new superintendent who may be hamstrung by the school board to a degree but still has the power to do some housecleaning. Or they can just stay the course and watch the good teachers flee to other districts.

Anonymous wrote:Here’s the thing w/ TC- the teachers are doing the best they can with the resources they have available to them. Any progress they make is in spite of, not thanks to, the support of both building admin and central office. The central office is made up of people who’ve either never worked in a classroom and don’t understand the basics of a teacher’s day OR people who’ve only ever worked in ACPS and thus don’t have the frame of reference to realize that there are other, perhaps better, ways to do things (or they DO realize and just don’t care). Building admin is a mess too. The new principal is trying- he really is- but in an oversized, overcrowded cluster-eff that is a school of that size, he needs a top-notch admin staff under him. Unfortunately, they waited until almost summer to fill his roster; if you know anything about the school hiring process, you know that by May, for the most part, you’re stuck with the dregs and leftovers- the people who nobody else wanted to hire. There are exceptions of course, but for the most part that’s what TCW was stuck with- either administrators that flamed out in other districts (*cough* PG *cough* DCPS *cough*) or a bunch of people who’ve bounced around ACPS for years, never staying terribly long in one job, and in a couple cases had been demoted from significantly more senior positions. I won’t name names but a quick glance at the leadership team on the school website will tell you who’s who.

So until this cycle is broken, TCW will continue to struggle. They have two potential things working in their favor: a first-year principal who’s a marked upgrade over his predecessor and an incoming new superintendent who may be hamstrung by the school board to a degree but still has the power to do some housecleaning. Or they can just stay the course and watch the good teachers flee to other districts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like TJ as much as the next striving parent but come on, to tell a person to move to an fcps feeder middle school because TJ is the best HS in Alexandria is just a troll job.

TCW is fine, but if you could afford to change your commute and move elsewhere then do so.

It’s a joke. Clearly if you want to live in Alexandria, you don’t move to Chantilly so your kid can commute to an Alexandria school.

But don’t to TC either. Even a meh FCPS area Alexandria HS in a much better call.

BTW— I have lived here 12 years and followed schools pretty closely as my kids have gotten older. I get how badly FCPS screwed over the Eastern County with IB and redistricting. And I get how Arlington got itself into its overcrowding problem. But Alexandria is in a great location with some nice neighborhoods and educated citizens. How can TC be so BAD? It just makes no sense. From the outside it seems like they make some jaw droppingly bad decisions about public education. Like pulling out of TJ, which pulls parents who care about education out of ACPS. Why can’t they get their sh*t together? If the schools were any good it would be an incredibly desirable location.

TC is so "bad" because it's the only high school in the city with many under-privileged kids in attendance. TC is not lacking for qualified and dedicated staff, so those who also have support at home do well at the school. But teachers cannot undo years of neglect at home, so those who attend TC from impoverished backgrounds give the school the reputation it has. The school board does not have a panacea for this social problem, and it should bot be expected to have one. And I'm not sure how opting into TJ would help TC. What exactly is your point here, PP?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like TJ as much as the next striving parent but come on, to tell a person to move to an fcps feeder middle school because TJ is the best HS in Alexandria is just a troll job.

TCW is fine, but if you could afford to change your commute and move elsewhere then do so.

It’s a joke. Clearly if you want to live in Alexandria, you don’t move to Chantilly so your kid can commute to an Alexandria school.

But don’t to TC either. Even a meh FCPS area Alexandria HS in a much better call.

BTW— I have lived here 12 years and followed schools pretty closely as my kids have gotten older. I get how badly FCPS screwed over the Eastern County with IB and redistricting. And I get how Arlington got itself into its overcrowding problem. But Alexandria is in a great location with some nice neighborhoods and educated citizens. How can TC be so BAD? It just makes no sense. From the outside it seems like they make some jaw droppingly bad decisions about public education. Like pulling out of TJ, which pulls parents who care about education out of ACPS. Why can’t they get their sh*t together? If the schools were any good it would be an incredibly desirable location.