We have been very happy with the Frost/Woodson pyramid. Not sure what problems you’re seeing, besides the sexual assault, which could have happened anywhere and likely has, without reporting. I like the community a lot. People value education and diversity, which are important to me. I feel like people are watching out for my kids. There is a range of SES. I don’t see a lot of keeping up with the Jones. We are happy here and would not uproot my children for something that could be marginally better or not, depending on my specific children.

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
It seems that the discussion has been derailed.

Please understand, I am not asking your opinions about my family's values, if I am overprotecting my child etc. This goes both ways of course, as I am not questioning yours. I am not engaging into discussions on these issues, each family knows what's best for their children and noone else (and certainly, not some anonymous posters in DCUM).

I made a straightforwards question, how those 2 MS compare with others in Fairfax like Frost in terms of a) safety b) controversial issues c) academics.

So far, based on the publicly available statistics (to pp who posted the link: thanks so much!) and based on some anonymous responses (which I have no way to find out if they are all distinct or not) my impression is that wrt (a) those 2 schools are slightly better, wrt (b) there's no difference and wrt (c) they are slightly better.

If anyone else wants to share his/her experience, please do. Thanks

Your questions are not as straightforward as you suggest because:

1. The statistics that schools report on safety issues are not rigorously vetted and depend on how current rules are interpreted and reported by individual school administrators. So you can pretend that they allow for apples-to-apples comparisons, but that ignores the fact that administrators at schools where parents are more likely to object to any disciplinary action against their kids may, over time, write up and report fewer students.

2. It is not clear what you are talking about when it comes to "controversial issues." Do you mean the extent to which students are exposed to "controversial issues" on a day-to-day basis as part of the classroom curriculum? That is unlikely to vary much among schools. Do you mean the extent to which the schools themselves become embroiled in "culture war" issues? If so, Cooper clearly is among the schools more likely to get caught up in those discussion because of the number of parents and community members in that area who are conservative activists.

3. It is easiest to compare schools based on academics since you can look at SOL results across schools on the VDOE web page. Overall Cooper is slightly higher than Longfellow and Longfellow is slightly higher than Frost, which also aligns with the relative wealth of the families of the students in those pyramids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
It seems that the discussion has been derailed.

Please understand, I am not asking your opinions about my family's values, if I am overprotecting my child etc. This goes both ways of course, as I am not questioning yours. I am not engaging into discussions on these issues, each family knows what's best for their children and noone else (and certainly, not some anonymous posters in DCUM).

I made a straightforwards question, how those 2 MS compare with others in Fairfax like Frost in terms of a) safety b) controversial issues c) academics.

So far, based on the publicly available statistics (to pp who posted the link: thanks so much!) and based on some anonymous responses (which I have no way to find out if they are all distinct or not) my impression is that wrt (a) those 2 schools are slightly better, wrt (b) there's no difference and wrt (c) they are slightly better.

If anyone else wants to share his/her experience, please do. Thanks

But you haven't because aside from talking about behavioral issues, you have not specified what you mean by culture wars/controversial issues. And people have responded to say that most schools have students who are focused on academics.

So you want me to enumerate all controversies within FCPS that are happening these times? I think everyone here knows pretty well what those controversies are, no matter their side on these issues.

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
It seems that the discussion has been derailed.

Please understand, I am not asking your opinions about my family's values, if I am overprotecting my child etc. This goes both ways of course, as I am not questioning yours. I am not engaging into discussions on these issues, each family knows what's best for their children and noone else (and certainly, not some anonymous posters in DCUM).

I made a straightforwards question, how those 2 MS compare with others in Fairfax like Frost in terms of a) safety b) controversial issues c) academics.

So far, based on the publicly available statistics (to pp who posted the link: thanks so much!) and based on some anonymous responses (which I have no way to find out if they are all distinct or not) my impression is that wrt (a) those 2 schools are slightly better, wrt (b) there's no difference and wrt (c) they are slightly better.

If anyone else wants to share his/her experience, please do. Thanks

But you haven't because aside from talking about behavioral issues, you have not specified what you mean by culture wars/controversial issues. And people have responded to say that most schools have students who are focused on academics.

OP here.
It seems that the discussion has been derailed.

Please understand, I am not asking your opinions about my family's values, if I am overprotecting my child etc. This goes both ways of course, as I am not questioning yours. I am not engaging into discussions on these issues, each family knows what's best for their children and noone else (and certainly, not some anonymous posters in DCUM).

I made a straightforwards question, how those 2 MS compare with others in Fairfax like Frost in terms of a) safety b) controversial issues c) academics.

So far, based on the publicly available statistics (to pp who posted the link: thanks so much!) and based on some anonymous responses (which I have no way to find out if they are all distinct or not) my impression is that wrt (a) those 2 schools are slightly better, wrt (b) there's no difference and wrt (c) they are slightly better.

If anyone else wants to share his/her experience, please do. Thanks

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, my kid has been in private the last few years because of Covid, we were worried about learning loss. He is now going back into our pyramid to attend Cooper next year because we know the school is so strong. He will get back in with his elementary school Friends who will be going there as well, which gives me a lot of comfort. I do not think you would regret making the decision to move to the Cooper/Langley pyramid.

Thanks for providing your data point.

Anonymous wrote:What’s your issue with Frost/WTW? That’s considered a strong pyramid and a relatively affluent area, without some of the excessive affluence in the Langley area that may have its own issues.

My kids are at Mclean and we are mostly happy but I also dont totally know what you are talking about with the culture wars stuff and wonder if you will be happy anywhere. How is the culture war issue playing out at Frost?

Anonymous wrote:OP-I’m not naive to think that peer groups don’t matter. I think they absolutely do but again lots of schools in the area have lots of kids who are very academically focused. The people who are pointing this out don’t have a chip on their shoulder. Not sure why some are getting so defensive. Also-I don’t understand your concern about politics. What does that mean? Are you concerned about specific things in the curriculum? And if so, how would it be different in Langley?

Again, my question w.r.t culture wars thing is general, I am concerned about the divisiveness within FCPS and looking for a school experience that stays out of polarizing issues as much as possible. I'm not saying that Frost is a culture war epicenter (and I have really no clue other than the publicized sexual assault incident), again my question if moving to a richer area somehow reduces the chance of us experiencing such things (and again, I don't care about things like this principal's letter but rather the everyday experience with teachers and classmates).

Everyone is telling you that you will not notice any difference wrt "culture war stuff" between the schools, but you refuse to accept this.

I didn't see any explicit answer like this before, yours is the first one. Thanks anyway

I’m still baffled about the term culture wars. That usually is a code term among conservatives re: LGBTQIA’s and CRT/race issues. What OP is talking about seems to be more concerns about behavioral issues, which is why the OP is confusing.

That is linked to CRT and equity. They reduce punishments for bad behavior to reduce the disparity in punishment between races. In some places they even bring up a 'schools to prison pipeline'. Loudoun and Fairfax are implementing a PBIS system to reward students for good behavior. Administrators are trained on this. I suspect it provides an incentive to punish white kids more.

What the hell??!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, my kid has been in private the last few years because of Covid, we were worried about learning loss. He is now going back into our pyramid to attend Cooper next year because we know the school is so strong. He will get back in with his elementary school Friends who will be going there as well, which gives me a lot of comfort. I do not think you would regret making the decision to move to the Cooper/Langley pyramid.

Thanks for providing your data point.

Anonymous wrote:What’s your issue with Frost/WTW? That’s considered a strong pyramid and a relatively affluent area, without some of the excessive affluence in the Langley area that may have its own issues.

My kids are at Mclean and we are mostly happy but I also dont totally know what you are talking about with the culture wars stuff and wonder if you will be happy anywhere. How is the culture war issue playing out at Frost?

Anonymous wrote:OP-I’m not naive to think that peer groups don’t matter. I think they absolutely do but again lots of schools in the area have lots of kids who are very academically focused. The people who are pointing this out don’t have a chip on their shoulder. Not sure why some are getting so defensive. Also-I don’t understand your concern about politics. What does that mean? Are you concerned about specific things in the curriculum? And if so, how would it be different in Langley?

Again, my question w.r.t culture wars thing is general, I am concerned about the divisiveness within FCPS and looking for a school experience that stays out of polarizing issues as much as possible. I'm not saying that Frost is a culture war epicenter (and I have really no clue other than the publicized sexual assault incident), again my question if moving to a richer area somehow reduces the chance of us experiencing such things (and again, I don't care about things like this principal's letter but rather the everyday experience with teachers and classmates).

Everyone is telling you that you will not notice any difference wrt "culture war stuff" between the schools, but you refuse to accept this.

I didn't see any explicit answer like this before, yours is the first one. Thanks anyway

I’m still baffled about the term culture wars. That usually is a code term among conservatives re: LGBTQIA’s and CRT/race issues. What OP is talking about seems to be more concerns about behavioral issues, which is why the OP is confusing.

That is linked to CRT and equity. They reduce punishments for bad behavior to reduce the disparity in punishment between races. In some places they even bring up a 'schools to prison pipeline'. Loudoun and Fairfax are implementing a PBIS system to reward students for good behavior. Administrators are trained on this. I suspect it provides an incentive to punish white kids more.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, my kid has been in private the last few years because of Covid, we were worried about learning loss. He is now going back into our pyramid to attend Cooper next year because we know the school is so strong. He will get back in with his elementary school Friends who will be going there as well, which gives me a lot of comfort. I do not think you would regret making the decision to move to the Cooper/Langley pyramid.

Thanks for providing your data point.

Anonymous wrote:What’s your issue with Frost/WTW? That’s considered a strong pyramid and a relatively affluent area, without some of the excessive affluence in the Langley area that may have its own issues.

My kids are at Mclean and we are mostly happy but I also dont totally know what you are talking about with the culture wars stuff and wonder if you will be happy anywhere. How is the culture war issue playing out at Frost?

Anonymous wrote:OP-I’m not naive to think that peer groups don’t matter. I think they absolutely do but again lots of schools in the area have lots of kids who are very academically focused. The people who are pointing this out don’t have a chip on their shoulder. Not sure why some are getting so defensive. Also-I don’t understand your concern about politics. What does that mean? Are you concerned about specific things in the curriculum? And if so, how would it be different in Langley?

Again, my question w.r.t culture wars thing is general, I am concerned about the divisiveness within FCPS and looking for a school experience that stays out of polarizing issues as much as possible. I'm not saying that Frost is a culture war epicenter (and I have really no clue other than the publicized sexual assault incident), again my question if moving to a richer area somehow reduces the chance of us experiencing such things (and again, I don't care about things like this principal's letter but rather the everyday experience with teachers and classmates).

Sexual assault is not a "cultur war." Are you effing kidding me?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you’re implying teachers and students only care about “political activism” at Frost?

Go to Cooper. You’ll fit it fine with all the Asra Nomani, Carrie Lukas, Glenn Miller and Luke Rosiak arch-conservative types there.

I just want an environment out from culture wars as much as possible.
I didn't imply "only" anywhere. I assume that the culture wars thing exists in all middle schools, but part of my question was if it is less present in Cooper/Longfellow compared to Frost and others.

Anonymous wrote:More access to money, more drugs.

That's what I'm afraid of. But is it indeed more likely to have "THC incidents" in those schools?

Anonymous wrote:As you can tell from the ratings Woodson/Frost have gone down the tubes from 9/9 to 6/7.

The only decent pyramid left is Langley/Cooper which is 9/10 and maybe McLean/Longfellow which is 7/8, but M/L has fallen a bit as well.

Yeah I've seen the stats..

JFC OP. Look, I'm as protective of my kid as anyone but loosen the reins a bit. Instead of shelter, shelter, shelter, talk to your kids about handling the things they see. They will see fights. They will see making out. They'll see kids vaping in the bathrooms. They'll hear cursing (and worse). It's public school MS and they are all a bit like the hunger games (my child was all honors and still saw this stuff).

You're concern over the culture wars is just a big LOL from me. Good luck with that . . . and I promise you it means more to you than to your kid.