Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing: AP classes prepare kids to take and pass a test. Whether you succeed or not die not necessarily depend on how hard you work. I know. I was an AP student. Now, the IB is writing intensive, it's curriculum is blind up together in a holistic theory of learning and the work it requires is much much higher than AP. AP is great for those who think grades are the be all and end all. IB works for students who are innately curious, enjoy learning for its own sake and work hard. My DD is in the IB at Marshall. Everyone of my friends kids have done or are doing IB either here in FCPS, other school systems or overseas. Of course, my cohort of friends are all international professionals with so-called "third culture kids" so maybe that is why we gravitate to IB. Almost all the expat schools overseas are IB.

Keep drinking the IB Kool Aid. I'm sure your references to the "holistic theory of learning" come in handy with your self-described circle of "international professionals." Meanwhile all the top schools in the county, including Madison, will stick with the more demanding, in-depth AP curriculum.

22:13 and 22:37 The neighborhoods in Westbriar Elementary, Wolftrap Elementary, Vienna Elementary, Freedom Hill Elementary, Dunn Loring Woods (Cunningham Park and Stenwood) all have children who go on to Marshall. Many houses over $1 million. I don't think they appreciate being called "dumpy". People need to be more careful with what they consider dumpy these days in Vienna. Vienna is so expensive that any area of the town is primarily upper middle class now. Cunningham Park has always been considered the dumpiest of all Vienna, but I noticed this year it had the highest DRA reading scores of all the Vienna area schools so even houses in that boundary are on the up and up. Berryville and Tanglewood I believe are still Vienna. The only area I can think that might be considered Oakton in the Madison high school boundary is along Stewart Mill Road which friends in Flint Hill Elementary near to Vienna complain is "so far" away for them to drive to. For all we know. that area someday will shift over to Oakton High and Crossfield Elementary since Crossfield is undercrowded. I' m not sure why you're trying to tear down a neighboring school so much. I grew up here 20 years ago and know the area pretty well. Even then, all the schools around here were considered very good including Marshall and South Lakes. We knew many children from church who attended these neighboring high schools. 2534 Swift Run Street, 9004 Lupine Den Dr., and 9597 Thistle Ridge Lane are all for sale in the Marshall High School pyramid for over 1 million as an example of non-dumpy houses feeding into Marshall. Maybe they don't have as much land as houses along Stewart Mill Road which unfortunately was turned from a pretty country road into McMansion land, but they are soon to be near at least 3 metro stations.

Here's the thing: AP classes prepare kids to take and pass a test. Whether you succeed or not die not necessarily depend on how hard you work. I know. I was an AP student. Now, the IB is writing intensive, it's curriculum is blind up together in a holistic theory of learning and the work it requires is much much higher than AP. AP is great for those who think grades are the be all and end all. IB works for students who are innately curious, enjoy learning for its own sake and work hard. My DD is in the IB at Marshall. Everyone of my friends kids have done or are doing IB either here in FCPS, other school systems or overseas. Of course, my cohort of friends are all international professionals with so-called "third culture kids" so maybe that is why we gravitate to IB. Almost all the expat schools overseas are IB.

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Anonymous wrote:Meh, I'd stick with Madison. Some Marshall parents have turned into such constant attention-seekers. It's the VA Public Schools equivalent of the poster who starts all the God-awful threads about Pimmit Hils on the RE forum. If this keeps up, Marshall should change its name from the Statesmen to the Pandas.

What is wrong with you? No one from Marshall, that I can see, is being an attention-seeker. PPs have responded to the unfounded criticism of an excellent FCPS school. As others have stated, you cannot go wrong with Marshall or Madison. They are two of the better high schools in one of the best school systems in the country. On a broad scale, it's splitting hairs. I obviously don't have a dog in this fight, but this is getting ridiculous.

If it's splitting hairs, obviously no reason to pupil place out of Madison ...

Unless it's for the IB program, which was the entire point of OP's post and why this whole debate is silly.

Or if their child is interested in STEM

Most STEM oriented families would prefer AP at Madison.

We get it - Madison is superior. Great job staying consistently germane to OP's topic!

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Anonymous wrote:Meh, I'd stick with Madison. Some Marshall parents have turned into such constant attention-seekers. It's the VA Public Schools equivalent of the poster who starts all the God-awful threads about Pimmit Hils on the RE forum. If this keeps up, Marshall should change its name from the Statesmen to the Pandas.

What is wrong with you? No one from Marshall, that I can see, is being an attention-seeker. PPs have responded to the unfounded criticism of an excellent FCPS school. As others have stated, you cannot go wrong with Marshall or Madison. They are two of the better high schools in one of the best school systems in the country. On a broad scale, it's splitting hairs. I obviously don't have a dog in this fight, but this is getting ridiculous.

If it's splitting hairs, obviously no reason to pupil place out of Madison ...

Unless it's for the IB program, which was the entire point of OP's post and why this whole debate is silly.

Or if their child is interested in STEM

Most STEM oriented families would prefer AP at Madison.

what neighborhoods in Vienna go to Marshall? dumpy ones behind Courthouse Road?

Anonymous wrote:Less than a quarter of Marshall grads end up with an IB diploma. At some other county schools the percentage is less than 5%. IB has been around a while but, with stats like these, parents at Madison prefer to stick with AP.

Is there an AP diploma?

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Anonymous wrote:Meh, I'd stick with Madison. Some Marshall parents have turned into such constant attention-seekers. It's the VA Public Schools equivalent of the poster who starts all the God-awful threads about Pimmit Hils on the RE forum. If this keeps up, Marshall should change its name from the Statesmen to the Pandas.

What is wrong with you? No one from Marshall, that I can see, is being an attention-seeker. PPs have responded to the unfounded criticism of an excellent FCPS school. As others have stated, you cannot go wrong with Marshall or Madison. They are two of the better high schools in one of the best school systems in the country. On a broad scale, it's splitting hairs. I obviously don't have a dog in this fight, but this is getting ridiculous.

If it's splitting hairs, obviously no reason to pupil place out of Madison ...

Unless it's for the IB program, which was the entire point of OP's post and why this whole debate is silly.

Or if their child is interested in STEM

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Anonymous wrote:The schools are rivals in Vienna, so of course they are putting each other down. The AP and IB programs are very different. Any parent who pupil places either way feels they are doing the best thing.

Marshall may consider Madison its archrival, but Madison considers Oakton its biggest rival.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Madison_High_School_(Fairfax_County,_Virginia)

Marshall is like the annoying younger brother who keeps picking fights with his older siblings to get Mom and Dad's attention.

It sounds like you don't really understand the area. Madison and Marshall are uniquely competitive because many of these kids have known each other since elementary school and middle school. That is not the case with Oakton where most of the students come from elementary and middle schools outside Vienna. In athletics, Oakton and Madison are in the same conference so they compete, but it doesn't have the same emotional punch as Marshall/Madison, which is why even with the change of athletic conferences (Marshall is moving to one for schools with smaller programs) Mad/Marshall will still regularly play each other.

As for the IB and AP programs, PP had it right that it depends on the student. When we first moved here 9 years ago, there was a lot of people placement to Madison for sports. But as the area has grown and changed and people have become more familiar the IB program, there has an equal if not sometimes greater movement in the other direction. In the Freshman and Senior classes at Marshall, I can name at least a dozen kids from our local and nearby neighborhoods who people-placed from Madison.

It's nice that parents have the option to choose what's best for their child and it's good that many do enough research to get beyond your dated stereotypes of the schools.

no, if you live in the nicer neighborhoods off Hunter Mill and Vale (i.e., the rich kids), then your kids go to Oakton Elementary, and half go to Madison HS and half go to Oakton HS. BIGGG rivals ...

Less than a quarter of Marshall grads end up with an IB diploma. At some other county schools the percentage is less than 5%. IB has been around a while but, with stats like these, parents at Madison prefer to stick with AP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh, I'd stick with Madison. Some Marshall parents have turned into such constant attention-seekers. It's the VA Public Schools equivalent of the poster who starts all the God-awful threads about Pimmit Hils on the RE forum. If this keeps up, Marshall should change its name from the Statesmen to the Pandas.

What is wrong with you? No one from Marshall, that I can see, is being an attention-seeker. PPs have responded to the unfounded criticism of an excellent FCPS school. As others have stated, you cannot go wrong with Marshall or Madison. They are two of the better high schools in one of the best school systems in the country. On a broad scale, it's splitting hairs. I obviously don't have a dog in this fight, but this is getting ridiculous.

If it's splitting hairs, obviously no reason to pupil place out of Madison ...

Unless it's for the IB program, which was the entire point of OP's post and why this whole debate is silly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh, I'd stick with Madison. Some Marshall parents have turned into such constant attention-seekers. It's the VA Public Schools equivalent of the poster who starts all the God-awful threads about Pimmit Hils on the RE forum. If this keeps up, Marshall should change its name from the Statesmen to the Pandas.

What is wrong with you? No one from Marshall, that I can see, is being an attention-seeker. PPs have responded to the unfounded criticism of an excellent FCPS school. As others have stated, you cannot go wrong with Marshall or Madison. They are two of the better high schools in one of the best school systems in the country. On a broad scale, it's splitting hairs. I obviously don't have a dog in this fight, but this is getting ridiculous.

If it's splitting hairs, obviously no reason to pupil place out of Madison ...

Anonymous wrote:Meh, I'd stick with Madison. Some Marshall parents have turned into such constant attention-seekers. It's the VA Public Schools equivalent of the poster who starts all the God-awful threads about Pimmit Hils on the RE forum. If this keeps up, Marshall should change its name from the Statesmen to the Pandas.

What is wrong with you? No one from Marshall, that I can see, is being an attention-seeker. PPs have responded to the unfounded criticism of an excellent FCPS school. As others have stated, you cannot go wrong with Marshall or Madison. They are two of the better high schools in one of the best school systems in the country. On a broad scale, it's splitting hairs. I obviously don't have a dog in this fight, but this is getting ridiculous.

Meh, I'd stick with Madison. Some Marshall parents have turned into such constant attention-seekers. It's the VA Public Schools equivalent of the poster who starts all the God-awful threads about Pimmit Hils on the RE forum. If this keeps up, Marshall should change its name from the Statesmen to the Pandas.

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Anonymous wrote:2013 SATs

TJ 2197
Langley 1837
Woodson 1792
McLean 1781
Oakton 1754
Madison 1753
Marshall 1714

Again, top six schools in county are all AP, not IB.

Total averages don't tell the whole picture.
If you look at the average sat scores by demographic, it gets really interesting. Here are the rankings by SAT scores of white students...

TJ 2215
Langley 1841
Woodson 1830
Marshall 1826
McLean 1803
Madison 1792
Oakton 1786

Where did you get that

FCPS posts test scores on each school's profile page.