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Stay in Maryland one more year, if at all possible. I wouldn't make my child move for her senior year and I wouldn't send my child to either Edison or Lee. They aren't good schools. Is your daughter in the IB program? Both are IB schools. Stay in Maryland if she's in a decent school and you can stand one more year of commuting.
Oh come on. Fairfax county is one of the wealthiest counties in the country and has some of the highest test scores. I have a hard time believing a truly "bad" school exists in Northern Virginia. There are some that are better than others sure but a "bad" school in Fairfax county. Sorry just don't believe that one especially compared to some truly messed up schools in this great land of ours.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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I disagree. Sure, none of the schools are comparable to those in SE DC, but they are not all good. And just because Fairfax is one of the wealthiest counties does not make all of their schools good. Some of the schools have very medicore test scores, and a few are worse than the national average. In my opinion, that is bad. But maybe others' definition of bad is different than mine. I wouldn't send my kid to some of the schools in Fairfax County.
Quote:
Originally Posted by terrence81
Oh come on. Fairfax county is one of the wealthiest counties in the country and has some of the highest test scores. I have a hard time believing a truly "bad" school exists in Northern Virginia. There are some that are better than others sure but a "bad" school in Fairfax county. Sorry just don't believe that one especially compared to some truly messed up schools in this great land of ours.
Once again people are confusing the fact that test scores reflect the mix of students, rather than quality of instruction which is fairly standard throughout the county. A kid who would score 2,000 on her SAT while attending Woodson would probably score about the same if at Edison.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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if and only if he can rise above his peers who are more interested in going out and partying than studying. It's much easier to do well in school if you attend school with like-minded individuals.
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Originally Posted by CAVA1990
Once again people are confusing the fact that test scores reflect the mix of students, rather than quality of instruction which is fairly standard throughout the county. A kid who would score 2,000 on her SAT while attending Woodson would probably score about the same if at Edison.
if and only if he can rise above his peers who are more interested in going out and partying than studying. It's much easier to do well in school if you attend school with like-minded individuals.
Most all high schools around here are large enough that your child should be able to find plenty of like minded kids and this shouldn't be an issue. From my experience the smart and motivated ones usually end up in their own close knit groups and only interact with the others on a very superficial basis. If you're an involved parent, it also shouldn't be a problem.
If on the other hand you're a hands-off absentee parent who lets the kids raise themselves, that could be a different story. Fortunately that wasn't my situation and my kids did very well in schools that have relatively low average scores.
It is probably no surprise that parents who live in different parts of the county would have different perspectives, but I would contend that the reality lies somewhere in the middle.
Fairfax County is a wealthy county and it operates a county-wide system where one can be reasonably assured that all of the schools will meet certain quality standards. And, at least at the high school level, every FCPS high school will have a cohort of high-achieving students who succeed academically at high school, college and beyond.
The concern that people tend to have is that, at some schools, the focus may not be on challenging the academically qualified students, but instead on bringing up the performance of students who do not speak English well or otherwise require remedial assistance. Anecdotally, there is some evidence to support a hypothesis, for example, that some middle and high schools in the county do not provide as academically challenging as environment for top students as others. This is reflected by the fact that some middle school GT/AAP centers now send very few students to TJ and some high schools routinely have very few National Merit Semifinalists or Letter of Commendation recipients. This is a cause for concern in some of those communities, and they've asked the schools involved how they plan to address it.
On the other hand, schools that are ostensibly full of "like-minded individuals" have their own issues. It is not necessarily the best thing for a teenager to have no appreciation for the challenges that others might face or to feel that he or she needs to conform to a very specific set of expectations.
I disagree. Sure, none of the schools are comparable to those in SE DC, but they are not all good. And just because Fairfax is one of the wealthiest counties does not make all of their schools good. Some of the schools have very medicore test scores, and a few are worse than the national average. In my opinion, that is bad. But maybe others' definition of bad is different than mine. I wouldn't send my kid to some of the schools in Fairfax County.
Well the thing is that any high school in the same school district is going to follow the same ciriculum. Teachers can't just teach what they want willy nilly. They have certain things that their students are required to be taught by the end of the semester or school year depending on the class schedule. So whatever is taught at Langley high school is going to be taught at JEB Stuart.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CAVA1990
Once again people are confusing the fact that test scores reflect the mix of students, rather than quality of instruction which is fairly standard throughout the county. A kid who would score 2,000 on her SAT while attending Woodson would probably score about the same if at Edison.
Unfortunately socio-economic status plays a major part in test scores.
Quote:
Originally Posted by michgc
if and only if he can rise above his peers who are more interested in going out and partying than studying. It's much easier to do well in school if you attend school with like-minded individuals.
While we may disagree on some things. That I can agree with you. Although I will say that kids of all ages party and do all the negative things we don't want children doing (drugs, underage drinking, sex, etc.). So partying isn't the issue if you ask me but peers do make a difference.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CAVA1990
Most all high schools around here are large enough that your child should be able to find plenty of like minded kids and this shouldn't be an issue. From my experience the smart and motivated ones usually end up in their own close knit groups and only interact with the others on a very superficial basis. If you're an involved parent, it also shouldn't be a problem.
If on the other hand you're a hands-off absentee parent who lets the kids raise themselves, that could be a different story. Fortunately that wasn't my situation and my kids did very well in schools that have relatively low average scores.
Yes you have to be hands on no matter how great of a kid you have its very easy for them to fall by the wayside.
At the end of the day Fairfax county schools are above average. Do what's best for your child but I still think its a bit much to call any FCPS school "bad". There are some that might be below average, but "bad" is such a strong word. Sometimes I think folks in Northern Virginia are a little spoiled and forget that many parts of the country would kill to have even the "worst" school in NoVA in their neighborhood. I say this admitting that I don't have kids of my own.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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Whether one describes a school in Fairfax County as "bad" or just "not as good" as another school in FCPS may just be semantics or it may depend on where you come from and what one considers "bad" or "good." But where I have an issue is when people on here say, they're all Fairfax County schools; they follow the same curriculum, and therefore they're all good. That makes it sound like one school is the same as another, and there are very little differences among them. And that is simply not true.
To me, the experience one would have in one school may be very different than an experience he would have in another school. There are so many various programs in the schools making each one different - IB in some schools; AP in others. AAP centers in some schools. Language immersion in others. Academic extra-curricula programs at some; not at others. Besides all of the different programs available in the schools, the student population varies dramatically. Schools that have 50% of their students on Free or Reduced lunch is surely different than schools that have fewer than 5% of student in those categories.
Sure if there is a big enough academic peer group at a particular school to form a class, that may be enough for a good student from a good family to succeed. But having a school where *most* of the students are academic peers is preferable in my opinion. Even if school A's curriculum is the same as school B's curriculum, the school with more higher income students and fewer ELL students will most likely explore topics more in depth and at a higher level than schools with a larger population of ELL and/or lower-income students.
I do think good students from good families who care about education can succeed in schools with low test scores in spite of their surroundings. On the other hand, I believe any student has a better chance of succeeding in a school with high test scores and students with higher SES because of their surroundings. When you are around people who are trying to do their best, get into college, and are concerned about studying, grades, etc, it rubs off on you. On the other hand, if you are around a majority students who come from families where education is not stressed, then that vibe can rub off on you, too.
Of course I am not naive enough to think that there aren't problems in schools such as Langley or McLean. There obviously are (and one problem may be that it is too much of a pressure cooker acadmically or too materialistic), but worrying about your child being challenged academically in a school such as this is not a problem. And I don't think Langley should be the choice of schools for everyone just because it has the best test scores. It wasn't our choice even though it's an excellent school. I think certain schools are a better fit for certain students/families and other schools are a better fit for other students/families.
Overall, though, I think it's a disservice to tell people who are new to our area that all schools in FCPS are good because they all follow the same curriculum. And that's my significantly more than 2 cents' worth of opinion on the subject.
Of course I am not naive enough to think that there aren't problems in schools such as Langley or McLean. There obviously are (and one problem may be that it is too much of a pressure cooker acadmically or too materialistic), but worrying about your child being challenged academically in a school such as this is not a problem. And I don't think Langley should be the choice of schools for everyone just because it has the best test scores. It wasn't our choice even though it's an excellent school. I think certain schools are a better fit for certain students/families and other schools are a better fit for other students/families.
This is undoubtedly true, and you can safely add Madison HS to that list. It's also one of the county's "higher-performing" schools, but parents there demanded a meeting with the school administration last fall to ask what steps were being taken to curb alcohol and drug use on the school premises. I suppose it's actually a positive sign when a community is pro-active about such things, but one of the underlying concerns was that the administration hadn't been cracking down because it didn't want to butt heads with well-connected parents.
No place is perfect, and every FCPS school has its strengths and weaknesses, though those strengths and weaknesses surely vary.
As I've said before, one's perspective probably changes once ones kids have grown and gone through the system as mine have. I've never once heard my kids say they wished they'd gone to a different high school, though in their college years they interacted with kids from just about every school in the county. In the end they all pretty much end up the same, with any differences coming from their level of self motivation.
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