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Old 04-17-2013, 09:15 AM
 
1 posts, read 3,661 times
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We are relocating from TX to Loudoun County, VA, and I'd like to hear comments about the above high schools. We'd like some land so we will probably move west of Leesburg/Ashburn which is why I only listed Loudoun Valley, Loudoun County, Woodgrove, and Tuscarora. Our daughter will be in 10th grade, and I already feel badly about relocating her during HS, so I want to make sure I move to the right area with the best HS, so I won't have to move her again.
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Old 04-17-2013, 10:02 AM
 
Location: among the clustered spires
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Woodgrove/Valley will have fewer FARMS (free lunch) students than Tuscarora and County, and so they have higher standards of learning and SAT scores.

None of the four, IMO, warrant avoidance, as Tuscarora (the lowest-scoring of the four) does well with its non-disadvantaged students.

I don't know about the individual administrators or social dynamics -- for all I know there might be a clique of 'mean girls' at one of the four that'd ruin your daughter's experience. This IMO can be random -- as an administrator might be great at making sure the jocks don't run rampant but get confused when a group of mean girls take hold in a particular class.

County and Valley are the two oldest HS's in Loudoun County so there might be some intangibles there.

Valley's physical plant is in need of a renovation which might be going on during your daughter's junior or senior year. (This IMO is something that kids can work around if parents can.)

Tuscarora and Woodgrove are shiny and new. Tuscarora is pretty crowded with students from Lansdowne going there until the new high school is built there. I think they're pretty much done with western Loudoun.

Conclusion? Go with what you want and like in a house -- living in downtown Leesburg, living on a few acres west of town, etc.
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Old 04-17-2013, 10:20 AM
 
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I have no clue about the individual high schools you pointed out but I did want to provide this:

I'm not sure where you are from in TX or how their schools are run. Many people who are not from this area are very unfamiliar with "county" run school systems, and are more familiar with city, town, township, or small regionally-run school districts and they question individual schools within a system. I do understand that there can be VAST differences between schools that might be 30 minutes apart but our run by different towns.

In Northern VA, we have the county school system and the systems are large. With the exception of specialty schools, the entire county generally runs through the exact same curriculum. Any differences you seen between schools within the county have to do with socioeconomic factors. That doesn't make a school better or worse than another--they are teaching the same things. What makes it different is the test scores: a school within the county that is in an area with lower income levels or economically challenged families are not going to have the test scores of a school situated in the middle of an area full of high earning professionals.

You might already be aware of this so sorry if I am preaching to the choir!!!

As the poster above said, your daughter's has the ability to do well at any of these high schools. The question is, where do you see yourself on the economic scale and what type of peers do you want her there with?
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Old 04-17-2013, 11:36 AM
 
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If you are looking at land then I would go with Loudoun Valley or Woodgrove. I'm not sure where you would live in the Leesburg area (Loudoun County & Tuscarora) and get lots of land. If we'd have stayed in the NoVa area, my kids would have gone to Loudoun Valley and I wouldn't have had a problem. My friends kids will go to Woodgrove and they don't have any problems with it.
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Old 04-17-2013, 02:05 PM
 
Location: among the clustered spires
2,380 posts, read 4,495,121 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Riley09swb View Post
If you are looking at land then I would go with Loudoun Valley or Woodgrove. I'm not sure where you would live in the Leesburg area (Loudoun County & Tuscarora) and get lots of land. If we'd have stayed in the NoVa area, my kids would have gone to Loudoun Valley and I wouldn't have had a problem. My friends kids will go to Woodgrove and they don't have any problems with it.
Tuscarora has the Lucketts area and County has some of the areas SW of town.
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Old 04-17-2013, 04:32 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stpickrell View Post
Tuscarora has the Lucketts area and County has some of the areas SW of town.

I forgot about the Luckett' s area.
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Old 04-17-2013, 07:57 PM
 
15 posts, read 22,694 times
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School zoning is a continual work in progress. Persoanlly, I would not base my home buying decision on something that could change the following year. Property is too big of a financial investement. What are the potentials for equity growth or resale?
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Old 04-17-2013, 09:27 PM
 
45 posts, read 62,218 times
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Everyone seems to love Valley and Woodgrove. I haven't heard as much about the other schools but people are generally very happy with Valley and Woodgrove. Zoning for those two won't change. They were redistricted just a couple of years ago when Woodgrove opened.
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Old 04-18-2013, 07:45 AM
 
Location: among the clustered spires
2,380 posts, read 4,495,121 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by April Whritenour View Post
School zoning is a continual work in progress. Persoanlly, I would not base my home buying decision on something that could change the following year. Property is too big of a financial investement. What are the potentials for equity growth or resale?
These four aren't likely to change with the exception of Lansdowne going to HS-8.
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Old 05-13-2013, 03:26 PM
 
4 posts, read 7,980 times
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I'm curious why Broad Run High School is not mentioned?
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