Top Private Elementary/Middle School (Alexandria, McLean: transfer, college, income)

[Denton56]

Originally Posted by claremarie

When our youngest son started kindergarten, there was a new kid on the block his age. At the bus stop, his mother asked me about the admission process for the GT center at Haycock. Over the next three years, this child studied math with his math professor grandmother, studied piano with both a Russian and American piano teacher, attended Chinese school on Sunday afternoons, and learned Spanish from a teenage neighbor from Mexico. And got into Haycock. I've no doubt that he will be attending TJ in three years.

A very common story. There's a good reason why this year's TJ class is 45% Asian. They work hard! They do whatever is necessary to get their children the best possible education. Their culture gives education the highest priority.

And yes, colleges do have quotas on Asians. Many say that they must or they could fill the school with Asians. Asians are aware that they must compete against each other for the top spots at the top schools. When CA voted to eliminate affirmative action in the public universities, the percentage of Asians soared at all the top schools, like Berkeley and UCLA.

[Denton56]

Originally Posted by javern

A TJ admission statistic that I found interesting was how a majority of incoming TJ students are from FFX public schools, with a very small percentage from Private. Percentage admitted is also higher for Public school applicants.

Other data regarding recent AMC-8 (Math Olympiad) competitions showed how well students from Longfellow and Frost performed over schools like Edlin, Nysmith or ACE. I am not sure what to make of this.
Does this mean students in FFX GT Centers have more opportunities available to them (and are better challenged) when compared to Private school students?
In that case, aside from the Student:Teacher ratio, what other advantages does a Private school offer (when compared to FCPS)?

You need to remember that Longfellow and Frost have GT centers that draw from very large, wealthy, areas. A GT class there may have 85 to 125 students. Edlin may have 15 such students and Nysmith 30 to 40. So of course Longfellow and Frost will have more higher end math kids, they have 4X or 5X the number of students. Many of those children who are in GT centers often have every advantage, including tutors, Kumon math, private language lessons, private science coaches, and Chinese or Korean school on the weekends. For the most part, Asians do not attend private schools, but many are in GT centers, and many (most?) have private, supplemental, help.

The advantage to private schools? They let children excel and accelerate. Most of our public schools, even GT centers, do not. They have ceilings on how far students can accelerate. Private schools have no such ceilings. Private schools can ability group, public schools will not. At private schools they don't use math series like Everyday Math and Math Investigations. They use real math. Private schools have very small classes, at Edlin it's 15 children per class. FCPS has classes with 30 or more students. Next year the Superintendent has said many classes will approach the state limit of 33. It is very difficult to address the needs of individual children in a class of 30+ students who are of mixed ability (even in a GT class ability spands several grade levels). Private schools, particularly at the elementary level do not have the political agenda that public schools have. Private schools do not force ALL children to do a myriad of cut and paste art projects in every subject. Art is confined to, well, art classes. Not so in public schools, they LOVE their arts and crafts projects. Private schools waste no time preparing students for SOL classes because their students are not required to take them. Public schools, even GT classes, waste weeks on preparing for testing, even when 90% of the class needs no special teaching for the SOL tests. Private schools don't waste that time.

When it comes to TJ acceptance, you need to do the math. From this year's class, 1995 FCPS students applied to TJ, and 393 are admitted. From private schools, 237 applied and 60 were accepted. While I am no math genius, it would seem that a higher percentage of the private school students were accepted. Public school students have about a 1 in 5 chance of being accepted to TJ while private schools students have better than a 1 in 4 chance. Considering that FCPS staff would prefer to not accept ANY private school students, that tells me that these private school students must be very well prepared.

I've sent you another PM.

[JEB77]

Originally Posted by Denton56

Yes, Stuart was a great school under Mel Riddle. Unfortunately, Mel left the school and it has begun to decline. What a shame.

Stuart is also an IB school and most parents, students, and US colleges, prefer the AP program.

Really - how so? That would be a shame. Just looking at some of the published information, it apppears that, over the past three years, the student body is growing, SAT scores have increased, SOL scores haven't changed much (some up, some down), incidents of violence have declined, and the demographic mix of Asians, African Americans, Hispanics and Whites has stayed about the same.

[javern]

[SIZE=3]I take offense to Car54's post. [/SIZE][SIZE=3]Please don't make statements based on assumptions about my child's brilliance or precociousness because you know neither me nor my child. [/SIZE]

[Skapov]

Originally Posted by claremarie

TJ can "aim for diversity" till the cows come home, but by the 8th grade it's far too late to be taking affirmative action steps. Many black children are raised by poor single moms, who are generally poor single moms as a result of a series of poor choices regarding education and men. There is only so much that the public school system can do when dealing with such profound dysfunction in the family lives of these children.

Oh come on, this is Fairfax County with it's $120,000/yr. household income averages, and so how many "poor single moms" can there really be?! You are stereotyping African-Americans in a very negative way.

FCPS has a "Young Scholars" program at the elementary level as far as I know, and with time I'm sure they can find and groom suitable black students who can be TJ-material, but honestly I would NOT want my child to go there even though I know he absolutely could get in. There's no way I'm sending my kid to a school that segregated, and I'm sure other African-American parents must feel the same.

[barryhussein]

Originally Posted by Denton56

Yes, Stuart was a great school under Mel Riddle. Unfortunately, Mel left the school and it has begun to decline. What a shame.

Stuart is also an IB school and most parents, students, and US colleges, prefer the AP program.

Mel Riddle used to throw students 15 feet into lockers, when he worked at R.E. Lee. He was also best friends with another administrator, who helped athletes obtain steroids at the European Health Spa in Springfield. The other administrator was later charged with sexual misconduct by a Lake Braddock student(1998). If you don't think MR is a roidhead; you probably still believe in Santa.

The kids feared him, but is this the best thing in the World?

[JEB77]

Originally Posted by barryhussein

Mel Riddle used to throw students 15 feet into lockers, when he worked at R.E. Lee. He was also best friends with another administrator, who helped athletes obtain steroids at the European Health Spa in Springfield. The other administrator was later charged with sexual misconduct by a Lake Braddock student(1998). If you don't think MR is a roidhead; you probably still believe in Santa.

The kids feared him, but is this the best thing in the World?

Maybe he was just angry that neither you nor Denton56 know how to spell his name - it's Riddile, not Riddle.

In any event, I'm sorry if I contributed to this thread getting off-topic; what the OP really wanted to know, as I read it, was what private (and subsequenty public) schools would best position her child to gain admission to TJ down the road.

[tankdude]

Originally Posted by Skapov

Oh come on, this is Fairfax County with it's $120,000/yr. household income averages, and so how many "poor single moms" can there really be?! You are stereotyping African-Americans in a very negative way.

FCPS has a "Young Scholars" program at the elementary level as far as I know, and with time I'm sure they can find and groom suitable black students who can be TJ-material, but honestly I would NOT want my child to go there even though I know he absolutely could get in. There's no way I'm sending my kid to a school that segregated, and I'm sure other African-American parents must feel the same.

TJ is a school that's not "segregated" by race. It's segregated by ability. Focus on that.

No parent should want to force their kids into a GT program if they are not qualified, or if the concepts, material, subjects, accelerated pace, etc. are beyond their kid's own innate learning ability.

Anything otherwise is typically a recipe for disaster.

That's why parents should not move to NoVa in hopes of their kids getting into TJ.

The smart move would be to move into an area in NoVa that has a great triangle so that there won't be regrets in case their progeny don't get into TJ.

[JEB77]

Originally Posted by tankdude

TJ is a school that's not "segregated" by race. It's segregated by ability. Focus on that.

No parent should want to force their kids into a GT program if they are not qualified, or if the concepts, material, subjects, accelerated pace, etc. are beyond their kid's own innate learning ability.

Anything otherwise is typically a recipe for disaster.

That's why parents should not move to NoVa in hopes of their kids getting into TJ.

The smart move would be to move into an area in NoVa that has a great triangle so that there won't be regrets in case their progeny don't get into TJ.

Sage advice - subject to the observation that there may be a major redistricting in the next few years, so there may be regrets if the neighborhood school pyramid doesn't turn out to be the one that you thought you'd selected. Going private, where that's an option, avoids this risk.

[barryhussein]

Originally Posted by JEB77

Maybe he was just angry that neither you nor Denton56 know how to spell his name - it's Riddile, not Riddle.

In any event, I'm sorry if I contributed to this thread getting off-topic; what the OP really wanted to know, as I read it, was what private (and subsequenty public) schools would best position her child to gain admission to TJ down the road.

My 1978 R.E. Lee High School Yearbook, page 87, has him listed as "Mr. Mel J. Riddle" U.N.C., A.B.; George Mason U., M.A. 6 years at Lee.

Maybe he changed his name, or you hit your head, when he threw you.