Falls Church Area High Schools

[Alanboy395]

Originally Posted by arabellava

I went to TC as well- "yale or jail"- as the informal motto.. I was yale per say (good undergrad. top MBA)- but for those kids who need a push or are more susceptible to wanting to fit in and gain acceptance- rather than get picked on- it can be an issue. So- do i want my kids to go to TC- no way not FC nor Stuart- it was just a very dramatic difference of life path that frankly I was fine deciding on my own- but it's just a lack of "fit" for those who want to do well since most were skating through. I faced confrontations daily at the school bus- (though I ran into the the "I have to do HS" group on my bus). I fit in in my own style- I could be part of the "popular preppy group" but not fully (not an extended accepted member) but also be friends with the kids who had weird hair colors (that was then), the geeky people etc. My brother is genious level- was considered a nerd since he didn't care about being in the groups- nerds, jocks, "popular",gangs etc. got picked on- he found his nerd super successful millionaire friends that he is still friends with and they all hung out together. I guess I;m saying I'd rather know darn well my kids can handle the very split unequal environment- leaning more towards an attitude of just get a HS diploma. This is removing all the safety issues like a gun and knife being pulled out at school dances and the police showing up- I was so young I thought nothing of it since this is what I "knew" happened. But given a choice I for sure will not give my kids this experience. Why? Because I don;t have to- I can pick other schools more balanced of people who actually want to go to college and be a productive member of society versus those who "had to" go to school. These schools are too extreme. And I am not bashing the education- just the profile of students/demographics. I had the best AP and honors courses that I insisted on taking- counselors were minimal but that is expected in that large of a HS.

I can understand your reasoning. It's great that you want to give your kids better.

Personally, I would not want to educate or raise kids in the DC area anyway. But one thing can't be denied I learned a lot about real life at TC. Not just book smarts but lessons on real life. You see people who have real problems and seeing the diversity of different stations in life is an eye-opener. You see folk who make the right and wrong choices. That's why I cherish my experiences at TC.

Personally, i've always felt that a kid who WANTED to can get a good education at ANY HS in NoVA. As it is seen here, i know not everyone feels that way.

[michgc]

The problem isn't with the kids who "want" a good education. It's with those kids who will be easily influenced by their peers. If you have one of those kids, you want their peers to be students who value education and learning not peers who are cutting class, smoking, or joining gangs.

[Denton56]

Originally Posted by leighland

You will find on this forum that many of the posters are very uncomfortable with FCHS because there is no majority race/ethnicity there. Its a 1/3rd white, 1/3rd Hispanic, 1/4th Asian (vietnamese/korean/indians and others).

According to Newsweek 2 or 3 years ago its ranked in the top 200 schools nationally.

It has something called an AVID program, which has something to do with teaching students aggressive college study tactics but I don't know what that means.

Check out v2009's links.

AVID is one of the 11 programs to help Black kids. I think that one is supposed to help get kids into college and stay there.

[leighland]

Originally Posted by Denton56

AVID is one of the 11 programs to help Black kids. I think that one is supposed to help get kids into college and stay there.

Do I need a certified race card to participate? Is it a bad thing? You realize FCHS is less than 8% AA but 13% of the general population of the USA is AA. I'm guessing a lot of different kids use the program, just by the school make up. Thats great!

Originally Posted by michgc

The problem isn't with the kids who "want" a good education. It's with those kids who will be easily influenced by their peers. If you have one of those kids, you want their peers to be students who value education and learning not peers who are cutting class, smoking, or joining gangs.

To the OP, you won't find active Crips/Bloods/G-Ds/etc in FFx County. Its mostly the home grown school specific clique/gang junk found in every school. But read the article below.

We should be clear that gangs are all over FFx County. Remember that gang mess at Centreville High last year? Are gangs making a comeback in Fairfax County?

Originally Posted by Alanboy395

..
Personally, I would not want to educate or raise kids in the DC area anyway. But one thing can't be denied I learned a lot about real life at TC. Not just book smarts but lessons on real life. You see people who have real problems and seeing the diversity of different stations in life is an eye-opener. You see folk who make the right and wrong choices. That's why I cherish my experiences at TC.

Personally, i've always felt that a kid who WANTED to can get a good education at ANY HS in NoVA. As it is seen here, i know not everyone feels that way.

You are totally right.

I think lots of women on this forum should discuss fights in school with their husbands/brothers. My DH was a defensive end in HS (Texas) and fights were pretty natural in Middle School. My brothers came home with all sorts of bumps and bruises. My dad taught them how to fight tho'. I think conversely, the men on this forum would be shocked to learn how absolutely mean and brutal adolescent girls can be. Thats life people. Living in a higher income zip code won't change that.

[JEB77]

I thought I'd look at a different statistic relating to the four FCPS schools that serve Falls Church-area students: total growth in student enrollment since the mid-90s (a period during which there has been a substantial growth in total student enrollment, and the school boundaries for Falls Church, McLean, Marshall, and Stuart have remained stable). Here's what the data shows in terms of growth between 9/95 and 9/09:

McLean 35.1%
Marshall 32.3%
Stuart 31.6%
Falls Church 10.7%

To speak to one of Leighland's points, the racial balance at Stuart and Falls Church is similar (there is no majority ethnicity), and the residential areas that serve both schools are older, settled areas, but the student population increased by a much larger percentage at Stuart (with increases in Hispanic, Black, White and Multiracial students more than offsetting a decline in the number of Asian students) than at Falls Church (where a large increase in the number of Hispanic students and a modest increase in the number of Multiracial students were largely offset by a decline in the number of Asian, Black and White students).

Don't get me wrong; I'm not offering up this data to suggest students can't get a good education at FCHS. It does seem to me, however, that the data may reflect some broader decision-making by area residents that goes beyond what a few posters on City-Data might say about which schools do or don't have a good "reputation."