Alexandria High Schools (Arlington, Annandale, Manassas: 2015, home, magnet school)

[Lhillard]

Moving to the area - need to live in Arlington or Alexandria. Looking for some good feedback on high schools in either area? Thanks

[weezycom]

The City of Alexandria has one high school: TC Williams. It's all the kids in the City not in private high schools. Of the NoVa metro area, this school system has the lowest rankings (although a low ranking in NoVa is higher than many average rankings of other urban/metro areas in the country).

there's an area of Fairfax County south of the city also called Alexandria. I know West Potomac is one of the high schools down there, but there may be another.

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by Lhillard

Moving to the area - need to live in Arlington or Alexandria. Looking for some good feedback on high schools in either area? Thanks

For faux Alexandria (Fairfax County that uses an Alexandria addresses) you have: West Potomac, Edison, Hayfield, Annandale, and Lee. The actual city of Alexandria you have TC Williams. South Arlington (most of Arlington below Rt 50) you have Wakefield. I have friends who have graduated from all them and most had a positive experience. I am a graduate of TC Williams and my experience was positive. All these high schools do have more lower-income and ESL kids than other parts of Northern VA.

[HokieFan]

FWIW, I know many kids who attended TC Williams and they are moving/have moved on to great colleges. TC offers a STEM program that a lot of kids enjoy doing.

I also know of kids who have attended Washington-Lee, HB Woodlawn, & Yorktown in Arlington. Again, great kids who moved on to great colleges.

[MedvedActual]

Originally Posted by The Dissenter

I find your status so ironic right now. You'd probably find me as one of the demographics that brung the system's ranking down since I'm a black male from a single parent home and took a regular class load at TC Williams in Alexandria City Public Schools. Guess what? I maintained a B average at TC, and have since earned a Bachelor's degree and completed a grad program last year. Having to "interact with those demographics" doesn't have to be a negative thing.

Eh, I think you may be taking the earlier quoted comment a bit too far. Based on your description of your academic performance I would not place you into the demographics SafeSpace referred to. When I read "those demographics" I think of ****heads not maintaining proper school attendance, grades, behavior, etc.; they can be from any race, background, well off or dirt poor. Just saying.

[HokieFan]

Originally Posted by MedvedActual

Eh, I think you may be taking the earlier quoted comment a bit too far. Based on your description of your academic performance I would not place you into the demographics SafeSpace referred to. When I read "those demographics" I think of ****heads not maintaining proper school attendance, grades, behavior, etc.; they can be from any race, background, well off or dirt poor. Just saying.

IMO, Dissenter was spot on in his response.

SafeSpace said to take a look at the demographics. These are demographics available on the ACPS website for TC.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Enrollment (as of 9/2015):
2,619 students (grades 10-12)
975 students (grade 9)

African American: 33.8%
Asian: 5.3%
Hispanic: 37.7%
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.4%
Native American: 0.2%
White: 20.9%
Multi-racial: 1.7%
SCHOOL FACULTY

Number of Licensed Staff: 199
With post-graduate degrees: 76%

I don't believe I've ever seen a statistic available for the percentage of ****heads attending a school. And I believe that every school has it's share of ****heads. Even the most elite private school in the country.

SafeSpace should return to clarify if he feels we've misconstrued his post.

[MedvedActual]

Dang. Looks like this thread derailed from the original topic quite a bit...

[JD984]

Originally Posted by The Dissenter

For faux Alexandria (Fairfax County that uses an Alexandria addresses) you have: West Potomac, Edison, Hayfield, Annandale, and Lee. The actual city of Alexandria you have TC Williams. South Arlington (most of Arlington below Rt 50) you have Wakefield. I have friends who have graduated from all them and most had a positive experience. I am a graduate of TC Williams and my experience was positive. All these high schools do have more lower-income and ESL kids than other parts of Northern VA.

I'm guessing the OP was just referring to the City of Alexandria, and not also to the parts of Fairfax County with Alexandria mailing addresses.

But, in any event, your identification of FCPS schools for "faux Alexandria" is slightly off. There are five high schools in FCPS with Alexandria mailing addresses: Mount Vernon, West Potomac, Edison, Hayfield and TJHSST. Some kids in Fairfax County with Alexandria mailing addresses also attend Annandale and Stuart, which are in Annandale and Falls Church, respectively. Lee is in Springfield, not Alexandria, and no kids with Alexandria addresses go there unless, perhaps, they pupil place to Lee from Hayfield for IB (although those kids might go to Edison or Mount Vernon instead).

Apart from TJHSST, those schools have more lower-income and ESL kids than in most other schools in Fairfax County (but not necessarily Falls Church or Herndon), and the numbers would be similar to or lower than one school in Loudoun County (Park View) and quite a few schools in eastern Prince William County. And many kids at ALL of those schools, as well as Wakefield and TC, do quite well.

One distinguishing feature of TC Williams, which matters to some people but not others, is that the City of Alexandria will not allow (that is, pay for) its students to attend TJHSST, which is the math/science magnet school in the Alexandria part of Fairfax County. Arlington students can attend TJ if otherwise eligible.

[gomason]

That makes two of us Dissenter. I went to *the ghetto high school* in Manassas -- Stonewall Jackson. Somehow I manage to avoid dealing drugs and have a graduate degree (as well as had friends that went to Ivy Leagues).


There are a lot of stupid uncultured people in Northern Virginia for sure. Anyone that thinks anything in Northern Virginia is "ghetto" has not been to an inner city.

[Deluusions]

Hayfield, Edison, Mount Vernon, and West Potomac are all faux Alexandria schools. The best out of all of these schools I would say are either Hayfield or Edison. Edison has an IB program as well but Hayfield doesn't they just offer regular AP classes.