best high school(s) in Fairfax county? (Norfolk, Alexandria: home, public schools)

[claremarie]

Parents choose private schools for many reasons, not just because they are seeking out an institution with higher test scores.
Our kids were in one of the "highly sought-after" school pyramids in McLean, and we moved them to private school because we wanted an all-boys Catholic environment, smaller class sizes, and a school that was not focused on the almighty Standards of Learning.
The DC area has a plethora of private school options because there are many affluent families who can afford it. And because employers such as the World Bank and many embassies will pay most of the tuition costs for their employees.

[ajzjmsmom]

Originally Posted by claremarie

Parents choose private schools for many reasons, not just because they are seeking out an institution with higher test scores.
Our kids were in one of the "highly sought-after" school pyramids in McLean, and we moved them to private school because we wanted an all-boys Catholic environment, smaller class sizes, and a school that was not focused on the almighty Standards of Learning.
The DC area has a plethora of private school options because there are many affluent families who can afford it. And because employers such as the World Bank and many embassies will pay most of the tuition costs for their employees.

This makes sense, I always forget that there are alot of people here who work for employeers that offer nice perks, that allow for private school.

[newbymom]

Hi everyone,
Thank you for all your input. I didn't mean to start a heated philosophical discussion.
I was asking because in the city of Chicago proper, we have some of the best and some of the worst high schools in the country (as the Derrion Albert tragedy showed), and in the Newsweek rankings, there are some outstanding suburban schools that are conspicuously absent and some schools with a "segregated" mix of very high-achieving kids and kids who have problems such that academics is not a high priority for them, shall we say.
I personally wouldn't send my children to the latter because I worry about safety and because I can see at least one of my kids being receptive to peer pressure...of the wrong kind. That's what I wanted to find out.

Thank you again.

[claremarie]

Originally Posted by newbymom

Hi everyone,
some schools with a "segregated" mix of very high-achieving kids and kids who have problems such that academics is not a high priority for them, shall we say.
I personally wouldn't send my children to the latter because I worry about safety and because I can see at least one of my kids being receptive to peer pressure...of the wrong kind. That's what I wanted to find out.

Thank you again.

As a general rule, the schools with the highest standardized test scores happen to be the ones with the most favorable demographics -- the parents have higher incomes and education levels than the schools with lower test scores. If you want a shortcut to finding a good school with a supportive parent population and a significant number of students with high academic goals, then just go by test score. This is especially true when you're coming from out of town and don't really know the area.
You can't always assume that buying an expensive house will guarantee a top-scoring school. There are pockets of very nice newer developments that are little upper-middle class enclaves surrounded by lower-cost housing. So you need to check the school ranking too.

[slim04]

Originally Posted by newbymom

Hi everyone,
Thank you for all your input. I didn't mean to start a heated philosophical discussion.
I was asking because in the city of Chicago proper, we have some of the best and some of the worst high schools in the country (as the Derrion Albert tragedy showed), and in the Newsweek rankings, there are some outstanding suburban schools that are conspicuously absent and some schools with a "segregated" mix of very high-achieving kids and kids who have problems such that academics is not a high priority for them, shall we say.
I personally wouldn't send my children to the latter because I worry about safety and because I can see at least one of my kids being receptive to peer pressure...of the wrong kind. That's what I wanted to find out.

Thank you again.

I'm from Chicago. Here is my comparison:

TJ = IMSA

McLean H.S., Langley=Deerfield, Lake Forest

Robinson, Madison, Oakton, Wooten, Marshall=Buffalo Grove (i.e. Fremd), Arlington Heights, Schaumburg

Burke, W. Springfield, Chantilly, Westfield=Aurora, Naperville, Des Plaines (i.e. Maine West or South) or any other western suburbs beyond the inner ring.

Herndon, Fairfax H.S., South Lakes, South County, Centreville=Orland Park, Tinley Park, Oak Forest

Falls Chuch, Hayfield, Mt. Vernon, Edison, Lee, West Potomac=Homewood Flossmoor, South Holland (i.e Thornwood), Oaklawn (i.e. Richards).

City of Falls Church's George Mason H.S.=Oak Park

North Arlington (Washington-Lee, Yorktown)=Evanston

South Arlington (Wakefield) and City of Alexandria (TC Williams)=same as Homewood-Flossmoor, South Holland, and Oaklawn.

There is nothing like Cicero, Maywood, Calumet City, Dolton, or Phoenix in Nova.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by claremarie

If you want a shortcut to finding a good school with a supportive parent population and a significant number of students with high academic goals, then just go by test score. This is especially true when you're coming from out of town and don't really know the area..

There aren't many schools in Fairfax County that don't have supportive parents and plenty of students with high academic goals. Any given kid will perform at the same level regardless of the school he/she attends here.

[slim04]

Originally Posted by newbymom

in the Newsweek rankings, there are some outstanding suburban schools that are conspicuously absent and some schools with a "segregated" mix of very high-achieving kids and kids who have problems such that academics is not a high priority for them, shall we say.

In the Chicago suburbs, AP classes are generally limited to the very top students (usually top 25% to top 10%). The classes are taught at a very high level and more than half pass the exam.

Here is NoVa, they have a philosophy of offering much more AP class to a wide variety of students, even average ones. The theory being that average students will learn more in challenging classes, than if you just seggregate the AP classes for the honors students. I generally agree with this philosophy, but Newsweek skews its rankings to reward schools that generously offer AP classes (regardless on how they perform on them). So the end result is some Chicago schools with very high SAT scores get hammered in the rankings because they don't let average students take AP classes.

That's why all the schools in Fairfax county are ranked, even though about a 1/4 of them only score near the nationwide median SAT score.

For example, my babysitter is probably an average student (I think she's going to a school like Old Dominion or VCU), took 6 AP classes. She didn't pass any. But she probably recieved a better experience that will prepare her for the rigors of college versus taking just standard classes.

In Newsweek's view, that is an excellent high school deserving of a high ranking. Taking average and below average students and making them outperform expectations is a better indicator of a good school, then just finding a high school with a bunch of rich kids.

Obviously, not everyone agrees and there are a bunch of huge threads all over C-D arguing against the validity of the rankings. I just see them as a piece of a puzzle in evaluating a particular school.

[Stephen 81]

Originally Posted by slim04

That's why all the schools in Fairfax county are ranked, even though about a 1/4 of them only score near the nationwide median SAT score.

Page 2 of http://www.fcps.edu/mediapub/pressrel/sat2007.pdf indicates that in 2007, Fairfax County students outperformed national averages by roughly 40 points per section, for a total score 120 points higher than the national average. So unless everyone at Langley, Woodson, etc. is getting 2400s, I'd say more than 1/4 of the schools score above the nationwide median.

[slim04]

Originally Posted by Stephen 81

Page 2 of http://www.fcps.edu/mediapub/pressrel/sat2007.pdf indicates that in 2007, Fairfax County students outperformed national averages by roughly 40 points per section, for a total score 120 points higher than the national average. So unless everyone at Langley, Woodson, etc. is getting 2400s, I'd say more than 1/4 of the schools score above the nationwide median.

I was trying to say that 3/4 of the schools in Fairfax County scores well above the nationwide median. The lowest 1/4 of the Fairfax County high schools hover around the nationwide median score of roughly 1500.

[claremarie]

"Any given kid will perform at the same level regardless of the school he/she attends here."

It would be nice if that were true.