Fairfax County Schools - Maryland vs Virginia Public Schools Series
0:00 Intro
Fairfax County is on deck this week. Last week we covered Montgomery County. This video will go through Fairfax and then next week we’ll compare these two highly sought after school districts in the DC Area.
1:02 Fairfax County School System
Fairfax County has 199 schools and is one of the largest school districts in the country. Students can take International Baccalaureate (IB) or AP classes in high school. There are also magnet schools, STEM schools and Academies that offer a school within a school. The #1 High School in the country is also in Fairfax County - Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. This is a 4 year magnet school program created in 1985 to improve education in science, math and technology.
At high school there are multiple options for extra rigor including honors, AP classes and the International Baccalaureate programs as well as dual enrollment where students earn college credit. Eight high schools offer IB and they are Annandale, Edison, Justice, Lewis, Marshall, Mount Vernon, Robinson and South Lakes High schools. Mount Vernon and South Lakes also offer the IB Career Program.
www.fcps.edu/a...
6:00 Fairfax County, VA Schools - Academics
Fairfax County is very transparent about their curriculum. The instruction is guided by the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) which can be found on the Virginia Department of Education’s website. What does that mean? They did not adopt Common Core. They felt that developing Virginia’s Standards of Learning was superior.
www.doe.virgin...
8:01 Fairfax County Admin
The Superintendent is relatively new. She’s held her position just over a year. In October, 2022, she hired an Equity Consultant (for $455,000 for 9 months of work) to advise on a plan going forward to ensure “equitable outcomes.” Another equity/anti-racist consultant has been paid $58,500 for less than 4 hours of talks - the last of which was in December, 2022.
www.fairfaxtim...
In January 2023, just three months after the $500K consultant was hired, there was a scandal. Students at multiple Fairfax County High Schools were never informed that they were winners of the National Merit Scholarship. It was hard for people to not believe that students who earned the National Merit Scholarship were intentionally not told about it.
www.fairfaxtim...
10:07 Fairfax County Today - a Snapshot in Time
The Superintendent sent out a message last week stating that they are implementing “Restorative Justice” as of Oct 2023. This initiative is called the “Responsible Pathway to Restorative Justice Facilitation.” They are going to train people to operate as school-based restorative justice facilitators. By late 2024 they hope to have 2 facilitators at each school. From her letter, “I’m thrilled about this program and how it will support us to provide excellence, equity, and opportunity for each and every one of our students, especially those impacted by discipline disparities.”
15:54 Fairfax County Schools - Conclusion
On Niche, the ten best Fairfax High Schools are Thomas Jefferson Science and Tech, Oakton, McLean, Lake Braddock, Langley, Madison, Chantilly, Centreville, Woodson, West Springfield. You’ll see the same 10 for U.S. News and World Report’s rankings, in a slightly different order. Fairfax used to be considered among the best in years passed. This is still an excellent school system and very sought after by parents of school aged kids. There are definitely problems but they aren’t any different than what we’re seeing in all the other surrounding school districts. Their curriculum seems as strong as ever, and it’s been in place for almost a decade as opposed to the constant changing we see in other districts.
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- Melissa Terzis | DC Real Estate Mama