The Fairfax County Virginia School System
Janet: I am relocating to Fairfax County VA in the next couple of months. Can you point me in the right direction for gathering information on the Fairfax County School system?
Steve: Janet, no worries about the schools in Fairfax.
They are rated among the best in the nation. Although the system is the 12th largest in the US, size has not hurt quality but helped.
Our schools are well funded and have activities and services that are hard to find elsewhere.
The websites and other resources available for evaluating your child's education options are extensive, thorough and extremely well done.
Here are some statistics that you might find encouraging from the Fairfax county website:
* The new four-year Virginia on-time graduation rate for Fairfax County was 91.2 percent for 2008 high school graduates.
* 92.6 percent of high school graduates continue on to some form of post secondary education.
* The dropout rate for school year 2007-08 was 1.5 percent.
• Members of Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) class of 2009 posted a composite SAT score of 1664—the highest since the SAT went from two sections to three sections in 2006.
This exceeds the average combined scores of 1522 in Virginia and 1511 in the nation.
In 2007-08, 63.1 percent of graduates earned advanced diplomas.
• The number of FCPS students taking Advanced Placement exams rose from 10,313 in 2002 to 14,365 in 2008.
• In the June 2009 edition of Newsweek magazine, all eligible FCPS high schools were listed in the top five percent of public schools in the nation...
...based on the annual challenge index—which measures a school’s effort to challenge all students.
Fairfax has a great getting started page for those folks seeking registration information.
Click here for the main page for the Fairfax County school system
John: How can I make sure which schools serve a home I might consider buying? The boundaries are not that easy to figure out.
Steve: John, you are absolutely right. In some areas the boundaries are very difficult to figure out.
Go to Fairfax County's school boundary site and enter the address of the prospective property.
You will be given the elementary, middle and high school that currently serves that home.
There is also a phone number for you to double check to see if any boundary changes are anticipated.
This is especially important if you want to buy within a particular elementary school boundary.
Fairfax County schools are divided into clusters, then subdivided into pyramids named for the high school that tops the pyramid.
For example, Westfield high school is in cluster 8 and serves the Virginia Run neighborhood among others.
Click the link: Westfield pyramid is listed 3rd, after Oakton and South Lakes High Schools... beginning with the elementary schools up through Ormond Stone Middle school that feeds into the high school.
(Always check the school boundary web site since many students with Herndon adresses fall within other high school boundaries. For example: the Herndon 20171 zip code could attend Westfields, Chantilly or Oakton High schools depending on where the boundary line is)
Diane: Are there any independent school evaluation sites you know of?
Jan: Here are three sites that our clients have found valuable.
Great Schools
School Digger
School Matters
If you are relocating to the Northern Virginia area and need real estate assistance, drop us a line. We're happy to help.
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JanAndSteveListingBook.com....no one will bother you and the data is as accurate and fresh as can be...unlike the big public search engines which can be days or weeks out of date.
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