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Virginia Beach Schools and education


vdogg

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Wow, excellent comparison scm. That was really interesting!

There's been some resentment from residents of eastern Fairfax County as to why the lesser schools are not as good as they should be, but never outcry.

Another very interesting and complicated thing to note is that Hayfield used to be very large and overcrowded until three years ago when they built the new South County school in Lorton. The area that ceded to South County is an even wealthier area, the typical Fairfax County suburban setting. The school board hired a firm to estimate enrollment figures, and they were completely wrong. South County became overcrowded with trailers in its second year, while Hayfield became too undercrowded. The reason was that so many children had suddenly 'appeared' after having been to private school because of Hayfield's dismal quality, and a windfall of new housing was built in anticipation of the new school-because of concessions with a housing developer to develop housing and the school on former DC jail property. This whole rezoning allowed Hayfield to begin rehabilitating. However, because of SC's overcrowding, the school board rezoned a section of Lorton back to Hayfield for this school year. Many parents became angry because South County was considered to be a very good school, while Hayfield is still considered inferior. I find it interesting that an area that formerly was a part of Hayfield when Hayfield was very bad is now a part of a school that is well-regarded.

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OK, Dr. Analytical is back. Listened to the criticisms about SATs not being a valid comparison (too open to gaming, self selection, etc.) -- and about the difficulty of comparing schools due to differing socio-economic status (SES). So, decided to compare VB schools to the most directly comparable division in the state -- Fairfax County.

The conclusion I came to is the same one I had before -- where VB falls down isn't at the bottom, it is at the top. The schools that have the SES advantage don't perform well, in comparison to similar VA schools. It shows in the SAT scores against their peers, it shows in the SOl pass rates. You can come to your own conclusion as to why there is no outcry. I have mine.

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I'll agree with you on point 3.

I really have a problem with points 1 and 2, though.

On point 1, it sounds as if funding should be related to performance. If that's true, then Fairfax schools should reduce their per pupil funding since it spends 25% more per pupil than both VB and Chesapeake schools. I'd love to see what you'd say about Richmond. Also, Chesapeake has pays their teachers a little more than VB. More importantly, Chesapeake doesn't play games with its teachers. VB has the tendency to let more experienced go in order to bring them back at a lower salary or at a reduced pension level. Anyway, have fun with this link.

On point 2, HR loses its highly educated population to other metro areas. On the engineering front, it is fairly strong. But finance/econ and liberal arts majors flee to DC and NYC. Its about salaries and opportunities, where your friends are going, and a strong young professional scene. Out of the top 10 in my graduating class, 8 of the kids are somewhere besides HR. If I had stayed at UVa or gone to UNC for grad school, most likely I would have ended up in DC, Baltimore, or Raleigh. Before other circumstances got in the way, I planned to return to the East Coast, but to Raleigh or Baltimore, not HR. Also, I believe a strong college is more important to retaining an educated workforce. Unfortunately, this is empirical in nature rather than statistical.

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  • 3 months later...

I have posted a bit on the VB forums, but mostly on the Norfolk forum. I live in Ghent and my family is strongly considering a move to VA Beach. I'm looking for feedback from people who live in VA Beach and who are familiar with the school systems. Any and all thoughts/guidance would be appreciated!

We always thought we'd be great in Ghent. We love the area, love that it is a walking community etc., but the sad thing is that the public schools are not the best. Taylor and Ghent Elementary are good through 5th grade, but then the middle schools are not that great, and then things rebound again for high school at Maury. My sense is that motivated, proactive, kids can get a solid - even world class - education in Norfolk, but there are a lot of moving parts and I'm not sure we'd be successful in achieving our goals. VA Beach, particularly in the Cox, First Colonial, and Kellam areas seems like it would be a lot easier for our kids to get a great education. I think a lot of the stats/SAT/SOL comparisons can be a bit misleading. Is it your sense that these VB schools are pretty comparable? For example, on a scale of 1-10, where would you rank each one (1 being terrible and 10 being the best)?

So, we are considering moving to those districts. Any thoughts, advice, suggestions? What do you guys think of those areas and what do you know about the schools? Thanks!

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I think that such a move shouldn't be based on school quality alone. Middle school is always a tough experience; kids form cliques and treat one another badly just about everywhere. VB schools are very good, especially the ones you've mentioned, but moving is expensive and disruptive. If you didn't move, the money you might save could be spent sending your children to somewhere like Norfolk Collegiate or Norfolk Academy for a while. And Maury is a very good school. There's a somewhat different culture in VB. Would you fit in better there? Where do you work? Commutes out of VB are pretty bad and getting worse.

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