Public Schools in VA?

[Aubrey]

Good, bad, student-teacher ratio, anything else?

[meet me in paris]

Where in Virginia?

 

We were in VA Beach, and I was less than impressed.

[Giraffe]

Yes, former Hampton Roads (Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Suffolk) resident here - my SIL homeschools as do most of my friends over there because the schools are so bad.

 

Now Northern Virginia (Fairfax County especially) is good, at least it was last I heard. My brother and I both went through Fairfax County schools and did well - brother as a LD special needs student and I as a "regular" one.

 

HTH!

[taffnus]

Location is everything. Where are you thinking?? We're in Hampton Roads and there's a huge difference from city to city with many being quite bad. My cousin taught in a school in the suberbs of Richmond and said it was quite good and would send her children there. My nephews attend school in Augusta county and have had a good experience and my best friend lives in Lynchburg and says there are a couple of schools there that are said to be very good. I grew up in the schools in the Shenandoah Valley. My friend works in our old middle school and I get a lot of the inside "dirt." Schools are mainstreamed so, with budget cuts, there may be severely LD kids in regular classes with or without an aid. So....it really depends on where you are. All have the SOLs though and budget cuts that may impact quality.

[Lisa in Jax]

When we moved from Wisconsin to VA (in the 70s), I was in 6th grade. VA schools were 2-3 years behind the level I was studying in Wisconsin. It wasn't pretty.

 

Lisa

[Aubrey]

Location is everything. Where are you thinking?? We're in Hampton Roads and there's a huge difference from city to city with many being quite bad. My cousin taught in a school in the suberbs of Richmond and said it was quite good and would send her children there. My nephews attend school in Augusta county and have had a good experience and my best friend lives in Lynchburg and says there are a couple of schools there that are said to be very good. I grew up in the schools in the Shenandoah Valley. My friend works in our old middle school and I get a lot of the inside "dirt." Schools are mainstreamed so, with budget cuts, there may be severely LD kids in regular classes with or without an aid. So....it really depends on where you are. All have the SOLs though and budget cuts that may impact quality.

 

What's SOL?

[Aubrey]

I've always wanted to live in VA, & after a very bad day, I'm thinking WHY NOT? I'm certified to teach, & according to VA's website, one of their greatest needs is high school English teachers.

 

So anywhere in the state is fine. Closer to a sea shore would be awesome. Good enough to *teach* in, not necessarily for the kids to go to.

 

It looks like--correct me if you know otherwise--the biggest teacher layoffs are in NY, CA, & TX. Does that make VA a good bet? Esp if I'm certified for one of their "high needs" areas?

 

District websites here literally say they're not hiring *anyone* for anything. They just can't. So classrooms are getting more & more crowded. When I was teaching 5 years ago, I had 40 kids in one class, & at least 30 in ea of the rest. I'd prefer not to repeat that.

 

Oh, & I couldn't find solid salary info anywhere--is there not a state standard?

 

(My mom called earlier tonight to tell me about another work-from-home scam & then lectured me about how I need to do *something* & this ad in her magazine sounds better than childcare, which is what SHE did when she had littles at home & was really, really poor.

 

My lease won't allow childcare, but honestly, the last thing I need to add to my life now is a work-from-home scam--not that all of them are scams. I also don't need to add "9 month certification" for this particular scam-job to my master's degree.

 

I visited a new church & was disappointed. I've been contacted by mom AND mil in a negative way in one day. And other stuff. I'm ready for a new coast, lol.)

[annabanana1992]

The west end of Henrico County (outside of Richmond) has excellent public schools.

[WIS0320]

We're in Prince William Co. and the schools vary widely within the county. The school my children would attend is actually a very good school on paper, good test scores, lots of pricey technology in all the classrooms like Smart Boards, huge computer lab, Mandarin instruction from K+ and the listed ratios also look good at 13:1. However, the school is unbelievably overcrowded, with 6 classes per grade of 26-30 kids in each class. I think they count every licensed person in the building when they give their ratio.

 

I grew up in the southwestern part of the state and most areas there struggle. It seems Northern VA is able to generate tons of tax revenue, especially the areas that have pockets of really wealthy people (Loudoun, Fairfax) and other parts of the state that are more rural struggle. The Hampton area is pretty rough from what I understand but if you just head west about 30 miles to Williamsburg things improve considerably.

[Terabith]

SOL = Standards of Learning. It refers to the goals for courses/ grades, and also to the end of year NCLB tests. They actually aren't bad, as those things go, though of course in application things become a bit more problematic.

 

There is no state salary. Pretty much everything is done via the district level. The other issue, however, is that many local districts also just aren't hiring, despite needing new teachers. There are just hiring freezes.

 

But, I'm in Roanoke and would LOVE to have you guys come. The only way to find out is to call local district offices.

[ElizabethB]

We lived in the Fairfax area and the schools *appeared* to be doing well, but I was only impressed with one elementary school, and that neighborhood was $100,000 per house more than the already exorbitant prices. Basically, the schools in the district score high because they have high SES, a high percentage of parents with degrees, and there is a lot of tutoring going on.

 

Richmond was turning itself around and is a much cheaper area, although they were reforming themselves due to NCLB, I'm not sure how it is going now, here are a few articles:

 

Black students in Fairfax County are consistently scoring lower on state standardized tests than African American children in Richmond, Norfolk and other comparatively poor Virginia districts, surprising Fairfax educators and forcing one of the nation's wealthiest school systems to acknowledge shortcomings that have been masked by its overall success.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/13/AR2006041302177.html

 

Compare Fairfax County to the city of Richmond. The Richmond Public Schools are 90% high-poverty and 90% African-American.

Starting in 2001, Richmond adopted the NIH reading reforms. Last spring, on the 3rd grade SOL tests in reading , 76% of children passed in Richmond, compared to 79% in Fairfax County.

 

That’s right. The reading scores for children in urban Richmond and wealthy Fairfax are almost the same.

 

As you can see in the graphs in my presentation, Richmond is going up dramatically, while Fairfax is going down. It is pretty clear that the next two years, reading scores in Richmond are going to pass those in Fairfax County.

 

http://www.chemreview.net/FairfaxSOL.pdf

Edited March 28, 2011 by ElizabethB

[Margo out of lurking]

You might want to poke around the VDOE website, but I couldn't find a scoring breakdown with each district on a single page.:glare: (Ha, that doesn't mean it's not there.)

 

This might be helpful for teaching information.

 

We moved from Colorado to Virginia four years ago. I loved Colorado; I love it here. We're near Roanoke, where the humidity is much less than the coast. We're protected from most weather by the mountains just to the west; we get more snow, but it melts quickly.

[MariannNOVA]

Hi, Aubrey -- I've been MIA but came on here this morning and saw this. We are in Fairfax County and one of the top rated elementary schools is about 10 houses up the road from us. We bought this house for the re-sale value b/c of that school. So far, it appears that we did the right thing -- our house isn't even on the market yet, but with all the work going on (dumpster in the d/w) and we did have a realtor through, the realtor is already getting phone calls (from word of mouth) from families who want to buy in this school pyramid.

 

That being said -- the # of students in classrooms has increased with budget cuts, but there are still folks who swear by the Fairfax County public schools.

 

PM me -- I will gladly give you my phone number and we can talk. There are good and bad things about every school system and about every pyramid BUT probably here there might be a little less to hate -- maybe -- my kids have friends who are in the public school who are great kids, love school, and who are a pleasure to be with -- of course, hands on parenting probably has MORE to do with that than a particular school system, iykwim ;).

 

SOLs are 'standards of learning.'

[bettyandbob]

I think VA can be a great place to teach, but it's a big state. The districts which perform the best tend to have the highest cost of living, as a result if you started low on the payscale it would be hard to find a place to live if you were trying to support a family. If you aren't planning on send the kids to school, does it matter what district you are in? Would a very rural area work? At one point we investigated an area in the very southwestern part of the state, but decided against it because we knew ds would be attending public high school and local school had very little to offer a geeky science kid. But maybe it would be a great place to teach.

 

Some of these districts are saving money by bringing in online classes to fill gaps in teacher qualification. A friend of mine is an executive for K12 and some rural districts in Va started this last year. They've been doing this in other states for years. It certainly is cheaper for schools.

 

SOLs are standards of learning exams. A student must pass 6 to exit with a standard diploma and 9 for the advanced studies diploma. You have to pass the class and the sol exam, which is different from the class final exam and then you have a "verified credit". SOL exams are given in Alg I, Alg II(adv studies), geometry, biology, government, U.S.History, English 11, English 11 writing and a few more. You have to have certain classes spread across math, English, history and science.

[Chris in VA]

Fairfax County has one of the best reps in the country. We have experience with 3 high schools.

 

It's hot and cold. The school near us with the IB program has 13 identified gangs.

 

The one ds went to isn't far behind--it's newly renovated and very pretty now, and has, not only gangs, but adult drug dealer connections.

 

The new school where we transferred ds to after treatment? Higher socio-economic students--BIGGGG drinking problem among the student pop.

 

So, the academics may be ok, but the kids and gangs/drugs thing--big, big yuck.

 

You might try to gain employment at Thomas Jefferson--it's the gifted school. Still has problems, but the academics are superb.

[Old Dominion Heather]

About teaching in VA.

 

Hi Aubrey, I'm in Virginia and I taught middle school before kids. I'm in Lynchburg.

 

All who have said that there is no state salary are correct. Each school board determines their own. In general, the closer you go to the north and east, the better you will be paid, but cost of living also rises.

 

There are shortages, but also hiring freezes. The county to the west of me, Bedford, is shutting down at least two elementary schools to save money. In Lynchburg, where I am, they are millions off budget, the high schools leak, and the city won't give them any more money or even let them keep any surplus.

 

It is illegal for state employees to strike, so while some teachers join a teacher's union here, it is basically powerless. Each locality determines what "tenure" will look like, but any teacher can be let go. A few years ago, all the older, experienced teachers in one county were "encouraged" to leave so that less experienced teachers could be hired. There is rapid turn over.

 

I'm not sure about starting salary these days, but you would start at year one, they won't care that you taught before. If I went back, they would start me over at year one salary.

 

Now for the good part, Virginia is beautiful! You should come! We are friendly (at least around here we are)! Come to Lynchburg! I know a private school that wants to hire. Of course they probably don't pay more than 1/2 to 2/3 what public school does, but they are hiring!

 

*** ETA: What Betty said above is correct: If your salary would be the only salary, then it would be EXTREMELY difficult (impossible) to support a family. Families where both parents teach struggle. When I started teaching, I made thousands less a year than my friend who was working at McDonalds. Starting pay at that point was $22,500. Check into individual county schoolboard sites and look for pay scales.

 

*** Ok, I just checked. Starting salary in Lynchburg City schools for positions requiring a license is $32,800. Those would be full time positions, as much as possible is being hired part time at $23 an hour. The $23 an hour positions also require certification. https://apps2.winocular.com/lynchburgva/jobs/JobPost.exe?Action=page1&ini=jobs

Edited March 28, 2011 by Old Dominion Heather

[Rebecca VA]

If I were you, I'd look at counties where you might want to live and find their school district websites. Often you can find out if they have employment openings. (I just looked on my county's website, and there were no teacher openings at all.) The websites will also give you a great deal of information that will help you decide if you want to be associated with them.

[bettyandbob]

My county closes all applications for the current school year in January. If there's an opening it's probably filled by a long term sub. This is not a written policy, but it's a large district and they go from about a hundred openings to zero over a weekend every January. They don't list opening for the next school year until the end of June or beginning of July. This is after they've shuffled all the teachers who are currently under contract, but have to move schools because there more second graders in another school, etc.

 

A hundred openings is actually very little for my area when you consider it's across all discipline: a preschool ABA teacher, a 33% Latin teacher, ESL middle school. Think of all the different teaching jobs a very large district could have. Each applicant may only be qualified for one or two of the openings and hundreds are applying for the same two jobs. Again its a very large district and a dense population.

[Susan C.]

We moved from DFW to Hampton Roads area in 1994. We moved to SC in 1998. The move from TX to VA was quite a culture shock. We lived in Chesapeake, the schools there were very good from what I saw in the neighborhood kids. I homeschooled because of dh crazy work hours, but it was nice to know I could put them in school if I chose to. Then we moved here..... and I homeschooled ds thru 12th, and dd will hs 12th next year.

[Aubrey]

*** ETA: What Betty said above is correct: If your salary would be the only salary, then it would be EXTREMELY difficult (impossible) to support a family. Families where both parents teach struggle. When I started teaching, I made thousands less a year than my friend who was working at McDonalds. Starting pay at that point was $22,500. Check into individual county schoolboard sites and look for pay scales.

 

Ok, you're right. I know rent there is higher, & I've been looking at pay scales in different counties.

 

Bad idea. *sigh*

 

But it does look like VA & the states in that area have more of the type of job dh is looking for than TX does (for some reason). So I'll still be hopeful.

 

And although *rent* seems to be generally higher, boy do you get a lot more house for the $. And I've seen a handful of old houses selling for really cheap. That could be lovely. (I've seen Money Pit.)

[dsmama]

I love Virginia. I have taught in Fairfax County and also in a county near Richmond, VA. Cost of living is better outside of Northern VA and VA Beach.

 

Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions, as I used to teach HS English and IB English.

 

Take care!

[sewpeaceful]

As others have stated, it varies widely even within districts. Statistics can be made to say anything.

 

I grew up in Prince William County. The high school I was slated to go to was the first high school in the country with a shooting (to my understanding). There were over 1,600 kids in my graduating class alone. I ended up at an elite magnet school in Fairfax County. Excellent experience - AT THAT SCHOOL. Other schools in the same district were struggling. Half way through sophomore year, we moved to Fredericksburg. Graduating class of 179, had little to offer, few AP classes, etc and ended up graduating a year early.

 

Do your homework for sure.

 

Good luck to you!! The whole country needs GREAT teachers and would be lucky to have you! :)

[StephanieZ]

VA varies IMMENSELY by county, and significantly within the counties. Each county is really a land of its own. Fairfax county has a larger budget and population than many STATES if memory serves.

 

Pay, standards, benefits, will go by county. In northern VA (Loudoun & Fairfax counties), you'll find great pay, top ranked schools, high standards for the most part. In some counties, you'll find terrible pay, awful schools, etc. In others, you'll find everything in between.

 

I'd look at Fairfax or Loudoun (perhaps Prince William) counties to begin your search. Fairfax is the most varied, as it is RIGHT at the border of DC, so you have near inner city conditions in some schools and incredibly affluent/high standard schools in a town 5 miles over. If I were you, I'd use some website to check 1) education level of adults in the vicinity & 2) rankings of the schools to get an idea of good ones to consider. Loudoun is more uniform (very affluent and more homogenous), but even Loudoun has some older/poorer schools. I think Pr. William may be similar to those counties, but a bit poorer (though everything is relative, lol).

 

Note that all those counties have significant gang issues despite being very affluent and well educated.

 

Outside NoVA is like a different state. Southern VA is really an entirely different place. Entirely.

 

Note that NoVA is very expensive to live in, although it is more affordable now than it was 5 years ago. We sold our 3 BR townhouse for 420k when we left in 2004. I think you could buy it today for around 400k. (It was a nice, newish, 3BR in a new, nice, HOA community with pools, trails, etc. . . Broadlands was the name of the community. A bigger 'end unit' across the street was selling for 550k at that time. . . and is now maybe 500k.) You can find an older but still nice single family home in that general area for 450k or so now. Check zip codes 20190 (Reston, in Fairfax County) or 20148 (Broadlands, near Ashburn, in Loudoun County) for a couple very nice areas to consider.

 

5-10 years ago, Fairfax and Loudoun Cy were desperately recruiting teachers from overseas, etc, etc. I finished my MS degree largely so I could have a 'catastrophic employment plan' of teaching science/math in the schools. . . and I calculated that I could expect 70k/yr or more for a school year contract at that time. I don't know what's happenned with salaries since then, but do remember that it is VERY expensive to live there.

 

(The toll roads alone were running us about 250/mo when we lived there in 2004. . . and at today's rates would be 400/mo or more if both dh and I were using them 5 days a week. . . This is mainly an issue if you live in Loudoun County, which has been the fastest growing county in the nation for several years, and built the roads to handle it through tolls instead of taxes. . . tho' there are plenty of taxes, too. As we speak, Metro is extending rail in that direction, so metro train/bus service will be available in the next couple years out that way (towards Dulles Airport), but it will still be expensive to commute.)

 

HTH