How to Choose the Right School in Fairfax County

January 4 by Marina Brito

When Andy & Paula got married, they bought themselves a place in a lovely area where it was easy to walk out the door and get something to eat. Andy & Paula also really loved the pool and the gym that were part of their community.

But, one day, they found out that there were no longer only two members of their little family, but that in a short 9 months, they’d be three.

Their cozy place was great for three, although the gym was not being used as much as it once was…

A couple of years went by and very soon they were four

Moving to a bigger place

That’s when they decided that they could probably use a bit more space, and perhaps even a little yard. Since they were moving, they decided to consider their school options as part of their home search… but where to start?

Start by choosing the right school

In Fairfax County, it’s best to start by choosing a school because the attendance areas are very strict. So it’s easier to choose a school first, and then find a home that belongs to that school’s boundary.

If you are like Andy & Paula, and don’t know exactly where to start choosing a school in Fairfax County, here are some tips: First, you get the overall picture of how the Fairfax County Public Schools district is organized (by school pyramids).

Then, you’ll want to compare schools

This is where things get interesting. There are a few different ways to compare schools: by using special programs, by using ratings, or both.

And going one step further, if you want to use ratings, especially when comparing High Schools, there are at least three to five different ratings that one could use.

But the problem is that it’s very hard to find that information

The Fairfax County Public Schools website doesn’t help you compare schools, and it only contains one or two sources of scores per school.

It’s also hard to find a comprehensive list of special programs offered by all the schools.

If you are focused on high school rankings, for example, you would have to dig through more than three different websites to get the different rankings and then put them all together and make sense of them.

The good news is that we have compiled that information in one single document:

How to Choose the Right School in Fairfax County

How to Choose the Right School

“How to Choose the Right School in Fairfax County” is the first download of The No-Tears Guide to Moving to Fairfax, VA. In this document, we have compiled the following information:

How are Fairfax County Public Schools organized (and why it matters to you)
How to select a High School based on rankings (and how to make sense of them all)
How to select a Middle or Elementary School in Fairfax County
How to select a school using special programs, and
The Top 9 Resources you’ll need to complete your research

Plus, we have put together an interactive table of rankings: The Ultimate Fairfax County High Schools Ranking© .

With this interactive table, you can sort the rankings up to eleven different ways to make sure that you are covering all your bases.