• Falls Church City AND Falls Church in Fairfax County
• Alexandria City AND Alexandria in Fairfax County
• Fairfax City AND Fairfax County

It’s critical to know which area you’re talking about — services and schools are provided by the jurisdiction and can vary widely! Falls Church City, for example, has its own school district.  But you could have a mailing address of Falls Church and instead be part of Fairfax County, and part of their school district.  Even within the “Falls Church” portion of Fairfax County, the high school district might be Marshall, McLean, Stuart, or something else!  (And to make it even more confusing for out-of-towners, the East Falls Church metro stop is actually in Arlington County!)

Similarly, there is a portion of Fairfax County that has a mailing address of “Alexandria” which is a different jurisdiction from the “Alexandria” that is actually Alexandria City.  And again, with “Fairfax” in Fairfax County vs “Fairfax City” (at least they use “city” to help us out on that one.)

With all this confusion, it’s no wonder that many agents in their real estate listings don’t enter the school pyramids in the listings.  Even if they do, it’s best to check the address using the individual jurisdictions’ school boundary locators on their websites (see right hand side bar).

When looking through our Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for a home, you can tell the jurisdiction by the MLS code, which is a two letter code followed by 7 digits.

AR = Arlington County

AX = Alexandria City

FA = Falls Church City

FC = Fairfax City

FX = Fairfax County

So read carefully!  And when someone asks whether you’re interested in “Falls Church” or “Fairfax” or “Alexandria,” ask them “Which one?!”

For help with your real estate search in Northern Virginia, please contact us!

Alexandria’s own Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, with its application/merit-based admissions, was named #1!  Serving grades 9-12, it has 1805 students and scored a perfect 100 on US News’ “College Readiness Index.”
Coming in at #47 is McLean’s Langley High School, with a College Readiness Index of 77.6.  It’s an open enrollment school in Fairfax County, serving grades 9-12.

Of course US News is the only report out there.  Newsweek’s 2009 Top Public High School rankings included many area schools as well: Arlington’s H-B Woodlawn came in at #37, Rockville MD’s Wooten at #59,  Arlington’s Washington-Lee at #68, Fairfax County’s W.T. Woodson at #72, and Potomac MD’s Winston Churchill at #95, and Arlington’s Yorktown at #100.

Not to be outdone, Business Week also puts out its own list.

Northern Virginia Magazine also reports on the local schools, and named Thomas Jefferson, Langley, McLean, George Mason, and W.T. Woodson as the top 5 high school picks back in 2006, and has this helpful public-vs-private article with some key stats by school.

How can you evaluate the quality of a school district?  There are so many factors to consider; you must decide what’s important to you and your child.  Is it curriculum?  Test scores?  Diversity of student body?  There are many sources of information online, like greatschools.org, schoolmatters.com, and the National Center for Education Statistics.  And, of course, you should visit the school if possible.

When researching school districts for your move, be warned: Fair Housing laws make it very difficult for real estate agents to answer your questions because we cannot be perceived as ‘steering’ buyers towards or away from a particular neighborhood in a discriminatory matter.  (Same goes for crime stats, as discussed in this article.)  So it’s imperative that you do your own  “homework” on school districts.

For links to local school districts, see the right hand sidebar.