Bailey's Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences

I moved to this district from Central Virginia last year. Most schools in the Richmond area are more traditional than Bailey's, for better and worse. The school as it is designed is amazing and worth a five-star rating. Particularly impressive are the immersion programs for Spanish and the performing arts available to students (last year my 4th grader had strings, chorus and guitar! Amazing!). However, the population of the area simply has surpassed the capacity of the school to deliver to its potential. Children from other backgrounds that are weak in English skills require more attention for instruction, which takes away from student instruction for those who are more advanced. This led, in part, last year to my child failing the math SOL, and this was a school-wide phenomenon (see the details in the rankings for confirmation). Coming to a Fairfax Co. school, everyone raved about the education, but this school is "leaving our child behind" as she did not even have homework at all last year in math, and she thought she was doing well based on grades, which are satisfactory/unsatisfactory (that is, no A, B, C, D, F)until the results of the SOL came back. Had we known more about our child's progress, we could have done more to prepare her as parents for the 5th grade. The ability to participate in after school activities and the arts are the saving grace of this school, as they are amazing! This is a school that has so much more to offer than typical schools, but it really needs to refocus on the basics as well. We worry about how prepared our daughter will be for middle school. 1 star for ABCs/123s; 5 stars for Arts & Language.

Bailey's grants every student, regardless of level or language ability the access to an FCPS education. They are able to reach out across language barriers as well as socio-economic barriers and sculpt their programs to suit the needs of their diverse population. They have an immersion program that crosses language barriers, but also specialized math and science instruction that can't be beat. Bailey's offers many after school activities for the students to participate in, plus they have partnerships with the Forestry Service and the Kennedy Center's CETA program. Bailey's is a magnet for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology, so the kid shave access to so much more than at other local schools.