#305 Plan in 1229 King by McWilliams Ballard
Alexandria, VA 22314

We moved from Orange County in California and we are overwhelmingly pleased with Jefferson Houston. We see our children thriving. The principal knows and greets all students by their first name! The classes are small allowing teachers to give attentive care. The electives are once a week! In California we were lucky if they had P-E or art twice in a month. And the middle school art program is phenomenal. We highly recommend Jefferson Houston.

I'm reviewing this school based on my experience alone, as a parent who's two children went to school here after going to private school from K-8. I learned over the years that the reason Alexandria City has one high school is the city's decision to have one high school for all, not several high schools, of which there's a "bad" high school in the lower income areas and a "good" high school in the higher income areas. Because of this, there will be a handful of kids who create trouble. But my two daughters never felt unsafe at this school and love the diversity (not just in meeting students from different ethnic backgrounds, but also socio economic backgrounds). They've really thrived at ACHS, both academically and socially and have gone on to amazing universities (and got accepted into highy sought after universities as well -- Univ. of Michigan, Univ of Chicago, UVA, VA Tech, Georgia Tech....etc....mentioning this because I think ACHS gets a really bad rap for its academics and being a problem school) If your student wants to learn, they will learn. The teachers and resources are amazing, and they really do care about the success of the students. In comparison to the private school that our children attended from K-8, the teacher qualifications are unmatched. Private schools set their own bar, which means they can hire whoever they choose. The steps to become a public high school teacher is rigorous and far surpass what's needed in a private school. We've had a really wonderful experience sending our daughters there. I will say that parent engagement is very low....but I think that's also because a lot of the parents hold multiple jobs and are not able to engage because they also have smaller children. And the population is very large, so if your child isn't good at being independent and figuring things out on their own, maybe it's not the right place for them. That said, it's the perfect launching pad to the next stage in their adult life -- whether it be a university, trade school, or other.