Top High schools in McLean, United States

The school is guilty of teachers and students being bullies! The teachers and coaches do not help students, or maybe just some they deem important. The mothers that try to run the school are the biggest bullies. The teachers and staff allow certain mothers that have nothing else to do run the school and bully other kids. The coaches do not care and ignore bullying. Very disappointed with this school. I took my other kid to another school and am very happy. The new school staff actually run the school and are involved with the students.

We’re better than Langley

Nice High school the atmosphere is amazing all the kids want to learn and being a student who has gone there. This High School is the best high school in Virginia other then Thomas Jefferson High School.

it's a great school, but theres way to much homework and pressure!

Would give five stars, but the construction takes absolutely forever which results in some of the building looking great and other parts looking like they were built in 1800.

I am an alumna -- class of 1999, although I did go back briefly for part of my student teaching in 2009. In that time, the basic ethos of the school seemed not to have changed.

In terms of academics, Langley is pretty high up there. I don't know them to do the IB (International Baccalaureate) program like South Lakes in Reston; but they were beginning to offer AP courses while I was a student, and I suspect that the rate of participation in those courses has gone up since my time. One of the biggest complaints I'd hear while at Langley was one of academic rigor to an extreme, typically from parents, although from students as well. In that regard, Langley has had a reputation for preparing young people for college and professional work. Some of my classmates went on to Ivy League schools and/or became doctors and attorneys. I myself have a graduate degree these days. Langley did a great job -- as did our Fairfax County feeder schools in Langley's pyramid -- of laying a good groundwork for us.

As for the teachers, it seemed to me that several had been teaching at Langley for more than a decade, if not multiple decades. The "bad" teachers I have known at Langley -- those who can't manage a class well -- in my day were a fluke and typically lasted only a year.

Langley can have a bit of a "sink or swim" mentality to academics. Teachers may generally expect students to turn to peers to get caught up when they're out sick, because they really don't have much time to reteach every kid every time someone's out for something. While this may not be the norm elsewhere, it actually taught us to be disciplined and gave us a taste of the real world. It was stressful, though, especially when we were out sick and fell behind. Still, most of us got it to work. For what it's worth, I did graduate with a GPA in excess of 3.5; but I had to bust my tail for it. It was probably similar for many of my classmates.

The students I went to school with were more interested in performing strongly academically and going on to college than in getting involved in gangs and strung out on drugs (although some of my classmates would do the underage drinking and tobacco smoking thing). Drugs and teenage pregnancy were so rare when I was there, that they were the subject of gossip, in the form of, "That was so stupid that So-and-so did X. What are they going to do now?" (Note: If a young lady gets pregnant, there is now an organization called Generation Hope that helps DC Metro region college students get through college while parenting. They also support single dads. I recommend reaching out to that organization if this situation arises and the student is otherwise able to go to college locally.)

Langley in my day was a fairly safe and stable school environment -- one conducive to learning. Yes, every once in a long while we had two young men fighting in the halls or on school grounds; but staff members would quickly break up those very infrequent fights and discipline the young men. From what I could tell, it tended to be over insults or personal reputation and tended not to involve weapons. Anyone who was good-natured and minded their own business didn't really have anything to worry about.

For the most part, my classmates were good-natured, respectful kids. Some of them were cliquish and snobbish; but those types also tended to be more insecure than the rest of us, so we would learn to ignore their attempts to feel superior to the rest of us. Many kids I went to school with were actually fairly down-to-earth, despite our parents' wealth.

With regards to diversity: Langley is not representative of most US communities: they have very few low-income students, and non-Caucasians are often Arab, Muslim and Asian.

Overall, I felt that I got a good education at Langley, and I liked a lot of my more down-to-earth classmates.

My kids love the school, they learn lots of different topics, not just math and science. They enjoy going to school. When they are happy, i am happy. I have to admit that there are some operational challenges since school is new but they are constantly improving.

Worst experience of my life.

I can’t say that every experience I had was a bad one. Sometimes, I had teachers who genuinely cared about how well I did and who cared a lot about helping me. I truly appreciate my experiences with each and every one of these people, as I believe you can work around a lot of (although not always all of,) problems you have in a class or with a teacher’s style or with the course work when a teacher works with you. There were a lot of things that could be worse at Langley. As far as I was aware, there weren’t any gangs, and Langley could have had a worse problem with drugs. However, there was a lot of things that could have been greatly improved.
Most of the time, me and others I have spoken to felt that waiting to see which class you were in was waiting to see how bad of a teacher you got. Most of my teachers did not care how I did in their class, or care to help me when I asked. Sometimes I would constantly go to teachers with questions only to not receive any aid, advice, or answers. Sometimes these teachers seemed upset at me for asking them (during their study hall hours!) for bothering them for help. As an extreme example of this: once I was absent during the introductory unit in Chem class, and when I went in to ask my teacher for help on what I missed, my teacher said that they didn’t want to teach the lesson again and that I should figure out how to do it myself. I don’t feel that this is normal or appropriate. In other classes with far better teachers, I’ve had teachers offer to go over things quickly with me after school and such.
Some of the staff members were extremely rude, and would often take their bad day (or life) out on me. Once when I was sick, I had a staff member accuse me that I was faking my ailments and asked me if I was doing it to receive attention or to avoid the pain of being bullied or friendless (I don’t know why they made such a stretch over me being sick.) I had another staff member yell at me for five minutes over an imagined slight that I apologized for, and basically told me I was a rude person that didn’t care about other people. They also proceeded to ask me what was “wrong” with me. I had another staff member, who was checking me attendance, accuse me of changing my note that said I was leaving early from 1:30pm to 2:30pm (why would I change my note to make me leave school later????) I was mostly fine with them calling my parent to check that the note was correct, but I felt like it was a bit much that this staff member then asked if the person she spoke to was “really my parent” and told me that it had better be.
The students at Langley weren’t particularly a highlight. It’s true that a lot of them are snotty and rude. One time during my freshman year, we had a teacher who was not effective but who was trying. The students in my class for some reason decided it would be appropriate to disrupt the lesson to tell the teacher that they couldn’t teach, and complain about their grades. I’m sure in many ways the students could have been worse. For the most part people kept to themselves and their friend groups, socially. People were extremely self conscious, and sometimes rude to other people, but it could have been a lot worse.
I believe someone pointed out that Langley mostly cares about their AP students and leaves the students in non-APs to fend for themselves, and that is definitely true.

(Most) teachers are decent and know what they are doing. The administration in its first year was bad, but has improved this 2nd year. Basis organizes programs that are helpful for all of the students such as the peer tutoring program. They schedule tests in a way that you don't get more than two or three in a day. There is no drama. No one bullies each other and everyone gets along (for the high school at least). There are also no drug or alcohol problems in the school. They really do listen to the students and give the high schoolers much freedom (we can go off campus during lunch). Some may hate Basis and I understand why, but Basis is a school for those who want to succeed. ~student graduating in 2020.

My friend Takumi Baohua goes here and likes this school ! I visit this school and school is lovely

This school does not follow the BASIS model and is nothing like the founding BASIS schools in Arizona. It caters to parent bullying and is emotionally destructive to young children.

Great school with dedicated faculty and staff. The grounds are beautiful and back up right to the Potomac river.

This is the hardest school Ever. You do homework everyday until 10:30 or usually 11. This school knows nothing other than academics. the playground is a concrete parking lot with one basketball hoop. their indoor basketball court is extremely small and the courts are made of rubber not wood! i do not get enough free time. because i am to busy for studying for multiple tests. Because 7th graders or even 6th graders and up have 9 subjects we have so many tests. There is also only one elective! this school does not have an orchestra or band. well actually it does but it counts as an after school activity! The teachers and academics are great, but other than studying there isn't really anything else.

This school made me regret everything. I would give it a zero if I could. I honestly hate this school more than everything. They give way too much Homework and introduce concepts that we shouldn't actually learn until highschool. I know that may seem like a good thing but if we change schools then we will be bored in actual highschool when we are supposed to learn. Not to mention it gets very irritating at a point having to take physics, chemistry, and bio.

Trent Monroe goes here!

Es Buen lugar para trabajar

We have had a fabulous experience with BASIS Independent McLean. Our son couldn't be happier socially and is blossoming in an accelerated and supportive learning environment. The teachers are highly motivated, care deeply about his success and share an enthusiasm for learning that is infectious. The administration is the most professional team I've ever seen within an academic institution and has been extraordinarily responsive to our requests. We couldn't be more satisfied with our choice and look forward to watching our son develop in this unique program.

My daughter has been a student at Madeira for three years now and it has been an amazing and wonderful experience. They have a counselor on staff who is always available to the girls, so I have never had any issues with some things other reviews mention. The academics are rigorous and the class size very small and faculty highly educated and skilled and great with the girls. Many of them live on campus and will help the girls after hours as often as they need help and really go the extra mile. They are very careful to keep tabs on all the girls at all times, I feel incredibly safe letting her board there. College counseling and application assistance has been fantastic, riding program is excellent for all levels. Amazing program where all juniors spend 5 weeks full time on Capita Hill working for a senator or congressperson. My daughter is a math and science girl but she absolutely loved working on the Hill! She loves her school and feels incredibly lucky to be there and I agree wholeheartedly :)

Great high school experience.

Wish I could leave a rating without any stars at all. Madeira has an amazing campus, wonderful students, and opportunities you will not find anywhere else. The only flaw? The horrible faculty/staff. Their way of dealing with situations is just not dealing with them at all. They will either ignore your requests or dismiss you completely to get you off their back. If your child has any sort of mental health struggle, DO NOT send them here. Even if it's just a mild case of depression or anxiety. Please save them the harm and find a better option for education. They are not accommodating at all to students who struggle with their mental health and will boot them the minute they show signs of distress. Rather than helping your child grow as a person, they much prefer throwing them out so they don't have to deal with it in the slightest. Pretty pathetic.

The Madeira School has been a wonderful place for my daughter to learn, live, grow and mature. The staff are caring and they work to ensure that each girl has the support she needs to succeed. On one occasion, we had to intervene to help resolve the conflicts between our child and her roommate. To our chagrin, he dorm adults were simply not objectively dealing with the issue and allowed the issue to be prolonged. Upon arriving on campus and discussing the issue with the dean, the issue was quickly resolved although we were very disappointed that a simple matter could not be objectively and maturely resolved.

The teaching staff are superb in working with the students and parents. They are very, very responsive and welcome opportunities to support the students and keep parents abreast of what's going on. I find that the student body is warm and welcoming, and the non-teaching/administration staff are just as friendly.

Choosing the Madeira School for our daughter was one of the best decisions we've made for her life and her future. We love being a part of the school family and we hope to send our younger daughter there in a few years.

Class of 1997

After some growing pains, Langley HS made its mark......

Not a student here and am basing my review on my experiences delivering food to school for past 11 years. Students seem happy at this school and English is the primary language I hear spoken unlike some other fairfax county schools in which you were think you were in South America. :÷({[. Kitchen manager is extremely nice and always hooks me up. HAAAAAAAA! Multiple previous posts stating no one in school is on drugs. Wow! What were you on when you posted that.

Nice school with a beautiful campus.

It's fun

Love the summer camp.

I went there in the early to middle 60's when it had police in it because of black panthers and hippies.. We were considered the enemy of the State by the police and Nixon's people, but the school administration still ran it as if we didn't have these problems and issues. Everybody still went about going to class, learning, being a regular High School... Back then the school was relatively new and the only thing everybody pointed out was the barb wire on the fence surrounding the parking lot and school was pointed in, not out.. which is how prisons fences are done.. Not to keep people out, but to keep people in.....Interesting times back then.... Too bad my generation went for the buck and good times instead of what we were protesting for... Too bad we lost such good leaders back then like Kennedy, King and John Lennon... like Lennon said "Imagine all the people"

linda

Pretty good school I go there not a bad school no one does drugs or any items like anyone thing else. There are a lot of cute and tall guys and loads are people and teacher and staff are really friendly. It also a free bully school

I am happy with the environment for my daughter although their dance program is not what they said it would be and she complains about the food.

Class of 2011 ❤️