Schools in Great Falls · Fairfax County Public Schools
Great Falls’s public schools beat 65% of Virginia districts
The public schools Great Falls’s kids attend, from kindergarten through graduation, outperform 65% of Virginia’s districts on state tests and graduation. Among towns with similar incomes, they rank near the bottom.
Statewide, Great Falls’s schools beat 65% of districts. Compared with the 38 towns that have similar household incomes, that drops to 11%. Some of the strong showing reflects who lives here, so families moving from a similar town shouldn’t expect a big step up. How it compares ↓
Which school depends on your street
With two elementary, 26 middle and 25 high schools, the school a child attends depends on your address. See the path ↓
This summary is written from the data on this page. Test scores are from 2020–21, a pandemic year, so treat small gaps with caution.
The School Grade
How Great Falls compares
A− Test scoresC+ Graduation
Virginia school districts we grade (133)Better than 65%
Lower resultsHigher results
Virginia towns with similar household incomes (38)Better than 11%
High confidence. Built on 72,751 tested students and a graduating class of 14,745; ordinary year-to-year swings are unlikely to change the grade.
How the School Grade works
Results, not inputs. Math and reading proficiency on Virginia’s state tests against the state average, plus the four-year graduation rate. Spending and class size are shown but don’t count. Tests: 2020–21; graduation: class of 2020.
The whole path. A town’s grade follows its kids through every district that serves it, weighted by students tested. Tests count 60%, graduation 40%.
Graded within the state. Each state writes its own tests, so districts are compared with the rest of Virginia only. A+ is the top 5%, A the next 10%, A− the next 10%, the B range the next 30%, the C range the next 30%, D the rest.
What a grade can’t tell you. Test results track family income, so we also compare towns with similar incomes. Visit, ask other parents, and read neighbor reviews. It’s our own summary of U.S. Department of Education data, not an official rating.
Where will my kid go?
Pick a grade. These are the public schools that serve Great Falls.
26 schools teach 7th grade in Great Falls’s district. Which one depends on your address: Lake Braddock Secondary, Robinson Secondary, Hayfield Secondary and Glasgow Middle and more.
26 schools teach 8th grade in Great Falls’s district. Which one depends on your address: Lake Braddock Secondary, Robinson Secondary, Hayfield Secondary and Glasgow Middle and more.
25 schools teach 9th grade in Great Falls’s district. Which one depends on your address: Lake Braddock Secondary, Robinson Secondary, Hayfield Secondary and Chantilly High and more.
25 schools teach 10th grade in Great Falls’s district. Which one depends on your address: Lake Braddock Secondary, Robinson Secondary, Hayfield Secondary and Chantilly High and more.
25 schools teach 11th grade in Great Falls’s district. Which one depends on your address: Lake Braddock Secondary, Robinson Secondary, Hayfield Secondary and Chantilly High and more.
25 schools teach 12th grade in Great Falls’s district. Which one depends on your address: Lake Braddock Secondary, Robinson Secondary, Hayfield Secondary and Chantilly High and more.
The path, start to finish
PK–62 schoolsDepends on your address
7–826 middle schoolsDepends on your address
9–1225 high schoolsDepends on your address
The district
Each district’s own page has its spending, test scores, enrollment and every school.
Straight-line distance from the center of Great Falls. Degree-granting colleges with students on campus · College Scorecard · IPEDS. 30 more within 30 miles.
School data: U.S. Department of Education (NCES, EDFacts, F-33 school finance). The School Grade is our own summary of state test results and graduation rates, graded within Virginia. Stars are from neighbors.