Forestdale Elementary

Located at 6530 Elder Ave, in Springfield, Virginia, Forestdale Elementary is a mid-tier K-5 school that enrolls 537 students (grades pre-K through 6), operated by Fairfax County Public Schools.

Fairfax County Public Schools runs 199 schools in total, collectively educating 179,323 students. Forestdale Elementary is one of those campuses.

In terms of who attends, Forestdale Elementary logs that the largest single group is Hispanic at 46%, but no single group is in the majority. The remainder consists of 20% White, 17% Asian, 11% Black, 4% multiracial. By comparison, Fairfax County as a whole is about 18% Hispanic, so the school skews visibly more Hispanic than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, On paper, Forestdale Elementary has 43 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 12.4:1. The state averages around 13.8:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 74% of students at Forestdale Elementary qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. Set against Fairfax County (around 37%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.

After controlling for student poverty, Forestdale Elementary falls in the UNDERPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations residual. Given its student profile, a typical campus would land near 68.0%; this one comes in at 48.3%, -19.6 points off the demographic line.

Across the wider county, ACS estimates for Fairfax County put median household earnings sit near $153,637, about 65% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 4% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Fairfax County runs 222 public schools (combined enrollment of about 174,475 students), of which Forestdale Elementary is one.

Nearest neighbor: Lewis High, around 0.3 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Forestdale Elementary comes 7th of 8 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 62.9%.

Geographically, the school is in a commuter-belt area.

Five-year trend. Forestdale Elementary's enrollment has held roughly steady since 2018, when it stood at 545 (now 537). The Hispanic share of enrollment edged up from 35% to 46% over that span.

In the discussion threads here, the feed for Forestdale Elementary typically covers science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.