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Education

Educational Excellence

The Fredericksburg Region’s reputation for standardized test scores above the national average helps attracts families to the area. Excellent public and private schools contribute to a high quality of life and prepare students for the future. Educators and administrators routinely win praise for creating challenging learning environments and guiding students to reach their potential.

The region has a total of 39 public elementary schools, 16 public middle schools and 13 public high schools as well as several private schools. The Commonwealth Governor’s School targets gifted learners, and the Spotsylvania Vocational Center offers training for various occupations. Many new public schools have been built to accommodate the growing population, and more are on the drawing board.

Newcomers are also attracted to the region’s diverse selection of colleges that offer affordable tuition, credit and non-credit courses, online distance learning and flexible class schedules. These colleges prepare traditional students and working adults for the specific needs of the workplace.

The University of Mary Washington is a coeducational public institution with an undergraduate residential campus in Fredericksburg and a graduate and professional studies campus in nearby Stafford County. The university, with a total enrollment of nearly 5,000 students, is known for its commitment to academic excellence, a strong undergraduate liberal arts program and a dedication to lifelong learning and professional development. U.S. News & World Report listed UMW as second among public institutions in the South in the 2007 “Best Universities – Master’s” category.

The residential campus is one of the nation’s most academically selective undergraduate institutions. It boasts one of the country’s best historic preservation programs in addition to a nationally recognized liberal arts and sciences curriculum. Along with its traditional four-year degree programs, the university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees and certificates for working adults at its College of Graduate and Professional Studies. In February, a second building with state-of-the-art classrooms and meeting facilities opened at the campus in Stafford County. The university has many other outstanding and innovative programs including new collaborative offerings between the two campuses in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), teaching students with Autism and secondary mathematics education.

Students at UMW also are active in service to the local community, and Mary Washington is consistently listed as one of the Peace Corps’ top-producing colleges and universities, last year being named fifth among institutions with less than 5,000 undergraduates. The university also has earned several national athletic championships in a variety of NCAA Division III sports.

Germanna Community College, one of the fastest growing community colleges in Virginia, serves more than 11,000 credit and non-credit students annually at its Fredericksburg and Locust Grove campuses. The college offers associate degrees, certificates, occupational-technical programs and college transfer programs.

A third location, Germanna’s Center for Advanced Technology, opened in Culpeper in Fall 2006 offering both credit and non-credit classes. It also provides workforce and development instruction and technology training. The center features a multi-purpose hall that seats up to 750 people, an executive conference center and an advanced manufacturing lab designed to host training activities for business and industry.

Germanna’s Center for Workforce and Community Education provides professional and personal development training and community enrichment. The Center also develops custom-designed programs to meet the training needs of business, industry and government.

Germanna is one of three community colleges in the state selected to pilot the Commonwealth Nursing Program that combines online course work with laboratory and clinical experience. The program, which began in January 2006, allows students to earn an associate in applied science degree in preparation for the national licensing exam for registered nurses.

Other post-secondary educational choices include Strayer University (a multi-campus business school for working adults); Old Dominion University, which offers various degrees through Teletechnet at Germanna; the University of Richmond’s Weekend College, which allows students to earn a bachelor’s degree in two years at Germanna; and a military career transition program at Marine Corps Base Quantico.