Are the schools run similarly or differently than in the 90s/2000s?

[Anonymous]

I've not been in the K-12 system for 18 years so I'm genuinely wondering if things are similar or different than when I was in school.

I went to Fairfax County schools so just trying to understand similarities and differences between then and now.

Generally, how students are behaving in schools?What is done when someone misbehaves/how is the administration handling incidents?

I'm absolutely clueless and wondering for my kids!

Parents and teachers, I'm interested in hearing both perspectives!!

Are students able to focus and learn?

Are there frequent bullying cases?

Are kids able to eat at lunch or is it shorter times?

Do kids still have recess?? Library time?

[Anonymous]

Teacher here. Definitely have seen a decline in students’ abilities over the last decade. They are less independent and need more support. It was happening before 2020 but Covid made it worse. Getting them to write is particularly hard. My honors students struggle to complete work that ten years ago I assigned to my gen ed students.

I get frustrated that there is no accountability for kids anymore. They can turn in assignments late for no penalty. They get partial credit for doing nothing. They can redo any assessment. And discipline consists of sitting in a circle and talking about feelings. Kids never learn consequences.

On the other hand, I think in general there is less bullying. This generation seems more open-minded and accepting of people who are different.

[Anonymous]

Back in the 90s (APS intermediate/jr high and high school) classrooms were generally orderly with no talking back to teachers. There were rare exceptions of course, but those students were disciplined.

Detentions, suspensions and expulsions were clearly outlined in the student handbook and most students worked hard to avoid such punishments.

Overt bullying was likely much more prevalent then (i.e. not through the lense of social media). Few if any students came out due to the bullying, and there was no lgtbq support.

[Anonymous]

Lunch was longer back in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s in APS, and more high school students went off campus since there was more time. The libraries were off limits at lunch however.

Through the 2000s Gen Ed classes were still quite challenging. You could not just coast by, and students in danger of failing often had tutoring and mentoring.

Retired APS teachers helped (free of charge) all students write their college essays for the Common App. That was a really useful service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. Definitely have seen a decline in students’ abilities over the last decade. They are less independent and need more support. It was happening before 2020 but Covid made it worse. Getting them to write is particularly hard. My honors students struggle to complete work that ten years ago I assigned to my gen ed students.

I get frustrated that there is no accountability for kids anymore. They can turn in assignments late for no penalty. They get partial credit for doing nothing. They can redo any assessment. And discipline consists of sitting in a circle and talking about feelings. Kids never learn consequences.

On the other hand, I think in general there is less bullying. This generation seems more open-minded and accepting of people who are different.

What do you think the cause of this decline is? What changed?

[Anonymous]

In the 90s, parents were somewhat involved and there was no Internet to really effect the social/emotional health. We had to work to find things we weren't supposed to and the classes were tracked by their ability level. I had teachers who gave me back assignments and told me to redo it or get a zero.

Now, I have kids who ask me if I know what Snapchat, tiktok, and pornhub is. Their parents buy them vape pens (or lose theirs because their kid stole it) And the average student is performing under grade level, and parents have no clue despite all avenues to reach out. Students turn in 2 assignments out of 20 and they still get a 50%.

I told my students that I wish that they knew that this sort of forgiveness doesn't happen when you hit 18.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. Definitely have seen a decline in students’ abilities over the last decade. They are less independent and need more support. It was happening before 2020 but Covid made it worse. Getting them to write is particularly hard. My honors students struggle to complete work that ten years ago I assigned to my gen ed students.

I get frustrated that there is no accountability for kids anymore. They can turn in assignments late for no penalty. They get partial credit for doing nothing. They can redo any assessment. And discipline consists of sitting in a circle and talking about feelings. Kids never learn consequences.

On the other hand, I think in general there is less bullying. This generation seems more open-minded and accepting of people who are different.

What do you think the cause of this decline is? What changed?

NP. I think that public education broadly has been in decline, not just APS. There are many cultural, economic, and generational issues at play and there aren't easy answers or solutions, sadly.

[Anonymous]

Elected school boards sounded great, but in practice they do not focus on academics, but instead political topics. Many candidates for school boards run on political agendas, both far left and far right, not on an academic improvement agenda. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. Definitely have seen a decline in students’ abilities over the last decade. They are less independent and need more support. It was happening before 2020 but Covid made it worse. Getting them to write is particularly hard. My honors students struggle to complete work that ten years ago I assigned to my gen ed students.

I get frustrated that there is no accountability for kids anymore. They can turn in assignments late for no penalty. They get partial credit for doing nothing. They can redo any assessment. And discipline consists of sitting in a circle and talking about feelings. Kids never learn consequences.

On the other hand, I think in general there is less bullying. This generation seems more open-minded and accepting of people who are different.

This sadly sums it all up for me.

[Anonymous]

NP - I think in this day of electronics we all even adults have less ability to focus - we write texts now, we don't really need to communicate per se. We are all very much about quick turnover and convenience so none of us really can deal with complex tasks or want to anyway. We all move so fast with activities is another example. Who has time to do something and think about it?! LOL

So I think it's cultural, generational and I all lol so feel it is influenced by less quality teachers in the sense that teachers give their most but there's less folks who may want this career for the right reasons than back in the day. There's more kids and we need more not less.

So it's a combo of a lot of factors and unfortunately as things change, public education didn't improve. Nothing stays the same and it would have been nice if we wanted to support it more. There's more money for private and I think it's easier to go that way if unhappy. The decline has been gradually getting worst but it's a comment on our society in general.

We are seeing now more cracks in Higher Ed - in 5-10 years the landscape will look different. I actually think the whole structure of education will change in that once this system deteriorates, we will have to look at a different one whether it's apprentice based education or homeschooling or a decentralized system.

[Anonymous]

The shift to one-to-one electronic device programs around the country within the past decade coincided with the decline, but may or may not be part of the cause.

Many parents in tech eschew schools (public or private) that rely too heavily on electronic devices. In California public schools are already shifting back to traditional pedagogies and cursive penmanship will once again become a requirement statewide, for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The shift to one-to-one electronic device programs around the country within the past decade coincided with the decline, but may or may not be part of the cause.

Many parents in tech eschew schools (public or private) that rely too heavily on electronic devices. In California public schools are already shifting back to traditional pedagogies and cursive penmanship will once again become a requirement statewide, for example.

+1
so happy to hear about the shift in CA! Gives me a little ray of hope for the future.

[Anonymous]

When all the outsiders descended upon Arlington it all went south.