Underwhelmed by FCPS

[Anonymous]

If your kids qualify for AAP, you should send them. I am not sure what you mean by push for AAP. They either test into pool or not. If they are not AAP material, they will be stuck in gen ed and the teacher has to cater to both lower and average learners.

[Anonymous]

Repeat after me, "FCPS are world class."

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.
Do you believe it now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mosby Woods/Luther Jackson/Oakton high poster here. I gave you OUR experience. Has very little to do with anything other than the admin and the teachers. Try to spin it as you may, but we LOVED all 3 schools, and LJ was our kids' favorite! Again, this is OUR experience. Nothing to do with funding or center schools.

The point is it means very little to general ed parents who don't have the option of a center school if their school is declining while these schools are improving. The entire pyramid should be strong.

+100
Personally, I'm really sick and tired of hearing about how great center schools are, when my own children don't have that "option." Why aren't all schools equally good? Why must one have a child in AAP before they can say how "great" their school is? Forget AAP - every school should be excellent, for ALL students.

I agree - FCPS distributes its resources very unevenly. The best of everything goes to AAP, the most resources to special needs, and regular kids are left with nothing. We have language immersion classes with 20 kids from the same country getting a private school education that isn't available to the rest of the county. FCPS is not world class unless you are one of the "special" kids that gets more than average. If you're average, you sit in classes with 35 kids, do work on the lowest common denominator, and probably have an average teacher at best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mosby Woods/Luther Jackson/Oakton high poster here. I gave you OUR experience. Has very little to do with anything other than the admin and the teachers. Try to spin it as you may, but we LOVED all 3 schools, and LJ was our kids' favorite! Again, this is OUR experience. Nothing to do with funding or center schools.

The point is it means very little to general ed parents who don't have the option of a center school if their school is declining while these schools are improving. The entire pyramid should be strong.

+100
Personally, I'm really sick and tired of hearing about how great center schools are, when my own children don't have that "option." Why aren't all schools equally good? Why must one have a child in AAP before they can say how "great" their school is? Forget AAP - every school should be excellent, for ALL students.

I agree - FCPS distributes its resources very unevenly. The best of everything goes to AAP, the most resources to special needs, and regular kids are left with nothing. We have language immersion classes with 20 kids from the same country getting a private school education that isn't available to the rest of the county. FCPS is not world class unless you are one of the "special" kids that gets more than average. If you're average, you sit in classes with 35 kids, do work on the lowest common denominator, and probably have an average teacher at best.

Isn't that what being an average student is? You are in the middle. You will most likely go to an average college and get an average job and live an average middle class life.

My parents always pushed me to work hard and be at the top. Being average and getting average grades was unacceptable. We are Asian though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I agree - FCPS distributes its resources very unevenly. The best of everything goes to AAP, the most resources to special needs, and regular kids are left with nothing. We have language immersion classes with 20 kids from the same country getting a private school education that isn't available to the rest of the county. FCPS is not world class unless you are one of the "special" kids that gets more than average. If you're average, you sit in classes with 35 kids, do work on the lowest common denominator, and probably have an average teacher at best.

Statements like this just go to the prejudice of "you're only as smart as the students you teach." We've been very pleased and impressed with a lot of the teachers we've dealt with who go far beyond expectations to work with and help academically average and below average kids.

[Anonymous]

Isn't that what being an average student is? You are in the middle. You will most likely go to an average college and get an average job and live an average middle class life.

My parents always pushed me to work hard and be at the top. Being average and getting average grades was unacceptable. We are Asian though.
[Report Post]

No. Students in America are not pegged as being "average" or "at the top". Students have varied strengths and weaknesses and there should be a teacher and classes that can enhance each student's potential in various areas. It's not as simple as "average" or "top". And not everyone has parents who push them to work hard and be at the top . . . but those students are very capable of learning. One value that is huge in America is opportunity. We never, ever give up on our kids. And we shouldn't relegate fewer resources to those in the middle. The middle is VERY important in America. Without a strong middle class, we will be like many of the countries that our immigrants have come from. Our middle is our pride (at least it used to be).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mosby Woods/Luther Jackson/Oakton high poster here. I gave you OUR experience. Has very little to do with anything other than the admin and the teachers. Try to spin it as you may, but we LOVED all 3 schools, and LJ was our kids' favorite! Again, this is OUR experience. Nothing to do with funding or center schools.

The point is it means very little to general ed parents who don't have the option of a center school if their school is declining while these schools are improving. The entire pyramid should be strong.

+100
Personally, I'm really sick and tired of hearing about how great center schools are, when my own children don't have that "option." Why aren't all schools equally good? Why must one have a child in AAP before they can say how "great" their school is? Forget AAP - every school should be excellent, for ALL students.

I agree - FCPS distributes its resources very unevenly. The best of everything goes to AAP, the most resources to special needs, and regular kids are left with nothing. We have language immersion classes with 20 kids from the same country getting a private school education that isn't available to the rest of the county. FCPS is not world class unless you are one of the "special" kids that gets more than average. If you're average, you sit in classes with 35 kids, do work on the lowest common denominator, and probably have an average teacher at best.

+1000
Completely agree. And completely sick of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mosby Woods/Luther Jackson/Oakton high poster here. I gave you OUR experience. Has very little to do with anything other than the admin and the teachers. Try to spin it as you may, but we LOVED all 3 schools, and LJ was our kids' favorite! Again, this is OUR experience. Nothing to do with funding or center schools.

The point is it means very little to general ed parents who don't have the option of a center school if their school is declining while these schools are improving. The entire pyramid should be strong.

+100
Personally, I'm really sick and tired of hearing about how great center schools are, when my own children don't have that "option." Why aren't all schools equally good? Why must one have a child in AAP before they can say how "great" their school is? Forget AAP - every school should be excellent, for ALL students.

I agree - FCPS distributes its resources very unevenly. The best of everything goes to AAP, the most resources to special needs, and regular kids are left with nothing. We have language immersion classes with 20 kids from the same country getting a private school education that isn't available to the rest of the county. FCPS is not world class unless you are one of the "special" kids that gets more than average. If you're average, you sit in classes with 35 kids, do work on the lowest common denominator, and probably have an average teacher at best.

What you mean by "the best of everything"? AAP kids are in the same buildings, use the same facilities and materials....they have AAP certified teachers, but that doesn't mean they are "better" teachers then gen ed teachers. What makes AAP different is that the kids identified as eligible are lumped together - and the curriculum goes faster and a little more in-depth, but otherwise is the same as Gen Ed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, LJ only pulls from Thoreau for AAP. I don't think the center model argument works here either.

There are complaints about Thoreau.

Like what? I've heard about bullying and that sort of thing but not issues with the quality of the education (not that being bullied doesn't impact how well you learn!).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I agree - FCPS distributes its resources very unevenly. The best of everything goes to AAP, the most resources to special needs, and regular kids are left with nothing. We have language immersion classes with 20 kids from the same country getting a private school education that isn't available to the rest of the county. FCPS is not world class unless you are one of the "special" kids that gets more than average. If you're average, you sit in classes with 35 kids, do work on the lowest common denominator, and probably have an average teacher at best.

Statements like this just go to the prejudice of "you're only as smart as the students you teach." We've been very pleased and impressed with a lot of the teachers we've dealt with who go far beyond expectations to work with and help academically average and below average kids.

At Colin Powell the lower grade immersion classes have about 20 kids and some even less, while most other classes have 28-30 kids. The are struggling to recruit and keep kids, but they still want the program because of the extra funding. But it sucks because it makes regular class sizes so large. Since last year they are mixing the korean immersion with the AAP program which is watering down both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I agree - FCPS distributes its resources very unevenly. The best of everything goes to AAP, the most resources to special needs, and regular kids are left with nothing. We have language immersion classes with 20 kids from the same country getting a private school education that isn't available to the rest of the county. FCPS is not world class unless you are one of the "special" kids that gets more than average. If you're average, you sit in classes with 35 kids, do work on the lowest common denominator, and probably have an average teacher at best.

Statements like this just go to the prejudice of "you're only as smart as the students you teach." We've been very pleased and impressed with a lot of the teachers we've dealt with who go far beyond expectations to work with and help academically average and below average kids.

At Colin Powell the lower grade immersion classes have about 20 kids and some even less, while most other classes have 28-30 kids. The are struggling to recruit and keep kids, but they still want the program because of the extra funding. But it sucks because it makes regular class sizes so large. Since last year they are mixing the korean immersion with the AAP program which is watering down both.

I'm at an immersion school. There are examples where the LA/SS classes are at 30-31 students while the math/science immersion classes have 15 or 17.

[Anonymous]

We currently have a kindergartner in the Korean immersion at Colin Powell. There are 2 immersion classes that consists of 25 or 26 students. We really like the Korean immersion and think our kid is learning a lot. However, we do not feel the English portion for Kindergarten is as strong. A few other friends with kids in higher grades feel the immersion program is not as good. I also heard that there is a new 3rd grade immersion teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I agree - FCPS distributes its resources very unevenly. The best of everything goes to AAP, the most resources to special needs, and regular kids are left with nothing. We have language immersion classes with 20 kids from the same country getting a private school education that isn't available to the rest of the county. FCPS is not world class unless you are one of the "special" kids that gets more than average. If you're average, you sit in classes with 35 kids, do work on the lowest common denominator, and probably have an average teacher at best.

Statements like this just go to the prejudice of "you're only as smart as the students you teach." We've been very pleased and impressed with a lot of the teachers we've dealt with who go far beyond expectations to work with and help academically average and below average kids.

At Colin Powell the lower grade immersion classes have about 20 kids and some even less, while most other classes have 28-30 kids. The are struggling to recruit and keep kids, but they still want the program because of the extra funding. But it sucks because it makes regular class sizes so large. Since last year they are mixing the korean immersion with the AAP program which is watering down both.

Korean Immersion mixed with AAP? So within the Korean Immersion program, they allow students qualifying for AAP to be AAP as well? I didn't know you could do that... If you're already in the immersion program, do you have to be in school boundaries to be eligible for AAP?

Are there any other schools that also allow you to mix an immersion with AAP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I agree - FCPS distributes its resources very unevenly. The best of everything goes to AAP, the most resources to special needs, and regular kids are left with nothing. We have language immersion classes with 20 kids from the same country getting a private school education that isn't available to the rest of the county. FCPS is not world class unless you are one of the "special" kids that gets more than average. If you're average, you sit in classes with 35 kids, do work on the lowest common denominator, and probably have an average teacher at best.

Statements like this just go to the prejudice of "you're only as smart as the students you teach." We've been very pleased and impressed with a lot of the teachers we've dealt with who go far beyond expectations to work with and help academically average and below average kids.

At Colin Powell the lower grade immersion classes have about 20 kids and some even less, while most other classes have 28-30 kids. The are struggling to recruit and keep kids, but they still want the program because of the extra funding. But it sucks because it makes regular class sizes so large. Since last year they are mixing the korean immersion with the AAP program which is watering down both.

This is why immersion is a problem. We shouldn't be having classes of 20 kids in immersion. There has to be a cutoff similar to the average class size without FARM students that the school has to meet in order to keep the immersion program.

[GCTrailRunner]

Anonymous wrote:We are in the Springfield area, my son is in AAP. I get emails from his teacher, complaining that my son has not turned in this and that..and she would even tell me she would even pull some of her students during lunch time just to complete the task at hand. Having her said that, I was thinking that she was over-loading her students with a lot of task to do at school then. So being in AAP is not all that good I think if you get a teacher who overworks you. Sometimes I do regret sending him to full time AAP because he sometimes just falls asleep after getting off from the bus. Just pray you go to a teacher that is good and at the same time does not treat you as such.

I agree with you - my son goes to SEES and the pressure on them (full time AAP) is ridiculous. His teacher 'says' that they don't get graded on the homework (well whether it has been turned in on time). He is ADHD so he actually DOES his homework and then forgets to turn it in. She does not work with us in regards to that - writes negative comments....just have had issues with this one teacher this entire school year. Hoping we get a better one next year. So back to the ADHD thing - if he forgets something or is late turning in - she will hold him back from recess or lunch...she lets him choose. What the heck kind of choice is that? The kids NEED a break and lunch and recess are the only times they have away from academics...ridiculous.