Is there any VA school distric that is NOT a dumpster fire?

[Anonymous]

Question above is intended for 10:26.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and 10:25, this was MS, not HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The LCPS pacing guides were supposed to be outlines of the curricula, not actual course syllabi.
We had honors for all in math and ELA.

So, no to all of your questions.

My DW teaches advanced math n an FCPS ES. It is not open to all.

[Anonymous]

Well, thanks for the anecdote but that was not our experience in LCPS. Have a good day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, thanks for the anecdote but that was not our experience in LCPS. Have a good day.

Right back at ya.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left FCPS, which is definitely a flaming dumpster, for private ES/MS, but our private ends soon and we probably can't afford private high school. We're planning to move, and decided to be smarter this time and not live in Fairfax. But based on this forum, it seems like every NoVa school district is horrible. Is there one anywhere that isn't? Falls Church, Oakton, Loudoun? Is there a decent public school district anywhere in NoVa?

Some of things we hated about FCPS included absurd amounts of homework, even in ES, a huge bureaucracy with no accountability for administrators (and a lot of BAD admins), a focus on testing, overcrowded classrooms, no personal attention at any age, and a "we don't care" attitude in general. Does that characterize all public schools?

I’m surprised about the homework comment. We teach in the elementary grades. Two different schools in FCPS (lower and upper ES). Teachers in our schools haven’t assigned homework for years now. Some parents request hw, but I don’t know of anyone assigning hw on a regular basis.

My ES kid in FCPS has always had assigned HW every day from 4th grade. We came here in 4th grade so I don’t know about the lower grades. On some days when the teacher did not give enough time to finish the work in class or if they had to go for some drills etc DC would bring home class work also and the combined math work would take 1+ hr to finish. I am not complaining about HW. Just replying to your comment.
Science/SS/LA hw is rare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids got a great education at McLean HS. It was by far the best of the three schools (ES,MS,HS) I know it is not what you want to hear. Both found themselves very well prepared for college, especially in math.

Same here. We liked Longfellow as well. But the current trends aren’t favorable and we have a terrible School Board member, so it doesn’t surprise me when I hear people are now pulling their kids out of the pyramid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left FCPS, which is definitely a flaming dumpster, for private ES/MS, but our private ends soon and we probably can't afford private high school. We're planning to move, and decided to be smarter this time and not live in Fairfax. But based on this forum, it seems like every NoVa school district is horrible. Is there one anywhere that isn't? Falls Church, Oakton, Loudoun? Is there a decent public school district anywhere in NoVa?

Some of things we hated about FCPS included absurd amounts of homework, even in ES, a huge bureaucracy with no accountability for administrators (and a lot of BAD admins), a focus on testing, overcrowded classrooms, no personal attention at any age, and a "we don't care" attitude in general. Does that characterize all public schools?

I’m surprised about the homework comment. We teach in the elementary grades. Two different schools in FCPS (lower and upper ES). Teachers in our schools haven’t assigned homework for years now. Some parents request hw, but I don’t know of anyone assigning hw on a regular basis.

My ES kid in FCPS has always had assigned HW every day from 4th grade. We came here in 4th grade so I don’t know about the lower grades. On some days when the teacher did not give enough time to finish the work in class or if they had to go for some drills etc DC would bring home class work also and the combined math work would take 1+ hr to finish. I am not complaining about HW. Just replying to your comment.
Science/SS/LA hw is rare.

I have no doubt there are teachers who give large amounts of hw, but for years we have been moving away from it. It isn’t even supposed to be graded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left FCPS, which is definitely a flaming dumpster, for private ES/MS, but our private ends soon and we probably can't afford private high school. We're planning to move, and decided to be smarter this time and not live in Fairfax. But based on this forum, it seems like every NoVa school district is horrible. Is there one anywhere that isn't? Falls Church, Oakton, Loudoun? Is there a decent public school district anywhere in NoVa?

Some of things we hated about FCPS included absurd amounts of homework, even in ES, a huge bureaucracy with no accountability for administrators (and a lot of BAD admins), a focus on testing, overcrowded classrooms, no personal attention at any age, and a "we don't care" attitude in general. Does that characterize all public schools?

I’m surprised about the homework comment. We teach in the elementary grades. Two different schools in FCPS (lower and upper ES). Teachers in our schools haven’t assigned homework for years now. Some parents request hw, but I don’t know of anyone assigning hw on a regular basis.

My ES kid in FCPS has always had assigned HW every day from 4th grade. We came here in 4th grade so I don’t know about the lower grades. On some days when the teacher did not give enough time to finish the work in class or if they had to go for some drills etc DC would bring home class work also and the combined math work would take 1+ hr to finish. I am not complaining about HW. Just replying to your comment.
Science/SS/LA hw is rare.

I have no doubt there are teachers who give large amounts of hw, but for years we have been moving away from it. It isn’t even supposed to be graded.

PP above. My kid’s school is grading hw. DC brings home the graded hw worksheets. Last year during DL, all the missing hw had to be submitted before end of quarter and they even gave time during class to catch up on finishing all the hw. I checked with my lower ES neighbor in the same school out of curiosity and even those kids have been getting daily hw every year. Looks like it is a school wide policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left FCPS, which is definitely a flaming dumpster, for private ES/MS, but our private ends soon and we probably can't afford private high school. We're planning to move, and decided to be smarter this time and not live in Fairfax. But based on this forum, it seems like every NoVa school district is horrible. Is there one anywhere that isn't? Falls Church, Oakton, Loudoun? Is there a decent public school district anywhere in NoVa?

Some of things we hated about FCPS included absurd amounts of homework, even in ES, a huge bureaucracy with no accountability for administrators (and a lot of BAD admins), a focus on testing, overcrowded classrooms, no personal attention at any age, and a "we don't care" attitude in general. Does that characterize all public schools?

I’m surprised about the homework comment. We teach in the elementary grades. Two different schools in FCPS (lower and upper ES). Teachers in our schools haven’t assigned homework for years now. Some parents request hw, but I don’t know of anyone assigning hw on a regular basis.

My ES kid in FCPS has always had assigned HW every day from 4th grade. We came here in 4th grade so I don’t know about the lower grades. On some days when the teacher did not give enough time to finish the work in class or if they had to go for some drills etc DC would bring home class work also and the combined math work would take 1+ hr to finish. I am not complaining about HW. Just replying to your comment.
Science/SS/LA hw is rare.

I have no doubt there are teachers who give large amounts of hw, but for years we have been moving away from it. It isn’t even supposed to be graded.

PP above. My kid’s school is grading hw. DC brings home the graded hw worksheets. Last year during DL, all the missing hw had to be submitted before end of quarter and they even gave time during class to catch up on finishing all the hw. I checked with my lower ES neighbor in the same school out of curiosity and even those kids have been getting daily hw every year. Looks like it is a school wide policy.

Homework and Extra Credit

Homework can be considered as part of the effort grade, but would not be used to grade academic achievement in elementary school since the function of homework is to provide practice in skill areas.

Extra credit can also be considered as part of an effort grade when the expectation reflects something other than the expected learning. Grades should reflect a demonstration of achievement of the standards.

https://www.fcps.edu/academics/grading-and-reporting/elementary-school/elementary-grading-and-reporting-handbook-1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are many fine school districts in Virginia. You just need to keep driving west far past the Woodbridge IKEA to find them.

This. Towards people with common sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are many fine school districts in Virginia. You just need to keep driving west far past the Woodbridge IKEA to find them.

This. Towards people with common sense.

The fact it’s that close and you don’t live there makes you sound like a giant hypocrite. If it were that good in BFE Virginia you’d move there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all have ZERO perspective it’s incredible. Try an actually had school district like the one I grew up in in Georgia. You’d be crying for your highly funded nova district. You’re such losers. Seriously. Get a grip.

Can you share? I’m honestly struggling with my disappointment in APS. I grew up in a suburb outside NYC and there didn’t seem to be the same strife as there is here. Granted, I grew up before social media. The colleges that kids go to from APS are always so unimpressive. And they seem to be cutting back on very good programs like spanish enrichment in elementary. Also teachers are not paid as well as they were in my hometown. So as someone that was raised in a truly great public school district, I feel there’s a lot to be desired here. I have friends from growing up raising their kids in my hometown and they all are VERY happy and say quality is still great. What gives?

The suburbs of NYC are some of the best, highest rated schools in the country. They’re very wealthy. Your perspective of what is normal and possible for public school is off. APS is not a bad district. Not even close. You have the expectation it is capable of giving you suburban NYC public education though. It isn’t. It’s a very good district. I’m telling you, bad districts are the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi. No funding. Awful infrastructure. Barely licensed teachers because the pay is horrendous, not livable. Curriculum that is old and garbage. Subpar facilities. You truly do not know a bad school district if you send your kids anywhere in northern Virginia. If is ludicrous to claim otherwise.

This. Try South Carolina where the county is dominated by retirees who don't care about schools and will vote against any tax. You end up with over crowded and severely underfunded schools. Academic expectations are non-existent and the results match the expectations.

But shouldn’t this area be more like the NYC suburbs than the south? I’m not arguing that we are on par with the south. We are not, thank god. But why are we so far from NYC suburbs? APS spends over 20k per student which is comparable $$.

I am from Long Island. The difference is smaller districts by town and taxes. My district on LI had 6 ES, 1 middle, and 1 high school. Home prices are similar to here but taxes are way higher. My parents were paying 22K by the time they sold our house. All of that money goes to those 8 schools only. Also, LI is very segregated. My district had almost no ESL students and SPED students get actual support. While APS is similar in size to a very large NY suburb, the taxes are a lot lower. Just looked at a 1.3 million dollar home and taxes were only 10,000 in Arlington. I looked at a house in my home town with a similar price and taxes were 20K.

I grew up in the NYC suburbs and worked there as a teacher. It's far from perfect, but it is way better than FCPS, which I have also worked in and was a parent in. The suburb where I grew up closed for about 2 weeks during covid, then re-opened and never shut down again. They didn't have any horrible virtual "learning." The smaller districts make it much easier to adapt to changes quickly. FCPS is just way too big. Probably also true of PWCS and some other local districts. Also, I'd rather pay the high taxes in NY than the 30K I'm currently paying for private so that my child can actually go to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all have ZERO perspective it’s incredible. Try an actually had school district like the one I grew up in in Georgia. You’d be crying for your highly funded nova district. You’re such losers. Seriously. Get a grip.

Can you share? I’m honestly struggling with my disappointment in APS. I grew up in a suburb outside NYC and there didn’t seem to be the same strife as there is here. Granted, I grew up before social media. The colleges that kids go to from APS are always so unimpressive. And they seem to be cutting back on very good programs like spanish enrichment in elementary. Also teachers are not paid as well as they were in my hometown. So as someone that was raised in a truly great public school district, I feel there’s a lot to be desired here. I have friends from growing up raising their kids in my hometown and they all are VERY happy and say quality is still great. What gives?

+1 I'm from New Canaan and the schools here seem like a disaster in comparison.

And New Canaan schools are a disaster when it comes to equity and serving low income students, because very few live in New Canaan (I grew up in Westport). You can't compare New Canaan, Westport or Scarsdale schools to Arlington or Fairfax -those are big districts. If you want something like New Canaan, move to Falls Church City.

NP, also from Fairfield County. Honestly, I don't care. I want my child to have the best education possible. Equity is just a buzzword people around here use when they want to hold people back so others don't look/feel inferior. Hard pass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Yep I’m that Pp. I grew up in Bibb County Georgia . Absolutely awful education and we knew it even then. FCPS , APS teachers have masters degrees and often higher. Teachers in the south? Unlikely not because they’re stupid but because they can’t afford to get one and the pay would never justify it. My 10th grade geography class I still remember to this day one test because one question was about the tallest mountain range in the world. The choices were a) Himalayas or b) Pokémon mountains. POKÉMON MOUNTAINS. So APS parents crying dumpster fire is just so damn tone deaf. They have NO clue.

One of the strongest results in education research is that teachers with master's degrees have anywhere from no impact to a negative impact on student performance. Sample meta-analysis here:

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED520769.pdf

This confusion of "Things That Look Good" with "Things That Are Good" is the cause of quite a few problems in the education industry.