School is not giving what was expected

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of us who cannot afford privates/cannot move to McLean, what are our options? Supplement at home?

Push HARD for a LLIV center at your base elementary school, or failing that, at least advanced math starting in 3rd grade. If you don't already have one or both, you'll probably get resistance from your admin team. Get enough other parents to rally behind it, and keep raising the issue at PTA meetings or on the school's FB page.

Also, people get touchy about this, but the reason FCPS does high school (and to a lesser extent, middle school) so well is because it's straight up tracking according to a kid's smarts and test scores. Students who are strong, or even just on grade level, in math or language arts by 9th grade aren't going to be in the same classes as their peers who are four grade levels behind. FCPS has the physical space to accommodate various classes and skill levels, which is important.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Parent of two elementary school students. Very disappointed so far. I’ve noticed that all these DCUM threads are venting about elementary school education. What happens in middle and high schools? Are elementary gen ed kids doomed in middle and high school?

They say, and it has been my experience as well as that of my friends in Fairfax and Arlington, that Arlington has better elementary schools and Fairfax has better high schools.

But here’s what I’m trying to figure out. If elementary schools are bad, how are middle and high schools better? Wouldn’t you need to build a strong foundation for the later years?

Anywhere in the US, the biggest indicator of how well a child does in school is the parents’ income, no?

No. Of course not. Do more research.

Ok. Enlighten us.

Race is the predominant factor. There are high income kids with shitty grades and low income kids with great grades. The white kids will still fare better overall than any other racial group. If you don’t believe this, google “[your county] public schools discipline disproportionality.” Or “[your county] public schools achievement data.” There are reports that are publicly available that show how students of different races fare in public schools. By a wide margin, regardless of income, white students have the “best” outcomes. That is not necessarily on their own merit either, it’s because the public education system in this country is built on inequity and systemic racism. Im a public school teacher, this is well known, and it’s why all public school teachers should be working on anti bias, anti racist pedagogy. Our system is too enmeshed in it.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Parent of two elementary school students. Very disappointed so far. I’ve noticed that all these DCUM threads are venting about elementary school education. What happens in middle and high schools? Are elementary gen ed kids doomed in middle and high school?

They say, and it has been my experience as well as that of my friends in Fairfax and Arlington, that Arlington has better elementary schools and Fairfax has better high schools.

But here’s what I’m trying to figure out. If elementary schools are bad, how are middle and high schools better? Wouldn’t you need to build a strong foundation for the later years?

Anywhere in the US, the biggest indicator of how well a child does in school is the parents’ income, no?

No. Of course not. Do more research.

Ok. Enlighten us.

Race is the predominant factor. There are high income kids with shitty grades and low income kids with great grades. The white kids will still fare better overall than any other racial group. If you don’t believe this, google “[your county] public schools discipline disproportionality.” Or “[your county] public schools achievement data.” There are reports that are publicly available that show how students of different races fare in public schools. By a wide margin, regardless of income, white students have the “best” outcomes. That is not necessarily on their own merit either, it’s because the public education system in this country is built on inequity and systemic racism. Im a public school teacher, this is well known, and it’s why all public school teachers should be working on anti bias, anti racist pedagogy. Our system is too enmeshed in it.

This is a way over-confident and simplified reading of the data. For one thing, it’s very hard to get apples to apples comparisons of student achievement. For another, differences across states and districts are huge - eg low income black kids in NYC do way better than low-income black kids in Detroit (see NAEP TUDA). But mainly, it’s very hard to talk about income as compared to race because the only data we have in income is whether families are eligible for Free or Reduced Price lunch, which I would have to look it up but I think it’s like 160% of the poverty line or something. So for groups above and less so below that line, there will be big variation in the actual distribution of incomes. So comparing FRPL black kids in a state to FRPL white kids isn’t comparing the same incomes, just all incomes below a fixed point. Non-FRPL kids have a much bigger range.

In no way am I suggesting that race is not an important factor for predicting student achievement independent of income, not that the difference cant be attributed to cultural biases impacting students, but it’s not nearly so cut and dry in the data as the PP suggests.

[Anonymous]

^ nope

All inequities stem from racism. Wealth and income disparities are a function of racism.

[Anonymous]

I was looking at fcps elementary rankings, particularly in the Langley pyramid.

The schools with the highest percentage of Asians outscore the whiter ones.

[Anonymous]

I guess my gen ed kids in average schools are doomed.