General Frustration and Disappointment

[Anonymous]

I grew up in FCPS in the 90's. When we decided to start a family, we moved back to the area specifically because we knew the FCPS was a very good public school system and we would never be able to afford private school. My kids were still little when COVID shut downs happened, so we weren't deep into school yet. So, I can't compare immediate pre-COVID to post-COVID. But now that my kids have gotten a little older, I have felt like the whole system is floundering around my kids and I'm having to fill gaps educationally that my parents never had to fill for me. I couldn't tell you if it is because of computers in school, social media comparison or distraction, COVID lags, or just every parent/kid getting on a race track to no where. I do feel, however, that the news about public education is scary and feels slightly hopeless and I don't feel like FCPS is responding in the right ways. I don't think it's the teachers. I think that the teachers, and even most school administrators, feel the same way. I think FCPS is being mismanaged and losing its focus on what matters most. I think COVID broke a lot of it, and maybe we're finally starting to climb out of it. I don't know what the answer is and I know I haven't defined the problem very well, if at all. I'm just venting and wondering if anyone else feels the same way.

[Anonymous]

Can you give specifics of how you're having to fill gaps?

[Anonymous]

No standards in elementary. Passing kids that should be held back. No more classroom novels with discussions. No spelling tests. Kids can’t read and write on grade-level and are pushed through the system.

Escape if you can.

[Anonymous]

Covid is not to blame. Get tutors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No standards in elementary. Passing kids that should be held back. No more classroom novels with discussions. No spelling tests. Kids can’t read and write on grade-level and are pushed through the system.

Escape if you can.

That's an every school district problem, not just FCPS.

[Anonymous]

It's a you problem, OP.

Back in the day when you yourself was in school you didn't think of these things. Now that you're a parent, you do.

As someone who is now on the other side, I can assure you that 10 or 20 years from now--when you're on the other side--you're gonna realize that 99 percent of the things you worry about now will have been meaningless. Your kids will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No standards in elementary. Passing kids that should be held back. No more classroom novels with discussions. No spelling tests. Kids can’t read and write on grade-level and are pushed through the system.

Escape if you can.

My first grader definitely had spelling tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No standards in elementary. Passing kids that should be held back. No more classroom novels with discussions. No spelling tests. Kids can’t read and write on grade-level and are pushed through the system.

Escape if you can.

These are some of the specific examples I was thinking about.

ELA: Spelling, grammar, sentence mapping (what's an adverb e.g.), having to read and respond to a whole book...
Math: Memorizing multiplication facts, factoring, place value...

And I'm not saying that these concepts aren't taught, but they're taught cursory at best, and if kids are learning them in depth or truly understanding it is because parents are filling gaps. Also, I am comparing FCPS in the 90's (or at least what I remembered it being as a kid) to what it is now. The whole world has changed, and maybe it's everything and not just FCPS.

[Anonymous]

I'm not in FCPS, but my kids range from 9th grade to 2nd grade. We have definitely experienced some of this in real time - fewer resources, less reading, more electronics, more behaviors. My youngest has various learning challenges, so maybe his experience would always have been worse. But I am switching him to private school next year- never thought I would do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No standards in elementary. Passing kids that should be held back. No more classroom novels with discussions. No spelling tests. Kids can’t read and write on grade-level and are pushed through the system.

Escape if you can.

My first grader definitely had spelling tests.

Spelling tests are back with the Benchmark curriculum thank god.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a you problem, OP.

Back in the day when you yourself was in school you didn't think of these things. Now that you're a parent, you do.

As someone who is now on the other side, I can assure you that 10 or 20 years from now--when you're on the other side--you're gonna realize that 99 percent of the things you worry about now will have been meaningless. Your kids will be fine.

I hope you're right.

[Anonymous]

It is what FCPS has become. Slide started before COVID and continues. Most problems due to a succession of progressively more incompetent superintendents and a dysfunctional school board. Your kids will have some good teachers but it will be necessary to supplement with tutors. Cheaper than private school and there may be areas where parental tutoring can work.

Weakest areas in FCPS are math and science. Your kids won’t be reading books unless that is done at home. Hit and miss on writing instruction so may need help in that area as well.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a you problem, OP.

Back in the day when you yourself was in school you didn't think of these things. Now that you're a parent, you do.

As someone who is now on the other side, I can assure you that 10 or 20 years from now--when you're on the other side--you're gonna realize that 99 percent of the things you worry about now will have been meaningless. Your kids will be fine.

I hope you're right.

Believe me, they will be. You'll also see very little correlation between what college they and their friends and siblings went to and their levels of professional and personal success as adults. You're wasting your energy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is what FCPS has become. Slide started before COVID and continues. Most problems due to a succession of progressively more incompetent superintendents and a dysfunctional school board. Your kids will have some good teachers but it will be necessary to supplement with tutors. Cheaper than private school and there may be areas where parental tutoring can work.

Weakest areas in FCPS are math and science. Your kids won’t be reading books unless that is done at home. Hit and miss on writing instruction so may need help in that area as well.

Good luck.

Oh please.

[Anonymous]

I think it is very common for parents to remember their own experiences with rose-colored glasses. When my kids started in FCPS I was very wary of certain ways of doing things that were different from when I was in school. I had a hard time with the lack of physical text books and differentiated learning was a very new type of learning than I had experienced.

But what I have come to learn is that different doesn't mean worse and that education is an evolving discipline. There is a lot in 2026 that is different than it was in the 1990s. Namely, the internet and computers have reshaped education completely.

Now as the parent of two FCPS educated college students both of whom are at universities that attract students from all over the country, I can say that comparatively speaking, my students are better prepared than many of their peers. Not just in the knowledge accrued, but in work habits and their approach to education.

If you look at statistics of outcomes, FCPS also ranks very well when compared across the country.

I think it's easy to criticize without fully understanding the whole picture. But also, comparing today's educational landscape to the landscape of 30 years ago when most of us were just children ourselves and probably didn't grasp the larger picture of what was going on around us is probably not the most accurate assessment of the reality and the evolution.