Is FCPS overhyped? even top rated schools seem meh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We came from city public elementary/middle which I thought would be bar set low. But we would get teachers calls and emails if kids would do poorly on assessments and would be invited to talk to teachers to set a plan to improve and know exactly where children need help or more advanced material. I am surprised with the level of indifference and "cattle-like" experience from what was touted as top suburban publics in one of the top educated metro areas. Classes are overcrowded and teachers seem overwhelmed and overloaded. Grading is incredibly slow and it's hard to see if your kid is truly thriving or failing based on this info posted online, it's this unclear. Not to mention try to get access to the information where exactly they need help.

I do see tons of test prep places of all kinds. Is this what essentially becomes the necessary extension of school here? There is a lot of focus on sport, but we aren't a sports family, so it's like an alternative universe. I don't see the academic culture, am I completely off base?

Graduated in the 90s and kids are in FCPS now. I went to college in the Northeast and was clearly from a mid-tier school (although that includes New England boarding/prep schools). Schools are fine but kids will get what they put in - meaning if you want a top tier education out of FCPS, you either need a super motivated kid or to do some pushing. It is absolutely a "cattle-like" experience because it's so big and administratively heavy. Kids and students have to work to get the value out of FCPS - if you are passive you will be unhappy with the results.

There are lots of extracurriculars available which is mostly due to the size of the schools which either becomes a way to get a well-rounded HS experience or burn out completely. The teachers who run programs (sports, music, arts) and very dedicated and really make the whole experience worthwhile. Families need to figure out how to balance what is available and what works - so many families here feel the need to do everything and be the best and their kids are disasters.

Kids in grade school are often bored unless they are in the 25-40% of the pack. The "hard" homework years I rarely ever saw anything come home yet high grades and good teacher reports. The laptops are wholly unregulated and become a problem.

Is that good or bad? Depends. Know lots of happy FCPS families and lots who are happier now that they are private.

I think things vary school to school. Kids still need teachers, counselors, and admin who care. A lot of these schools are just too big and there is not much connection or care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes this is why we went private

+1

Best decision we ever made.

If your kid starts college at 18 with $100,000 in a S&P 500 index fund and keeps it until they are 62. They could have something like $5,000,000 inflation adjusted dollars by the time they are 62. Just food for thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here.

If teachers had all of the TWD/ER days with no meetings/PD a lot more could be done. We have a ridiculous amount of TWD and honestly the days that we have PD are mostly a waste of time. Teachers on Monday will be doing another equity training when they could be grading/planning.

Class sizes should be maxed at certain levels. IMO all classes should be capped at 25 kids. If teachers go above that cap they should be paid more and have additional planning time.

I wish that stupid diversity training thing was it for Monday. It would still be most of a day free. Some teachers have meetings for the rest of the day as well, and many of us have to drive 30 minutes to another school for an another completely useless, poorly done PD. They talk about equity, but there is none for us - some teachers have 1 prep and hardly any PD or meetings, and others have 4 preps and meetings and PD for two departments. I'm so over this.

Public schools continue to decrease in relevance among those with choices. Good teachers will do well in the private/homeschooling/co-op sector.

Most of us do not have money to pay for private schools in addition to high RE taxes. Even for old homes taxes doubled in last 10 years. And quality of education is just going down while stupid admin is still focusing on dated woke agendas like you all say and who knows what. It's sort of annoying to have to hear that in order to get quality education we have to pay for private schools, what's the point of moving to a "good school district"? Merely for peer pressure to have to tutor your kids to keep up with other tutored kids higher standards?

What are dated woke agendas? Can you give specific examples?

Did you read the previous post replied to? "Teachers on Monday will be doing another equity training when they could be grading/planning"






It's been posted here, read other replies not too far back. Someone posted I won't be engaging in political discussions. What I see is overcrowded schools with too few teachers for too few students, inconsistent approach to testing and HW and very slow grading that makes it difficult for parents to know soon enough when kids need help even if they have ability to help their kids. This is especially challenging for transient crowd (which DC metro area has plenty of), kids who relocated from other districts and especially other metro areas with different schools, standards, parent body, resources, etc. Multiple posts here pointed out bloated admin, too many things teachers have to keep up with

I don’t know why wealthy white families think their kids don’t also benefit from discussions on equity.


When we have “equity trainings”, it’s not at all what the naysayers here are thinking. It’s generally centered around looking at our own schools specific testing data and recognizing areas with disproportionate low scores. It’s an opportunity for middle and high school staffs to have teachers collaborate who typically aren’t able to meet with each other and they’ll share various strategies with each other that have worked while also seeking out ideas on how to better support areas we’re struggling. The thing about effective educational practices is they are almost always applicable to all levels. My strategies for SpEd. are useful for the MLL teachers, and AAP teachers hear them and with slight modifications potentially apply them to AAP curriculum.


Also academics is a small part of the puzzle; addressing disproportionate data in behavior, social interactions, school culture, etc. helps ALL students learn in a happy and healthy environment. And if the data is showing minority students feel like other students are increasingly engaging in prejudiced behaviors, then yes, that’s also an area where I as a shire parent probably want my school to have targeted interventions (but I also don’t want racist kids, so results may very here).

It's also teachers that are saying these things are a waste of time.

Equity is mostly about achieving equality of results and that is not really the purpose of public education or education in general. Stay in your lane.

[Anonymous]

If you are disappointed in FCPS, just look who is running this circus:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1267364.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We came from city public elementary/middle which I thought would be bar set low. But we would get teachers calls and emails if kids would do poorly on assessments and would be invited to talk to teachers to set a plan to improve and know exactly where children need help or more advanced material. I am surprised with the level of indifference and "cattle-like" experience from what was touted as top suburban publics in one of the top educated metro areas. Classes are overcrowded and teachers seem overwhelmed and overloaded. Grading is incredibly slow and it's hard to see if your kid is truly thriving or failing based on this info posted online, it's this unclear. Not to mention try to get access to the information where exactly they need help.

I do see tons of test prep places of all kinds. Is this what essentially becomes the necessary extension of school here? There is a lot of focus on sport, but we aren't a sports family, so it's like an alternative universe. I don't see the academic culture, am I completely off base?

Graduated in the 90s and kids are in FCPS now. I went to college in the Northeast and was clearly from a mid-tier school (although that includes New England boarding/prep schools). Schools are fine but kids will get what they put in - meaning if you want a top tier education out of FCPS, you either need a super motivated kid or to do some pushing. It is absolutely a "cattle-like" experience because it's so big and administratively heavy. Kids and students have to work to get the value out of FCPS - if you are passive you will be unhappy with the results.

There are lots of extracurriculars available which is mostly due to the size of the schools which either becomes a way to get a well-rounded HS experience or burn out completely. The teachers who run programs (sports, music, arts) and very dedicated and really make the whole experience worthwhile. Families need to figure out how to balance what is available and what works - so many families here feel the need to do everything and be the best and their kids are disasters.

Kids in grade school are often bored unless they are in the 25-40% of the pack. The "hard" homework years I rarely ever saw anything come home yet high grades and good teacher reports. The laptops are wholly unregulated and become a problem.

Is that good or bad? Depends. Know lots of happy FCPS families and lots who are happier now that they are private.

I think things vary school to school. Kids still need teachers, counselors, and admin who care. A lot of these schools are just too big and there is not much connection or care.

Heck it varies teacher to teacher. My kids have had teachers able to differentiate at a higher level easily and others who just seem to focus on the intervention kids only.

[Anonymous]

WSHS family here- yes FCPS is overhyped. As a military family we've seen many great school systems in many states. FCPS' best are comparable to most HCOL area HS with a reduced FARMS and majority white & asian student population. Testing averages go up when you filter out the poor. The only distinction with FCPS is many parents' sense of entitlement (a bad thing), and student individuals' drive to set themselves apart from peers for college admissions (not a bad thing).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here.

If teachers had all of the TWD/ER days with no meetings/PD a lot more could be done. We have a ridiculous amount of TWD and honestly the days that we have PD are mostly a waste of time. Teachers on Monday will be doing another equity training when they could be grading/planning.

Class sizes should be maxed at certain levels. IMO all classes should be capped at 25 kids. If teachers go above that cap they should be paid more and have additional planning time.

I wish that stupid diversity training thing was it for Monday. It would still be most of a day free. Some teachers have meetings for the rest of the day as well, and many of us have to drive 30 minutes to another school for an another completely useless, poorly done PD. They talk about equity, but there is none for us - some teachers have 1 prep and hardly any PD or meetings, and others have 4 preps and meetings and PD for two departments. I'm so over this.

Public schools continue to decrease in relevance among those with choices. Good teachers will do well in the private/homeschooling/co-op sector.

Most of us do not have money to pay for private schools in addition to high RE taxes. Even for old homes taxes doubled in last 10 years. And quality of education is just going down while stupid admin is still focusing on dated woke agendas like you all say and who knows what. It's sort of annoying to have to hear that in order to get quality education we have to pay for private schools, what's the point of moving to a "good school district"? Merely for peer pressure to have to tutor your kids to keep up with other tutored kids higher standards?

What are dated woke agendas? Can you give specific examples?

Did you read the previous post replied to? "Teachers on Monday will be doing another equity training when they could be grading/planning"






It's been posted here, read other replies not too far back. Someone posted I won't be engaging in political discussions. What I see is overcrowded schools with too few teachers for too few students, inconsistent approach to testing and HW and very slow grading that makes it difficult for parents to know soon enough when kids need help even if they have ability to help their kids. This is especially challenging for transient crowd (which DC metro area has plenty of), kids who relocated from other districts and especially other metro areas with different schools, standards, parent body, resources, etc. Multiple posts here pointed out bloated admin, too many things teachers have to keep up with

I don’t know why wealthy white families think their kids don’t also benefit from discussions on equity.


When we have “equity trainings”, it’s not at all what the naysayers here are thinking. It’s generally centered around looking at our own schools specific testing data and recognizing areas with disproportionate low scores. It’s an opportunity for middle and high school staffs to have teachers collaborate who typically aren’t able to meet with each other and they’ll share various strategies with each other that have worked while also seeking out ideas on how to better support areas we’re struggling. The thing about effective educational practices is they are almost always applicable to all levels. My strategies for SpEd. are useful for the MLL teachers, and AAP teachers hear them and with slight modifications potentially apply them to AAP curriculum.


Also academics is a small part of the puzzle; addressing disproportionate data in behavior, social interactions, school culture, etc. helps ALL students learn in a happy and healthy environment. And if the data is showing minority students feel like other students are increasingly engaging in prejudiced behaviors, then yes, that’s also an area where I as a shire parent probably want my school to have targeted interventions (but I also don’t want racist kids, so results may very here).

I'm not sure more trainings are the solution to clubs making videos of the kidnapping and imprisonment of minorities....although I do agree that addressing that sort of disproportionate behavior to create a happy and heathy environment should be a priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest attends a NOVA Catholic high school (certainly a sports-focused environment) where the class sizes are reasonable and we don't get phone calls or emails about poor performance. The thing to remember is that the kids are in high school now so they're expected to manage their work load and be proactive in reaching out to the teacher for help if they need it.

Ew. Any public school comment always brings out the supposed non MAGA Catholics.

DP. I’m not a MAGA Catholic, but I am a person who has taught in both public and Catholic high schools. They simply don’t compare. In public, I was tasked with performing miracles with no resources. I burned out. In private, I am given the resources and respect to do my job well.

It’s about teacher support and teacher morale, and the publics aren’t doing well on either front right now.

And this has nothing to do with politics or religion. It’s about resources.

But, no when you teach or have your kids attend a Catholic school, it absolutely IS about the religion. That is the point of their religion classes and chapel. It is very, very clear. You may be happier with being able to kick behavior issues out, or problem parents out or whatever, but that doesn’t change the fact that religious schools teach religion. They aren’t sponsoring public schools, they aren’t tending to the poor students en mass. These are Catholics who accept money from people to teach their children reading, writing, socialstudies and religion.

The question was about teacher support and morale, which is absolutely about resources and not religion.

At the Catholic school, I’m provided with time to grade papers (additional planning periods), whereas in the public it had to be done at home.

At the Catholic school, I have a max of 90 students, whereas my largest load in the public was 176.

At the Catholic school, I have a small administration tasked with supporting teachers. At the public, I had a large admin and a ton of “specialists” who created work for me in order to justify their positions outside of the classroom.

At the Catholic school, I can be intentional with my curriculum. At the public, I was given a poor curriculum I had to spend time tailoring and altering to fit the needs of my students.

And you’re wrong about kicking kids out. We have many students with learning plans and behavioral issues. The difference is we can help them better because teachers have more time and more supports.

So say what you will about Catholic schools, but my direct experience with both leads me to believe teachers are better supported in Catholic. That can lead, understandably, to better student outcomes.

It explains why grading is so slow, which is the only tool parents have to monitor their kid's progress here. It's a huge issue, if it's not timely then parents have little they can do in terms of allocating any resources to help their kid. Grading has to be fast, no matter what and it's asinine that over-bloated FCPS administration doesn't f-ing understand this. I am beyond mad. Half of these people should be fired and don't deserve half of their salary if they don't understand this.

I'm not even sure what this is in response to, but I'm both a parent and a teacher in FCPS and "overbloated" admin is the best and most succinct description of the county. I just started teaching after a long stint in a private and I'm just beyond shocked at the nuclear-level red tape and pure bureaucratic stupidity I'm encountering. The whole grading/assignment/digital resources system could not be clunkier and more difficult to use if someone tried to design it that way.

I appreciate your perspective. Do teachers complain clunky systems they are forced to use? Or do you think change can be and has to be spearheaded by parents? What can we do to initiate any sort of change to this system, so that we have visibility in our kid's performance and challenges to help them in a timely manner before they slip with more and more material piling up? What is your opinion as a teacher forced to be part of this system and as a parent. When you see a test going ungraded for 2 weeks or missing assignments that don't get processed for multiple weeks and you keep nagging your kids but really have no control over this, what do you advise to do? I am a little lost because i do not have experience with this school system .

I've only been dealing with this system since the beginning of this year and I'd be lying if I said I actually understand it. If your concern is that grading isn't transparent enough, there are several issues. First, the county mandates a certain number of assignments and test per quarter, meaning I'm doing more grading than I want to in the first place. Second, all that stuff you see in Schoology isn't actually the grades. We have to take all that stuff and enter it separately into a different grading system because Schoology doesn't communicate with the gradebook program. Which is insane. We also don't have enough time to do all the grading. I have 5 periods of 3 different classes and only 1 hour planning time 3 times a week. I stay about two hours late every day to get more done, but I still can't catch up. I need to actually plan lessons or else your kids will just sit there doing nothing for 1.5 hours. Finally, the rolling gradebook means that kids are handing in assignments at different times, and I'm spending a lot of time figuring out who handed in what and trying to remind them to do things that are missing before they become zeroes. And since people are handing things in at different times, I can't just put aside a certain amount of time to get all the grading done, because I never know when something will be handed in. And don't get me started on the ten or so additional platforms that we use to create assignments, none of which communicate with Schoology or the gradebook, and many of which are just difficult to use. It's just a huge, disorganized, scattered system that causes grading tracking assignments to take about 10 times the amount of time it took back when everything was just on paper. I truly wish we could go back to that. It was much, much better. And of course, the county spends a ton of money on all this stuff that actually makes teaching and learning worse and not better. No one asks us what we think, and no one listens when we tell them.

I don't think there is much parents can do - if you complain that grading is not fast enough, we'll just get some mandate to grade everything within 24 hours and send more emails to parents, and that will just mean even more of a burden.

My kid has paper tests. Its not outlawed. Just give your kids paper tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WSHS family here- yes FCPS is overhyped. As a military family we've seen many great school systems in many states. FCPS' best are comparable to most HCOL area HS with a reduced FARMS and majority white & asian student population. Testing averages go up when you filter out the poor. The only distinction with FCPS is many parents' sense of entitlement (a bad thing), and student individuals' drive to set themselves apart from peers for college admissions (not a bad thing).

What's HCOL?

[Anonymous]

Yes it is overhyped. It's not the schools it's the people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WSHS family here- yes FCPS is overhyped. As a military family we've seen many great school systems in many states. FCPS' best are comparable to most HCOL area HS with a reduced FARMS and majority white & asian student population. Testing averages go up when you filter out the poor. The only distinction with FCPS is many parents' sense of entitlement (a bad thing), and student individuals' drive to set themselves apart from peers for college admissions (not a bad thing).

What's HCOL?

HCOL: High cost of living
also FARMS: Free and reduced meals

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We came from city public elementary/middle which I thought would be bar set low. But we would get teachers calls and emails if kids would do poorly on assessments and would be invited to talk to teachers to set a plan to improve and know exactly where children need help or more advanced material. I am surprised with the level of indifference and "cattle-like" experience from what was touted as top suburban publics in one of the top educated metro areas. Classes are overcrowded and teachers seem overwhelmed and overloaded. Grading is incredibly slow and it's hard to see if your kid is truly thriving or failing based on this info posted online, it's this unclear. Not to mention try to get access to the information where exactly they need help.

I do see tons of test prep places of all kinds. Is this what essentially becomes the necessary extension of school here? There is a lot of focus on sport, but we aren't a sports family, so it's like an alternative universe. I don't see the academic culture, am I completely off base?

FCPS is a mess-teachers are giving up because it's chaotic every day-kids are not getting what they need and all of it is exhausting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We came from city public elementary/middle which I thought would be bar set low. But we would get teachers calls and emails if kids would do poorly on assessments and would be invited to talk to teachers to set a plan to improve and know exactly where children need help or more advanced material. I am surprised with the level of indifference and "cattle-like" experience from what was touted as top suburban publics in one of the top educated metro areas. Classes are overcrowded and teachers seem overwhelmed and overloaded. Grading is incredibly slow and it's hard to see if your kid is truly thriving or failing based on this info posted online, it's this unclear. Not to mention try to get access to the information where exactly they need help.

I do see tons of test prep places of all kinds. Is this what essentially becomes the necessary extension of school here? There is a lot of focus on sport, but we aren't a sports family, so it's like an alternative universe. I don't see the academic culture, am I completely off base?

FCPS is a mess-teachers are giving up because it's chaotic every day-kids are not getting what they need and all of it is exhausting.

Not to mention most teachers are priced out and dealing with terrible commutes. You will be hard pressed to find a teacher who lives within the boundary of the school at which he/she is teaching.

[Anonymous]

Yes, they are meh. The kids who succeed do so because of private tutoring.

[Anonymous]

FCPS awful. It was good 20 or 30 or 40 years ago, by its a lot of politics and bs now.