My response to APS 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm angry at APS for monopolizing and wasting so much of the children's time. Answered the 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey. Sharing my answers to vent.


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Question - What do you hope for the students?
Answer: I hope that students move through school knowing well how to read, write, speak, count, think, debate, value truth and knowledge. I hope that their curiosity would be encouraged, that they would ask many questions and learn how to find meaningful answers. I hope what they would be taught in a way that they value the lessons, and look forward to growing their skills and understanding.

Question - What are the school's opportunities and challenges?
Opportunities - you have the attention of most of the county's children age 5-18 for 7 hrs a day/ 5 days a week. This is a tremendous opportunity. You're playing a huge role in their development.

The challenge is that the schools seem rotten to the core and are stunting the children. My daughter is in 4th grade. Apparently, learning spelling, sentence structure and punctuation aren't taught. Her writing had at least 1-2 errors per line, and the teacher didn't mark any mistakes. Put a "likes it" stamp on the page. Shame on you for wasting children's time and potential, making them sit through "CKLA" to learn that that spelling and grammar don't matter. My daughter and I looked at her writing, with all the errors that the teacher ignored. We looked at our poster of "Writing Systems of the World" and we agreed that writing and reading are forms of magic. And that the school failing to teach how to write is severing a person's connection to the past and present and robs them of their human heritage.

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Did it occur to you that maybe the teacher is fighting an uphill battle to teach spelling and punctuation, given all the prior years of schooling that have neglected it, and sometimes she just needs to put a stamp on a paper and move it out, so she could get on with the 399 other things she’s been told to get to that day? That CKLA is not the fault of the teacher?

So at what point does someone put a stop to it, correct it, and teach the students how to write properly? You're excusing teachers from focusing on basic spelling and grammar because they're busy with other things?!

My experience is that CKLA has a lot of daily worksheets meant to focus on things like planning your writing, vocabulary, and reading comprehension and those aren't graded beyond making sure they're complete and the student understands. CKLA also has formal written projects that are reviewed for grammar and spelling.

I'm okay with this split. Teachers can't review everything in detail. My student gets a lot of feedback on her actual writing assignments and also on tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly this survey sucks. How do you even make any conclusions out of such open ended questions. I mean I think hour answers are great OP but I think as a data collection method this survey sucks

The whole "strategic plan" sucks. It's a composition of vague general statements. It's meaningless.

Agreed. I was all set to fill it out, but the questions were beyond stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm angry at APS for monopolizing and wasting so much of the children's time. Answered the 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey. Sharing my answers to vent.


----
Question - What do you hope for the students?
Answer: I hope that students move through school knowing well how to read, write, speak, count, think, debate, value truth and knowledge. I hope that their curiosity would be encouraged, that they would ask many questions and learn how to find meaningful answers. I hope what they would be taught in a way that they value the lessons, and look forward to growing their skills and understanding.

Question - What are the school's opportunities and challenges?
Opportunities - you have the attention of most of the county's children age 5-18 for 7 hrs a day/ 5 days a week. This is a tremendous opportunity. You're playing a huge role in their development.

The challenge is that the schools seem rotten to the core and are stunting the children. My daughter is in 4th grade. Apparently, learning spelling, sentence structure and punctuation aren't taught. Her writing had at least 1-2 errors per line, and the teacher didn't mark any mistakes. Put a "likes it" stamp on the page. Shame on you for wasting children's time and potential, making them sit through "CKLA" to learn that that spelling and grammar don't matter. My daughter and I looked at her writing, with all the errors that the teacher ignored. We looked at our poster of "Writing Systems of the World" and we agreed that writing and reading are forms of magic. And that the school failing to teach how to write is severing a person's connection to the past and present and robs them of their human heritage.

---

Did it occur to you that maybe the teacher is fighting an uphill battle to teach spelling and punctuation, given all the prior years of schooling that have neglected it, and sometimes she just needs to put a stamp on a paper and move it out, so she could get on with the 399 other things she’s been told to get to that day? That CKLA is not the fault of the teacher?

So at what point does someone put a stop to it, correct it, and teach the students how to write properly? You're excusing teachers from focusing on basic spelling and grammar because they're busy with other things?!

My experience is that CKLA has a lot of daily worksheets meant to focus on things like planning your writing, vocabulary, and reading comprehension and those aren't graded beyond making sure they're complete and the student understands. CKLA also has formal written projects that are reviewed for grammar and spelling.

I'm okay with this split. Teachers can't review everything in detail. My student gets a lot of feedback on her actual writing assignments and also on tests.

Well, fine for you. But that doesn't answer my question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly this survey sucks. How do you even make any conclusions out of such open ended questions. I mean I think hour answers are great OP but I think as a data collection method this survey sucks

The whole "strategic plan" sucks. It's a composition of vague general statements. It's meaningless.

Agreed. I was all set to fill it out, but the questions were beyond stupid.

That's precisely why I filled it out - so I could point out how stupid the whole thing is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm angry at APS for monopolizing and wasting so much of the children's time. Answered the 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey. Sharing my answers to vent.


----
Question - What do you hope for the students?
Answer: I hope that students move through school knowing well how to read, write, speak, count, think, debate, value truth and knowledge. I hope that their curiosity would be encouraged, that they would ask many questions and learn how to find meaningful answers. I hope what they would be taught in a way that they value the lessons, and look forward to growing their skills and understanding.

Question - What are the school's opportunities and challenges?
Opportunities - you have the attention of most of the county's children age 5-18 for 7 hrs a day/ 5 days a week. This is a tremendous opportunity. You're playing a huge role in their development.

The challenge is that the schools seem rotten to the core and are stunting the children. My daughter is in 4th grade. Apparently, learning spelling, sentence structure and punctuation aren't taught. Her writing had at least 1-2 errors per line, and the teacher didn't mark any mistakes. Put a "likes it" stamp on the page. Shame on you for wasting children's time and potential, making them sit through "CKLA" to learn that that spelling and grammar don't matter. My daughter and I looked at her writing, with all the errors that the teacher ignored. We looked at our poster of "Writing Systems of the World" and we agreed that writing and reading are forms of magic. And that the school failing to teach how to write is severing a person's connection to the past and present and robs them of their human heritage.

---

Did it occur to you that maybe the teacher is fighting an uphill battle to teach spelling and punctuation, given all the prior years of schooling that have neglected it, and sometimes she just needs to put a stamp on a paper and move it out, so she could get on with the 399 other things she’s been told to get to that day? That CKLA is not the fault of the teacher?

So at what point does someone put a stop to it, correct it, and teach the students how to write properly? You're excusing teachers from focusing on basic spelling and grammar because they're busy with other things?!

At what point do parents realize it’s on them? I have no faith in our schools, so I teach my kids myself.

How fortunate for your kids. Now, at what point does someone put a stop to it and teach the students in our schools how to write properly?

[Anonymous]

I was on the last strategic planning steering committee and we read all of the survey responses, and summaries of the coded responses (e.g., how many people said they cared about X, how many complained about Y) prepared by the staff. We took it all pretty seriously and it was definitely considered during the process.

The strategic plan forms the basis for specific targets and goals, and each department (e.g., instruction, facilities, equity, budget) has to report annually, in public at a School Board meeting, on progress towards those goals. There is tons of information on the APS website about the process, the last several strategic plans and their progress and results. There are also other ways to give input.

Sorry if you don't like the survey but it sounds like you can't be arsed to click on the link to the APS site and read anything about the process or how any of this is used, you just decided that since something isn't the way you like it, everyone else must be an idiot. Whatever. We're you're neighbors and the other parents at your kids school and we read your comments and take the feedback accordingly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm angry at APS for monopolizing and wasting so much of the children's time. Answered the 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey. Sharing my answers to vent.


----
Question - What do you hope for the students?
Answer: I hope that students move through school knowing well how to read, write, speak, count, think, debate, value truth and knowledge. I hope that their curiosity would be encouraged, that they would ask many questions and learn how to find meaningful answers. I hope what they would be taught in a way that they value the lessons, and look forward to growing their skills and understanding.

Question - What are the school's opportunities and challenges?
Opportunities - you have the attention of most of the county's children age 5-18 for 7 hrs a day/ 5 days a week. This is a tremendous opportunity. You're playing a huge role in their development.

The challenge is that the schools seem rotten to the core and are stunting the children. My daughter is in 4th grade. Apparently, learning spelling, sentence structure and punctuation aren't taught. Her writing had at least 1-2 errors per line, and the teacher didn't mark any mistakes. Put a "likes it" stamp on the page. Shame on you for wasting children's time and potential, making them sit through "CKLA" to learn that that spelling and grammar don't matter. My daughter and I looked at her writing, with all the errors that the teacher ignored. We looked at our poster of "Writing Systems of the World" and we agreed that writing and reading are forms of magic. And that the school failing to teach how to write is severing a person's connection to the past and present and robs them of their human heritage.

---

Did it occur to you that maybe the teacher is fighting an uphill battle to teach spelling and punctuation, given all the prior years of schooling that have neglected it, and sometimes she just needs to put a stamp on a paper and move it out, so she could get on with the 399 other things she’s been told to get to that day? That CKLA is not the fault of the teacher?

So at what point does someone put a stop to it, correct it, and teach the students how to write properly? You're excusing teachers from focusing on basic spelling and grammar because they're busy with other things?!

At what point do parents realize it’s on them? I have no faith in our schools, so I teach my kids myself.

How fortunate for your kids. Now, at what point does someone put a stop to it and teach the students in our schools how to write properly?

Like trying to make “fetch” happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was on the last strategic planning steering committee and we read all of the survey responses, and summaries of the coded responses (e.g., how many people said they cared about X, how many complained about Y) prepared by the staff. We took it all pretty seriously and it was definitely considered during the process.

The strategic plan forms the basis for specific targets and goals, and each department (e.g., instruction, facilities, equity, budget) has to report annually, in public at a School Board meeting, on progress towards those goals. There is tons of information on the APS website about the process, the last several strategic plans and their progress and results. There are also other ways to give input.

Sorry if you don't like the survey but it sounds like you can't be arsed to click on the link to the APS site and read anything about the process or how any of this is used, you just decided that since something isn't the way you like it, everyone else must be an idiot. Whatever. We're you're neighbors and the other parents at your kids school and we read your comments and take the feedback accordingly.

Please know that normal people understand all this. Doing any kind of public service has become pretty thankless. Just this constant petty bullshit from people like on this thread. It's hard to keep going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was on the last strategic planning steering committee and we read all of the survey responses, and summaries of the coded responses (e.g., how many people said they cared about X, how many complained about Y) prepared by the staff. We took it all pretty seriously and it was definitely considered during the process.

The strategic plan forms the basis for specific targets and goals, and each department (e.g., instruction, facilities, equity, budget) has to report annually, in public at a School Board meeting, on progress towards those goals. There is tons of information on the APS website about the process, the last several strategic plans and their progress and results. There are also other ways to give input.

Sorry if you don't like the survey but it sounds like you can't be arsed to click on the link to the APS site and read anything about the process or how any of this is used, you just decided that since something isn't the way you like it, everyone else must be an idiot. Whatever. We're you're neighbors and the other parents at your kids school and we read your comments and take the feedback accordingly.

thanks for this, i'm sure these same complainers will complain endlessly when they don't like the direction APS takes

it's usually the complainers who won't step up to serve on a committee or even give their input

thank you for your service!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly this survey sucks. How do you even make any conclusions out of such open ended questions. I mean I think hour answers are great OP but I think as a data collection method this survey sucks

The whole "strategic plan" sucks. It's a composition of vague general statements. It's meaningless.

Agreed. I was all set to fill it out, but the questions were beyond stupid.

That's precisely why I filled it out - so I could point out how stupid the whole thing is.

i bet you think you're so clever

but a response like this just wastes ppl's time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was on the last strategic planning steering committee and we read all of the survey responses, and summaries of the coded responses (e.g., how many people said they cared about X, how many complained about Y) prepared by the staff. We took it all pretty seriously and it was definitely considered during the process.

The strategic plan forms the basis for specific targets and goals, and each department (e.g., instruction, facilities, equity, budget) has to report annually, in public at a School Board meeting, on progress towards those goals. There is tons of information on the APS website about the process, the last several strategic plans and their progress and results. There are also other ways to give input.

Sorry if you don't like the survey but it sounds like you can't be arsed to click on the link to the APS site and read anything about the process or how any of this is used, you just decided that since something isn't the way you like it, everyone else must be an idiot. Whatever. We're you're neighbors and the other parents at your kids school and we read your comments and take the feedback accordingly.

Please know that normal people understand all this. Doing any kind of public service has become pretty thankless. Just this constant petty bullshit from people like on this thread. It's hard to keep going.

+1 please know pp that most people know this. I filled out the survey happily as i work on strategic planning for my fed gov job and I know how these thing work, and that we truly did read and look at the feedback. Anyone that is complaining this much generally is probably an outlier. The outliers just tend to complain on dcum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly this survey sucks. How do you even make any conclusions out of such open ended questions. I mean I think hour answers are great OP but I think as a data collection method this survey sucks

The whole "strategic plan" sucks. It's a composition of vague general statements. It's meaningless.

Agreed. I was all set to fill it out, but the questions were beyond stupid.

That's precisely why I filled it out - so I could point out how stupid the whole thing is.

i bet you think you're so clever

but a response like this just wastes ppl's time

It's not like I wrote "this whole thing is stupid" as my survey response. I used the opportunity to explain what I thought was deficient, why, and what I thought they should be stating and including.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm angry at APS for monopolizing and wasting so much of the children's time. Answered the 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey. Sharing my answers to vent.


----
Question - What do you hope for the students?
Answer: I hope that students move through school knowing well how to read, write, speak, count, think, debate, value truth and knowledge. I hope that their curiosity would be encouraged, that they would ask many questions and learn how to find meaningful answers. I hope what they would be taught in a way that they value the lessons, and look forward to growing their skills and understanding.

Question - What are the school's opportunities and challenges?
Opportunities - you have the attention of most of the county's children age 5-18 for 7 hrs a day/ 5 days a week. This is a tremendous opportunity. You're playing a huge role in their development.

The challenge is that the schools seem rotten to the core and are stunting the children. My daughter is in 4th grade. Apparently, learning spelling, sentence structure and punctuation aren't taught. Her writing had at least 1-2 errors per line, and the teacher didn't mark any mistakes. Put a "likes it" stamp on the page. Shame on you for wasting children's time and potential, making them sit through "CKLA" to learn that that spelling and grammar don't matter. My daughter and I looked at her writing, with all the errors that the teacher ignored. We looked at our poster of "Writing Systems of the World" and we agreed that writing and reading are forms of magic. And that the school failing to teach how to write is severing a person's connection to the past and present and robs them of their human heritage.

---

I'm your neighbor, another APS parent and longtime Arlington homeowner...and I dismissed you as soon as I saw "rotten to the core." Get a grip, and get over yourself. You are at least half of why things have gotten as bad as you think they have, and I probably disagree with you on whether they're that bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm angry at APS for monopolizing and wasting so much of the children's time. Answered the 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey. Sharing my answers to vent.


----
Question - What do you hope for the students?
Answer: I hope that students move through school knowing well how to read, write, speak, count, think, debate, value truth and knowledge. I hope that their curiosity would be encouraged, that they would ask many questions and learn how to find meaningful answers. I hope what they would be taught in a way that they value the lessons, and look forward to growing their skills and understanding.

Question - What are the school's opportunities and challenges?
Opportunities - you have the attention of most of the county's children age 5-18 for 7 hrs a day/ 5 days a week. This is a tremendous opportunity. You're playing a huge role in their development.

The challenge is that the schools seem rotten to the core and are stunting the children. My daughter is in 4th grade. Apparently, learning spelling, sentence structure and punctuation aren't taught. Her writing had at least 1-2 errors per line, and the teacher didn't mark any mistakes. Put a "likes it" stamp on the page. Shame on you for wasting children's time and potential, making them sit through "CKLA" to learn that that spelling and grammar don't matter. My daughter and I looked at her writing, with all the errors that the teacher ignored. We looked at our poster of "Writing Systems of the World" and we agreed that writing and reading are forms of magic. And that the school failing to teach how to write is severing a person's connection to the past and present and robs them of their human heritage.

---

I'm your neighbor, another APS parent and longtime Arlington homeowner...and I dismissed you as soon as I saw "rotten to the core." Get a grip, and get over yourself. You are at least half of why things have gotten as bad as you think they have, and I probably disagree with you on whether they're that bad.

I'm another neighbor, another APS parent and another longtime Arlington homeowner. Perhaps the intensity of some of the OP's wording is a bit excessive; but I've re-read the statements multiple times and cannot disagree with any of the foundational points. Even my oldest child who graduated last year has made the same complaints about spelling and grammar instruction, as well as lacking confidence in their writing and ability to do college level work. Take out the "rotten to the core" and the "writing systems of the world being magic" sentences and what is there really to discredit this person for?

[Anonymous]

I made all my feedback about listening to teachers and working on teacher retention. I am friends withy many APS teachers and the last 5 years have been brutal. Many skilled teachers are looking for the exits. That's not going to help our children learn.

Teachers who have extra band width and are well compensated are going to be better at teaching our kids.