Middle School is way too easy
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Anonymous
I would say both. The work is not challenging and there isn't much of it. |
Anonymous
Which grade? I know six families that moved to Catholic because they thought it was better and the kids agree it's much harder. Several catholic schools in the Arlington Diocese for middle school. |
Anonymous
Oh goodness, we had the opposite experience. My 7th grader was not prepared for having both a literature and English class the year she transferred from FCPS to our local Catholic school. She always had 4s on her elementary school progress reports, so this was a shock for us both. It took the whole year for her to get adjusted. Things seems okay now. |
Anonymous
NP. I can name some schools. We've found middle school at Holy Spirit in Annandale to be much harder than the 7th-8th grade honors classes at Robinson (and elementary AAP also but that's outside the scope of this thread). So much so that I'm thinking about switching back to FCPS for next year. Holy Spirit was good for one of my kids but the workload and pace is just not working well for my child who is there now. If it were just some nightly math homework it would be no big deal but there are SO MANY tests and quizzes to study for, and writing assignments and massive long-term projects to worry about. Spanish is ridiculously hard and they teach that like it's a high school-level language class whether the 6th & 7th graders are ready for it or not. My oldest at Robinson had a much easier time than both younger kids and is now doing great in IB classes so I'm not sure if the extra rigor in middle school is necessary or appropriate unless the child is naturally super organized and already a master at executive functioning skills by the end of elementary. They say they teach those skills but really they just throw the kids into middle school and drastically ramp up the expectations without any supports built in so kids either sink or swim. |
Anonymous
I agree catholic schools can have too many assignments for some kids but thank you for confirming that the AAP middle school classes are nowhere near an advanced level both in challenge and quantity. I don't know what private schools these kids are going to that are easier, but it would be hard to find a private school that was easier than FCPS and had no homework as well. They must be seeking them out because every other private school I've seen is harder. FCPS can do better with their AAP level classes. If you don't want that level, just do a regular ed class or honors class. No one is requiring kids to be in these upper level classes and from what I've heard honors classes are the same caliber as AAP so if you want to do honors for some classes and not others, you can do that as well. There is no need for FCPS to have such basic honors/ AAP classes. |
Anonymous
Our experience is that Catholic school--which DC went to during Covid and the returned to public-- had a lot more work, but I'm not convinced it's 'harder' or more sophisticated work. Just more. Kind of tedious--lots of tests and quizzes, stricter grading. But my kid is also at Robinson now and I look at the things they do in social studies and it seems more sophisticated--analyzing primary documents etc. --and more interesting, but the workload is lighter. Also the electives are much better in public. |
Anonymous
+1. This was our experience as well. A lot of what I would call "busy work" at the private school. If that is what you are interested in, OP, then you should just order some workbooks off of Amazon. Lots of options out there for extra practice. |
Anonymous
No and I don't want my kid hating me. I think there are strong teachers that have a good middle ground of practice and challenge. It's sad actually that we can't have a discussion about challenging courses without people fighting over whether that just means busy work or not. It speaks to the fact that many people just don't care about challenging academics. There are challenging courses that have a lot of projects. There are challenging courses that have a lot of writing papers and particularly in math there are challenging courses that have a lot of practice even if they also do a lot of challenge math type problems as well. But people who are academically minded can see when their kids are challenged and when they are not and they aren't so categorical in terms of how that challenge is always applied from class to class. Easy assignments and few of them even at the AAP level does not equal challenge in any way and that is what FCPS has become. Plenty of kids in middle have all A's and are doing very little work and very little challenging work. It doesn't check the "challenge box" in any way. |
Anonymous
PP here. I feel like my kids were appropriately challenged by strong teachers at Rocky Run MS. It is sad that you cannot accept some people believe their FCPS middle school delivers challenging academics. You just say they are wrong without having any experience or knowledge of their middle school. |
Anonymous
Not in the slightest. First off. Rocky Run is a major TJ feeder school, so from the beginning pages, we singled this school, Longfellow, Carson, and Luther Jackson out as schools that typically stepped up in providing a challenging curriculum being TJ feeders. Secondly, the question was framed as whether or not to talk to the school about the situation, not to put FCPS down that all schools were like this, or that all non-AAP classes have more challenges. I respect not everyone wants this or wants this in all subjects. This was the original question and after 12 pages, only a couple of people have even believed me much less actually given advice related to the question. "Kid is in AAP and the curriculum is barely general ed level. I have friends in other districts, not in honors, having more work and more rigor day to day. No homework all year long beyond maybe 30 minutes a week and we are at the end of the first quarter. This is my second kid going through the system and I thought it was weak before but now it's so much weaker and my first kid already wasn't prepared for high school. Should I say anything?" |
Anonymous
People have tried to address it in different ways. Busy work and rigor are not the same. I don’t know of any district in the area that has more rigor than FCPS. There are small districts around the country that do better job educating kids bc those kids come from mostly homogenous groups of people. I think OP is asking how do I make sure my kids get the same level of academics as private without going private and I’m not sure it’s feasible in a huge district. |
Anonymous
Well, I suppose the answer to your question is yes. If you are dissatisfied with your school's curriculum, then you should make an appointment with the administration to air your concerns. |
Anonymous
Then FCPS really shouldn't have AAP. I mean they say it's a gifted program so it should be a gifted program. To say we can only compare districts as large as FCPS on curriculum matters is a little weird. The size was supposed to make it run better, not worse. There is no need to keep this district so large. They could split it up at any time into three or five districts easily if that is easier to provide instruction. I would say even Falls Church and Arlington have better reputations for middle school. Maybe Loudoun too. Also Montgomery and Howard County. And beyond these school districts are plenty more. FCPS relies on its high schools and high-earning families for their reputation along with their governor's school. Take out TJ and the 8th graders who get into TJ who most likely did a lot of outside prep and just measure at the middle school standard level and I don't think FCPS has strong showings at all. |
Anonymous
But would they accept any suggestions? I don't think so. |
Anonymous
And if you factor in private schools and international schools they do even worse. |