Losing faith in the public school system and feeling bad about it.

[Anonymous]

I went to Fairfax County Public schools and I have always been a HUGE supporter of a public education. But as the years have passed, I am losing faith. Classes have gotten bigger, test scores have gone down, more resources going to kids who are just learning English. Now I am considering sending my kid to private school and i can't believe I am doing it! Does anyone else feel this way?

[Anonymous]

Yes, and I'm a public school teacher.

[Anonymous]

I vascillate back and forth on it. But, I do know what you mena when you have every intention of using public schools but they just don't impress you the way you would like. So far, I'm sticking with it b/c I can't shell out $20K for each kid, each year. Sometimes I wonder about moving to an area where the school district is smaller and doesn't have so many parties to please.

[Anonymous]

FCPS is still the gold standard of local public school systems, at least for now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is still the gold standard of local public school systems, at least for now.

Hmm. Falls Church City or Arlington [Yorktown] are preferable.

[Anonymous]

Our oldest DC1 was FCPS all the way through. DC2 went private in HS. DC3 started in private K. So, yes, I agree that the lure of the public school wanes with time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is still the gold standard of local public school systems, at least for now.

I wonder if this is just when you compare what the system offers as a whole, but doesn't really add up when you compare just one elementary or high school.

For example... hey, isn't it great that FCPS offers Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, etc., etc. Oh, well, that's only if you go to a school that has that particular program. Doesn't really improve my child's lot if none of those programs are offered at the base school.

Also, I wonder if it's the "gold standard" b/c we have certain areas that are SUPER wealthy/educated/connected that the kids do really well... but they would be the kinds of demographics that would do great anywhere?

I don't know. I'm not seeing how it is that we're so great when my child's school (which is an 8 on greatschools.org) refuses to send homework packages home b/c they want to save paper, my kindergartener has no homework (but my PG county friend's child does) and if I hadn't taught my first grader to read myself, she would not have learned from once-a-week instruction at school. Add to that class sizes of 28-30 in the early elementary years, and I'm not at all impressed. So, how is it that FCPS is the "gold standard"?

I really do wonder if the "gold standard" idea comes from having a certain section of the county that is super wealthy, and legitimately gets very high SATs. The rest of us in the county... maybe more like the tin standard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is still the gold standard of local public school systems, at least for now.

Hmm. Falls Church City or Arlington [Yorktown] are preferable.

FCC is tiny, and Arlington doesn't measure up to Fairfax. FCPS remains the yardstick by which other local systems are measured.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is still the gold standard of local public school systems, at least for now.

I wonder if this is just when you compare what the system offers as a whole, but doesn't really add up when you compare just one elementary or high school.

For example... hey, isn't it great that FCPS offers Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, etc., etc. Oh, well, that's only if you go to a school that has that particular program. Doesn't really improve my child's lot if none of those programs are offered at the base school.

Also, I wonder if it's the "gold standard" b/c we have certain areas that are SUPER wealthy/educated/connected that the kids do really well... but they would be the kinds of demographics that would do great anywhere?

I don't know. I'm not seeing how it is that we're so great when my child's school (which is an 8 on greatschools.org) refuses to send homework packages home b/c they want to save paper, my kindergartener has no homework (but my PG county friend's child does) and if I hadn't taught my first grader to read myself, she would not have learned from once-a-week instruction at school. Add to that class sizes of 28-30 in the early elementary years, and I'm not at all impressed. So, how is it that FCPS is the "gold standard"?

Maybe you should move to PG if you really think it's better. Let us know how that turns out.

I really do wonder if the "gold standard" idea comes from having a certain section of the county that is super wealthy, and legitimately gets very high SATs. The rest of us in the county... maybe more like the tin standard.

[Anonymous]

What's so great about FCC?
The people who live there think it's great, but we moved out of it because our child wasn't being challenged, there was no worthwhile GT program, and the way they had the kids sequestered in different schools was just weird.

[Anonymous]

Unless you go ultra-exclusive pricey private, class sizes are not much better. We applied to a Catholic school before the full-day K decision was made, and their class sizes were only SLIGHTLY smaller than FCPS.

I think it is hard with a county-wide system like this one for everyone to have the exact same experience. Neighborhoods are so different from one place to the next. Add in a GT center, a magnet or an immersion program and that mixes things up, too.

We just moved into our new neighborhood in Fairfax. I actively sought out schools with the FLES program because it is pretty important to me that my daughter have exposure to a second language. I had to give up on the immersion schools that were close to our old TH because having to drive no longer made sense from the neighborhoods we were looking at for budget purposes. If FCPS could offer transportation to those programs, I would put that option back on the table. I'm not happy about my kid's K class size of 28, but our neighborhood school is a FLES school with a GT center and does very well test-score wise, so we just cross our fingers that it will work itself out.

Any person who knows anything about ed policy will tell you that the socio-economics of a school are highly correlated with test scores and high achievement, etc. Those schools are more likely to have active PTAs and better resources, even though the county tries to spread the wealth a bit (as it should). That is how you wind up with Sunrise Valley and Armstrong vs. Dogwood in the exact same town. From what I hear, Dogwood does amazing work and does have great resources due to its Title I status, but people flee from it because a HUGE portion of the student population is ESOL and poor. Dogwood cannot help that it is surrounded by the county low-income housing area, but it does lead to much greater challenges than the other 2 schools surrounded by high-price property.

[Anonymous]

You know could live in DC when test scores at even "good" neighborhoods are 10-15 points lower than Fairfax County.

Been there, done that

Stop whining... we have it pretty good!!!

[Anonymous]

You know could live in DC when test scores at even "good" neighborhoods are 10-15 points lower than Fairfax County.

Really? They take the exact same standardized tests?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you go ultra-exclusive pricey private, class sizes are not much better. We applied to a Catholic school before the full-day K decision was made, and their class sizes were only SLIGHTLY smaller than FCPS.

I think it is hard with a county-wide system like this one for everyone to have the exact same experience. Neighborhoods are so different from one place to the next. Add in a GT center, a magnet or an immersion program and that mixes things up, too.

We just moved into our new neighborhood in Fairfax. I actively sought out schools with the FLES program because it is pretty important to me that my daughter have exposure to a second language. I had to give up on the immersion schools that were close to our old TH because having to drive no longer made sense from the neighborhoods we were looking at for budget purposes. If FCPS could offer transportation to those programs, I would put that option back on the table. I'm not happy about my kid's K class size of 28, but our neighborhood school is a FLES school with a GT center and does very well test-score wise, so we just cross our fingers that it will work itself out.

Any person who knows anything about ed policy will tell you that the socio-economics of a school are highly correlated with test scores and high achievement, etc. Those schools are more likely to have active PTAs and better resources, even though the county tries to spread the wealth a bit (as it should). That is how you wind up with Sunrise Valley and Armstrong vs. Dogwood in the exact same town. From what I hear, Dogwood does amazing work and does have great resources due to its Title I status, but people flee from it because a HUGE portion of the student population is ESOL and poor. Dogwood cannot help that it is surrounded by the county low-income housing area, but it does lead to much greater challenges than the other 2 schools surrounded by high-price property.

We live in one of the few non low income housing areas that is served by Dogwood. When our oldest started K, we did a ton of research, and in the end, chose to opt out. After 4 years at a "higher performing" school where we felt the large class size really got in the way of any differentiation, we made the choice to send ds 2 (and likely dd next year) to Dogwood. Incidentally, Dogwood has passed AYP the past 2 years, and our option for our little ones is gone anyway. The school our oldest goes to the "high performing school" did not make AYP. In our neighborhood (SFH built in the 70's, 1/2 acre lots), which for a good amount of time had originial owners with grown children, the trend of families now is definitely to send their children to Dogwood. So, the fleeing is just not happening. We have just started, and yes, my white ds is definitely in the minority, but so far, I have been very impressed with the principal, and our teachers.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the PP that socio-economics has a huge impact on how good the school is. I am in the Luther Jackson/Falls Church HS pyramid and I am not impressed. The sad thing is that when I grew up around here, those schools were decent, but now test scores have declined, classes are larger, poverty is higher. Nothing against kids who don't speak English, but it takes a long time to catch these kids up with the rest and it takes money and resources. Incidences of violence have gone up too.

I also agree that FCPS as a whole are good, but if you are in a bad pyramid, then you are kind of screwed.

I am just really sad to see the state of the public schools -- I know there are Woodsons and Langleys out there, but there are also Annandale High Schools and other poorly performing schools. It's sad!