Increase Absenteeism in Midle/Upper SES students not due to illness?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

As a math teacher I want to have 20+ assignments a quarter. Mostly low stakes short assignments every day with almost no effect to grade (40 assignments were worth only 10%) to make sure students know what skill they are missing to prepare for the quiz or test in the future. However, I am not allowed to do this anymore and if I make these same assignments ungraded the kids don’t do them or cheat even when it’s for them to know what skills that are missing.

Yes the big problem is the county is pushing the idea that the everyone needs to get the same education in every class. Which creates a cookie cutter classroom that leaks any creativity. Teachers basically have to break rules to do something creative or really do something to help their students. It’s sad, middle school is the worst, they basically just work out of workbooks even though most good teachers hate them. All about lowering the bar and helping the worst

Oh what planet? My child is in middle school in FCPS and we have never ever seen a workbook.

+1 Workbook? I've never seen a workbook in middle school.

Trust me! Ask your kids it may not be a traditional workbook but everything is already planned for the teacher. Each activity is planned out and some schools are forced to use them. They are some of the worse lessons you have ever seen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

That seems unlikely. 30 grade assignments per class per quarter would mean a graded assignment almost every day, or at the very least every other day. For the teacher, that would mean grading nonstop, and even in private school there aren't enough hours in the day to grade that much work and also plan lessons and teach.

DP. Mine are in public in the Northeast and usually have more than 20 assignments per quarter. Quarters last 45ish days.

My ruby red states nieces have much more rigorous education than FCPS.

That's because the parents in red states know better and demand better for their kids.

As a parent of a kid taking APs in Freshman year and has 3 next year, I’m honestly confused by your view. My child has vastly more APs and elective selection than I did as a kid or my friend’s kids do who still live in my home county. They also have lots of quizzes, papers and graded assignments.

Parents of kids who don’t do schoolwork are convinced there’s no schoolwork . They also believe none of the teachers teach!

As a teacher it amazes me why these parents believe all these lies the kids tell them. You really think we are doing nothing, even one day? The honors and AP classes are really just made up of the kids actually doing the assignments and the regular classes are 50% of kids that don’t want to do anything and the other 50% do the work but want to have breaks while we help the kids who weren’t paying attention the first time or were absent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

That seems unlikely. 30 grade assignments per class per quarter would mean a graded assignment almost every day, or at the very least every other day. For the teacher, that would mean grading nonstop, and even in private school there aren't enough hours in the day to grade that much work and also plan lessons and teach.

DP. Mine are in public in the Northeast and usually have more than 20 assignments per quarter. Quarters last 45ish days.

My ruby red states nieces have much more rigorous education than FCPS.

That's because the parents in red states know better and demand better for their kids.

As a parent of a kid taking APs in Freshman year and has 3 next year, I’m honestly confused by your view. My child has vastly more APs and elective selection than I did as a kid or my friend’s kids do who still live in my home county. They also have lots of quizzes, papers and graded assignments.

Parents of kids who don’t do schoolwork are convinced there’s no schoolwork . They also believe none of the teachers teach!

As a teacher it amazes me why these parents believe all these lies the kids tell them. You really think we are doing nothing, even one day? The honors and AP classes are really just made up of the kids actually doing the assignments and the regular classes are 50% of kids that don’t want to do anything and the other 50% do the work but want to have breaks while we help the kids who weren’t paying attention the first time or were absent.

To be fair, it’s really always been this way but the difference between them is only increasing. And parents may not be completely at fault but they certainly are not helping with keeping their kids out of school. Especially middle school and early high school, it’s only going to get worse every year if you start this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

That seems unlikely. 30 grade assignments per class per quarter would mean a graded assignment almost every day, or at the very least every other day. For the teacher, that would mean grading nonstop, and even in private school there aren't enough hours in the day to grade that much work and also plan lessons and teach.

DP. Mine are in public in the Northeast and usually have more than 20 assignments per quarter. Quarters last 45ish days.

My ruby red states nieces have much more rigorous education than FCPS.

That's because the parents in red states know better and demand better for their kids.

As a parent of a kid taking APs in Freshman year and has 3 next year, I’m honestly confused by your view. My child has vastly more APs and elective selection than I did as a kid or my friend’s kids do who still live in my home county. They also have lots of quizzes, papers and graded assignments.

Parents of kids who don’t do schoolwork are convinced there’s no schoolwork . They also believe none of the teachers teach!

As a teacher it amazes me why these parents believe all these lies the kids tell them. You really think we are doing nothing, even one day? The honors and AP classes are really just made up of the kids actually doing the assignments and the regular classes are 50% of kids that don’t want to do anything and the other 50% do the work but want to have breaks while we help the kids who weren’t paying attention the first time or were absent.

They really do! I have called parents to say their kid skipped class and they said “oh my child said you weren’t doing anything today.” Pardon? We did a bellringer, independent reading + response, a quick write with our vocabulary, a mini lesson and a partner speaking activity with our new skill. Your kid missed all that “nothing” and will now be utterly clueless when I give them a graph or chart with a technical text to analyze, interpret, and write about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

That seems unlikely. 30 grade assignments per class per quarter would mean a graded assignment almost every day, or at the very least every other day. For the teacher, that would mean grading nonstop, and even in private school there aren't enough hours in the day to grade that much work and also plan lessons and teach.

DP. Mine are in public in the Northeast and usually have more than 20 assignments per quarter. Quarters last 45ish days.

My ruby red states nieces have much more rigorous education than FCPS.

That's because the parents in red states know better and demand better for their kids.

As a parent of a kid taking APs in Freshman year and has 3 next year, I’m honestly confused by your view. My child has vastly more APs and elective selection than I did as a kid or my friend’s kids do who still live in my home county. They also have lots of quizzes, papers and graded assignments.

Parents of kids who don’t do schoolwork are convinced there’s no schoolwork . They also believe none of the teachers teach!

As a teacher it amazes me why these parents believe all these lies the kids tell them. You really think we are doing nothing, even one day? The honors and AP classes are really just made up of the kids actually doing the assignments and the regular classes are 50% of kids that don’t want to do anything and the other 50% do the work but want to have breaks while we help the kids who weren’t paying attention the first time or were absent.

They really do! I have called parents to say their kid skipped class and they said “oh my child said you weren’t doing anything today.” Pardon? We did a bellringer, independent reading + response, a quick write with our vocabulary, a mini lesson and a partner speaking activity with our new skill. Your kid missed all that “nothing” and will now be utterly clueless when I give them a graph or chart with a technical text to analyze, interpret, and write about.

Parent here. If I were you, I wouldn’t take the extra time to teach that student what they missed. If they told their parent that you weren’t doing anything today, you can tell the parent that you actually did a lot and then have the kid face the natural consequence of his decision to skip class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

This is crazy. When I was a kid if you missed assignments you just got zeros on them and moved on.

Yes, and we should return to that model.

Agree. Interestingly, FCPS parents now hate a lot of the policies they themselves helped to create. All the complaints about “my kid has a C in English but her friend in Ms Smith’s class has an A and that’s not fair because college looks at GPA” led to a system where we all have to have the same number of assignments in the gradebook every quarter and roughly give the same assignments too. All the complains about “my kid was on vacation or sick and shouldn’t be penalized because colleges look at GPA” led to the endless retake model that discourages kids from trying at all the first time and means they don’t care how much school they miss.

These policies don’t come from nowhere. Parents are very vocal about things like this and the more they complain or threaten to sue, the more the districts bend to the whims. Now you guys have dumbed down school because you wanted inflated 4.8 GPAs so your kids could have a chance at getting into Virginia schools and you think “There’s no rigor here and school feels like a joke.” Yeah. Yeah.

This is exactly what happened. Funny part is that parents are taking no responsibility in owning what they created.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

That seems unlikely. 30 grade assignments per class per quarter would mean a graded assignment almost every day, or at the very least every other day. For the teacher, that would mean grading nonstop, and even in private school there aren't enough hours in the day to grade that much work and also plan lessons and teach.

DP. Mine are in public in the Northeast and usually have more than 20 assignments per quarter. Quarters last 45ish days.

My ruby red states nieces have much more rigorous education than FCPS.

That's because the parents in red states know better and demand better for their kids.

As a parent of a kid taking APs in Freshman year and has 3 next year, I’m honestly confused by your view. My child has vastly more APs and elective selection than I did as a kid or my friend’s kids do who still live in my home county. They also have lots of quizzes, papers and graded assignments.

Parents of kids who don’t do schoolwork are convinced there’s no schoolwork . They also believe none of the teachers teach!

As a teacher it amazes me why these parents believe all these lies the kids tell them. You really think we are doing nothing, even one day? The honors and AP classes are really just made up of the kids actually doing the assignments and the regular classes are 50% of kids that don’t want to do anything and the other 50% do the work but want to have breaks while we help the kids who weren’t paying attention the first time or were absent.

They really do! I have called parents to say their kid skipped class and they said “oh my child said you weren’t doing anything today.” Pardon? We did a bellringer, independent reading + response, a quick write with our vocabulary, a mini lesson and a partner speaking activity with our new skill. Your kid missed all that “nothing” and will now be utterly clueless when I give them a graph or chart with a technical text to analyze, interpret, and write about.

Parent here. If I were you, I wouldn’t take the extra time to teach that student what they missed. If they told their parent that you weren’t doing anything today, you can tell the parent that you actually did a lot and then have the kid face the natural consequence of his decision to skip class.

Hahahahaha if only we were allowed to do this! If we did this the parent would go to admin and we would be staying after school with the kid 2 days a week and the kid would still miss class. Mine you there is 5 to 6 kids like this in every class that all need different things and I would never be able to grade or even work on my lessons for next week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

That seems unlikely. 30 grade assignments per class per quarter would mean a graded assignment almost every day, or at the very least every other day. For the teacher, that would mean grading nonstop, and even in private school there aren't enough hours in the day to grade that much work and also plan lessons and teach.

DP. Mine are in public in the Northeast and usually have more than 20 assignments per quarter. Quarters last 45ish days.

My ruby red states nieces have much more rigorous education than FCPS.

That's because the parents in red states know better and demand better for their kids.

As a parent of a kid taking APs in Freshman year and has 3 next year, I’m honestly confused by your view. My child has vastly more APs and elective selection than I did as a kid or my friend’s kids do who still live in my home county. They also have lots of quizzes, papers and graded assignments.

Parents of kids who don’t do schoolwork are convinced there’s no schoolwork . They also believe none of the teachers teach!

As a teacher it amazes me why these parents believe all these lies the kids tell them. You really think we are doing nothing, even one day? The honors and AP classes are really just made up of the kids actually doing the assignments and the regular classes are 50% of kids that don’t want to do anything and the other 50% do the work but want to have breaks while we help the kids who weren’t paying attention the first time or were absent.

They really do! I have called parents to say their kid skipped class and they said “oh my child said you weren’t doing anything today.” Pardon? We did a bellringer, independent reading + response, a quick write with our vocabulary, a mini lesson and a partner speaking activity with our new skill. Your kid missed all that “nothing” and will now be utterly clueless when I give them a graph or chart with a technical text to analyze, interpret, and write about.

Plus, can you imagine the behavior if we didn’t have work to do? I am redirecting and keeping people on task when we have lots of work to do. If we were doing nothing it would be awful. I always have more to do with my students, even if it’s something mildly fun, because students with nothing to do equal trouble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

As a math teacher I want to have 20+ assignments a quarter. Mostly low stakes short assignments every day with almost no effect to grade (40 assignments were worth only 10%) to make sure students know what skill they are missing to prepare for the quiz or test in the future. However, I am not allowed to do this anymore and if I make these same assignments ungraded the kids don’t do them or cheat even when it’s for them to know what skills that are missing.

Yes the big problem is the county is pushing the idea that the everyone needs to get the same education in every class. Which creates a cookie cutter classroom that leaks any creativity. Teachers basically have to break rules to do something creative or really do something to help their students. It’s sad, middle school is the worst, they basically just work out of workbooks even though most good teachers hate them. All about lowering the bar and helping the worst

Oh what planet? My child is in middle school in FCPS and we have never ever seen a workbook.

+1 Workbook? I've never seen a workbook in middle school.

Trust me! Ask your kids it may not be a traditional workbook but everything is already planned for the teacher. Each activity is planned out and some schools are forced to use them. They are some of the worse lessons you have ever seen

I'm a middle school teacher would love to know which schools are using workbooks and for which classes. None of the core academic classes at my school use workbooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

That seems unlikely. 30 grade assignments per class per quarter would mean a graded assignment almost every day, or at the very least every other day. For the teacher, that would mean grading nonstop, and even in private school there aren't enough hours in the day to grade that much work and also plan lessons and teach.

DP. Mine are in public in the Northeast and usually have more than 20 assignments per quarter. Quarters last 45ish days.

My ruby red states nieces have much more rigorous education than FCPS.

That's because the parents in red states know better and demand better for their kids.

As a parent of a kid taking APs in Freshman year and has 3 next year, I’m honestly confused by your view. My child has vastly more APs and elective selection than I did as a kid or my friend’s kids do who still live in my home county. They also have lots of quizzes, papers and graded assignments.

Parents of kids who don’t do schoolwork are convinced there’s no schoolwork . They also believe none of the teachers teach!

As a teacher it amazes me why these parents believe all these lies the kids tell them. You really think we are doing nothing, even one day? The honors and AP classes are really just made up of the kids actually doing the assignments and the regular classes are 50% of kids that don’t want to do anything and the other 50% do the work but want to have breaks while we help the kids who weren’t paying attention the first time or were absent.

They really do! I have called parents to say their kid skipped class and they said “oh my child said you weren’t doing anything today.” Pardon? We did a bellringer, independent reading + response, a quick write with our vocabulary, a mini lesson and a partner speaking activity with our new skill. Your kid missed all that “nothing” and will now be utterly clueless when I give them a graph or chart with a technical text to analyze, interpret, and write about.

Plus, can you imagine the behavior if we didn’t have work to do? I am redirecting and keeping people on task when we have lots of work to do. If we were doing nothing it would be awful. I always have more to do with my students, even if it’s something mildly fun, because students with nothing to do equal trouble.

YES. The last day of school isn’t even a free day in my class because 88 minutes of unstructured free time is HELL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

As a math teacher I want to have 20+ assignments a quarter. Mostly low stakes short assignments every day with almost no effect to grade (40 assignments were worth only 10%) to make sure students know what skill they are missing to prepare for the quiz or test in the future. However, I am not allowed to do this anymore and if I make these same assignments ungraded the kids don’t do them or cheat even when it’s for them to know what skills that are missing.

Yes the big problem is the county is pushing the idea that the everyone needs to get the same education in every class. Which creates a cookie cutter classroom that leaks any creativity. Teachers basically have to break rules to do something creative or really do something to help their students. It’s sad, middle school is the worst, they basically just work out of workbooks even though most good teachers hate them. All about lowering the bar and helping the worst

Oh what planet? My child is in middle school in FCPS and we have never ever seen a workbook.

+1 Workbook? I've never seen a workbook in middle school.

Trust me! Ask your kids it may not be a traditional workbook but everything is already planned for the teacher. Each activity is planned out and some schools are forced to use them. They are some of the worse lessons you have ever seen

I am a middle school teacher. Our lessons are not planned out for us, at least not in three of the four core subjects, World Language, and at least five of the electives.

There are required standards, but that is a K-12, state-wide requirement. Standards are not lessons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

As a math teacher I want to have 20+ assignments a quarter. Mostly low stakes short assignments every day with almost no effect to grade (40 assignments were worth only 10%) to make sure students know what skill they are missing to prepare for the quiz or test in the future. However, I am not allowed to do this anymore and if I make these same assignments ungraded the kids don’t do them or cheat even when it’s for them to know what skills that are missing.

Yes the big problem is the county is pushing the idea that the everyone needs to get the same education in every class. Which creates a cookie cutter classroom that leaks any creativity. Teachers basically have to break rules to do something creative or really do something to help their students. It’s sad, middle school is the worst, they basically just work out of workbooks even though most good teachers hate them. All about lowering the bar and helping the worst

Oh what planet? My child is in middle school in FCPS and we have never ever seen a workbook.

+1 Workbook? I've never seen a workbook in middle school.

Trust me! Ask your kids it may not be a traditional workbook but everything is already planned for the teacher. Each activity is planned out and some schools are forced to use them. They are some of the worse lessons you have ever seen

I am a middle school teacher. Our lessons are not planned out for us, at least not in three of the four core subjects, World Language, and at least five of the electives.

There are required standards, but that is a K-12, state-wide requirement. Standards are not lessons.

I think some middle schools are ysing HMB this year in English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

That seems unlikely. 30 grade assignments per class per quarter would mean a graded assignment almost every day, or at the very least every other day. For the teacher, that would mean grading nonstop, and even in private school there aren't enough hours in the day to grade that much work and also plan lessons and teach.

DP. Mine are in public in the Northeast and usually have more than 20 assignments per quarter. Quarters last 45ish days.

My ruby red states nieces have much more rigorous education than FCPS.

That's because the parents in red states know better and demand better for their kids.

As a parent of a kid taking APs in Freshman year and has 3 next year, I’m honestly confused by your view. My child has vastly more APs and elective selection than I did as a kid or my friend’s kids do who still live in my home county. They also have lots of quizzes, papers and graded assignments.

Parents of kids who don’t do schoolwork are convinced there’s no schoolwork . They also believe none of the teachers teach!

As a teacher it amazes me why these parents believe all these lies the kids tell them. You really think we are doing nothing, even one day? The honors and AP classes are really just made up of the kids actually doing the assignments and the regular classes are 50% of kids that don’t want to do anything and the other 50% do the work but want to have breaks while we help the kids who weren’t paying attention the first time or were absent.

My child is in all honors and APs. When I say her teaching team is terrible, it doesn’t literally mean that they’re sitting around twiddling their thumbs all day long.

In one case, it means that what the teacher does teach makes no sense. Then she gets mad when she asks the kids if they understand and they say no. Or the kids ask for clarification and she just yells at them for not understanding in the first place. The pacing of the class was also so off that they were done with the mandatory lessons by the end of February and moved on to optional material.

In another, the teacher spends more time on stories about his time as a youth than on lessons. Then the lessons are all crammed into shorter sessions and two weeks away from the AP exam, they are not done with all the units, so there is no time to review. Other teachers have been reviewing materials and giving their kids practice for the last couple of weeks.

In another, the teacher’s material is outdated and does not correlate with the syllabus. So what they learn and what they should learn are decoupled. When kids are concerned about their outcomes, he basically tells them how he screwed around all through HS and college and still turned out fine, and to not worry so much about grades.

In all these classes, my child and classmates are essentially teaching themselves the materials. So after getting home from school, they’re spending hours going over YouTube videos, calling each other to see if anyone else has figured out what’s going on, and then do homework and prepare for quizzes and tests. The amount of work this piles on when compared to the one well taught class is startling. She easily spends 10x the amount of time on her poorly taught classes as the well taught one, and has worse results to show for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's a huge problem, and growing. Mostly school avoidance and mental health issues. No one is sure exactly what the cause is. I think the rolling gradebook and the required 7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter might have something to do with it - work just piles up and up and quickly becomes overwhelming.

7 assignments and 2 tests per quarter is not a lot of work. It's very little work.

The attendance is bad because of the crappy schedule and residual effects of how FCPS implemented covid computer learning and post covid computer learning and grading scales.

Ask any parent of teens

Fcps made consistent in person school and deadlines irrelevant for the current crop of kids. It will be like this for a few more years.

I am a parent of a teen. I am also a teacher. 7 assignments is much more graded work than we ever had when I was in school. We usually had one or two tests per quarter, and max one other thing to hand in. Maybe some small homework assignments that were stuck together into one grade. 7 graded assignments is actually a lot. As teachers, we sometimes have trouble getting them all in. When a student misses some school, they are almost certainly going to get far behind in assignments, and just getting them caught up becomes a major thing. There is no way a kid who missed a week or two of school can easily catch up in all their classes. So they start avoiding work and avoiding school, and the problem spirals. We watch it happen over and over.

We don't even want to give that many separate assignments.

7 assignments? My kids have anywhere from 20-30 graded assignments in private MS & HS per quarter, and usually a whole lot of quizzes and a few tests.

That seems unlikely. 30 grade assignments per class per quarter would mean a graded assignment almost every day, or at the very least every other day. For the teacher, that would mean grading nonstop, and even in private school there aren't enough hours in the day to grade that much work and also plan lessons and teach.

DP. Mine are in public in the Northeast and usually have more than 20 assignments per quarter. Quarters last 45ish days.

My ruby red states nieces have much more rigorous education than FCPS.

That's because the parents in red states know better and demand better for their kids.

As a parent of a kid taking APs in Freshman year and has 3 next year, I’m honestly confused by your view. My child has vastly more APs and elective selection than I did as a kid or my friend’s kids do who still live in my home county. They also have lots of quizzes, papers and graded assignments.

Parents of kids who don’t do schoolwork are convinced there’s no schoolwork . They also believe none of the teachers teach!

As a teacher it amazes me why these parents believe all these lies the kids tell them. You really think we are doing nothing, even one day? The honors and AP classes are really just made up of the kids actually doing the assignments and the regular classes are 50% of kids that don’t want to do anything and the other 50% do the work but want to have breaks while we help the kids who weren’t paying attention the first time or were absent.

My child is in all honors and APs. When I say her teaching team is terrible, it doesn’t literally mean that they’re sitting around twiddling their thumbs all day long.

In one case, it means that what the teacher does teach makes no sense. Then she gets mad when she asks the kids if they understand and they say no. Or the kids ask for clarification and she just yells at them for not understanding in the first place. The pacing of the class was also so off that they were done with the mandatory lessons by the end of February and moved on to optional material.

In another, the teacher spends more time on stories about his time as a youth than on lessons. Then the lessons are all crammed into shorter sessions and two weeks away from the AP exam, they are not done with all the units, so there is no time to review. Other teachers have been reviewing materials and giving their kids practice for the last couple of weeks.

In another, the teacher’s material is outdated and does not correlate with the syllabus. So what they learn and what they should learn are decoupled. When kids are concerned about their outcomes, he basically tells them how he screwed around all through HS and college and still turned out fine, and to not worry so much about grades.

In all these classes, my child and classmates are essentially teaching themselves the materials. So after getting home from school, they’re spending hours going over YouTube videos, calling each other to see if anyone else has figured out what’s going on, and then do homework and prepare for quizzes and tests. The amount of work this piles on when compared to the one well taught class is startling. She easily spends 10x the amount of time on her poorly taught classes as the well taught one, and has worse results to show for it.

I'm a teacher, and this is sadly accurate, but only for some schools and some departments. Unfortunately, in fcps it's pretty hit or miss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The schedule is just an excuse or shows you're uninformed.

Don't get me wrong. As an AP teacher, I hate this schedule with all the short weeks, which has taken away all the time I would have for review before the AP test, forces us to stay in school much earlier/later, and gives an excuse to parents who don't care about academics to just take extended vacations at random times.

In my classes, a not insubstantial portion is constantly skipping on quiz and test days. As in...I can see on their attendance that they came for 1st, skipped 3rd and then went to class for 5th and 7th. Or they're constantly sick, or being checked out by their parent, or have a doctor's appointment when there's an assessment. And they're constantly in catch up mode and asking for special treatment.

A majority is still doing fine, attending regularly and doing what they're supposed to do when they're supposed to do it. But the proportion that's mired in kind of a sh___ show is increasing. I think many are in classes that are simply too hard for them.

Different district. I let my kid stay home at times to work/catch up. He tells me that the smartest, most accelerated kids are sicking out, leaving school mid-day to avoid tests they are not prepared for, etc. Exactly what the teacher above reports.

My kid is smart enough to do AP work...has been getting 4s and 5s but he is overloaded with school and ECs both (just a few ECs, but time intensive choices). One way in which he is specifically overloaded is the amount of busywork he is required to do for grades. Busywork that takes hours, that college students do not have to do, that means the difference between an A and a B. For example turning in lengthy handwritten outline notes for textbooks in AP History classes. This takes a lot of time and is low value for people in my family because we have very strong reading comprehension and retention skills. I am not presumptuous. I know that some kids need this kind of notetaking to absorb the material. The teacher is also a fine teacher. This is also true of honors math where all the homework must be done and turned in in order to allow extra credit to be pursued. It's just simply low value for my student but unavoidable.

In high school the kids usually have more classes than in college and more frequent exams. Sometimes inconveniently stacked up.

Taking less rigorous classes is not a good option because they've mainstreamed them full of C students who don't like school at all.

I'll admit that since things have gotten so Wild West and there's nothing I can do to better the school environment I just allow sicking out. My kid is usually beaming at the end of the day and is fully caught up on all his work. I am concerned for his mental health because he doesn't actually like school even though his grades have been good. I need to keep his mental health on track so he goes straight to college instead of burning out. We've looked into "the trades". Where I am, becoming a union electrician takes 5 years. It's not an easy out.