+100000000 Instead of putting "Equity at the center of it all", a School Board should be putting EDUCATION at the center. |
I just want to know how parents getting to decide will actually work and it doesn't seem that you have an answer |
I'm not a supporter of his. But I'm telling you what I would do about what is being taught in schools. |
| Maybe I can't even follow what is going on in that thread. Maybe it got too long. |
OK, if as a parent I don't like something, how do I change it? This isn't a trick question, it's literally what he ran on. |
Virginia code has an explicit process on how the state and school districts are supposed to approve curriculum, paper texts and digital texts. It includes a community review period. Fcps and other school districts are violating this law by eliminating textbooks and digital textbooks, then replacing these class materials entirely by outside contracts with private companies, internet websites that are not pre vetted, and teacher material sharing sites containing non vetted and non apprpved curriculums. The school districts are awarding these contracts without following the public bidding process by breaking them intl multi year and multi part small contracts so they do not have to follow procedure for large contracts and textbook contracts. So a 3 million dollar multi year contract that would normally go through an established, required bidding process now becomes dozens of contracts in the thousands or tens of thousands that are all with one ouside company and awarded as an "informal" bidding process, with no oversight, competitive bidding or public review/oversight. For example, the recent Leadership Academy CRT contract is worth millions of dollars over many years. But fcps broke each workshop, each text, each part into small contracts ranging from a few thousand to ten to twenty thousand, and signed the hige contract as an informal bid. Tjis is meant for small things like a speaker. Not for a contract that is millions of dollars. Then, fcps is granting these outside companies such as Panorama, the school FERPA protections that are not meant for private compankes. They are giving these companies very private intimate information about our minor children, with no parent notification or permission. The information is shared even if parents opted out. These private companies are exempt from from FOIA, so there is zero oversight of what they do or how they use out kods information. Parents cannot view the curriculum or materials used because it is proprietory information of a private company. Fcps is violatimg every law and prptection written intl the Virginia code by taking advantage of no longer using actual physical textbooks. Fcps needs to be sued over this. Hopefully the Youngkin administration will zero in on this violation of Virginia law, parent rights and student privacy. |
| For all the people saying get rid of equity as an issue…it’s not going to happen. This is a concern across the country and I’m pretty sure school systems have to show how they will address achievement gaps. So what do you suggest FCPS do? I agree we shouldn’t lower standards. But the topic/problem isn’t going away. |
If 2022 and 2024 go the same way the 2021 elections did, the topic is going away. |
+million, LCPS too |
You can only ignore inequalities for so long. |
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Eliminate Chief Equity Officer position and use savings to hire additional teachers.
No more speaker stipends over $5000 for CRT-pushing hucksters like Ibram Kendi. No $2M contracts with outside vendors for SEL surveys with loaded questions exploring student attitudes about race, sexuality, and drugs. No more taxpayer-subsidized teacher training courses using textbooks or materials that draw heavily from CRT texts. Stop spending scarce FCPS resources on an "equity dashboard" with "equity profiles." No more school name changes without clear support of the majority of the affected school communities. Moratorium on development of "anti-racism, anti-bias" education policy until academic remediation efforts have raised test scores to pre-Covid levels. Termination of contracts with NYC-based "Leadership Academy" and boundary review consultant. Restoration of prior FCPS "controversial issues policy" successfully in place for many years. Removal of "Lewis Social Justice & Advocacy Academy" proposal from School Board calendar until at least 2024. Reinstatement of math/science aptitude testing requirements for admission to TJHSST. Excellent summary. I would also suggest raising hourly pay for substitute teachers. 14usd per hour? I want motivated folks with college degrees to substitute teach my kids. Especially given the large amount of school holidays, when teachers like to take additional days off and schools struggle to find subs. |
I would be utterly shocked if anyone wanted to stop trying to get rid of acheivement gaps. Youngkin certainly talked about zip codes not determining educational outcomes, so he wants to get rid of them. In my experience things like teaching structured literacy so that kids have the best possible shot at learning to read is a nearly universally supported issue - from the most progressive to the most conservative parents, and many teachers also. What people want to get rid of is the paying money to the DEI-industrial-complex for consulting services that make the school board look like it cares about equity without actually improving the lives of any children - and while taking away money that could be used to boost teacher salaries to boot. They want to get rid of teacher training based in the ideology of Kendi and DiAngelo. They want less talk about equity and more focus on academic acheivement. Don't you close acheivement gaps by teaching kids rather than dumbing down tests? |
| This is why county-controlled systems without any sort of oversight are so problematic. No inspectors general, no oversight = they do whatever the hell they want until somebody exposes them |
+1 I have even posted the text from one of them on DCUM. I can try to dig up again after work. |
| Search on syllabus book substitute if you want to look now. |