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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the administration puts together a school calendar that shows they don’t care about education do you really thing that kids and parents are going to care?

The parents wanted all of these days off. They started as observance days, now they are days off. As FCPS WE MUST show care and respect to every culture in our community.

No.

They parents did not ask for these days off.

Adding all these religious and half days was a schoolboard project.

And not all the school board members. Just the loud powerful ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the administration puts together a school calendar that shows they don’t care about education do you really thing that kids and parents are going to care?

The parents wanted all of these days off. They started as observance days, now they are days off. As FCPS WE MUST show care and respect to every culture in our community.

Count the days. The religion FCPS honors most is paying teachers not to teach. Add the snow days and its a bad joke.

In 2024 Reid said they could take 30 instructional hours from K-6 without impacting kids. Who am I to second guess such a revered expert?! I just choose those 30 myself with significantly higher regard for my kids best interests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the administration puts together a school calendar that shows they don’t care about education do you really thing that kids and parents are going to care?

The parents wanted all of these days off. They started as observance days, now they are days off. As FCPS WE MUST show care and respect to every culture in our community.

Equity first, education last.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the administration puts together a school calendar that shows they don’t care about education do you really thing that kids and parents are going to care?

The parents wanted all of these days off. They started as observance days, now they are days off. As FCPS WE MUST show care and respect to every culture in our community.

Equity first, education last.

Teacher here Michelle Reid as lead on equity and equity over all else since day 1, check out her interview. Nothing is going to change until the school board members are replaced or heavy complaining by parents.

She has hired 7 executive admin from Houston Texas where equity is plastered all over their website. Two of newest principals are from Annadale(Shawn de rose affiliated) where they have the most ridiculous system that only benefits and uses resources to help the bottom 10% of students . Easiest way to equity is to lower the bar for everyone else.
Centreville and Lewis are now going down the drain following these models of equity and do whatever to pass the bottom 10% that don’t even come to school.

She is going to keep pushing this idea for the next 3-5 years before she leaves on her own.

[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.

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 sorry, I think have one or two of these a year is somewhat normal and maybe even a good thing. Most of my students recognize me a good teacher but I often think they become too reliant on me and won’t have the personal study skills to teach themselves in college.

I guess my child will be REALLY well prepared for college. It really isn't fair though, to expect 15 year olds to teach themselves college level material by themselves.

[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:

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.

Omg this has to be the same class my kid is in. Is it AP World History??

Yeah. DD is convinced she is going to get a 1 on her AP exam with how little feedback they have received this year. Completely relying on external sources for any test prep. The only silver lining is that it is one of her later exams, so she has a couple of extra days to prep for it.

Same! They haven’t even received back the only LEQ they took all year back in February. It’s ridiculous. We are also completely relying on external sources for test prep. I’m completely stumped on how many good reviews this teacher got before we signed up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the administration puts together a school calendar that shows they don’t care about education do you really thing that kids and parents are going to care?

The parents wanted all of these days off. They started as observance days, now they are days off. As FCPS WE MUST show care and respect to every culture in our community.

Equity first, education last.

Teacher here Michelle Reid as lead on equity and equity over all else since day 1, check out her interview. Nothing is going to change until the school board members are replaced or heavy complaining by parents.

She has hired 7 executive admin from Houston Texas where equity is plastered all over their website. Two of newest principals are from Annadale(Shawn de rose affiliated) where they have the most ridiculous system that only benefits and uses resources to help the bottom 10% of students . Easiest way to equity is to lower the bar for everyone else.
Centreville and Lewis are now going down the drain following these models of equity and do whatever to pass the bottom 10% that don’t even come to school.

She is going to keep pushing this idea for the next 3-5 years before she leaves on her own.

Duran is doing the same in APS

[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.

During COVID many parents overheard how you teach. I was pro teacher and 100% supportive of virtual during the pandemic. However, it really opened my eyes to the degree of bad teaching and lack of subject matter expertise. The kids aren’t lying.

[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.

During COVID many parents overheard how you teach. I was pro teacher and 100% supportive of virtual during the pandemic. However, it really opened my eyes to the degree of bad teaching and lack of subject matter expertise. The kids aren’t lying.

This. It was eye opening after hearing so much about how you shouldn’t believe what kids say about school…

[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.

During COVID many parents overheard how you teach. I was pro teacher and 100% supportive of virtual during the pandemic. However, it really opened my eyes to the degree of bad teaching and lack of subject matter expertise. The kids aren’t lying.

I started having my kids take classes outside of school as a result.

[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.

During COVID many parents overheard how you teach. I was pro teacher and 100% supportive of virtual during the pandemic. However, it really opened my eyes to the degree of bad teaching and lack of subject matter expertise. The kids aren’t lying.

A ridiculous metric. You think anyone was at their best in online covid teaching?? We got NO guidance or curriculum and were teaching kids on a virtual meeting platform without cameras or sound. We couldn’t assess engagement, make them participate, they wouldn’t click the assignments, they were confused and tired. We all did what we could in a terrible situation. If you think emergency virtual teaching for that short time frame is what teaching in the ACTUAL classroom setting looks like day to day in normal times, you’re truly stupid.

[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.

During COVID many parents overheard how you teach. I was pro teacher and 100% supportive of virtual during the pandemic. However, it really opened my eyes to the degree of bad teaching and lack of subject matter expertise. The kids aren’t lying.

A ridiculous metric. You think anyone was at their best in online covid teaching?? We got NO guidance or curriculum and were teaching kids on a virtual meeting platform without cameras or sound. We couldn’t assess engagement, make them participate, they wouldn’t click the assignments, they were confused and tired. We all did what we could in a terrible situation. If you think emergency virtual teaching for that short time frame is what teaching in the ACTUAL classroom setting looks like day to day in normal times, you’re truly stupid.

I’m not who you’re quoting but my experience supervising my niece was that teachers were pointing the kids at videos and then during the discussion not able to answer pretty basic questions from the kids. This was winter of ‘21 so plenty of time to have a curriculum and be in the groove by then.

[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:

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.

During COVID many parents overheard how you teach. I was pro teacher and 100% supportive of virtual during the pandemic. However, it really opened my eyes to the degree of bad teaching and lack of subject matter expertise. The kids aren’t lying.

A ridiculous metric. You think anyone was at their best in online covid teaching?? We got NO guidance or curriculum and were teaching kids on a virtual meeting platform without cameras or sound. We couldn’t assess engagement, make them participate, they wouldn’t click the assignments, they were confused and tired. We all did what we could in a terrible situation. If you think emergency virtual teaching for that short time frame is what teaching in the ACTUAL classroom setting looks like day to day in normal times, you’re truly stupid.

I’m not who you’re quoting but my experience supervising my niece was that teachers were pointing the kids at videos and then during the discussion not able to answer pretty basic questions from the kids. This was winter of ‘21 so plenty of time to have a curriculum and be in the groove by then.

No, because children do not and cannot learn online. Developmentally that is not how it works. The hardest working most diligent teacher can’t make kids learn a way they aren’t designed to learn.

Imagine you absolutely MUST have 7 key tools to do your job. If you have those 7, you’re incredible at your job. But you only have 2. You do the best you can but it’s only 2. Once you have those 2 tools for five months, your boss assumes that means by then you should’ve learned to do the job just as well with only those two. But you can’t- more time is not a substitute for fewer tools.

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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.

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.

During COVID many parents overheard how you teach. I was pro teacher and 100% supportive of virtual during the pandemic. However, it really opened my eyes to the degree of bad teaching and lack of subject matter expertise. The kids aren’t lying.

A ridiculous metric. You think anyone was at their best in online covid teaching?? We got NO guidance or curriculum and were teaching kids on a virtual meeting platform without cameras or sound. We couldn’t assess engagement, make them participate, they wouldn’t click the assignments, they were confused and tired. We all did what we could in a terrible situation. If you think emergency virtual teaching for that short time frame is what teaching in the ACTUAL classroom setting looks like day to day in normal times, you’re truly stupid.

I’m not who you’re quoting but my experience supervising my niece was that teachers were pointing the kids at videos and then during the discussion not able to answer pretty basic questions from the kids. This was winter of ‘21 so plenty of time to have a curriculum and be in the groove by then.

No, because children do not and cannot learn online. Developmentally that is not how it works. The hardest working most diligent teacher can’t make kids learn a way they aren’t designed to learn.

Imagine you absolutely MUST have 7 key tools to do your job. If you have those 7, you’re incredible at your job. But you only have 2. You do the best you can but it’s only 2. Once you have those 2 tools for five months, your boss assumes that means by then you should’ve learned to do the job just as well with only those two. But you can’t- more time is not a substitute for fewer tools.

OK, but a middle school science teacher who can’t answer basic questions about science concepts in a virtual setting (when they could google the answer) does not suddenly become able to answer them in person. This happened routinely. And this was the experience of a child whose parents so prioritized school that they reached out to family during the pandemic to make sure someone was supervising digital learning. Imagine all those poor kids who didn’t have an aunt on maternity leave nearby.

Having witnessed that, I will never be convinced that there is an inherent value in sitting in a classroom versus other things which may be in the child’s best interest.

[Anonymous]

I blame the pandemic for why I am more likely to let my teens stay home but not because of online learning. For me, it was a mental reset about what was important. And prioritizing our mental health and relationships have just become top for our family. I take mental health days; why shouldn't my kids?

Is school stressing them out? I would argue that academics are rarely the cause of their stress. That would mean they are being challenged in a way that holds them to a higher bar. My honors middle schooler and IB high schooler both have classes with 100% in their gradebooks (I kid you not!), how am I to justify that they need to be in school? They are clearly performing in a manner that is more than acceptable to their teachers.

And while they are not getting perfect scores in standardized tests, they are demonstrating a solid understanding of the content. I will also say that both are smart enough to know when they do need to be in school: a test, directions about a summative project, a fun day with group or lab work, starting a new unit. So yes, when they say they can catch up, and they have proven that they can, I am fine with letting them have a day to disconnect. They are also expected to behave in class and be respectful to faculty. In fact my oldest freaked out last week when she went to talk to a teacher about an in-school activity and a classmate said, "Are we doing anything important in your class next week?" I'm proud that she called her classmate out and said, "That is not how to ask to miss class, because all classes are valuable."

Truthfully, I wish it were harder for them to make up the material at home. But I think block scheduling is also part of the problem. When I was in school, one day would cost me 7 subjects worth of work. One day for my kids is only 3 or 4. And both have advisory when they have nearly all of their elective classes. So they rarely choose to stay home on the day that is stacked with core classes.

But we also require a mental health day a day to disconnect. There are no electronics between school hours. Instead, they sleep, go for a walk, clean their rooms, play with the dogs, read a book, bake, do art. (One of us is usually WFH so we can enforce this.) And to me, vacations in the middle of the school year work the same: it's a time for us to connect as a family, which is more important than school.

I am a third generation educator. (Grandmother was a business teacher; mom teacher to principal; I am a college faculty member.) School is something we all love. But it is no longer designed with the students' best interests in mind.