Arlington magazine - Public school exodus cover
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Anonymous
That’s a relief- thanks! |
Anonymous
| We enrolled in Catholic school during Covid school closures and stayed several years. Our DC had very good language arts (grammar), writing, Spanish and religious instruction; fair science and social studies instruction; but terrible math instruction which placed him behind grade level despite some summer tutoring. |
Anonymous
That student is wrong, perhaps not about their individual experience, but it’s not the norm. My kids definitely have done them in ES, maybe they’re not called that, but they’ve had writing assignments that are age-appropriate “research papers.” And same for MS, obviously a lot closer to a real research paper at that point. I do think the writing curriculum is lacking, but I think that’s a problem at the National level, and even when I was in college, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, my ENG professors complained that none of their students could write a good paper. I don’t know what the answer is, but it might have something to do with public school teachers largely having education degrees, while private school teachers often have other degrees, like English, for example. You can’t major in English without learning how to write well, and you can’t teach how to write if you can’t do it well yourself. |
Anonymous
| To the PP about FCCPS... we know three families who moved out of Arlington for FCC because they wanted a smaller middle/high school experience and lower student teacher ratios. We just pulled our oldest from APS and put him in private for high school for the same reason. The teachers at our APS middle school were so hit or miss over his three years there, that we just didn't feel confident that he would be prepared for college coming out of the APS high schools. |
Anonymous
Given the fact that ELA staff believe that that APS’ writing program is dismal and are working to improve it, and the ELAAC committee believe the same (see their recommendations), and Dr Duran seemingly agreed with the ELAAC committee during their presentation, the students are most likely not wrong. |
Anonymous
APS kids do research *powerpoint presentations* in ES. They don't write research papers. If you want your kid to learn actual writing, you need to supplement during the summer. This doesn't change in middle school. Our oldest just finished Swanson, and he never wrote a research paper while he was there. His projects were mostly powerpoint presentations and posterboards. APS does not teach writing the way that most of us learned it. They deserve all the criticism they are getting right now about the writing instruction. |
Anonymous
You're the ones closing down schools because of a cold. THAT's anti-American. |
Anonymous
It doesn’t matter if they write them. The teachers have WAY too many students to review and grade actual research papers. |
Anonymous
Homework in elementary is not evidence-based. Most schools had begun phasing it out way before all these current policies. A few elementary schools still give homework. They do get homework in middle school. They get time to finish it during school and some are more efficient than others about needing to bring it home. By 8th grade if a kid is on a more rigorous path, they have homework on a regular basis. Is it hours per night every night school is in session? No. Yes they can retake tests sometimes. Depends on teacher. Sometimes they can't and sometimes it's you can't score above a 90 on a retake (frequently been the case for my students). I have never understood objecting to retakes. If your child takes the option to retake, they have actually learned the material. Isn't that the point of what we're doing here? They're supposed to learn the material? Most kids who are not good students do not utilize the option to retake (they'd actually have to learn the material) and so no, they do not get As. It is not hard to fail. The kids who don't learn anything or do anything still fail. But if a kid is motivated and wants to dig out of the hole of a bad grade or a bad start, they have an option. That's it. |
Anonymous
Is their instruction better though when it comes to reading, writing and math? I love the IB curriculum for 11th and 12th grade but I am not a big fan of the elementary and middle school IB curriculum. It can be good if done right (especially the elementary school one). But a lot of times it isn’t. See this criticism here of the IB middle years curriculum. https://wrpvincent.com/why-i-am-not-a-fan-of-the-myp/ I am specifically asking because a friend of mine is looking to move her family to northern Virginia from NYC. Their daughter goes to a blue ribbon elementary school. They are interested in moving to Falls Church City, Arlington, or McLean. Anything else would be too far. When they came to visit, they fell in love with Falls Church City and they asked me about the schools. I told them what I knew. That families seem to be happy with the schools because the school system is small and less crowded. But I wasn’t sure about the academics. My assumption is that it’s good based on what I have heard. But when she asked me whether APS had a better reputation than FCCS I told her I don’t know. I told her that many parents are critical of APS because of declining standards but it good be because everyone wants the absolute best. Overall the schools are still good and wasn’t sure how they compare to Falls Church City. |
Anonymous
Yes that’s another issue that needs to be resolved |
Anonymous
Your first sentence is a blanket statement that is incorrect. There is evidence for both sides (homework vs no homework) and there is evidence against both sides. So right now there isn’t enough evidence to make any conclusions on this issue. |
Anonymous
Didn't you just agree with this poster? It's not conclusive homework benefits kids this age. So if homework is given, it's not evidence-based that it is achieving anything. Could be. Could not be. What I do know is when my kids had homework in elementary (particualrly early years), it was a group project and miserable. A lot of parental hand holding at that age. |
Anonymous
PP here. I can't answer firsthand, but the families that I know who moved are very, very happy. The downside is that there are fewer houses for sale in FCC, and they tend to be pricier. Also, property taxes are higher in FCC-- but they pump a lot of that money back into the schools. Arlington Co has so many residents without kids who just kick and scream any time property taxes go up, so our school system seems to constantly be under budget pressures lately. Parents also seem to love the FCC superintendent, as opposed to Arlington where we just tend to get hand-me-downs assistant superintendents from Fairfax Co who just try to turn us into a mini FCPS. My sense is that FCC is able to be more responsive to issues that come up because they are smaller. I would choose FCC over APS today, although I think the systems were more similar 10 years ago when our oldest entered APS. |
Anonymous
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We have one in private and one in aps.
The one in aps just wanted to stay with their friends but hopefully that will change after first day of middle school and we can have them both in the same private school. Aps is terrible. |