What happened to learning as a national priority?

[Anonymous]

Each party wants to point fingers at the other party, saying that THEY are the bad guys who don't care about education. Then when they get in power they paper over real problems (see: anything the FCPS school board does, and also Youngkin starting up lab schools and raising accreditation standards instead of focusing on actual reading, writing, and 'rithmetic) because it turns out solving real problems is hard.

Props to places in the much maligned Bible belt that are leading the charge on embracing the science of reading and other actual neuroscience backed education reforms. Sounds like Louisiana is one too. Given the economic realities there we probably won't point to them as best-in-class states for education (the wealth on the coasts will keep the schools from utterly failing), but I bet the learning gaps will be smaller there than anywhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Each party wants to point fingers at the other party, saying that THEY are the bad guys who don't care about education. Then when they get in power they paper over real problems (see: anything the FCPS school board does, and also Youngkin starting up lab schools and raising accreditation standards instead of focusing on actual reading, writing, and 'rithmetic) because it turns out solving real problems is hard.

Props to places in the much maligned Bible belt that are leading the charge on embracing the science of reading and other actual neuroscience backed education reforms. Sounds like Louisiana is one too. Given the economic realities there we probably won't point to them as best-in-class states for education (the wealth on the coasts will keep the schools from utterly failing), but I bet the learning gaps will be smaller there than anywhere else.

The so-called “bible belt” is MAGA-supremacist flyover country. Nothing they do is good.

[Anonymous]

To get back to the OP, I absolutely think getting everyone (parents, teachers, administrators) to agree that screens are not helping our kids learn is the FIRST step. Everything else people are talking about is going to vary from school to school and district to district, depending on the percentage of FARMS kids and the resources available.

But returning to paper and pencil learning and kicking EdTech out the door is step one to regaining focus on learning as opposed to just social promotion or warehousing kids. Screens placate kids but don't educate them. Screens become crutches for teachers and parents alike, and easy way to avoid dealing with developing children who are not always easy.

And yes, developing attention span and stamina for academic activities (NOT some app that gamifies math, but reading or writing or math with paper and pencil) is essential to creating a foundation on which kids can learn.

Get screens out of the classroom. Then we'll talk about the rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each party wants to point fingers at the other party, saying that THEY are the bad guys who don't care about education. Then when they get in power they paper over real problems (see: anything the FCPS school board does, and also Youngkin starting up lab schools and raising accreditation standards instead of focusing on actual reading, writing, and 'rithmetic) because it turns out solving real problems is hard.

Props to places in the much maligned Bible belt that are leading the charge on embracing the science of reading and other actual neuroscience backed education reforms. Sounds like Louisiana is one too. Given the economic realities there we probably won't point to them as best-in-class states for education (the wealth on the coasts will keep the schools from utterly failing), but I bet the learning gaps will be smaller there than anywhere else.

The so-called “bible belt” is MAGA-supremacist flyover country. Nothing they do is good.

Oh? https://apnews.com/article/reading-scores-phonics-mississippi-alabama-louisiana-5bdd5d6ff719b23faa37db2fb95d5004

[Anonymous]

George Bush and No Child Left Behind (focus on standardized tests rather than actual education) combined with Lucy Calkins idiotic method of teaching kids how [not] to read ruined the American educational system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is a social services program. Education is a secondary mission.

MCPS is worse.

Not sure about that.

MCPS and APS both moved recently to CKLA, which teaches actual content integrated with Language Arts. CKLA is from the Core Knowledge Foundation — CKF is NOT related to Common Core, btw. The cited article thinks CKLA is an example of what we should be moving to, and both APS and MCPS have already made that switch.

However, FCPS recently moved to the Phonics variant of Benchmark, which does not integrate content the way CKLA does (but still is a huge improvement over the previous non-Phonics language arts program). MCPS no longer uses Benchmark for LA, having replaced it with CKLA.

Yeah say what you will about MCPS, the CKLA switch was a positive one. My third grader isn't learning about the Renaissance specifically, but she's getting history through CKLA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:George Bush and No Child Left Behind (focus on standardized tests rather than actual education) combined with Lucy Calkins idiotic method of teaching kids how [not] to read ruined the American educational system.

This combined with (I'll say the quiet part out loud) Least Restrictive Environment and unchecked immigration.

I'm putting aside funds for my future grandchildren to attend private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is a social services program. Education is a secondary mission.

MCPS is worse.

Not sure about that.

MCPS and APS both moved recently to CKLA, which teaches actual content integrated with Language Arts. CKLA is from the Core Knowledge Foundation — CKF is NOT related to Common Core, btw. The cited article thinks CKLA is an example of what we should be moving to, and both APS and MCPS have already made that switch.

However, FCPS recently moved to the Phonics variant of Benchmark, which does not integrate content the way CKLA does (but still is a huge improvement over the previous non-Phonics language arts program). MCPS no longer uses Benchmark for LA, having replaced it with CKLA.

Yeah say what you will about MCPS, the CKLA switch was a positive one. My third grader isn't learning about the Renaissance specifically, but she's getting history through CKLA.

I wish FCPS had picked CKLA.

As referenced above, the laws in VA that required FCPS to move to phonics based learning (and APS moved to CKLA under that law) were based on laws out of Florida from decades ago. We're behind the trend on this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:George Bush and No Child Left Behind (focus on standardized tests rather than actual education) combined with Lucy Calkins idiotic method of teaching kids how [not] to read ruined the American educational system.

Now do math, which was "workshop model" based on Lucy Calkins also and no one is fixing it.

Virginia was on the right side of the math wars 20 years ago, but lost all that ground in the past several years.

Meanwhile at least MCPS has a Singapore based curriculum for ES math. FCPS does the stupid workshop model.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each party wants to point fingers at the other party, saying that THEY are the bad guys who don't care about education. Then when they get in power they paper over real problems (see: anything the FCPS school board does, and also Youngkin starting up lab schools and raising accreditation standards instead of focusing on actual reading, writing, and 'rithmetic) because it turns out solving real problems is hard.

Props to places in the much maligned Bible belt that are leading the charge on embracing the science of reading and other actual neuroscience backed education reforms. Sounds like Louisiana is one too. Given the economic realities there we probably won't point to them as best-in-class states for education (the wealth on the coasts will keep the schools from utterly failing), but I bet the learning gaps will be smaller there than anywhere else.

The so-called “bible belt” is MAGA-supremacist flyover country. Nothing they do is good.

Teaching poor black kids to read, which is Mississippi does better than any other state, is 100% a Trumpist plot. Luckily, states like Minnesota are holding strong against that nonsense.

https://www.urban.org/research/publication/states-demographically-adjusted-performance-2024-national-assessment

[Anonymous]

When Louisiana has their schools reach the states ten top schools in the country then people might pay attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each party wants to point fingers at the other party, saying that THEY are the bad guys who don't care about education. Then when they get in power they paper over real problems (see: anything the FCPS school board does, and also Youngkin starting up lab schools and raising accreditation standards instead of focusing on actual reading, writing, and 'rithmetic) because it turns out solving real problems is hard.

Props to places in the much maligned Bible belt that are leading the charge on embracing the science of reading and other actual neuroscience backed education reforms. Sounds like Louisiana is one too. Given the economic realities there we probably won't point to them as best-in-class states for education (the wealth on the coasts will keep the schools from utterly failing), but I bet the learning gaps will be smaller there than anywhere else.

The so-called “bible belt” is MAGA-supremacist flyover country. Nothing they do is good.

Oh? https://apnews.com/article/reading-scores-phonics-mississippi-alabama-louisiana-5bdd5d6ff719b23faa37db2fb95d5004

Mississippi is bragging about reading in 4th grade? OK

They are still 50th in healthcare but #1 in obesity. They would do a whole lot better if they also put nutrition and healthcare as priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each party wants to point fingers at the other party, saying that THEY are the bad guys who don't care about education. Then when they get in power they paper over real problems (see: anything the FCPS school board does, and also Youngkin starting up lab schools and raising accreditation standards instead of focusing on actual reading, writing, and 'rithmetic) because it turns out solving real problems is hard.

Props to places in the much maligned Bible belt that are leading the charge on embracing the science of reading and other actual neuroscience backed education reforms. Sounds like Louisiana is one too. Given the economic realities there we probably won't point to them as best-in-class states for education (the wealth on the coasts will keep the schools from utterly failing), but I bet the learning gaps will be smaller there than anywhere else.

The so-called “bible belt” is MAGA-supremacist flyover country. Nothing they do is good.

Teaching poor black kids to read, which is Mississippi does better than any other state, is 100% a Trumpist plot. Luckily, states like Minnesota are holding strong against that nonsense.

https://www.urban.org/research/publication/states-demographically-adjusted-performance-2024-national-assessment

Mississippi is number ONE in 8th grade math when adjusted for Black kids! Still couldn’t keep Massachusetts down coming in at number TWO in 8th grade math.

That is pretty disturbing thinking Black kids are keeping the scores down any more than poor White rural kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to this (gift) article from the New York Times, learning used to be a national priority but fell to the wayside in the Bush-Obama years during which principals became focused on NOT failing - rather than succeeding. Now, Louisiana leading the way is introducing reforms that are really working, including the idea that, "Developing a mature attention span is crucial for work."

That means no screens.

"Unlike in many elementary-school classrooms, the students did not have computers or tablets on their desks. They had open books, which they were avidly marking up with highlighters and pencils ... Children cannot learn to focus their attention on books or anything else if they are constantly distracted by addictive technology."

They also focus on building a big vocabulary through science and social studies, the exact subjects that the Bush-Obama reforms often stripped from the school day. Louisiana is teaching history in elementary school. From the article,

"Ms. Cascio reviewed vocabulary words that students would need: heretic, rational, skepticism, heliocentric. Then, over the course of an hour, 10- and 11-year-olds broke into groups to discuss why Leonardo da Vinci was interested in human anatomy. They wrote about how the ideas of Copernicus and Galileo differed from those of the ancient Greeks."

In our FCPS elementary school, we definitely are NOT learning about the Renaissance.

During the Bush-Obama years, schools were punished when their kids did not pass standardized tests - "Tying punishments to test scores led to a predictable outcome: a curriculum that, in too many schools, centered on test prep. Students practiced reading short passages and answering multiple choice questions about those passages, over and over again." Long form books were out, short passages were in - and as a result, many kids have never read a full book before college.

What will it take to make FCPS care about learning rather than just not failing?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/10/us/education-politics-learning.html?unlocked_article_code=1.GU8.iFDG.q9HYXoaiuR_S&smid=url-share

Come to sterling middle school in Virginia to see what happened

Democrats opened the borders and schools have to accept everyone. Teachers and admins are overwhelmed with kids that do not speak English well or have bad situations at home or have no homes.

Just trying to get thru the day with the resources they have

But we have NEVER seen rep Connolly or senator Kaine or senator Warner , never

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Paying and treating teachers like professionals.

nope, the Louisiana teachers earn less than FCPS teachers