Do you feel that FCPS has your child’s best interests at heart?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS cares about meeting state and federal standards for what public education is supposed to provide. Kids are supposed to graduate having mastered the material that is captured in the SOL, and that is not necessarily hard to do. It is the level of education that kids need to be productive members of society if they don’t go to college.

That is very different than what many parents expect, although I would bet that there are more parents happy with what FCPS provides then who are unhappy with what is being provided.

FCPS will provide the services needed to meet the state and federal mandates for kids with special needs, so keeping kids on grade level where they can. Parents are going to need to look to outside services if they want kids to be more then on grade level because the schools don’t have the mandate or money to provide services to ush beyond that.

FCPS will provide advanced options in the form of AAP, DE, and AP/IB classes but they are not going to be able to meet the needs of super advanced kids in ES. Parents will have to supplement in areas that they think there are weaknesses or where kids are not challenged enough.

I have an 8th grader, he has had some great opportunities. We are happy with the education he is getting.

Exactly. This is such a loaded question and I have noticed that many parents who complain have unrealistic expectations of what they expect a teacher/administrator/school/system in public education to do for their child in a specific, isolated incident that only affects them. There are a number of these instances already mentioned on this thread.

But if you're talking about a systemic service issue, then you have to acknowledge that FCPS is made up of 180,000+ students who all have different backgrounds, abilities and needs. Their job is to serve them ALL. The system has to function broadly because it is a large system - the 9th largest school system in the country. So we have systemic policies in place that go beyond the classroom to provide services such as special needs assessment and services, school psychologists in every school, police resource officers in every school for safety, free and reduced lunch programs, ESOL programs, bilingual community liaisons at each school, health insurance options, summer school recovery and enrichment programs, adult education programs, professional development training for teachers, and the list goes on.

I would say that each of the above programs is not purely a "classroom/education" program, but directly supports the students, teachers and families and are all examples of the system "caring" about students and their success.

It's such an entitlement to complain that your child had an issue with a specific student, teacher or administrator and that you tried to be a squeaky wheel to get the issue resolved to your complete satisfaction and if it is resolved with anything less than your complete satisfaction that the entire system doesn't care about your kid. This forum is FILLED with these types of complainers who then paint the entire system with a brush of being inadequate and uncaring instead of acknowledging that the entire public school system can't be about pleasing one family, but instead attempting to service all equally and equitably.

So you don’t value education any more than those who see school as daycare care.

Some of us understand that public school is not private school and that means that there are times we are going to have to supplement or support because we cannot expect the schools to meet each child's individual needs. This has always been the case. The loudest voices on this board are people who seem to think that the public schools should bend over backwards to meet the needs of their specific kid and that the school is awful if they don't address their specific grievance.

That said, I do wish that there was more of an attempt to build classes based on ability so that more kids could have their needs meet then is happening today. I think the "inclusion for all" sounds nice in theory but has led to teachers trying to meet too many needs in one classroom and having to focus on the kids who are failing or have already failed and need to be caught up while the other kids get little to know attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS cares about meeting state and federal standards for what public education is supposed to provide. Kids are supposed to graduate having mastered the material that is captured in the SOL, and that is not necessarily hard to do. It is the level of education that kids need to be productive members of society if they don’t go to college.

That is very different than what many parents expect, although I would bet that there are more parents happy with what FCPS provides then who are unhappy with what is being provided.

FCPS will provide the services needed to meet the state and federal mandates for kids with special needs, so keeping kids on grade level where they can. Parents are going to need to look to outside services if they want kids to be more then on grade level because the schools don’t have the mandate or money to provide services to ush beyond that.

FCPS will provide advanced options in the form of AAP, DE, and AP/IB classes but they are not going to be able to meet the needs of super advanced kids in ES. Parents will have to supplement in areas that they think there are weaknesses or where kids are not challenged enough.

I have an 8th grader, he has had some great opportunities. We are happy with the education he is getting.

Exactly. This is such a loaded question and I have noticed that many parents who complain have unrealistic expectations of what they expect a teacher/administrator/school/system in public education to do for their child in a specific, isolated incident that only affects them. There are a number of these instances already mentioned on this thread.

But if you're talking about a systemic service issue, then you have to acknowledge that FCPS is made up of 180,000+ students who all have different backgrounds, abilities and needs. Their job is to serve them ALL. The system has to function broadly because it is a large system - the 9th largest school system in the country. So we have systemic policies in place that go beyond the classroom to provide services such as special needs assessment and services, school psychologists in every school, police resource officers in every school for safety, free and reduced lunch programs, ESOL programs, bilingual community liaisons at each school, health insurance options, summer school recovery and enrichment programs, adult education programs, professional development training for teachers, and the list goes on.

I would say that each of the above programs is not purely a "classroom/education" program, but directly supports the students, teachers and families and are all examples of the system "caring" about students and their success.

It's such an entitlement to complain that your child had an issue with a specific student, teacher or administrator and that you tried to be a squeaky wheel to get the issue resolved to your complete satisfaction and if it is resolved with anything less than your complete satisfaction that the entire system doesn't care about your kid. This forum is FILLED with these types of complainers who then paint the entire system with a brush of being inadequate and uncaring instead of acknowledging that the entire public school system can't be about pleasing one family, but instead attempting to service all equally and equitably.

So you don’t value education any more than those who see school as daycare care.

The purpose of a public school system is to educate as many students as possible to achieve success in the state's identified standards of learning. In many instances, this requires more resources to be expended on certain students or populations of students to ensure this benchmark is met. Other students are able to achieve this benchmark with little to no difficulty requiring fewer resources. Everything else that a public school system provides to students and their families is gravy. And FCPS provides a lot of gravy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:See subject. I’m not talking about individual teachers. I’m talking about whether the system is set up to care about students as humans as opposed to widgets.

Should FCPS only care about providing a teacher who teaches focuses solely on academics ignoring also other aspects (eg, behavior, personal issues) or should it care only about getting kids out the door in 12th grade regardless of grades?

Should it care about students welfare out side of school or their mental health?

If a parent sees a problem outside of school that may impact what happens inside of school, should they bother keeping school/FCPS informed?

If there are issues happening in school (eg, bullying) that may impact what happens at home, should FCPS/school inform the parents?

Start parenting yourself you brought them into this world.

Kids have bullied since the beginning of time.

It is your job to teach your kid confidence and what to do if they are bullied.

You sound so clueless and harsh. Yes, kids have been bullied since the beginning of time. What has changed is 1) technology to allow constant cyber-bullying and harassment and 2) lack of discipline and consequences for the bullying. FCPS doesn't call anything bullying- and there are no consequences for the $#%#Q$# who bully, harass, threaten other students online or in-person. FCPS administration often does not even respond to emails or phone calls from parents that report bullying and harassment. And there is NO accountability for FCPS- they can do whatever crappy job they want.

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher. I think most of the teachers and admin do have the kids' best interests at heart. I think the county itself is far removed from that and mostly make decisions based on money and politics. And a lot of the problems in Fairfax actually come from the state, which absolutely does not have the kids' best interests at heart. It's all individual politics.

[Anonymous]

I think they are trying to but trying to do this has what has been the downfall of public schools. Now they try to do too much and there is too much fluff. They need to stop with the emotional lessons in HS homeroom l, all of the screening surveys that don’t result in anything and go back to traditional grading. Look at all of emails we get on every topic imaginable now.

Public schools are trying to be everything to everyone and should just go back to teaching.

[Anonymous]

Yes, bullying has existed forever. Teachers do what they can, but lots goes on behind their backs.

The difference today is that we are very aware. One thing is different. We used to try to help the victim learn how to handle it, while also working on getting the bully to stop.
Now, it is just about getting the bully to stop.



But, agree that social media is a whole other problem. Teachers can tell them that, but it is up to monitor and be aware.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, I think the whole this is one self serving mess.

I think the SB makes decisions that are almost completely self serving and political in nature, doing things that will help them move up in the political system (moving to local and state gov't positions), these usually do not align with putting children first. I think Reid is the tool that they use to do these things.

I think gatehouse is full of people trying to justify their high pay and job titles. They are constantly reinventing school policies to keep themselves employed, which usually does not align with putting children first.

I think the schools are full of Principals that want to move up the FCPS hierarchy, and create local policies that will make themselves look good so that they can beef up their resume to move on to gatehouse.

And I think there are teachers that are tired of all of the self serving nonsense that is being put in place by the people who are in charge and have checked out.

I think this is true. My son has had some teachers that truly care for him, but overall the system sucks. Some of that is FCPS and some of that is public school. There is was to much happening in the public schools that is not related to academics or setting our kids up for success. Get the behavior problems out of school. Stop with the surveys and the WAY too many hours on mental health.
Let’s address special ed in creative ways.

No I don’t think the system cares at all about individuals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS cares about meeting state and federal standards for what public education is supposed to provide. Kids are supposed to graduate having mastered the material that is captured in the SOL, and that is not necessarily hard to do. It is the level of education that kids need to be productive members of society if they don’t go to college.

That is very different than what many parents expect, although I would bet that there are more parents happy with what FCPS provides then who are unhappy with what is being provided.

FCPS will provide the services needed to meet the state and federal mandates for kids with special needs, so keeping kids on grade level where they can. Parents are going to need to look to outside services if they want kids to be more then on grade level because the schools don’t have the mandate or money to provide services to ush beyond that.

FCPS will provide advanced options in the form of AAP, DE, and AP/IB classes but they are not going to be able to meet the needs of super advanced kids in ES. Parents will have to supplement in areas that they think there are weaknesses or where kids are not challenged enough.

I have an 8th grader, he has had some great opportunities. We are happy with the education he is getting.

Exactly. This is such a loaded question and I have noticed that many parents who complain have unrealistic expectations of what they expect a teacher/administrator/school/system in public education to do for their child in a specific, isolated incident that only affects them. There are a number of these instances already mentioned on this thread.

But if you're talking about a systemic service issue, then you have to acknowledge that FCPS is made up of 180,000+ students who all have different backgrounds, abilities and needs. Their job is to serve them ALL. The system has to function broadly because it is a large system - the 9th largest school system in the country. So we have systemic policies in place that go beyond the classroom to provide services such as special needs assessment and services, school psychologists in every school, police resource officers in every school for safety, free and reduced lunch programs, ESOL programs, bilingual community liaisons at each school, health insurance options, summer school recovery and enrichment programs, adult education programs, professional development training for teachers, and the list goes on.

I would say that each of the above programs is not purely a "classroom/education" program, but directly supports the students, teachers and families and are all examples of the system "caring" about students and their success.

It's such an entitlement to complain that your child had an issue with a specific student, teacher or administrator and that you tried to be a squeaky wheel to get the issue resolved to your complete satisfaction and if it is resolved with anything less than your complete satisfaction that the entire system doesn't care about your kid. This forum is FILLED with these types of complainers who then paint the entire system with a brush of being inadequate and uncaring instead of acknowledging that the entire public school system can't be about pleasing one family, but instead attempting to service all equally and equitably.

So you don’t value education any more than those who see school as daycare care.

Some of us understand that public school is not private school and that means that there are times we are going to have to supplement or support because we cannot expect the schools to meet each child's individual needs. This has always been the case. The loudest voices on this board are people who seem to think that the public schools should bend over backwards to meet the needs of their specific kid and that the school is awful if they don't address their specific grievance.

That said, I do wish that there was more of an attempt to build classes based on ability so that more kids could have their needs meet then is happening today. I think the "inclusion for all" sounds nice in theory but has led to teachers trying to meet too many needs in one classroom and having to focus on the kids who are failing or have already failed and need to be caught up while the other kids get little to know attention.

Of course we know that public school is not private school. That does not mean that FCPS is doing a decent, acceptable job. FCPS leadership/school board is making terrible decisions and the system is terrible. Stop gaslighting parents and telling them they gave unreasonable expectations. To be clear, this is NOT the teachers fault. There needs to be changes and decisions made at the top. And teachers need more staffing, better resources, and accountability for students AND staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think they are trying to but trying to do this has what has been the downfall of public schools. Now they try to do too much and there is too much fluff. They need to stop with the emotional lessons in HS homeroom l, all of the screening surveys that don’t result in anything and go back to traditional grading. Look at all of emails we get on every topic imaginable now.

Public schools are trying to be everything to everyone and should just go back to teaching.

But if the goal of public schools is to get kids across the finish line of graduation by teaching them and helping them master the state's standards of learning, how do you do that for kids who have limited English skills, are homeless, are food insecure, are living in abusive homes, have absent parents, have no parents, have untreated mental illnesses, are disruptive in class, have drug and/or alcohol problems, or have special needs. How do you "just go back to teaching" when that is your landscape? Are you saying that public schools systems should only serve those who have no extenuating circumstances and can function in a school setting where "just teaching" is the only support and resources they are entitled to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I think the whole this is one self serving mess.

I think the SB makes decisions that are almost completely self serving and political in nature, doing things that will help them move up in the political system (moving to local and state gov't positions), these usually do not align with putting children first. I think Reid is the tool that they use to do these things.

I think gatehouse is full of people trying to justify their high pay and job titles. They are constantly reinventing school policies to keep themselves employed, which usually does not align with putting children first.

I think the schools are full of Principals that want to move up the FCPS hierarchy, and create local policies that will make themselves look good so that they can beef up their resume to move on to gatehouse.

And I think there are teachers that are tired of all of the self serving nonsense that is being put in place by the people who are in charge and have checked out.

I think this is true. My son has had some teachers that truly care for him, but overall the system sucks. Some of that is FCPS and some of that is public school. There is was to much happening in the public schools that is not related to academics or setting our kids up for success. Get the behavior problems out of school. Stop with the surveys and the WAY too many hours on mental health.
Let’s address special ed in creative ways.

No I don’t think the system cares at all about individuals.

What does this mean? What would you like to have happen to the "behavior problems" once they are out of your child's classroom? Where do they go? What happens to them? And if your answer is "put them in a different school for kids with behavior problems" where are these schools? Who is funding them? Who is teaching at them? What is their goal? How are they helping these kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I think the whole this is one self serving mess.

I think the SB makes decisions that are almost completely self serving and political in nature, doing things that will help them move up in the political system (moving to local and state gov't positions), these usually do not align with putting children first. I think Reid is the tool that they use to do these things.

I think gatehouse is full of people trying to justify their high pay and job titles. They are constantly reinventing school policies to keep themselves employed, which usually does not align with putting children first.

I think the schools are full of Principals that want to move up the FCPS hierarchy, and create local policies that will make themselves look good so that they can beef up their resume to move on to gatehouse.

And I think there are teachers that are tired of all of the self serving nonsense that is being put in place by the people who are in charge and have checked out.

I think this is true. My son has had some teachers that truly care for him, but overall the system sucks. Some of that is FCPS and some of that is public school. There is was to much happening in the public schools that is not related to academics or setting our kids up for success. Get the behavior problems out of school. Stop with the surveys and the WAY too many hours on mental health.
Let’s address special ed in creative ways.

No I don’t think the system cares at all about individuals.

It actually sounds like YOU are the one who doesn't care at all about individuals.

[Anonymous]

I do find that it has our children’s best interest at heart as they provide them a free and public education.

Of course there are limitations to this, and parents make up a huge limitation in that because we aren’t always effective in setting boundaries for our kids or properly teaching them right from wrong or what not.

It is a three way street relying on school, family, and child to ensure needs are being met.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:See subject. I’m not talking about individual teachers. I’m talking about whether the system is set up to care about students as humans as opposed to widgets.

Should FCPS only care about providing a teacher who teaches focuses solely on academics ignoring also other aspects (eg, behavior, personal issues) or should it care only about getting kids out the door in 12th grade regardless of grades?

Should it care about students welfare out side of school or their mental health?

If a parent sees a problem outside of school that may impact what happens inside of school, should they bother keeping school/FCPS informed?

If there are issues happening in school (eg, bullying) that may impact what happens at home, should FCPS/school inform the parents?

Is there any institution of more than 200,000 people (students and staff) that has individual interests at heart? Anything that big typically has its own interests and self-preservation at heart. I would go as far to say they don't even have students' educational interests at heart past meeting the bare minimum that they need to do to continue to exist.

That's without judgement - it's just a fact of super large organizations and institutions.

I get that but students should still feel like they are being served. This is why service industry (which on some level is what a school is), sends out surveys asking whether your cashier or rep says hello, did they take time to address your need, etc.?

I think about the dad of the HHS student shot and killed at a soccer park after reporting the issue and expecting some feed back. Instead, the response was the SRO is too busy to care. Did we ever see a report about whether the matter was appropriately handled by the school? Without it, we don’t know.

School seems to be sucking the humanity out of kids. See a kid lying on the floor? “It is not your business, kids” or “what kid on the floor?” School will just tell kids to just step over the body and go on with their day as if nothing is happening.

Should there be more? Of course. Is there any incentive or accountability to get us there? No.

FCPS has a functional monopoly so why would they need to serve their customers? Most people in the county can't afford the cost of the private schools that are here and/or can't or don't want to homeschool. And many people bought in Fairfax because of the schools and struggle mentally to pay more on top of that.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher. I think most of the teachers and admin do have the kids' best interests at heart. I think the county itself is far removed from that and mostly make decisions based on money and politics. And a lot of the problems in Fairfax actually come from the state, which absolutely does not have the kids' best interests at heart. It's all individual politics.

100% Correct!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:See subject. I’m not talking about individual teachers. I’m talking about whether the system is set up to care about students as humans as opposed to widgets.

Should FCPS only care about providing a teacher who teaches focuses solely on academics ignoring also other aspects (eg, behavior, personal issues) or should it care only about getting kids out the door in 12th grade regardless of grades?

Should it care about students welfare out side of school or their mental health?

If a parent sees a problem outside of school that may impact what happens inside of school, should they bother keeping school/FCPS informed?

If there are issues happening in school (eg, bullying) that may impact what happens at home, should FCPS/school inform the parents?

FCPS is run by a board full of wannabe congressmen. Most of them put their political interests waaaay ahead of the interests of the students.
The students are a sandbox for conducting their social experiments and making political statements.