Teacher is on leave, sub doesn't teach, students are left behind for months

[Anonymous]

It’s 8th grade science, this doesn’t matter at all. Be happy there is a sub and don’t make a fuss so the person doesn’t quit.

When my kid was in middle school, the math teacher went on leave and they had a series of day to day subs because they couldn’t find a long term sub to take the job. We could complain all we wanted but that wouldn’t make someone apply.

[Anonymous]

This is common occurrence in most public schools. I think parents have to really keep an eye on the syllabus and education of their kids and make sure that they have supplementation and instruction in place if schools fails them. No. Unfortunately, private schools are not the answer.

Is it supremely hard? Yes. Parents are screwed and so are kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is common occurrence in most public schools. I think parents have to really keep an eye on the syllabus and education of their kids and make sure that they have supplementation and instruction in place if schools fails them. No. Unfortunately, private schools are not the answer.

Is it supremely hard? Yes. Parents are screwed and so are kids.

And so are the remaining teachers. The work doesn’t disappear when other teachers do. The load gets distributed, and teachers have to cover additional classes or complete additional work (another teacher’s grading load). They aren’t given more time and only occasionally are they given more pay.

This situation is only going to get worse as the remaining teachers continue to burn out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all for the advice. This is 8th grade science. Kid just told me that the sub did not teach/grade much in the past two months, and they will have SOL in two months. At this moment, it may be too late to group parents, get PTA, and find a good sub, so here is my plan:

1. borrow the SOL review packets from my kid.
2. check what materials are covered, so I can get a ballpark for it.
3. find a tutor.

Don't do this OP. If you are going to spend your time and money worrying about a subject, hire a writing tutor or something else that will actually lead to real learning. 8th grade science is not the place to stress or cram for the love of God.

So FCPS is wasting students' time and taxpayer money on a subject that is useless for the intellectual development and knowledge base of the child. Just a random collection of unimportant crapola that they need to be tested on because-- tests are the point, not learning.

What a quality school system.

It’s not FCPS. Standards are a state wide mandate.

Yep. And you can thank No Child Left Behind for it all, which was introduced under Bush I believe. Republicans started it all.

The growth of homeschooling, utilization of tutors/enrichment progams, and private schooling is bi-partisan; just like the purposeful enshitification of government schooling.

[Anonymous]

Recently retired middle school teacher here and I will concur with many PP: a long term sub for 8th grade science is probably the least harmful to students’ future learning and success than any other subject except some electives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all for the advice. This is 8th grade science. Kid just told me that the sub did not teach/grade much in the past two months, and they will have SOL in two months. At this moment, it may be too late to group parents, get PTA, and find a good sub, so here is my plan:

1. borrow the SOL review packets from my kid.
2. check what materials are covered, so I can get a ballpark for it.
3. find a tutor.

Don't do this OP. If you are going to spend your time and money worrying about a subject, hire a writing tutor or something else that will actually lead to real learning. 8th grade science is not the place to stress or cram for the love of God.

So FCPS is wasting students' time and taxpayer money on a subject that is useless for the intellectual development and knowledge base of the child. Just a random collection of unimportant crapola that they need to be tested on because-- tests are the point, not learning.

What a quality school system.

It’s not FCPS. Standards are a state wide mandate.

Yep. And you can thank No Child Left Behind for it all, which was introduced under Bush I believe. Republicans started it all.

No. It was from the Common Core Standards of 2010.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible to require the school to pull a specialist to do a catchup?

Don’t worry. Our kids have permanent teachers who do not teach. They hand out packets and the students have to fill them out without help from the teacher. They have one teacher who just asks them to watch their crappy recordings from 2020. They have another teacher who just airs World A to Z. It’s wild.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all for the advice. This is 8th grade science. Kid just told me that the sub did not teach/grade much in the past two months, and they will have SOL in two months. At this moment, it may be too late to group parents, get PTA, and find a good sub, so here is my plan:

1. borrow the SOL review packets from my kid.
2. check what materials are covered, so I can get a ballpark for it.
3. find a tutor.

Don't do this OP. If you are going to spend your time and money worrying about a subject, hire a writing tutor or something else that will actually lead to real learning. 8th grade science is not the place to stress or cram for the love of God.

So FCPS is wasting students' time and taxpayer money on a subject that is useless for the intellectual development and knowledge base of the child. Just a random collection of unimportant crapola that they need to be tested on because-- tests are the point, not learning.

What a quality school system.

It’s not FCPS. Standards are a state wide mandate.

Yep. And you can thank No Child Left Behind for it all, which was introduced under Bush I believe. Republicans started it all.

No. It was from the Common Core Standards of 2010.

Nope. SOLs started way before then. They tied results to accreditation due to No Child Left Behind.

[Anonymous]

This is the same situation with my kid's high school history class. Teacher went on leave in the beginning of the year and they have a long term sub that is barely teaching. They also have no idea how to use the systems so that kid's aren't getting marked absent or grades are being put in on time or correctly. It's a hot mess. We've given up at this point. FCPS can barely get people in to teach at this point. I would complain but it goes nowhere. Another teacher has many complaints from a few students about inappropriate things they have said and the administration has done nothing. It's a new teacher and I think they are just happy to have those positions filled that they are willing to put up with anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all for the advice. This is 8th grade science. Kid just told me that the sub did not teach/grade much in the past two months, and they will have SOL in two months. At this moment, it may be too late to group parents, get PTA, and find a good sub, so here is my plan:

1. borrow the SOL review packets from my kid.
2. check what materials are covered, so I can get a ballpark for it.
3. find a tutor.

Don't do this OP. If you are going to spend your time and money worrying about a subject, hire a writing tutor or something else that will actually lead to real learning. 8th grade science is not the place to stress or cram for the love of God.

So FCPS is wasting students' time and taxpayer money on a subject that is useless for the intellectual development and knowledge base of the child. Just a random collection of unimportant crapola that they need to be tested on because-- tests are the point, not learning.

What a quality school system.

It’s not FCPS. Standards are a state wide mandate.

Yep. And you can thank No Child Left Behind for it all, which was introduced under Bush I believe. Republicans started it all.

No. It was from the Common Core Standards of 2010.

How does Common Core affect anything happening in FCPS? Virginia doesn't use Common Core and never has. I hope that you already know this if you're spouting off on an FCPS discussion thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the same situation with my kid's high school history class. Teacher went on leave in the beginning of the year and they have a long term sub that is barely teaching. They also have no idea how to use the systems so that kid's aren't getting marked absent or grades are being put in on time or correctly. It's a hot mess. We've given up at this point. FCPS can barely get people in to teach at this point. I would complain but it goes nowhere. Another teacher has many complaints from a few students about inappropriate things they have said and the administration has done nothing. It's a new teacher and I think they are just happy to have those positions filled that they are willing to put up with anything.

I don’t want to hijack but I get the impression there is a concerted effort under Reid to hire principals who will just praise whatever Reid and the School Board treat as their priorities (or non-priorities). It’s no surprise people like this don’t care that much about what goes on in a classroom. Making Reid happy and not making waves is what matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the same situation with my kid's high school history class. Teacher went on leave in the beginning of the year and they have a long term sub that is barely teaching. They also have no idea how to use the systems so that kid's aren't getting marked absent or grades are being put in on time or correctly. It's a hot mess. We've given up at this point. FCPS can barely get people in to teach at this point. I would complain but it goes nowhere. Another teacher has many complaints from a few students about inappropriate things they have said and the administration has done nothing. It's a new teacher and I think they are just happy to have those positions filled that they are willing to put up with anything.

I don’t want to hijack but I get the impression there is a concerted effort under Reid to hire principals who will just praise whatever Reid and the School Board treat as their priorities (or non-priorities). It’s no surprise people like this don’t care that much about what goes on in a classroom. Making Reid happy and not making waves is what matters.

+1. If there's a warm body in the room and the person isn't doing anything egregious while on the clock, there's no issue according to Reid and the SB. They're counting on enough parents privately supplementing so that the SOL fail rates won't be atrocious.