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Anonymous
When FCPS teachers at top three MS can successfully teach Geometry and/or Algebra-2 to 8th grade students, why can't the same be taught to students at Key, Poe, and Westfield? |
Anonymous
That's is because you have a different motivation than the people who created this system. If the point was simply to give a preference to poor kids, they could have done that without eliminating merit. The point wasn't to help disadvantaged kids. The point was to have a more racially balanced entering class and they could not achieve anytime soon that without removing a lot of the merit filter. Objective measures are anathema to a process that hopes to achieve racial balance through various race neutral measures. Once they start to track things like test scores they lose. You start to see large disparities in test scores. You see disparities between center and non-center schools; you see socioeconomic disparities; and you see racial disparities. The part they don't want is the racial disparities but they cannot avoid it without eliminating much of the merit filter. The cultural advantage of a focus on education is noticable at a wealthy school like carson where pretty much all the parents place a pretty high value on education and have the resources to support that. The cultural advantage of a focus on education is overwhelming at a poor school where no one has a lot of resources and you are sacrificing things to pursue education. The sacrifices that it takes for a poor kid to excel academically can be painful and it takes an almost religious faith in the value of education to make those painful tradeoffs. |
Anonymous
Parents at the wealthiest middle schools often pay for extensive outside enrichment and tutoring. It may seem like the teachers are solely responsible but it's really never been the case. |
Anonymous
Not all Algebra classes in MS are Honors classes. I believe a Teacher from Poe posted last year that there was only 1 or 2 Algebra 1 H classes at the MS and that they pushed kids into the Geometry class that probably did not belong there. I know kids at Carson taking regular Algebra in 8th grade, it is not limited to the high FARMs schools but it is less common at Carson then it is at Poe and the high FARMs MS. |
Anonymous
For many posters here that is the desirable outcome. They were happier when students were mostly limited to a few wealthy feeders. |
Anonymous
I never understood why we needed center middle schools. |
Anonymous
I agree, they should just go with a single test like they do in NYC at schools like stuyvesant, bronx science and brooklyn tech where half the students are FARM and produce more nobel prize winners than the overwhelming majority of colleges. |
Anonymous
How would that address places like Curie, which would develop a thorough question bank within 1-2 years, which would confer an advantage to students who can afford their services? |
Anonymous
I'm not really sure what the point is of MS "centers" when you have 400-600 kids per grade. |
Anonymous
There aren't a lot of parents paying money so their kid can keep up with algebra in 7th and geometry in 8th. There might be enrichment but it's not so their kids can keep up with geometry in 8th grade. |
Anonymous
Geez, would you stop advertising for Curie? Curie doesn't have some secret sauce, it just does a good job of getting parents with FOMO to sign up and then weed out the less academically gifted kids and then act like these kids are gifted because they made them so when in reality they just took a couple of years cherrypicking the smartest kids and giving them the exact same enrichment that every other high rigor after school enrichment program gives them. They cherry pick smart students, they don't make dumb students smart. |
Anonymous
Well put. The prior school board also sought to eliminate the advantages of unearned Asian privilege. |
Anonymous
Unearned Asian privilege refers to the advantages that Asian American students gain from their parents' strong commitment to education. Locally, whether they are white-collar professionals working in Reston or scraping dishes at a restaurant in Falls Church or washing clothes at dry cleaners in Herndon, Asian parents invest significant time and energy to ensure their children succeed academically. This often involves working long hours, taking on extra jobs, and sacrificing their own leisure time. In many cases, one parent—usually the mother—may choose not to work or quit her job entirely to focus on supervising their FCPS student, allowing them to concentrate on their studies. The values of hard work, self-improvement, and a love of learning are instilled in their student from a young age, reinforcing the belief that education is the path to a successful life. A parent might even forgo buying a new winter coat to save money for their children's Kumon fees. All of this is motivated by the hope that their children will achieve better grades, gain admission to good universities, and ultimately break the cycle of poverty, creating a better life than their parents had. And this is what the prior FCPS Board set out to counter, for their own racial equity goals. |
Anonymous
They weren't trying to counter asian effort, they just come from a very white-centric perspective where anyone that studies more than them, is a grinder and anyone that studies less than them is lazy. That's what all this talk of balanced life comes from. They want to dictate the acceptable balance to mean the one that works best for them. And they are not against asian having a better life, they just want to be the ones to give it to us. They want to tell us how many of our children are allowed to be successful. |
Anonymous
Just like the advantages that students gain from having wealthy parents. Or from have legacy status. |