Anyone else educated by FCPS and sees the decline?

[Anonymous]

Multiple choice quizzes/tests auto-grade themselves.

[Anonymous]

FCPS grad who went to GT centers 5th - 8th (thanks to a 3rd grade teacher who recommended my parents have me re-tested on the WISC after just missing the 3rd grade entry cut-off) and then on to TJ in the 'glory days' of the early 2000s. I think the FCPS of the mid/late 90s-early 2000s was simply more sink or swim, with little recourse available to those for whom it did not work. Do we ever hear from kids who fell through the cracks during that same time period, or just those who were socioeconomically lucky enough to succeed?

For K-4th, I attended a middle-of-the-road large, newish ES. There were contained "LD" classrooms, and everyone else was educated to the same standard. If you failed, you failed - not many chances for parents to intervene or request additional supports. There was a small handful of ESOL students (maybe 3 or 4 per grade?) who received in-school supports. I had several great teachers, and at least one truly awful one. We had socio-emotional learning lessons and FLE taught by the school counselors. I distinctly remember my 2nd grade teacher introducing multiplication as a concept...something my current AAP 3rd grader won't officially be taught until almost 2nd quarter of this year. I don't chalk this up as a failure of FCPS teachers or students, though - it's simply an example of how state and national curriculum standards have lowered over time.

Per a friend who is an FCPS high school teacher, the new Language Arts curriculum will result in his English department teaching slightly more than half as many books as they would have otherwise. And that's a nationally-benchmarked, standardized curriculum used by schools throughout the country.

FCPS is still a strong school system with lots of rich opportunities, but public education is being decimated from the top down politically by ideological zealots from both parties as well as opportunists from the technology industry (why oh why does Instagram keep showing me ads from that woman who started an AI-instruction-only school?!!!). We need to get politicians and businesses and lawyers out of education and hand the leadership reins back to educators.

[Anonymous]

My kid's FCPS 3rd grade reading group all read different books on their own that had nothing to do with one another. One reading a biography, another a science book, another a historical novel, and another a fantasy novel and then the teacher would ask about each one separately or ask the same question to all such as pick out a word you don't know which didn't really teach anything. I can't imagine a worse reading group than what we experienced in elementary. The only good part about the program was that my child had reading minutes and variety of novels but the portion with the teacher was useless. They could have just done this at home. There are plenty of great basal readers out there that teach language arts better than independent reading time even if they read fewer novels per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:One data point:

My child in Honors 9th grade English at Langley is reading an abridged version of the Odyssey. It’s about 1/3 the length of the original book and the language is simplified.

I read the full book when I was in 9th grade in FCPS and her older cousin also read the full book about 10 years ago in another FCPS high school.

Then have your child read the full book at home. Fairfax County has libraries.

Don’t count on the schools to do as well by your children as they did by you. It’s all about supplementation, homeschooling and private school these days.

Colleague with kids in MCPS says the same general trends discussed here about FCPS also are true there. His oldest was MCPS all the way. Next bailed at MS for private, youngest was moved to private after 2nd grade. They watched the decline in their own kids. Neighbors here are reporting the same for FCPS.

Only the small township based school districts of the northeast and other parts of the U.S. appear to be largely immune from such trends. Of course, the problem there is funding problems for the poorer towns with more diverse housing types.

It's amazing what happens when you draw lines to exclude poor kids.

So too is what happens when you ignore borders and allow a flood of poorly educated.

My legal immigrant US citizen wife and myself are just waiting until the spring housing market cycle to sell and relocate our family. Job market and public schools brought us here, but with the direction FCPS is heading it no longer sits on the positive column of any decision making criteria. Might as well transfer my kids into the best HS pyramid in another county in VA where there's no influx of undocumented, poorly educated immigrants.

If you think any other county in VA is producing better results than FCPS than by all means, have at it.

You're statement is racist at best and translates to "I don't want my child to be in the vicinity of poor brown children so I shall seek out other whiter areas of the state to reside."

Unfortunately you can see Fairfax county is ranted 41th in Virginia https://www.schooldigger.com/go/VA/districtrank.aspx

Ironic that the top individual schools list is full of FCPS

only a few but most FCPS schools are poorly performing, other school districts have many highly performing schools

If those other districts were as oversized and bloated as FCPS they’d include additional schools just outside of their borders that would bring down their numbers.

Most of the top districts on that list are tiny and rural compared to FCPS. We have too many competing interests and too many different types of people to please that nobody ends up happy.

You make a good point about FCPS having too many competing interests. But isn't that self-inflicted? The school board is pushing policies like "One Fairfax" and equity initiatives as major priorities, focusing more on social issues like LGBTQ+ advocacy rather than the fundamentals like math, reading, writing, and science. These are the basics measured by SOL tests, and if FCPS isn’t excelling in those core areas, why is the board so focused on everything else?

It's time to question whether the board’s focus is where it should be. If our students aren't mastering the basics, maybe we need leadership that prioritizes actual education over political and social agendas. Shouldn’t getting back to the fundamentals be our main concern?

You are watching too much FoxNews misinformation.

FCPS isn’t focusing more on social issues than academics.

If my examples aren’t seen as the “competing interests,” then what are? Most of what I’ve seen come through from the superintendent focuses on policies like equity, gun control, One Fairfax, inclusion, and social justice-related issues. These are important topics, but they seem to dominate the conversation. If there are other major competing interests FCPS is dealing with, I haven’t seen them highlighted in the same way. So, the real question is—are these priorities being balanced effectively with core academics?

Clearly you don’t watch the SB meetings.

They mostly discuss academics and administrative topics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One data point:

My child in Honors 9th grade English at Langley is reading an abridged version of the Odyssey. It’s about 1/3 the length of the original book and the language is simplified.

I read the full book when I was in 9th grade in FCPS and her older cousin also read the full book about 10 years ago in another FCPS high school.

Then have your child read the full book at home. Fairfax County has libraries.

Don’t count on the schools to do as well by your children as they did by you. It’s all about supplementation, homeschooling and private school these days.

Colleague with kids in MCPS says the same general trends discussed here about FCPS also are true there. His oldest was MCPS all the way. Next bailed at MS for private, youngest was moved to private after 2nd grade. They watched the decline in their own kids. Neighbors here are reporting the same for FCPS.

Only the small township based school districts of the northeast and other parts of the U.S. appear to be largely immune from such trends. Of course, the problem there is funding problems for the poorer towns with more diverse housing types.

It's amazing what happens when you draw lines to exclude poor kids.

So too is what happens when you ignore borders and allow a flood of poorly educated.

My legal immigrant US citizen wife and myself are just waiting until the spring housing market cycle to sell and relocate our family. Job market and public schools brought us here, but with the direction FCPS is heading it no longer sits on the positive column of any decision making criteria. Might as well transfer my kids into the best HS pyramid in another county in VA where there's no influx of undocumented, poorly educated immigrants.

If you think any other county in VA is producing better results than FCPS than by all means, have at it.

You're statement is racist at best and translates to "I don't want my child to be in the vicinity of poor brown children so I shall seek out other whiter areas of the state to reside."

Unfortunately you can see Fairfax county is ranted 41th in Virginia https://www.schooldigger.com/go/VA/districtrank.aspx

Ironic that the top individual schools list is full of FCPS

only a few but most FCPS schools are poorly performing, other school districts have many highly performing schools

If those other districts were as oversized and bloated as FCPS they’d include additional schools just outside of their borders that would bring down their numbers.

Most of the top districts on that list are tiny and rural compared to FCPS. We have too many competing interests and too many different types of people to please that nobody ends up happy.

You make a good point about FCPS having too many competing interests. But isn't that self-inflicted? The school board is pushing policies like "One Fairfax" and equity initiatives as major priorities, focusing more on social issues like LGBTQ+ advocacy rather than the fundamentals like math, reading, writing, and science. These are the basics measured by SOL tests, and if FCPS isn’t excelling in those core areas, why is the board so focused on everything else?

It's time to question whether the board’s focus is where it should be. If our students aren't mastering the basics, maybe we need leadership that prioritizes actual education over political and social agendas. Shouldn’t getting back to the fundamentals be our main concern?

You are watching too much FoxNews misinformation.

FCPS isn’t focusing more on social issues than academics.

If my examples aren’t seen as the “competing interests,” then what are? Most of what I’ve seen come through from the superintendent focuses on policies like equity, gun control, One Fairfax, inclusion, and social justice-related issues. These are important topics, but they seem to dominate the conversation. If there are other major competing interests FCPS is dealing with, I haven’t seen them highlighted in the same way. So, the real question is—are these priorities being balanced effectively with core academics?

Clearly you don’t watch the SB meetings.

They mostly discuss academics and administrative topics.

DP. I’ve watched far too many sb meetings. You are not telling the truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid's FCPS 3rd grade reading group all read different books on their own that had nothing to do with one another. One reading a biography, another a science book, another a historical novel, and another a fantasy novel and then the teacher would ask about each one separately or ask the same question to all such as pick out a word you don't know which didn't really teach anything. I can't imagine a worse reading group than what we experienced in elementary. The only good part about the program was that my child had reading minutes and variety of novels but the portion with the teacher was useless. They could have just done this at home. There are plenty of great basal readers out there that teach language arts better than independent reading time even if they read fewer novels per year.

Well there is a basal system in place for K-6 now. So we shall see if there are improvements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid's FCPS 3rd grade reading group all read different books on their own that had nothing to do with one another. One reading a biography, another a science book, another a historical novel, and another a fantasy novel and then the teacher would ask about each one separately or ask the same question to all such as pick out a word you don't know which didn't really teach anything. I can't imagine a worse reading group than what we experienced in elementary. The only good part about the program was that my child had reading minutes and variety of novels but the portion with the teacher was useless. They could have just done this at home. There are plenty of great basal readers out there that teach language arts better than independent reading time even if they read fewer novels per year.

Well there is a basal system in place for K-6 now. So we shall see if there are improvements.

Any curriculum will fail if the teachers aren't taught the right instructional methods.

For at least one full generation, very few Ed Schools taught how to teach using methods which work, such as Phonics. If FCPS does not focus on helping those teachers learn the best way to teach the new curriculum, then it will seem to fail, even if the real issue is failure to provide the needed teacher supports. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One data point:

My child in Honors 9th grade English at Langley is reading an abridged version of the Odyssey. It’s about 1/3 the length of the original book and the language is simplified.

I read the full book when I was in 9th grade in FCPS and her older cousin also read the full book about 10 years ago in another FCPS high school.

Then have your child read the full book at home. Fairfax County has libraries.

Don’t count on the schools to do as well by your children as they did by you. It’s all about supplementation, homeschooling and private school these days.

Colleague with kids in MCPS says the same general trends discussed here about FCPS also are true there. His oldest was MCPS all the way. Next bailed at MS for private, youngest was moved to private after 2nd grade. They watched the decline in their own kids. Neighbors here are reporting the same for FCPS.

Only the small township based school districts of the northeast and other parts of the U.S. appear to be largely immune from such trends. Of course, the problem there is funding problems for the poorer towns with more diverse housing types.

It's amazing what happens when you draw lines to exclude poor kids.

So too is what happens when you ignore borders and allow a flood of poorly educated.

Bingo. And I would argue that this is WHY we have neighborhoods full of poor kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid's FCPS 3rd grade reading group all read different books on their own that had nothing to do with one another. One reading a biography, another a science book, another a historical novel, and another a fantasy novel and then the teacher would ask about each one separately or ask the same question to all such as pick out a word you don't know which didn't really teach anything. I can't imagine a worse reading group than what we experienced in elementary. The only good part about the program was that my child had reading minutes and variety of novels but the portion with the teacher was useless. They could have just done this at home. There are plenty of great basal readers out there that teach language arts better than independent reading time even if they read fewer novels per year.

This makes me so mad. Truly infuriated. Especially when I think back to my language arts classes in FCPS in the mid-80s. We learned grammar and spelling, and everyone was expected to read widely from a planned list. Book reports were required. Whatever they're doing now is disgraceful.

I will say that FCPS high school was excellent. But elementary and middle leave so much to be desired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One data point:

My child in Honors 9th grade English at Langley is reading an abridged version of the Odyssey. It’s about 1/3 the length of the original book and the language is simplified.

I read the full book when I was in 9th grade in FCPS and her older cousin also read the full book about 10 years ago in another FCPS high school.

Then have your child read the full book at home. Fairfax County has libraries.

Don’t count on the schools to do as well by your children as they did by you. It’s all about supplementation, homeschooling and private school these days.

Colleague with kids in MCPS says the same general trends discussed here about FCPS also are true there. His oldest was MCPS all the way. Next bailed at MS for private, youngest was moved to private after 2nd grade. They watched the decline in their own kids. Neighbors here are reporting the same for FCPS.

Only the small township based school districts of the northeast and other parts of the U.S. appear to be largely immune from such trends. Of course, the problem there is funding problems for the poorer towns with more diverse housing types.

It's amazing what happens when you draw lines to exclude poor kids.

So too is what happens when you ignore borders and allow a flood of poorly educated.

My legal immigrant US citizen wife and myself are just waiting until the spring housing market cycle to sell and relocate our family. Job market and public schools brought us here, but with the direction FCPS is heading it no longer sits on the positive column of any decision making criteria. Might as well transfer my kids into the best HS pyramid in another county in VA where there's no influx of undocumented, poorly educated immigrants.

If you think any other county in VA is producing better results than FCPS than by all means, have at it.

You're statement is racist at best and translates to "I don't want my child to be in the vicinity of poor brown children so I shall seek out other whiter areas of the state to reside."

Isn’t that in part the reason that people live in the suburbs? To avoid poor schools? I mean the same thing happens in cities and parts of Appalachia. The color is not really part of the equation.

But the above poster is not trying to avoid poor SCHOOLS, just poor PEOPLE. FCPS has more money and resources and higher student outcomes than any other county in the state. Saying you're going to leave FCPS to find greener pastures in another area of the state is only about avoiding poor people, not to find a better funded, or a better resourced school system, because it doesn't exist.

Outcomes and results vary wildly depending on the area and school, and FCPS has utterly failed certain areas and schools with the budget and resources it has had. Are you raising a family in Fairfax, zoned for one of the top 20 state public high schools, and safe from boundary changes? Good for you, you are in one of the greenest school pastures in the state (that also has low FARMS rates). But, most residents are have-nots and should not be fooled into thinking that because they live in Fairfax their children are receiving a better academic outcome because of the FCPS label.

[Anonymous]

If you think it’s in decline now just give it 20 years. Fairfax growth is projected mainly for urban pockets while much of the rest of county growth will stagnate. As certain as death and taxes, we can expect the school board to react late and ineffectively to this changing landscape.

[Anonymous]

Many years ago I started a thread on this site about a Washington Post article discussing FCPS’ future. I’ll try to find the thread later. The writer’s predictions weren’t wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One data point:

My child in Honors 9th grade English at Langley is reading an abridged version of the Odyssey. It’s about 1/3 the length of the original book and the language is simplified.

I read the full book when I was in 9th grade in FCPS and her older cousin also read the full book about 10 years ago in another FCPS high school.

Then have your child read the full book at home. Fairfax County has libraries.

Don’t count on the schools to do as well by your children as they did by you. It’s all about supplementation, homeschooling and private school these days.

Colleague with kids in MCPS says the same general trends discussed here about FCPS also are true there. His oldest was MCPS all the way. Next bailed at MS for private, youngest was moved to private after 2nd grade. They watched the decline in their own kids. Neighbors here are reporting the same for FCPS.

Only the small township based school districts of the northeast and other parts of the U.S. appear to be largely immune from such trends. Of course, the problem there is funding problems for the poorer towns with more diverse housing types.

It's amazing what happens when you draw lines to exclude poor kids.

So too is what happens when you ignore borders and allow a flood of poorly educated.

Bingo. And I would argue that this is WHY we have neighborhoods full of poor kids.

So are you trying to say that only affluent white kids deserve to get an education here in Fairfax County because they lead to more desirable reportable student outcomes????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid's FCPS 3rd grade reading group all read different books on their own that had nothing to do with one another. One reading a biography, another a science book, another a historical novel, and another a fantasy novel and then the teacher would ask about each one separately or ask the same question to all such as pick out a word you don't know which didn't really teach anything. I can't imagine a worse reading group than what we experienced in elementary. The only good part about the program was that my child had reading minutes and variety of novels but the portion with the teacher was useless. They could have just done this at home. There are plenty of great basal readers out there that teach language arts better than independent reading time even if they read fewer novels per year.

This makes me so mad. Truly infuriated. Especially when I think back to my language arts classes in FCPS in the mid-80s. We learned grammar and spelling, and everyone was expected to read widely from a planned list. Book reports were required. Whatever they're doing now is disgraceful.

I will say that FCPS high school was excellent. But elementary and middle leave so much to be desired.

It also would have been so easy to fix. Just have everyone read a biography one month. A fantasy novel another. Switch between a planned book for all one month and a book of choice another. It's was so hard just to watch the absolute cluelessness of the teachers. Even good teachers swept up into thinking they were following a good reading and writing program. They didn't even write. How could these teachers not even see they weren't teaching writing when the kids barely wrote a sentence once a week?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One data point:

My child in Honors 9th grade English at Langley is reading an abridged version of the Odyssey. It’s about 1/3 the length of the original book and the language is simplified.

I read the full book when I was in 9th grade in FCPS and her older cousin also read the full book about 10 years ago in another FCPS high school.

Then have your child read the full book at home. Fairfax County has libraries.

Don’t count on the schools to do as well by your children as they did by you. It’s all about supplementation, homeschooling and private school these days.

Colleague with kids in MCPS says the same general trends discussed here about FCPS also are true there. His oldest was MCPS all the way. Next bailed at MS for private, youngest was moved to private after 2nd grade. They watched the decline in their own kids. Neighbors here are reporting the same for FCPS.

Only the small township based school districts of the northeast and other parts of the U.S. appear to be largely immune from such trends. Of course, the problem there is funding problems for the poorer towns with more diverse housing types.

It's amazing what happens when you draw lines to exclude poor kids.

So too is what happens when you ignore borders and allow a flood of poorly educated.

My legal immigrant US citizen wife and myself are just waiting until the spring housing market cycle to sell and relocate our family. Job market and public schools brought us here, but with the direction FCPS is heading it no longer sits on the positive column of any decision making criteria. Might as well transfer my kids into the best HS pyramid in another county in VA where there's no influx of undocumented, poorly educated immigrants.

If you think any other county in VA is producing better results than FCPS than by all means, have at it.

You're statement is racist at best and translates to "I don't want my child to be in the vicinity of poor brown children so I shall seek out other whiter areas of the state to reside."

Isn’t that in part the reason that people live in the suburbs? To avoid poor schools? I mean the same thing happens in cities and parts of Appalachia. The color is not really part of the equation.

But the above poster is not trying to avoid poor SCHOOLS, just poor PEOPLE. FCPS has more money and resources and higher student outcomes than any other county in the state. Saying you're going to leave FCPS to find greener pastures in another area of the state is only about avoiding poor people, not to find a better funded, or a better resourced school system, because it doesn't exist.

Outcomes and results vary wildly depending on the area and school, and FCPS has utterly failed certain areas and schools with the budget and resources it has had. Are you raising a family in Fairfax, zoned for one of the top 20 state public high schools, and safe from boundary changes? Good for you, you are in one of the greenest school pastures in the state (that also has low FARMS rates). But, most residents are have-nots and should not be fooled into thinking that because they live in Fairfax their children are receiving a better academic outcome because of the FCPS label.

FCPS is underfunded