School board results?

[Anonymous]

I know Westfield and a couple of other high schools such as TJ allow 8 verses 7 classes. Maybe there is some review of school courses related to how many classes you can take from middle to the end of high school or what the general student is at that school to do a general comparison of kids in that school to a particular student. That said, if analyzing a 3.7 gpa student at Chantilly or Oakton, the admissions officers don't have time to do such an in dept analysis of each school. The schools are comparable.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Here's what burns me about SBG, not all high schools use it. So if schools 1 and 2 use it, but schools 3, 4, and 5 don't, and use the old system...how are grades standardized? When kids from each those schools apply to let's say VA Tech, who does better from a grade/GPA standpoint? The kids who have grades based on SBG or the regular way? In this area where so many kids in FCPS apply to many of the same schools, I am wondering how this affects their ability to be accepted grade wise. Is the B student from SBG the same as a B student from the regular grading?

It has no effect because universities do not compare kids across different high schools. Kids are only compared against kids applying from the same high school. This is a well-known practice that all major universities follow.

COMPLETELY false. Kids are compared with kids from their part of the country, not their school.

Their transcript is assessed by the individual school's available rigor. As long as they take the most rigorous course load available to them at their high school, they are not penalized in comparison to kids at schools with more AP availability. That is how kids from middle-of-nowhere Virginia get into UVA with only four or five AP classes.

But kids in FCPS can take classes at any school in the county, so there is no real distinction between high schools unless it's a huge gap like Mount Vernon compared to Langley. Robinson is not being compared differently than South Lakes or Marshall.

What on earth are you talking about?

Also if you are this clueless or this bad at analysis maybe don't talk down to people on subjects you don't know much about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Repubs should have stayed away from book banning and crucifying trans kids. As well as slamming equity like it is a slur.

Maybe they would have had a chance.

exactly I would not vote for anyone who supports book banning or crucifying any kids because of who they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are many ways for kids to opt into different classes at other high schools. You can take dual enrollment, virtual, elect to attend a school that has a specific set of courses, elect to attend an academy. Most FCPS schools do not have a huge range of IB or AP classes from school to school. I don't know all of them, but the majority have all the major classes that you'd expect at any FCPS school. There isn't someone at VA tech wondering if you didn't really have the same AP classes offered at Centreville that is offered at Oakton. This analysis doesn't exist.

Not exactly.

“High school curricular transfer requests may be submitted for Advanced Placement program, International Baccalaureate program, foreign language or academy course sequence. The course of study must not be offered at the base high school. Parents or guardians may request a transfer to the school with space available that is closest to their residence.”

Further,

“ Student transfers will be considered if the school capacity, grade-level capacity, and the school curricular program at the requested school will permit, as determined by FCPS.

Based on the transfer type selected in the online student transfer application, the system will identify the closest open school the enrolling parent may request. ”

So, students can’t transfer to whatever schools they feel like.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The new school board will still continue the policies of skill-based grading and E3 math, while also continuing to encourage

the practice of no homework and no novels. Enjoy.

It’s called paying for tutoring, enrichment camps and having your children do Great Books.

Jeez stop whining.

Thats right. Why would I expect the school to educate my children beyond the lowest common denominator. Equity does not allow this.

The good news is I can and do provide those opportunities for my kids. The bad news is many can't provide those things. Enjoy.

So you don't support reading intervention for my dyslexic kid? You don't support special education at all?

This doesn’t make sense. Of course I support reading intervention. But while your kid learns to read through school support, my kid deserves challenging novels and discussion with a different group of kids who don’t have the same problems.

Great. Thanks for the endorsement of equity. And also for school libraries free from censorship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we give this board a chance before acting like the sky is falling?

Well we have no choice.

The superintendent hasn't changed and it's the same party ruling though, so there is no reason to expect anything different.

Reid is on VERY thin ice. For a number of reasons. The more competent and moderate entering School Board will not work in her favor.

If she is still the Superintendent at the start of, say, the 24-25 school year I will be SHOCKED.

Her contract is through SY 2027.

[Anonymous]

00:06. This thread is about school board elections. The comment about options was only to say that its not easy to isolate students on a school by school basis. Not to start a new discussion off topic. Someone posted that sbg grade issues don't matter much because colleges look at applicants on a school by school basis and therefore I guess the school board is off the hook from having to provide consistency across its high schools
That is false. Sbg, in addition to being a bad practice for learning, also doesn't provide any safety for college applicants on a school by school basis to where somehow you are isolated from being compared to the gpas of students in other parts of the county or state. The discussion was about how sbg relates to the school board's competence. It should be expected of a competent school board that their high school grading policy is consistent from school to school within the county and that it promotes learning and competence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are not understanding There are dozens of talks about this here but SBG replaces grades. There aren't retakes for improvement in skills. You just take the next unit and if you do well on a standard compared to the standard on the last unit, they change your grade for the old test. So lets say you take unit 1 and there is a standard on grammar. You get a C on this standard. Worth noting that you can only get an A,B, C,D, or F. No pluses or minuses assessed so there are 10-25 points between each grade. Depends on whether using 100 scale or 4.0. Then you take unit 2 and there is a section of grammar in this test as well that you get a B on, but it's a different focus. Maybe unit 1 was on capitalization and unit 2 was on punctuation. Since you got a B on punctuation it's assessed that you are improving in grammar and your C from capitalization is changed to a B so now you have 2 B's. You haven't done any extra practice on capitalization or have taken a new test. You just get a new grade because you did well on punctuation. Also all that practice you did between tests you do get grades for, but these grades go away when you take the assessment and get replaced by the assessment and there is no penalty if you don't do any of the practice work. You could have all zeros for practice work and then just have a C on the assessment and that is perfectly fine. No retake allowed and no work to improve that specific skill. Just that skill generally. Grammar, not capitalization. There are so many things wrong with this grading system that people have done entire studies on it and yet FCPS still uses it.

The actual driver for this bizarre way of grading is less teacher workload. Give kids extra chances by falsifying past grades so that teachers have to do less. This way the teacher can spend more time with the student on unit 2 to hopefully help them improve, that is if it actually affects their reputation or if the student requests extra help, and then the teacher and student don't have to revisit old lessons. They can just move forward on unit 2 with more oversight on the student. It reduces the teacher workload so they don't have to backtrack with their teaching or hold extra classes for retakes. Does it help the student with unit 2 punctuation? Maybe. More than likely, they are overlooked for unit 2 unless there is a reason to care about them failing out of the class. This program teaches falsifying information, teaches that tests matter more than effort, grades matter more than learning, and that work in high school isn't any more complex than elementary. No one cares whether you got 1 or 3 things wrong. You got something wrong so it's a B. It also teaches that no one really cares if you learn capitalization or not.

You are clueless.

I am a teacher who has worked in schools with SBG and traditional grading. SBG grading adds to my workload by at least 50%. I have far less time for planning, giving adequate feedback, or other important aspects of strong education. SBG is a nightmare for educators.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It is a shame that the Demo party even backed Rachna Sizemore Heizer. She was a HUGE part of the school closure issue with COVID and is only politically driven and does not care about the children at all. I am still in shock that she won.

Most people understand people were making tough decisions with limited knowledge in an unprecedented situation during Covid. As a parent at that time I didn't want my kids going to school, getting Covid, bringing it back home to more vulnerable family members etc. It was a scary time that was disruptive whether schools were virtual or in person. Most of us know people who died and even more who were hospitalized. I don't blame any school board member for that--and I imagine many others feel the same.

I preferred McLaughlin, but I don't see Sizemore Heizer through the same lens as you.

+1 million

The crazy Open Schools Now! people were very vocal, but not representative of most parents.

That’s not true. Or, it’s a significant re-write of history. When parents were given an option in summer. 2020 between virtual and in person for 2020-2021, a significant majority chose in person. And people who wanted more caution in fall 2020 were over it by spring when FCPS failed again and again to reopen because (in one instance), they couldn’t figure out lunch logistics. FCPS was one of the last school districts to reopen. And they would not have in Spring 2021 if the State Senate hadn’t voted almost unanimously to make them. And even then, any teacher with with any medical condition, including a BMI of 26, didn’t have to come back, and we got Monitors and virtual learning for kids in school. Even though they were first in line for vaccines and had the option to be fully vaccines when they returned.

Heck, Youngkin won BA based label on suburban moms pissed about the failure to schools to reopen. Without that (and McAwful being a crap candidate), he never would ha won.

Crazy was teachers standing outside school board meetings carrying small coffins.

Repeat this to yourself as needed: You have no entitlement to dictate the health risks for other people. None. ZERO.

I'm not a teacher. But I've been in the schools a lot in various capacities. And those places, esp the lunch rooms in our HS, are petri dishes in GOOD years. If they did not want that exposure for themselves, or to bring home to vulnerable family members, that is their right. And you should have absolutely ZERO say in that.

Mic drop.

Nope, if you have an issue with germ exposure, maybe don't choose a job that exposes you to 100s of other people daily.

+1. How come teachers were the only essential workers who could make this call for themselves. Doctors, nurses, my sister the pharmacist, sanitation’s workers, firefighters, even shelf stockers and Wegmans could unilaterally opt out of showing up and being exposed, if they wanted to keep their jobs. So what makes teachers different? And don’t say because they could do their jobs virtually. Because the level of learning loss we are looking at makes it clear they could not— at least not effectively.

I will say it.

Anyone whose job could be done remotely should have been virtual, and that included teachers. The teachers who were good in-person were also good virtually.

My kids had great teachers and there was no learning loss. I did have to threaten my 13-year-old that I'd sit next to him, on camera, if he tried one more time to play video games or take an extended bathroom break during school, but I would probably have to have done the same thing if he were in person. My older son did the same thing (prior to the pandemic) when he was in year 7. He just needed a little motivation.

The teachers were incredible during the pandemic, and I learned a lot myself, just from conversing with my kids about their school days.

What virtual school did was highlight how checked out some parents were.

[Anonymous]

That any rational human being can continue to think that a one party school board will not continue the same downward trajectory as the last one party school board simply amazes me.

I feel sorry for those parents who cannot afford a private education for their child(ren) or not work in order to home school them.

This was the last chance for FCPS, Superintendent Reid and the gang at Gatehouse will go unchecked, implementing one bad idea after another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People even voted for some random person with no experience in Fairfax County for clerk of court, rather than the current deputy clerk of court because she is endorsed by Republicans. There was never a chance for anyone R.

I met her in person at our bank to school night and saw her and Falcon at a public forum. Was not impressed with her. I tend to prefer experience when voting, but she was very off-putting, regardless of the R next to her name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All dem
https://www.vpap.org/electionresults/20231107/local/fairfax-county-va/

The constant fear mongering on this forum and elsewhere scared people away from the Rs vs helping them out. Having said that—I do think all the at large members seem much more reasonable than the status quo.

I think you're giving this forum more credit than it's due.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a shame that the Demo party even backed Rachna Sizemore Heizer. She was a HUGE part of the school closure issue with COVID and is only politically driven and does not care about the children at all. I am still in shock that she won.

Most people understand people were making tough decisions with limited knowledge in an unprecedented situation during Covid. As a parent at that time I didn't want my kids going to school, getting Covid, bringing it back home to more vulnerable family members etc. It was a scary time that was disruptive whether schools were virtual or in person. Most of us know people who died and even more who were hospitalized. I don't blame any school board member for that--and I imagine many others feel the same.

I preferred McLaughlin, but I don't see Sizemore Heizer through the same lens as you.

+1 million

The crazy Open Schools Now! people were very vocal, but not representative of most parents.

That’s not true. Or, it’s a significant re-write of history. When parents were given an option in summer. 2020 between virtual and in person for 2020-2021, a significant majority chose in person. And people who wanted more caution in fall 2020 were over it by spring when FCPS failed again and again to reopen because (in one instance), they couldn’t figure out lunch logistics. FCPS was one of the last school districts to reopen. And they would not have in Spring 2021 if the State Senate hadn’t voted almost unanimously to make them. And even then, any teacher with with any medical condition, including a BMI of 26, didn’t have to come back, and we got Monitors and virtual learning for kids in school. Even though they were first in line for vaccines and had the option to be fully vaccines when they returned.

Heck, Youngkin won BA based label on suburban moms pissed about the failure to schools to reopen. Without that (and McAwful being a crap candidate), he never would ha won.

Crazy was teachers standing outside school board meetings carrying small coffins.

Repeat this to yourself as needed: You have no entitlement to dictate the health risks for other people. None. ZERO.

I'm not a teacher. But I've been in the schools a lot in various capacities. And those places, esp the lunch rooms in our HS, are petri dishes in GOOD years. If they did not want that exposure for themselves, or to bring home to vulnerable family members, that is their right. And you should have absolutely ZERO say in that.

Mic drop.

Nope, if you have an issue with germ exposure, maybe don't choose a job that exposes you to 100s of other people daily.

+1. How come teachers were the only essential workers who could make this call for themselves. Doctors, nurses, my sister the pharmacist, sanitation’s workers, firefighters, even shelf stockers and Wegmans could unilaterally opt out of showing up and being exposed, if they wanted to keep their jobs. So what makes teachers different? And don’t say because they could do their jobs virtually. Because the level of learning loss we are looking at makes it clear they could not— at least not effectively.

C'mon. Working in a contained environment all day with a bunch of kids (some of whom have crazy parents who didn't care about the "cold" their kids had) during the first-in-our-lifetime pandemic is the same as stocking the shelf at a 80,000 square foot Wegmans? The sanitation workers had the same chance of picking up covid in the alley as a teacher in close quarters with elementary kids who can't blow their noses on their own? It's time to move on.

Why were private schools able to have in person school? I had one DS in a private high school in DC and one in high school in FCPS. My private school DS returned to in person school in October 2020 and everything was fine. I had several friends with children in private schools in Virginia and their children returned to school in September 2020. I also worked in person in a private preschool that entire school year, starting in September 2020 with two to five year olds and we never had a Covid outbreak. I guess private school teachers and students had some miraculous immunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All Democrats. Great!

great for teachers union but not for parents

I'm a parent of a 5th grader. I think lower class sizes, better compensation for teachers (resulting in more successful recruitment and retention of good teachers), better working conditions and benefits for teachers, and more reasonable workloads for teachers are all very good for my child. You don't get great schools by treating teachers like garbage.

You think your child is in a great school then and no change needed. Republicans have run nothing in the Fairfax schools for decades. It has always been a democrat majority by a long shot.

I want exactly what the 5th grade parent wants, and Rs are not offering it. If Rs drop the culture war BS and become the party of small classes and excellent teachers, they'll have a shot at my vote. There's nothing in their platform right now that's pro education.

+1
Signed, a parent of two FCPS elementary schoolers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are not understanding There are dozens of talks about this here but SBG replaces grades. There aren't retakes for improvement in skills. You just take the next unit and if you do well on a standard compared to the standard on the last unit, they change your grade for the old test. So lets say you take unit 1 and there is a standard on grammar. You get a C on this standard. Worth noting that you can only get an A,B, C,D, or F. No pluses or minuses assessed so there are 10-25 points between each grade. Depends on whether using 100 scale or 4.0. Then you take unit 2 and there is a section of grammar in this test as well that you get a B on, but it's a different focus. Maybe unit 1 was on capitalization and unit 2 was on punctuation. Since you got a B on punctuation it's assessed that you are improving in grammar and your C from capitalization is changed to a B so now you have 2 B's. You haven't done any extra practice on capitalization or have taken a new test. You just get a new grade because you did well on punctuation. Also all that practice you did between tests you do get grades for, but these grades go away when you take the assessment and get replaced by the assessment and there is no penalty if you don't do any of the practice work. You could have all zeros for practice work and then just have a C on the assessment and that is perfectly fine. No retake allowed and no work to improve that specific skill. Just that skill generally. Grammar, not capitalization. There are so many things wrong with this grading system that people have done entire studies on it and yet FCPS still uses it.

The actual driver for this bizarre way of grading is less teacher workload. Give kids extra chances by falsifying past grades so that teachers have to do less. This way the teacher can spend more time with the student on unit 2 to hopefully help them improve, that is if it actually affects their reputation or if the student requests extra help, and then the teacher and student don't have to revisit old lessons. They can just move forward on unit 2 with more oversight on the student. It reduces the teacher workload so they don't have to backtrack with their teaching or hold extra classes for retakes. Does it help the student with unit 2 punctuation? Maybe. More than likely, they are overlooked for unit 2 unless there is a reason to care about them failing out of the class. This program teaches falsifying information, teaches that tests matter more than effort, grades matter more than learning, and that work in high school isn't any more complex than elementary. No one cares whether you got 1 or 3 things wrong. You got something wrong so it's a B. It also teaches that no one really cares if you learn capitalization or not.

You are clueless.

I am a teacher who has worked in schools with SBG and traditional grading. SBG grading adds to my workload by at least 50%. I have far less time for planning, giving adequate feedback, or other important aspects of strong education. SBG is a nightmare for educators.

Agreed that the standards-based setup takes more time, but I'm sure the educators who applaud this type of grading think well that will only be a 1-2 year issue and then will resolve itself. There were complaints about retakes and the replacing grades verses retakes was suppposed to bring down the workload for teachers. Just because setup does take more time doesn't mean the above isn't also incorrect.