Please SOUND OFF if you think FCPS is in decline!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well then it looks like it should go along with those transportation costs.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well then it looks like it should go along with those transportation costs.

But then how does my child get a decent education without AAP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well then it looks like it should go along with those transportation costs.

But then how does my child get a decent education without AAP?

You advocate for a decent education for ALL, not simply a favored few.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If ESOL is a drain, then why not AAP kids and language immersion kids? They take up resources too. But I guess that's OK?

How is language immersion a drain? HR personnel?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our elementary schools can't continue to be absolutely everything to everyone; FARMS to include backpack or weekend subsistence, clothing closets, food pantries, PTA subsidized school supplies, field trips, instrument provision, ESOL, translators for parent meetings and conferences or even a simple emergency call to home, holiday gift distribution...and the list goes on.

And before I get pummeled for daring to mention these issues, I speak from experience and have given my time and money to quietly support FCPS, but I have donor fatigue.

It's rough to send your average, non gifted, English speaking child with two college educated parents to FCPS kindergarten and I've done it four times.

Your solidly average student will quite frankly be lost in the shuffle. I'm convinced that the uptick in IEPs and parent referral to AAP and legions of twice exceptional students is actually a well played, strategic move by savvy and smart FCPS parents. So, if your kid doesn't have a "hook," forget it.
Move your kid to the head of the class if there's an IEP, kid is 2E, ESL, AAP, homeless, pregnant, FARMs, legally emancipated, parent incarcerated or deported, no computer in the home. Help and programs and services will be on the way!

Plan now to teach the basics; handwriting, spelling, math facts, reading comprehension, grammar, pre-algebra skills, geography, to name a few.

Set aside money for private tutors now if you aren't up to the task or never took chemistry, or can't remember geometry.

This is all absolutely true. Thank you for your honesty.

-1. Typical MAGA blather.

What a stupid statement. There is nothing in the PPP's post that is untrue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please. NP here, but the PPs that talked about how hard it is to accommodate kids who have never held a book and kids that are reading fluently in kindergarten are absolutely correct. I know it's not politically correct--and I am a Dem--but it is impossible to deal with kids who don't speak English, whose parents are not literate in their native languages, who are traumatized by what has happened or is going on at home, who face poverty or homelessness, and/or who have serious behavioral issues, and also accommodate the typical middle class kid. And God forbid that typical kid is quiet and well-behaved (especially a girl), because that kid will be ignored entirely.

My DD spent most of early elementary school at her Title I school stuck in a corner doing worksheets and reading quietly while the teacher dealt with behavioral issues and offering remedial instruction. DD qualified for AAP, but even at her Level IV center the classes are overcrowded, and there are numerous behavioral issues. I went to an underfunded, high poverty public school in the South, and my education was superior to what I am seeing in FCPS. Not impressed.

+1
Though I would add this happens to any well-behaved, quiet student. Both my boys were completely overlooked because they did what they were told and didn't disrupt the class. It's absurd that this is where our tax dollars are going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please. NP here, but the PPs that talked about how hard it is to accommodate kids who have never held a book and kids that are reading fluently in kindergarten are absolutely correct. I know it's not politically correct--and I am a Dem--but it is impossible to deal with kids who don't speak English, whose parents are not literate in their native languages, who are traumatized by what has happened or is going on at home, who face poverty or homelessness, and/or who have serious behavioral issues, and also accommodate the typical middle class kid. And God forbid that typical kid is quiet and well-behaved (especially a girl), because that kid will be ignored entirely.

My DD spent most of early elementary school at her Title I school stuck in a corner doing worksheets and reading quietly while the teacher dealt with behavioral issues and offering remedial instruction. DD qualified for AAP, but even at her Level IV center the classes are overcrowded, and there are numerous behavioral issues. I went to an underfunded, high poverty public school in the South, and my education was superior to what I am seeing in FCPS. Not impressed.

+1
Though I would add this happens to any well-behaved, quiet student. Both my boys were completely overlooked because they did what they were told and didn't disrupt the class. It's absurd that this is where our tax dollars are going.

Had the exact same experience. Makes me sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Educating kids is an investment in all our futures. People who dismissively use the term “drain,” when it comes to educating certain children because they are the wrong color or had the misfortune to be born in a dangerous place are horrible individuals fully deserving of scorn.

You’ll claim you’re just being reasonable, or speaking in economic terms, but what goes around comes around.

Wow! I'm the PP to whom you are responding. I said we should educate them, but we need a plan. And, FWIW, what would happen in your house if you suddenly had unexpected guests and no place for them to sleep and not enough food?

Now, take a school system structured for a certain number of kids and suddenly have to accommodate in one year a thousand unexpected kids. You need teachers, you need books, you need computers, you need specialists, you need translators, you need liaisons, etc., etc. So, with limited funds that are already allocated, what do you do? What is the plan?

Do you listen to SB meetings? Do you understand how they argue and work to put the money where it belongs? And, then you think it just magically appears in the pockets of our new arrivals?

Of course, we educate them. But how?

You’re exactly right and thank you for your well reasoned posts. The pp before you will never understand reason and cannot seem to accept the current reality of what is happening in the school system. I wish I had the answers, all I know is that you can’t just expect two or three pyramids to handle this load. It’s like a ticking time bomb in some of these schools and pretty soon the entire community will feel the repercussions.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If ESOL is a drain, then why not AAP kids and language immersion kids? They take up resources too. But I guess that's OK?

Exactly. I would think that they should both be on the chopping block. ESOL is required by law.

Completely agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If ESOL is a drain, then why not AAP kids and language immersion kids? They take up resources too. But I guess that's OK?

Exactly. I would think that they should both be on the chopping block. ESOL is required by law.

Completely agree.

I can’t see any compelling reason to eliminate specialized programs like this. Feel free to move to lower-performing Loudoun if you want more of a one-size-fits-all experience.

[Anonymous]

If they’re not required by law, then the programs must be put under consideration for elimination.

[Anonymous]

FCPS has gone down so gradually while praising itself to the skies. Every 5 years or so it ticks downwards and the parents take for granted that what is being taught is the same as 20 years ago it’s not. The fact that Fairfax has gotten so expensive in places buffers the schools up because the parents supplement.

[Anonymous]

My kid is not in AAP. But I do think it's sad if we had to get rid of AAP and basically teach to the most basic educational level possible. That's not the way to achieve excellence as a society.

[Anonymous]

Agree that AAP is a circus. It’s s necessity for a regular kid to try to get an education in those over crowded schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is not in AAP. But I do think it's sad if we had to get rid of AAP and basically teach to the most basic educational level possible. That's not the way to achieve excellence as a society.

Give teachers reasonable class sizes, and they can teach all the kids in the class--assuming that there are not too many with special needs. Teachers did this for many,many years ---long before AAP.

Go back to GT for the extremely highly gifted.

AAP is a joke.