FCPS statement on NMF issue

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:FCPS's response makes it look like a hopeless bureaucratic mess. It can basically be summarized as:

1. NMSC notified FCPS about commended students on Sept. 15.
2. 15 FCPS high schools notified their commended students by Nov. 1, and 8 FCPS high schools notified their commended students after Nov. 1, with the latest occurring in mid January.
3. Although NMSC stated that students should be informed "as soon as possible," NMSC did not provide a specific deadline or a specific method of informing students. Obviously, a FCPS high school could not possibly figure out how to distribute good news to its students in less than 1.5 months.
4. FCPS is working on a "draft regulation" to make uniform process and deadline to distributing commended information. The entire process of informing students though seems to be that the principal just signs a certificate and gives it to the student.
5. FCPS is asking NMSC to directly email students to alleviate FCPS from the burden forwarding information and signing certificates.

It strikes me as weird in general that FCPS presents no reason why it takes 6 weeks (or more) to simply forward information and sign certificates. FCPS should want to celebrate the success of its students, but instead believes that the signing of a few certificates is some hopelessly burdensome task that it could not possibly undertake without district-wide policies.


*In the summary I read they went school by school and explained each failure.

*The district did "celebrate" by press release, the NM semi-finalists. As did my kid's FCPS high school. Commended students aren't eligible to apply for the award, just like all the other kids who took the SAT, it's just that their scores were a little higher, but not high enough. NMSC should get rid of commended status. It's pointless. The district is bad because they didn't properly acknowledge commended students is a personal complaint, not one that requires national media attention and investigations. Why should actual semi-finalists have to share the spot light with students who were only acknowledged for participating?

*NMSC should 100% give out their own awards.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Omg did half of you actually read the report? It’s pretty detailed.

And they hired independent investigators because of the outcry and state/national attention.

Here’s FCPS’s media release for NMF in 2022 and my kid’s HS did the same for just their school. It was announced.

https://www.fcps.edu/news/two-hundred-thirty-...-merit-semifinalists

Disband TJ. It’s a time/resource suck.


Er, TJ? What does that have to do with FCPS's dilatory notifications?


No one seems upset about the West Po or Annandale students in the same situation. Meanwhile, the state AG is investigating over the same thing at TJ. The school is a massive waste and the county would be better off withdrawing from it.


That is weird. I would expect TJ commended students to understand the cutoffs and have better things to list in a college application. The West Po and Annandale kids are the ones who might not realize they earned a commendation and might actually benefit from including the award in their college application. Also, both of those schools would have few to no National Merit semifinalists and only a small number of commended kids, so it's a much bigger deal there.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Omg did half of you actually read the report? It’s pretty detailed.

And they hired independent investigators because of the outcry and state/national attention.

Here’s FCPS’s media release for NMF in 2022 and my kid’s HS did the same for just their school. It was announced.

https://www.fcps.edu/news/two-hundred-thirty-...-merit-semifinalists

Disband TJ. It’s a time/resource suck.


Er, TJ? What does that have to do with FCPS's dilatory notifications?


No one seems upset about the West Po or Annandale students in the same situation. Meanwhile, the state AG is investigating over the same thing at TJ. The school is a massive waste and the county would be better off withdrawing from it.


That is weird. I would expect TJ commended students to understand the cutoffs and have better things to list in a college application. The West Po and Annandale kids are the ones who might not realize they earned a commendation and might actually benefit from including the award in their college application. Also, both of those schools would have few to no National Merit semifinalists and only a small number of commended kids, so it's a much bigger deal there.


Including those schools in the investigation doesn't fit the narrative that the AG is pushing
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:FCPS's response makes it look like a hopeless bureaucratic mess. It can basically be summarized as:

1. NMSC notified FCPS about commended students on Sept. 15.
2. 15 FCPS high schools notified their commended students by Nov. 1, and 8 FCPS high schools notified their commended students after Nov. 1, with the latest occurring in mid January.
3. Although NMSC stated that students should be informed "as soon as possible," NMSC did not provide a specific deadline or a specific method of informing students. Obviously, a FCPS high school could not possibly figure out how to distribute good news to its students in less than 1.5 months.
4. FCPS is working on a "draft regulation" to make uniform process and deadline to distributing commended information. The entire process of informing students though seems to be that the principal just signs a certificate and gives it to the student.
5. FCPS is asking NMSC to directly email students to alleviate FCPS from the burden forwarding information and signing certificates.

It strikes me as weird in general that FCPS presents no reason why it takes 6 weeks (or more) to simply forward information and sign certificates. FCPS should want to celebrate the success of its students, but instead believes that the signing of a few certificates is some hopelessly burdensome task that it could not possibly undertake without district-wide policies.


*In the summary I read they went school by school and explained each failure.

*The district did "celebrate" by press release, the NM semi-finalists. As did my kid's FCPS high school. Commended students aren't eligible to apply for the award, just like all the other kids who took the SAT, it's just that their scores were a little higher, but not high enough. NMSC should get rid of commended status. It's pointless. The district is bad because they didn't properly acknowledge commended students is a personal complaint, not one that requires national media attention and investigations. Why should actual semi-finalists have to share the spot light with students who were only acknowledged for participating?

*NMSC should 100% give out their own awards.


It's not just a participation award, and it's offensive to suggest that it is the case. In FCPS, the commended status would range from kids who scored in the 97th percentile to kids who scored in the 99.6th or so percentile. Maybe for TJ kids, it's no big deal and basically a participation award. For kids at higher FARMS, regular high schools, it's a much more significant honor.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Omg did half of you actually read the report? It’s pretty detailed.

And they hired independent investigators because of the outcry and state/national attention.

Here’s FCPS’s media release for NMF in 2022 and my kid’s HS did the same for just their school. It was announced.

https://www.fcps.edu/news/two-hundred-thirty-...-merit-semifinalists

Disband TJ. It’s a time/resource suck.


Er, TJ? What does that have to do with FCPS's dilatory notifications?


No one seems upset about the West Po or Annandale students in the same situation. Meanwhile, the state AG is investigating over the same thing at TJ. The school is a massive waste and the county would be better off withdrawing from it.


That is weird. I would expect TJ commended students to understand the cutoffs and have better things to list in a college application. The West Po and Annandale kids are the ones who might not realize they earned a commendation and might actually benefit from including the award in their college application. Also, both of those schools would have few to no National Merit semifinalists and only a small number of commended kids, so it's a much bigger deal there.


Including those schools in the investigation doesn't fit the narrative that the AG is pushing


Sure. I just think it's legitimately bad for them to have withheld notice to the very small number of commended students at the higher FARMS schools. For TJ kids, while the administration ought to have notified the students promptly of their status, it's not that big of a deal.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:This whole thing is unnecessary paperwork.

NMSC should just directly email students.


And yet other schools in other school districts notify their students of their commended status (not all of them very quickly).
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:FCPS's response makes it look like a hopeless bureaucratic mess. It can basically be summarized as:

1. NMSC notified FCPS about commended students on Sept. 15.
2. 15 FCPS high schools notified their commended students by Nov. 1, and 8 FCPS high schools notified their commended students after Nov. 1, with the latest occurring in mid January.
3. Although NMSC stated that students should be informed "as soon as possible," NMSC did not provide a specific deadline or a specific method of informing students. Obviously, a FCPS high school could not possibly figure out how to distribute good news to its students in less than 1.5 months.
4. FCPS is working on a "draft regulation" to make uniform process and deadline to distributing commended information. The entire process of informing students though seems to be that the principal just signs a certificate and gives it to the student.
5. FCPS is asking NMSC to directly email students to alleviate FCPS from the burden forwarding information and signing certificates.

It strikes me as weird in general that FCPS presents no reason why it takes 6 weeks (or more) to simply forward information and sign certificates. FCPS should want to celebrate the success of its students, but instead believes that the signing of a few certificates is some hopelessly burdensome task that it could not possibly undertake without district-wide policies.


*In the summary I read they went school by school and explained each failure.

*The district did "celebrate" by press release, the NM semi-finalists. As did my kid's FCPS high school. Commended students aren't eligible to apply for the award, just like all the other kids who took the SAT, it's just that their scores were a little higher, but not high enough. NMSC should get rid of commended status. It's pointless. The district is bad because they didn't properly acknowledge commended students is a personal complaint, not one that requires national media attention and investigations. Why should actual semi-finalists have to share the spot light with students who were only acknowledged for participating?

*NMSC should 100% give out their own awards.


It's not just a participation award, and it's offensive to suggest that it is the case. In FCPS, the commended status would range from kids who scored in the 97th percentile to kids who scored in the 99.6th or so percentile. Maybe for TJ kids, it's no big deal and basically a participation award. For kids at higher FARMS, regular high schools, it's a much more significant honor.


It’s a PSAT score and nothing else. Colleges barely care about SATs, but you think PSATs are a big deal?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This whole thing is unnecessary paperwork.

NMSC should just directly email students.


And yet other schools in other school districts notify their students of their commended status (not all of them very quickly).


How do you know that? Do you have any source?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I thought this was well written and very thorough. The fact that a 3rd party dumps their job on the schools was ridiculous to begin with and the narrative that was created and propagated by TJ parents was nonsensical and very costly to the district. I don't read right-winged media reports but if anyone does, please share their reporting on the district's outcomes.

https://www.fcps.edu/node/47523



The fact that schools neglected to give the commendations in a timely manner either shows negligence or intention. Neither is acceptable, but there is some documentation that, at least at TJ, it was intentional.

One of the schools that neglected to give the award until the issue went public has a principal whose bio reflects, first and foremost, attention to "equity."

Exactly.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This whole thing is unnecessary paperwork.

NMSC should just directly email students.


And yet other schools in other school districts notify their students of their commended status (not all of them very quickly).



That doesn't make it necessary for schools to deal with it.

NMSC should just email/notify students directly.

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:FCPS's response makes it look like a hopeless bureaucratic mess. It can basically be summarized as:

1. NMSC notified FCPS about commended students on Sept. 15.
2. 15 FCPS high schools notified their commended students by Nov. 1, and 8 FCPS high schools notified their commended students after Nov. 1, with the latest occurring in mid January.
3. Although NMSC stated that students should be informed "as soon as possible," NMSC did not provide a specific deadline or a specific method of informing students. Obviously, a FCPS high school could not possibly figure out how to distribute good news to its students in less than 1.5 months.
4. FCPS is working on a "draft regulation" to make uniform process and deadline to distributing commended information. The entire process of informing students though seems to be that the principal just signs a certificate and gives it to the student.
5. FCPS is asking NMSC to directly email students to alleviate FCPS from the burden forwarding information and signing certificates.

It strikes me as weird in general that FCPS presents no reason why it takes 6 weeks (or more) to simply forward information and sign certificates. FCPS should want to celebrate the success of its students, but instead believes that the signing of a few certificates is some hopelessly burdensome task that it could not possibly undertake without district-wide policies.


Why should they be responsible for doing a private organization’s work at all?


Yes! I’m glad Reid wrote the NMSC and encouraged them to use electronic notification directly to students.


+1

Stupidest “issue” ever. Can’t the Republicans find something better to do with their time?


If it is your own child, it is not stupid.

Again, it was deliberate or negligent. Neither is acceptable.
As for the "outside" firm--let's remember they were paid for by FCPS --and FCPS is releasing few details. Reid says she cannot release ti because of "privacy." Nothing to keep them from redacting names.



Neither, given that it was a third party request.

Sad that Republicans can't find anything better to do.
Anonymous
Essentially I understand the findings to be that nothing malicious/ill intentioned was uncovered.

Leads me to believe that FCPS is incompetent and unable to successfully do a simple task of notifying students of an award. They will probably go hire someone who’s sole job is to notify students now instead of relying on one of the thousands of other Gatehouse employees or administrators.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:This whole thing is unnecessary paperwork.

NMSC should just directly email students.


+100 This isn't a school-based award. The CORPORATION should handle the notification themselves.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I thought this was well written and very thorough. The fact that a 3rd party dumps their job on the schools was ridiculous to begin with and the narrative that was created and propagated by TJ parents was nonsensical and very costly to the district. I don't read right-winged media reports but if anyone does, please share their reporting on the district's outcomes.

https://www.fcps.edu/node/47523



The fact that schools neglected to give the commendations in a timely manner either shows negligence or intention. Neither is acceptable, but there is some documentation that, at least at TJ, it was intentional.

One of the schools that neglected to give the award until the issue went public has a principal whose bio reflects, first and foremost, attention to "equity."


That proves NOTHING! And that's exactly what this was -- A BIG FAT NOTHING-BURGER!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Essentially I understand the findings to be that nothing malicious/ill intentioned was uncovered.

Leads me to believe that FCPS is incompetent and unable to successfully do a simple task of notifying students of an award. They will probably go hire someone who’s sole job is to notify students now instead of relying on one of the thousands of other Gatehouse employees or administrators.


I wouldn't base competence based on a random, extra request from an external organization. These people were probably busy doing the actual things they were hired to do.
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