What happened to learning as a national priority?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each party wants to point fingers at the other party, saying that THEY are the bad guys who don't care about education. Then when they get in power they paper over real problems (see: anything the FCPS school board does, and also Youngkin starting up lab schools and raising accreditation standards instead of focusing on actual reading, writing, and 'rithmetic) because it turns out solving real problems is hard.

Props to places in the much maligned Bible belt that are leading the charge on embracing the science of reading and other actual neuroscience backed education reforms. Sounds like Louisiana is one too. Given the economic realities there we probably won't point to them as best-in-class states for education (the wealth on the coasts will keep the schools from utterly failing), but I bet the learning gaps will be smaller there than anywhere else.

The so-called “bible belt” is MAGA-supremacist flyover country. Nothing they do is good.

Oh? https://apnews.com/article/reading-scores-phonics-mississippi-alabama-louisiana-5bdd5d6ff719b23faa37db2fb95d5004

Mississippi is bragging about reading in 4th grade? OK

They are still 50th in healthcare but #1 in obesity. They would do a whole lot better if they also put nutrition and healthcare as priorities.

You’re an irredeemable racist. Disgusting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:According to this (gift) article from the New York Times, learning used to be a national priority but fell to the wayside in the Bush-Obama years during which principals became focused on NOT failing - rather than succeeding. Now, Louisiana leading the way is introducing reforms that are really working, including the idea that, "Developing a mature attention span is crucial for work."

That means no screens.

"Unlike in many elementary-school classrooms, the students did not have computers or tablets on their desks. They had open books, which they were avidly marking up with highlighters and pencils ... Children cannot learn to focus their attention on books or anything else if they are constantly distracted by addictive technology."

They also focus on building a big vocabulary through science and social studies, the exact subjects that the Bush-Obama reforms often stripped from the school day. Louisiana is teaching history in elementary school. From the article,

"Ms. Cascio reviewed vocabulary words that students would need: heretic, rational, skepticism, heliocentric. Then, over the course of an hour, 10- and 11-year-olds broke into groups to discuss why Leonardo da Vinci was interested in human anatomy. They wrote about how the ideas of Copernicus and Galileo differed from those of the ancient Greeks."

In our FCPS elementary school, we definitely are NOT learning about the Renaissance.

During the Bush-Obama years, schools were punished when their kids did not pass standardized tests - "Tying punishments to test scores led to a predictable outcome: a curriculum that, in too many schools, centered on test prep. Students practiced reading short passages and answering multiple choice questions about those passages, over and over again." Long form books were out, short passages were in - and as a result, many kids have never read a full book before college.

What will it take to make FCPS care about learning rather than just not failing?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/10/us/education-politics-learning.html?unlocked_article_code=1.GU8.iFDG.q9HYXoaiuR_S&smid=url-share

Come to sterling middle school in Virginia to see what happened

Democrats opened the borders and schools have to accept everyone. Teachers and admins are overwhelmed with kids that do not speak English well or have bad situations at home or have no homes.

Just trying to get thru the day with the resources they have

But we have NEVER seen rep Connolly or senator Kaine or senator Warner , never

+1. Seneca Ridge Middle (also in Sterling) as well.

[Anonymous]

Admin bloat + onerous data collection requirements for reporting to god knows where isn’t helping

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to this (gift) article from the New York Times, learning used to be a national priority but fell to the wayside in the Bush-Obama years during which principals became focused on NOT failing - rather than succeeding. Now, Louisiana leading the way is introducing reforms that are really working, including the idea that, "Developing a mature attention span is crucial for work."

That means no screens.

"Unlike in many elementary-school classrooms, the students did not have computers or tablets on their desks. They had open books, which they were avidly marking up with highlighters and pencils ... Children cannot learn to focus their attention on books or anything else if they are constantly distracted by addictive technology."

They also focus on building a big vocabulary through science and social studies, the exact subjects that the Bush-Obama reforms often stripped from the school day. Louisiana is teaching history in elementary school. From the article,

"Ms. Cascio reviewed vocabulary words that students would need: heretic, rational, skepticism, heliocentric. Then, over the course of an hour, 10- and 11-year-olds broke into groups to discuss why Leonardo da Vinci was interested in human anatomy. They wrote about how the ideas of Copernicus and Galileo differed from those of the ancient Greeks."

In our FCPS elementary school, we definitely are NOT learning about the Renaissance.

During the Bush-Obama years, schools were punished when their kids did not pass standardized tests - "Tying punishments to test scores led to a predictable outcome: a curriculum that, in too many schools, centered on test prep. Students practiced reading short passages and answering multiple choice questions about those passages, over and over again." Long form books were out, short passages were in - and as a result, many kids have never read a full book before college.

What will it take to make FCPS care about learning rather than just not failing?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/10/us/education-politics-learning.html?unlocked_article_code=1.GU8.iFDG.q9HYXoaiuR_S&smid=url-share

This predates Bush-Obama years, although No Child Left Behind was terrible legislation (however well intended). It also has zero to do with screens.

The war on education began in the 1980s when right wing conservatives began infiltrating school boards and started shifting the focus in schools away from teaching critical thinking to demanding more rote education. Simultaneously they began whining about persecution in colleges. It took 40-odd years, but they’ve gotten us to where they wanted us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To get back to the OP, I absolutely think getting everyone (parents, teachers, administrators) to agree that screens are not helping our kids learn is the FIRST step. Everything else people are talking about is going to vary from school to school and district to district, depending on the percentage of FARMS kids and the resources available.

But returning to paper and pencil learning and kicking EdTech out the door is step one to regaining focus on learning as opposed to just social promotion or warehousing kids. Screens placate kids but don't educate them. Screens become crutches for teachers and parents alike, and easy way to avoid dealing with developing children who are not always easy.

And yes, developing attention span and stamina for academic activities (NOT some app that gamifies math, but reading or writing or math with paper and pencil) is essential to creating a foundation on which kids can learn.

Get screens out of the classroom. Then we'll talk about the rest.

I have little hope that they’ll remove screens from K-2 in our district. They have to keep kids occupied during small group time.

[Anonymous]

You will learn the most important thing of all and that is this country will screw its workers out of basic needs like healthcare and education to give tax breaks to billionaires who will never ever do real work. Also, if you try to be a teacher you will have to do this whole song and dance to pretend we are not turning into a third world country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each party wants to point fingers at the other party, saying that THEY are the bad guys who don't care about education. Then when they get in power they paper over real problems (see: anything the FCPS school board does, and also Youngkin starting up lab schools and raising accreditation standards instead of focusing on actual reading, writing, and 'rithmetic) because it turns out solving real problems is hard.

Props to places in the much maligned Bible belt that are leading the charge on embracing the science of reading and other actual neuroscience backed education reforms. Sounds like Louisiana is one too. Given the economic realities there we probably won't point to them as best-in-class states for education (the wealth on the coasts will keep the schools from utterly failing), but I bet the learning gaps will be smaller there than anywhere else.

The so-called “bible belt” is MAGA-supremacist flyover country. Nothing they do is good.

Oh? https://apnews.com/article/reading-scores-phonics-mississippi-alabama-louisiana-5bdd5d6ff719b23faa37db2fb95d5004

Mississippi is bragging about reading in 4th grade? OK

They are still 50th in healthcare but #1 in obesity. They would do a whole lot better if they also put nutrition and healthcare as priorities.

You’re an irredeemable racist. Disgusting.

How is this racist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paying and treating teachers like professionals.

nope, the Louisiana teachers earn less than FCPS teachers

Well that makes sense, since the cost of living in Louisiana is very similar to the cost of living in Fairfax County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To get back to the OP, I absolutely think getting everyone (parents, teachers, administrators) to agree that screens are not helping our kids learn is the FIRST step. Everything else people are talking about is going to vary from school to school and district to district, depending on the percentage of FARMS kids and the resources available.

But returning to paper and pencil learning and kicking EdTech out the door is step one to regaining focus on learning as opposed to just social promotion or warehousing kids. Screens placate kids but don't educate them. Screens become crutches for teachers and parents alike, and easy way to avoid dealing with developing children who are not always easy.

And yes, developing attention span and stamina for academic activities (NOT some app that gamifies math, but reading or writing or math with paper and pencil) is essential to creating a foundation on which kids can learn.

Get screens out of the classroom. Then we'll talk about the rest.

I have little hope that they’ll remove screens from K-2 in our district. They have to keep kids occupied during small group time.

It’s more like they have to keep the kids who learn the material easily occupied while they teach it over and over and over again to the ones who can’t get it. The smart kids get significantly less time from the teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To get back to the OP, I absolutely think getting everyone (parents, teachers, administrators) to agree that screens are not helping our kids learn is the FIRST step. Everything else people are talking about is going to vary from school to school and district to district, depending on the percentage of FARMS kids and the resources available.

But returning to paper and pencil learning and kicking EdTech out the door is step one to regaining focus on learning as opposed to just social promotion or warehousing kids. Screens placate kids but don't educate them. Screens become crutches for teachers and parents alike, and easy way to avoid dealing with developing children who are not always easy.

And yes, developing attention span and stamina for academic activities (NOT some app that gamifies math, but reading or writing or math with paper and pencil) is essential to creating a foundation on which kids can learn.

Get screens out of the classroom. Then we'll talk about the rest.

I have little hope that they’ll remove screens from K-2 in our district. They have to keep kids occupied during small group time.

It’s more like they have to keep the kids who learn the material easily occupied while they teach it over and over and over again to the ones who can’t get it. The smart kids get significantly less time from the teacher.

Except the teachers aren’t even teaching anyone. They are putting kids on computer games which “teach” concepts. Very little actual teacher instruction is happening. I remember in elementary school the teacher taught nearly the whole class time- writing instructions and lessons on the chalkboard, drawing diagrams, explaining concepts, leading class discussions, having us take turns reading aloud from our textbooks. NONE of this is happening, in elementary or middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To get back to the OP, I absolutely think getting everyone (parents, teachers, administrators) to agree that screens are not helping our kids learn is the FIRST step. Everything else people are talking about is going to vary from school to school and district to district, depending on the percentage of FARMS kids and the resources available.

But returning to paper and pencil learning and kicking EdTech out the door is step one to regaining focus on learning as opposed to just social promotion or warehousing kids. Screens placate kids but don't educate them. Screens become crutches for teachers and parents alike, and easy way to avoid dealing with developing children who are not always easy.

And yes, developing attention span and stamina for academic activities (NOT some app that gamifies math, but reading or writing or math with paper and pencil) is essential to creating a foundation on which kids can learn.

Get screens out of the classroom. Then we'll talk about the rest.

I have little hope that they’ll remove screens from K-2 in our district. They have to keep kids occupied during small group time.

It’s more like they have to keep the kids who learn the material easily occupied while they teach it over and over and over again to the ones who can’t get it. The smart kids get significantly less time from the teacher.

This.

When I was a kid, we were allowed to read while the teacher worked with the dumb kids. It made all the smart kids into avid readers. Wish they’d do that instead of letting kids play Minecraft.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To get back to the OP, I absolutely think getting everyone (parents, teachers, administrators) to agree that screens are not helping our kids learn is the FIRST step. Everything else people are talking about is going to vary from school to school and district to district, depending on the percentage of FARMS kids and the resources available.

But returning to paper and pencil learning and kicking EdTech out the door is step one to regaining focus on learning as opposed to just social promotion or warehousing kids. Screens placate kids but don't educate them. Screens become crutches for teachers and parents alike, and easy way to avoid dealing with developing children who are not always easy.

And yes, developing attention span and stamina for academic activities (NOT some app that gamifies math, but reading or writing or math with paper and pencil) is essential to creating a foundation on which kids can learn.

Get screens out of the classroom. Then we'll talk about the rest.

I have little hope that they’ll remove screens from K-2 in our district. They have to keep kids occupied during small group time.

It’s more like they have to keep the kids who learn the material easily occupied while they teach it over and over and over again to the ones who can’t get it. The smart kids get significantly less time from the teacher.

Except the teachers aren’t even teaching anyone. They are putting kids on computer games which “teach” concepts. Very little actual teacher instruction is happening. I remember in elementary school the teacher taught nearly the whole class time- writing instructions and lessons on the chalkboard, drawing diagrams, explaining concepts, leading class discussions, having us take turns reading aloud from our textbooks. NONE of this is happening, in elementary or middle school.

My kindergartener watches a TV screen read him books. I remember my kindergarten teacher reading actual books to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each party wants to point fingers at the other party, saying that THEY are the bad guys who don't care about education. Then when they get in power they paper over real problems (see: anything the FCPS school board does, and also Youngkin starting up lab schools and raising accreditation standards instead of focusing on actual reading, writing, and 'rithmetic) because it turns out solving real problems is hard.

Props to places in the much maligned Bible belt that are leading the charge on embracing the science of reading and other actual neuroscience backed education reforms. Sounds like Louisiana is one too. Given the economic realities there we probably won't point to them as best-in-class states for education (the wealth on the coasts will keep the schools from utterly failing), but I bet the learning gaps will be smaller there than anywhere else.

The so-called “bible belt” is MAGA-supremacist flyover country. Nothing they do is good.

Oh? https://apnews.com/article/reading-scores-phonics-mississippi-alabama-louisiana-5bdd5d6ff719b23faa37db2fb95d5004

Stop playing dumb. We see you.

Mississippi is bragging about reading in 4th grade? OK

They are still 50th in healthcare but #1 in obesity. They would do a whole lot better if they also put nutrition and healthcare as priorities.

You’re an irredeemable racist. Disgusting.

How is this racist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is a social services program. Education is a secondary mission.

MCPS is worse.

Not sure about that.

MCPS and APS both moved recently to CKLA, which teaches actual content integrated with Language Arts. CKLA is from the Core Knowledge Foundation — CKF is NOT related to Common Core, btw. The cited article thinks CKLA is an example of what we should be moving to, and both APS and MCPS have already made that switch.

However, FCPS recently moved to the Phonics variant of Benchmark, which does not integrate content the way CKLA does (but still is a huge improvement over the previous non-Phonics language arts program). MCPS no longer uses Benchmark for LA, having replaced it with CKLA.

Yeah say what you will about MCPS, the CKLA switch was a positive one. My third grader isn't learning about the Renaissance specifically, but she's getting history through CKLA.

I work for APS, I believe there is a Renaissance unit in 5th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is a social services program. Education is a secondary mission.

MCPS is worse.

Not sure about that.

MCPS and APS both moved recently to CKLA, which teaches actual content integrated with Language Arts. CKLA is from the Core Knowledge Foundation — CKF is NOT related to Common Core, btw. The cited article thinks CKLA is an example of what we should be moving to, and both APS and MCPS have already made that switch.

However, FCPS recently moved to the Phonics variant of Benchmark, which does not integrate content the way CKLA does (but still is a huge improvement over the previous non-Phonics language arts program). MCPS no longer uses Benchmark for LA, having replaced it with CKLA.

Yeah say what you will about MCPS, the CKLA switch was a positive one. My third grader isn't learning about the Renaissance specifically, but she's getting history through CKLA.

I work for APS, I believe there is a Renaissance unit in 5th grade.

Do they teach the concept of heliocentricity?