Reid’s new email

[Anonymous]

Correct FCPS will have no one to blame but themselves. For as liberal as Fairfax is, the schools are completely segregated.

Sadly, not surprisingly, the student who are in the middle (non MLL, nonIEP, and nonAAP) are being forgotten. There are MLL students with no IEPs who work with five different adults in small groups per day (classroom teacher, high impact tutor, MLL teacher, reading specialist, math specialist). You could also throw in social worker, counselor, and school liaison if you wanted to. These are all people that any average, barely on grade level kid doesn’t even know exist. A student who scores just below grade level is just left to fend for themselves while their severely underachieving peers gets all the services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not thing left to do is get rid of AAP in the ES level in hopes that repopulating classrooms with smart kids will help the basement kids.

Thankfully AAP exists to satisfy a legal requirement to actually teach those kids just like have for special ed, so those people will never get their wish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Intensive support (only elementary schools and alternative schools, all the middle and high schools got at least Off Track)

Bailey's Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences
Bailey's Upper Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences
Braddock Elementary
Brookfield Elementary
Cameron Elementary
Coates Elementary
Crestwood Elementary
Dogwood Elementary
Forestdale Elementary
Glen Forest Elementary
Graham Road Elementary
Groveton Elementary
Hutchison Elementary
Hybla Valley Elementary
Lynbrook Elementary
Parklawn Elementary
Weyanoke Elementary
Woodburn Elementary
Woodlawn Elementary
Bryant High
Fairfax County Adult High
Mountain View High

Off track:

Annandale Terrace Elementary
Beech Tree Elementary
Belle View Elementary
Bren Mar Park Elementary
Centre Ridge Elementary
Dranesville Elementary
Forest Edge Elementary
Halley Elementary
Herndon Elementary
Hollin Meadows Elementary
Lake Anne Elementary
London Towne Elementary
Lorton Station Elementary
McNair Elementary
McNair Upper Elementary
Mount Vernon Woods Elementary
Riverside Elementary
Rolling Valley Elementary
Shrevewood Elementary
Washington Mill Elementary
Westlawn Elementary
Glasgow Middle
Key Middle
Poe Middle

So does Reid share what kind of change this is? Would last year have been only say 10 schools making an off track or lower chart? Or is her point the off tracks are no different from last year and the need support schools should be ignored and considered passing since last year would have been considered passing. Anyone know?

IIRC the lists are pretty similar from last year.

Weird she wouldn’t just call that out/say that.

Because it would be poor communication to announce "this list is pretty similar to last year." There are many schools that are NOT on the list that were last year, and there are some that some might not expect to be there (they're NOT Title 1 schools).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of “off track” and “needs intensive support” at the elementary level.

At the high poverty schools. I would bet the groups struggling are poor Black and Hispanic kids with little support at home.

And, this people, is why they want to redraw the boundaries. It hides the problem rather than fixes it.

This is a common assertion and yet it’s not what is happening with this boundary review.

The initial goals of the boundary review was to try and rebalance some of the high FARMs schools by moving kids from the FARMs schools to a nearby school with fewer FARMs kids and vice versa. The bigger focus was on HS than the ES, ie Lewis and West Springfield and Herndon and Langley. That was dropped pretty quickly because parents saw it coming and immediately raised issues with it. Toss in the election and the school board moved away from that.

Please provide support for this claim. Otherwise it’s just your taking credit for winning a battle that was not fought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of “off track” and “needs intensive support” at the elementary level.

At the high poverty schools. I would bet the groups struggling are poor Black and Hispanic kids with little support at home.

And, this people, is why they want to redraw the boundaries. It hides the problem rather than fixes it.

This is a common assertion and yet it’s not what is happening with this boundary review.

The initial goals of the boundary review was to try and rebalance some of the high FARMs schools by moving kids from the FARMs schools to a nearby school with fewer FARMs kids and vice versa. The bigger focus was on HS than the ES, ie Lewis and West Springfield and Herndon and Langley. That was dropped pretty quickly because parents saw it coming and immediately raised issues with it. Toss in the election and the school board moved away from that.

Please provide support for this claim. Otherwise it’s just your taking credit for winning a battle that was not fought.

I got the same impression. I think it seemed that way in the discussions--maybe not mentioning the schools by name, but certainly they gave that impression that they needed to be sure DEI was met. I thik the new fed administration kind of put the kabosh on that and the tone changed. I think equity was mentioned.
Pretty sure that there were even graphics.

But, these people are politicians.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of “off track” and “needs intensive support” at the elementary level.

At the high poverty schools. I would bet the groups struggling are poor Black and Hispanic kids with little support at home.

And, this people, is why they want to redraw the boundaries. It hides the problem rather than fixes it.

This is a common assertion and yet it’s not what is happening with this boundary review.

Thanks for chiming in, Dr. Reid. I believe you (not).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not thing left to do is get rid of AAP in the ES level in hopes that repopulating classrooms with smart kids will help the basement kids.

Thankfully AAP exists to satisfy a legal requirement to actually teach those kids just like have for special ed, so those people will never get their wish.

My kid is in AAP and I can assure you they are not being met where they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The new republican play book (the one promoted by the current US sec. of Education and her family --- DeVos/AMWAY kooks) is all about minimizing public education and maximizing religious-based private education.

So, it makes sense to make people afraid of their public schools (i.e. require the schools to notify all parents if any kid has a drug-related overdose, even if it happens away from the school), and make parents fear other schools by creating nonsensical "standards" that label many schools as "failing."

The only reasonable response when you are told your kid's schoo is a disaster -- is to try to get them into some other "better" school -- which is where they step in with state-funded vouchers!

Yep. This is the point. This isn't coming from Reid. FCPS had to use this new system which is designed to designate more schools as failing, without giving additional support.

What I haven't followed is if this is something that the new governor will undo or if things are too far gone for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Correct FCPS will have no one to blame but themselves. For as liberal as Fairfax is, the schools are completely segregated.

Sadly, not surprisingly, the student who are in the middle (non MLL, nonIEP, and nonAAP) are being forgotten. There are MLL students with no IEPs who work with five different adults in small groups per day (classroom teacher, high impact tutor, MLL teacher, reading specialist, math specialist). You could also throw in social worker, counselor, and school liaison if you wanted to. These are all people that any average, barely on grade level kid doesn’t even know exist. A student who scores just below grade level is just left to fend for themselves while their severely underachieving peers gets all the services.

This is the truest thing I’ve read in awhile. I’m a title 1 teacher and this is spot on. We are told to focus on the lowest kids and they get most of our time and attention.

[Anonymous]

“So, it makes sense to make people afraid of their public schools (i.e. require the schools to notify all parents if any kid has a drug-related overdose, even if it happens away from the school), and make parents fear other schools by creating nonsensical "standards" that label many schools as "failing."”

The person who posted this thinks that religious based private schools don’t contact parents when bad things happen to someone at the school. I hope your ignorance is bliss but it probably isn’t. Check the salaries of communications directors in FFX and Alexandria. The cover ups started way before Betsy Davos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of “off track” and “needs intensive support” at the elementary level.

And what exactly will be the result of this designation? Are they actually going to GET the "intensive support" that they need? Or is this rating just another way to dump on our poorest schools?

It shouldn't come as any surprise that the most vulnerable populations need "intensive support" to keep up with their peers. If this designation puts them in line for additional resources, I'm all for it. If it's just another label so that the more well-to-do families can avoid them, well....

Fwiw, I'm a relatively high earner but kept my kids in our local Title 1 elementary school, which is labeled Off Track in this report, because we love the community and the school. The admin and teachers are top notch, but of course there is a large segment of the school population that needs real help. Labeling the school to scare people off doesn't help, but some additional resources really would.

How noble of you.

PP here. I never claimed to be noble. I kept my kids there because I genuinely like the school. The school is not failing, they are doing an excellent job with what they have.

My question is, if the state is going to label a school as "needs intensive support", I'd like to know what support is going to be recommended or offered. Or is the state just going to label it that way and then ignore it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of “off track” and “needs intensive support” at the elementary level.

And what exactly will be the result of this designation? Are they actually going to GET the "intensive support" that they need? Or is this rating just another way to dump on our poorest schools?

It shouldn't come as any surprise that the most vulnerable populations need "intensive support" to keep up with their peers. If this designation puts them in line for additional resources, I'm all for it. If it's just another label so that the more well-to-do families can avoid them, well....

Fwiw, I'm a relatively high earner but kept my kids in our local Title 1 elementary school, which is labeled Off Track in this report, because we love the community and the school. The admin and teachers are top notch, but of course there is a large segment of the school population that needs real help. Labeling the school to scare people off doesn't help, but some additional resources really would.

How noble of you.

PP here. I never claimed to be noble. I kept my kids there because I genuinely like the school. The school is not failing, they are doing an excellent job with what they have.

My question is, if the state is going to label a school as "needs intensive support", I'd like to know what support is going to be recommended or offered. Or is the state just going to label it that way and then ignore it?

Who knows. But FCPS already has their own project momentum for these schools and it’s a lot of data keeping and busy work for admin and teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The new republican play book (the one promoted by the current US sec. of Education and her family --- DeVos/AMWAY kooks) is all about minimizing public education and maximizing religious-based private education.

So, it makes sense to make people afraid of their public schools (i.e. require the schools to notify all parents if any kid has a drug-related overdose, even if it happens away from the school), and make parents fear other schools by creating nonsensical "standards" that label many schools as "failing."

The only reasonable response when you are told your kid's school is a disaster -- is to try to get them into some other "better" school -- which is where they step in with state-funded vouchers!

This 1000%. Exhibit A is the shifting pass cut scores for the SOLs. Raising the cut scores will mean more kids will "fail" the SOL and make it appear that public schools in VA are not good for your kid. Cue the private schools with funding/vouchers that should go to public schools. Those same private schools that can choose which kids they want and kick out at any point.

Follow the money as the dismantling of public education happens before your very eyes.

[Anonymous]

Well, we’ve learned that throwing money at public schools does nothing. So I’m all for putting the money elsewhere. Why would we want to invest more money into a school system that tracks students and pays lawyers and bodyguards more than teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The new republican play book (the one promoted by the current US sec. of Education and her family --- DeVos/AMWAY kooks) is all about minimizing public education and maximizing religious-based private education.

So, it makes sense to make people afraid of their public schools (i.e. require the schools to notify all parents if any kid has a drug-related overdose, even if it happens away from the school), and make parents fear other schools by creating nonsensical "standards" that label many schools as "failing."

The only reasonable response when you are told your kid's school is a disaster -- is to try to get them into some other "better" school -- which is where they step in with state-funded vouchers!

This 1000%. Exhibit A is the shifting pass cut scores for the SOLs. Raising the cut scores will mean more kids will "fail" the SOL and make it appear that public schools in VA are not good for your kid. Cue the private schools with funding/vouchers that should go to public schools. Those same private schools that can choose which kids they want and kick out at any point.

Follow the money as the dismantling of public education happens before your very eyes.

FCPS could do more to make themselves “appear” to be good for kids and parents. They are working hard to alienate parents this year.