***FCPS: Ideas for Improvement Master Thread***

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bring the teaching and learning of Math Facts (addition & subtraction, multiplication & division) back into schools. It is a basic tenet of numeracy. If you say to a 4th grader at the beginning of the school year, what is 3 times 4, the child should be able to spit back 12 without blinking an eye.

This is done at our FCPS elementary school. Lots and lots of math facts.

We are in early ES and I think the math curriculum is actually way better than the language arts.

[Anonymous]

Reading and Writing
Geography
Grammar

[Anonymous]

Basically turn back the clock a few decades:

- workbooks & textbooks

- spelling, grammar, math facts drilling (the kids should drill the facts so much in school that it does not matter if parents use the flash cards or not)

- daily joural that gets spotchecked/comment/occassionally corrected by the teacher to prompt writing - this should be weekly homework so parents can help with corrections too

- lesson plans and materials the teachers can use, with differentiation included, so they don't need to spend time figuring that out & can spend it on quality grading/feedback and plus-up stuff.

- tracking - whatever you want to call it - so that the kids that need more challenge can get it vs. the entire grade having to do the lowest level

- ESL until kids are fluent enough to keep up

- allow teachers to discipline

[Anonymous]

Cap class sizes at 20 kids.

[Anonymous]

Raise our salaries. Priority number 1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basically turn back the clock a few decades:

- workbooks & textbooks

- spelling, grammar, math facts drilling (the kids should drill the facts so much in school that it does not matter if parents use the flash cards or not)

- daily joural that gets spotchecked/comment/occassionally corrected by the teacher to prompt writing - this should be weekly homework so parents can help with corrections too

- lesson plans and materials the teachers can use, with differentiation included, so they don't need to spend time figuring that out & can spend it on quality grading/feedback and plus-up stuff.

- tracking - whatever you want to call it - so that the kids that need more challenge can get it vs. the entire grade having to do the lowest level

- ESL until kids are fluent enough to keep up

- allow teachers to discipline

Agree with all except the last, if by "discipline" you mean corporal punishment. In my experience, the teachers handle the class pretty well. It's the admin that bows down to certain parents, and their threats, if they fuss at having their kids held responsible.

[Anonymous]

A lot of decline happened because of the removal of SOL's. This argument that by removing SOL's, kids will have more instructional time is false. Yes, they will get 2 more hours of instructional time, but in return an entire year can go by where teachers and students are not held accountable for learning a particular subject. The only reason reading and math are actually at reasonably high levels in FCPS are because those SOL's generally remain. The grammar, writing, science, and social studies SOL's have all been removed or greatly reduced and as a result the teaching has gone way down in these subjects. The removal of 5th grade writing was probably the worst because now elementary has no writing test it needs to demonstrate proficiency of its students for all 6-7 years of schooling.

If people want to advocate for better change in the school system, it's fine to advocate for better tests, but I think people are wrong to argue against testing. The only reason the state is against testing is because they don't want to report any failing students. It has nothing to do with excellence or better time management of the school day.

Dear Colleague,

You know our students lose valuable instructional time because they're taking too many standardized tests. Many of our legislators, however, don't seem to get this.

Let's change that! Today, a bill (SB1401) sponsored by Senator Todd Pillion, passed through committee and will now come to the floor of the Senate for debate. Pillion's bill would reduce Standards of Learning and other high-stakes tests to the federal minimum.

Write members of Virginia's Senate today and urge them to support it! You can do so easily by clicking here.

Dr. James J. Fedderman
VEA President

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of decline happened because of the removal of SOL's. This argument that by removing SOL's, kids will have more instructional time is false. Yes, they will get 2 more hours of instructional time, but in return an entire year can go by where teachers and students are not held accountable for learning a particular subject. The only reason reading and math are actually at reasonably high levels in FCPS are because those SOL's generally remain. The grammar, writing, science, and social studies SOL's have all been removed or greatly reduced and as a result the teaching has gone way down in these subjects. The removal of 5th grade writing was probably the worst because now elementary has no writing test it needs to demonstrate proficiency of its students for all 6-7 years of schooling.

If people want to advocate for better change in the school system, it's fine to advocate for better tests, but I think people are wrong to argue against testing. The only reason the state is against testing is because they don't want to report any failing students. It has nothing to do with excellence or better time management of the school day.

Dear Colleague,

You know our students lose valuable instructional time because they're taking too many standardized tests. Many of our legislators, however, don't seem to get this.

Let's change that! Today, a bill (SB1401) sponsored by Senator Todd Pillion, passed through committee and will now come to the floor of the Senate for debate. Pillion's bill would reduce Standards of Learning and other high-stakes tests to the federal minimum.

Write members of Virginia's Senate today and urge them to support it! You can do so easily by clicking here.

Dr. James J. Fedderman
VEA President

Should have added. Start by fighting these state bills to remove SOL testing. Advocate for better and/or more testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basically turn back the clock a few decades:

- workbooks & textbooks

- spelling, grammar, math facts drilling (the kids should drill the facts so much in school that it does not matter if parents use the flash cards or not)

- daily joural that gets spotchecked/comment/occassionally corrected by the teacher to prompt writing - this should be weekly homework so parents can help with corrections too

- lesson plans and materials the teachers can use, with differentiation included, so they don't need to spend time figuring that out & can spend it on quality grading/feedback and plus-up stuff.

- tracking - whatever you want to call it - so that the kids that need more challenge can get it vs. the entire grade having to do the lowest level

- ESL until kids are fluent enough to keep up

- allow teachers to discipline

I'd be on board with all of that. I can't imagine getting through school without textbooks. I used mine all the time, especially math. I understand concepts much better when I read them on paper; I always had to go back and teach myself from the book after the lecture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cap class sizes at 20 kids.

Imagine that you have forty teachers teaching 30 kids each.

Further imagine that teacher quality varies -- there are good teachers, and bad teachers -- and further, imagine the school is good at picking teachers, so that the worst teachers in the group are still mostly better than those from the pool of people that flunked the interview.

In order to decrease class sizes to 20, you will need to hire another twenty teachers. Nearly all of these teachers will be worse than those in the existing pool.

Now, after the change, the forty original teachers are teaching twenty students each, educating eight hundred students. These students may derive some benefits from the smaller class sizes. They probably do a bit better.

The twenty new teachers are teaching twenty students each. But these teachers are worse at teaching. The students here may derive some benefits from smaller class sizes, but are also being taught by noticeably worse teachers. They probably do significantly worse.

Anyway, from the above model, it's pretty easy to see why the various experiments with reducing class sizes -- which are numerous! -- have nearly always failed to produce tangible benefits, and have failed in an extremely expensive fashion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Raise our salaries. Priority number 1

This is will not happen for at least a few more years. The anger of parents/voters/tax payers have sadly crushed any chance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Raise our salaries. Priority number 1

This is will not happen for at least a few more years. The anger of parents/voters/tax payers have sadly crushed any chance.

You give yourself far too much influence. The economy, and only the economy, will dictate raises. You're not in charge of the budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cap class sizes at 20 kids.

Imagine that you have forty teachers teaching 30 kids each.

Further imagine that teacher quality varies -- there are good teachers, and bad teachers -- and further, imagine the school is good at picking teachers, so that the worst teachers in the group are still mostly better than those from the pool of people that flunked the interview.

In order to decrease class sizes to 20, you will need to hire another twenty teachers. Nearly all of these teachers will be worse than those in the existing pool.

Now, after the change, the forty original teachers are teaching twenty students each, educating eight hundred students. These students may derive some benefits from the smaller class sizes. They probably do a bit better.

The twenty new teachers are teaching twenty students each. But these teachers are worse at teaching. The students here may derive some benefits from smaller class sizes, but are also being taught by noticeably worse teachers. They probably do significantly worse.

Anyway, from the above model, it's pretty easy to see why the various experiments with reducing class sizes -- which are numerous! -- have nearly always failed to produce tangible benefits, and have failed in an extremely expensive fashion.

Such a random, flawed analysis.

Actually, scientific research shows otherwise.
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2019/08/case-for-smaller-classes
https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research/featured/the-class-size-debate-what-the-evidence-means-for-education-policy

Plus, any teacher or parent will anecdotally tell you that smaller class sizes are better overall.


This is why it is important for teachers to have a voice in education policy - who thought big classes were a good idea? Not teachers or anyone with practical experience. Just someone trying to address budget deficit in our schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Raise our salaries. Priority number 1

This is will not happen for at least a few more years. The anger of parents/voters/tax payers have sadly crushed any chance.

You give yourself far too much influence. The economy, and only the economy, will dictate raises. You're not in charge of the budget.

Plus, many parents DO support teachers and recognize their hard work this year and that they are also a critical component to our children's education in the future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Raise our salaries. Priority number 1

This is will not happen for at least a few more years. The anger of parents/voters/tax payers have sadly crushed any chance.

You give yourself far too much influence. The economy, and only the economy, will dictate raises. You're not in charge of the budget.

Plus, many parents DO support teachers and recognize their hard work this year and that they are also a critical component to our children's education in the future.

Additionally, we in LCPS have receive a lump sum last Friday and will continue to receive increased pay in the checks between now and June. Next year the step increases will continue. Make the move. I’d be damned to work for FCPS. Plus, haven’t you heard we get snow days.