Anyone else educated by FCPS and sees the decline?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My college freshman just got his first semester grades. He got 2 Cs (first ever Cs in his school career). He got them because he turned in two papers late. In both classes, he turned them in 3 days late. He had As in both classes but they dropped to Cs because of the two late papers (after two days late, you get a zero). Maybe public schools need to focus more on skills like turning work in on time or penalties will apply. My kid is in shock that he got zeros from work that was late. FCPS trained him to not pay attention to due dates.

I’m confused. Do they really not get penalized? Bc my kids are very aware of due dates and make sure they turn stuff in on time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid graduated with above a 4.0 and failed a class at a mid-level college which was just the next class in a sequence that they got an A at the year before. I knew the classes were too easy in high school but am happy at least at the college level they are still trying to prepare kids for the workforce.

Most high achieving FCPS students seem to do well in college. Was this an AP or IB class? Was it that he was academically not prepared or were there other factors? I think first semester is a big transition for lots of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My college freshman just got his first semester grades. He got 2 Cs (first ever Cs in his school career). He got them because he turned in two papers late. In both classes, he turned them in 3 days late. He had As in both classes but they dropped to Cs because of the two late papers (after two days late, you get a zero). Maybe public schools need to focus more on skills like turning work in on time or penalties will apply. My kid is in shock that he got zeros from work that was late. FCPS trained him to not pay attention to due dates.

I’m confused. Do they really not get penalized? Bc my kids are very aware of due dates and make sure they turn stuff in on time.

My kids weren’t penalized for turning in work late. It drive me nuts but not them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid graduated with above a 4.0 and failed a class at a mid-level college which was just the next class in a sequence that they got an A at the year before. I knew the classes were too easy in high school but am happy at least at the college level they are still trying to prepare kids for the workforce.

Unless you’re pre-med, pre-law, or in a STEM subject, college doesn’t prepare you for the workforce. Every job you take, with the exception of those previously mentioned, will train you to do that job. 90% of the jobs in the workforce will “teach” you how to do that job. College is great for bridging the gap so that young people can mature more before joining the workforce.

Disagree although the majority of college majors these days are within those 3 things listed. Either way, it shouldn't be typical for a child to get an A in FCPS in one class and then fail the next level the following year in college. That means there is a disconnect in level of teaching and assessment from high school to college. The AP high school class was supposedly harder than the college class which was just a typical non-honors college class.

Which class was it? Calculus? What score did they get on the AP exam?

BTW, most engineers don't even end up using calculus on a daily basis for work. -engineer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD went to FCPS and it was great. it all fell apart when the board went woke and the DEI initiatives began. Which is why TJ fell to 14. Fortunately that is changing

So you haven't had a kid in FCPS for many years and you somehow feel that your uninformed opinion matters?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sad. When I went to FCPS, we read books, wrote papers, and knew that deadlines matter. For the most part, that was true for our kids as well. Don’t know why they’d relax standards other than to create an illusion of achievement for kids who are just dialing it in. It doesn’t serve anyone’s interests in the long run.

When I was a student with FCPS, I was a straight A student who took AP classes, and I did all of my homework on the bus right before school started. I even placed first at a HS science fair when I did the project the night before. I don’t think FCPS was any better in the 80s/90s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid graduated with above a 4.0 and failed a class at a mid-level college which was just the next class in a sequence that they got an A at the year before. I knew the classes were too easy in high school but am happy at least at the college level they are still trying to prepare kids for the workforce.

Most high achieving FCPS students seem to do well in college. Was this an AP or IB class? Was it that he was academically not prepared or were there other factors? I think first semester is a big transition for lots of kids.

+1, often times the first semester is the hardest with so many transitions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid graduated with above a 4.0 and failed a class at a mid-level college which was just the next class in a sequence that they got an A at the year before. I knew the classes were too easy in high school but am happy at least at the college level they are still trying to prepare kids for the workforce.

Most high achieving FCPS students seem to do well in college. Was this an AP or IB class? Was it that he was academically not prepared or were there other factors? I think first semester is a big transition for lots of kids.

+1, often times the first semester is the hardest with so many transitions.

Agree. I've known this to happen for years. Sometimes, the kids just don't go to class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid graduated with above a 4.0 and failed a class at a mid-level college which was just the next class in a sequence that they got an A at the year before. I knew the classes were too easy in high school but am happy at least at the college level they are still trying to prepare kids for the workforce.

Most high achieving FCPS students seem to do well in college. Was this an AP or IB class? Was it that he was academically not prepared or were there other factors? I think first semester is a big transition for lots of kids.

+1, often times the first semester is the hardest with so many transitions.

Agree. I've known this to happen for years. Sometimes, the kids just don't go to class.

Well, since attendance in FCPS doesn’t count as part of the grade, I don’t blame kids for thinking they can skip college classes and still get a good grade. Keep up the dumbing down of education FCPS! Pretty soon they will stop teaching reading and writing since kids can always use technology to read as anything to them. Speech to text will replace writing too. They already don’t teach spelling and grammar.

[Anonymous]

I graduated years ago from FCPS. Kinda slept walk through HS but managed to get into UVa (back then IMO much easier but still must of had decent grades). One of my kids graduated from TJ and found a T10 "easy", my other kid graduated from a secondary school and went to a mid tier VA public school and barely has to work. Not sure what point I'm making, but I don't think it declined as much as expectations have changed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid graduated with above a 4.0 and failed a class at a mid-level college which was just the next class in a sequence that they got an A at the year before. I knew the classes were too easy in high school but am happy at least at the college level they are still trying to prepare kids for the workforce.

Most high achieving FCPS students seem to do well in college. Was this an AP or IB class? Was it that he was academically not prepared or were there other factors? I think first semester is a big transition for lots of kids.

+1, often times the first semester is the hardest with so many transitions.

Agree. I've known this to happen for years. Sometimes, the kids just don't go to class.

Well, since attendance in FCPS doesn’t count as part of the grade, I don’t blame kids for thinking they can skip college classes and still get a good grade. Keep up the dumbing down of education FCPS! Pretty soon they will stop teaching reading and writing since kids can always use technology to read as anything to them. Speech to text will replace writing too. They already don’t teach spelling and grammar.

+1
I'm a FCPS graduate (mid-80s) and remember very rigorous spelling and grammar instruction. They simply don't do that anymore and it shows.

[Anonymous]

I've never seen a thread so full of people yelling at clouds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sad. When I went to FCPS, we read books, wrote papers, and knew that deadlines matter. For the most part, that was true for our kids as well. Don’t know why they’d relax standards other than to create an illusion of achievement for kids who are just dialing it in. It doesn’t serve anyone’s interests in the long run.

FCPS is doing it because they believe they are furthering “racial equity” by ruining the quality of education for all.

I am quite serious. This is what they believe and are doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My college freshman just got his first semester grades. He got 2 Cs (first ever Cs in his school career). He got them because he turned in two papers late. In both classes, he turned them in 3 days late. He had As in both classes but they dropped to Cs because of the two late papers (after two days late, you get a zero). Maybe public schools need to focus more on skills like turning work in on time or penalties will apply. My kid is in shock that he got zeros from work that was late. FCPS trained him to not pay attention to due dates.

You failed him not FCPS but it's easy to blame someone else.

Actually, I was happy he finally knows what due dates are. Hopefully, it only takes one time for him to unlearn what years of FCPS has taught him. Due dates are real and not meeting them have consequences.

I’m a professor and I personally think a zero for two days late is too harsh. I do a 10% penalty per day late. This gives students the ability to decide if they want to turn the paper in on time, or take extra time knowing they will get a lower grade. We all have to learn to balance and prioritize various tasks, and weigh the pros and cons of our decisions. If they email me asking for extra time, I remind them that they can still get a decent grade if they think they need an extra day or two to complete their best work. It’s not like I can actually grade all of their work in two days. I think having a consequence for late work is good,
but overly harsh penalties just sounds like someone on a power trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the education of my oldest who has graduated in high school and was in AAP since 3rd grade has been much better what I received in the 1990s. We did no tutoring and ended up at a T25 university in a demanding major and doing well.

The education of my younger child who is 8 years behind her sibling and not in AAP has been a joke. No writing instruction in our McLean ES and her math class is only 20 mins a day and in a class of 30 kids. No homework is given. The disrupted weeks of school w/o 5 days do not help. She scored borderline for reading/math intervention on the Fall VGAs, so missed out on getting extra help at school. After hearing from her principal that she was doing much better than her peers and that I should not worry, I was done. We started supplementing with a private writing tutor and daily math practice at home using a textbook. I also stopped volunteering at school entirely since that the school does not welcome the presence of parents. It is clear that academics especially for general education students is not a priority at our ES.

I’m hoping that the honors classes in MS will be step up, but not holding my breath.

My advice to parents who have students in FCPS is to build into your budget a tutoring line item of $300-$600 per month during the school year. Just do it. Think about it as an assessment on your property taxes or something, but don’t fail your child by thinking FCPS will take care of their education.

My kids are finished next year. Alum of the Maryland race to the bottom cousin of FCPS - MCPS.

I was struck by your volunteering comment as we faced the same issue in MCPS.

Only one system actively urged parent participation- that was DODEA. Wouldn’t you know those kids are highest SATs in the Nation? Hmmmmm