Boundary Review Meetings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 6-8 MS model makes it a lot easier to do 6th grade algebra, which is a big push at the moment. It also makes instrumental music easier logistically and gives the 6th graders access to a full time strings/band program.

Parents don’t like it because there are obviously more behavioral issues in middle school vs. elementary, and it’s a less nurturing environment. Middle schoolers are expected to be more responsible for their own success and have to manage taking more classes from a larger number of teachers. Probably the biggest factor as to why no one likes the 6-8 middle schools is because MS is on the worst schedule having to start super early in the morning.

I don’t expect the rumblings of “6th to middle” to stop any time soon, especially if they continue to push to expand the pre-K programs, but I think the logistics and family resistance will be too hard to overcome.

Fcps switched middle schools to the bock schedule, 4 longer classes every other day.

The block schedule is simply not developmentally appropriate for younger kids, especially since many 6th graders are 10/11 when they begin 6th grade.

My 6th grader was 10 at the start of 6th grade. Some of the 8th graders are 15 years old.

10/11 year old kids with 14/15 year old teenagers is not an appropriate mix, while kindergarten kids with 10/11 year old kids is much more appropriate and safer for the 6th graders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 6-8 MS model makes it a lot easier to do 6th grade algebra, which is a big push at the moment. It also makes instrumental music easier logistically and gives the 6th graders access to a full time strings/band program.

Parents don’t like it because there are obviously more behavioral issues in middle school vs. elementary, and it’s a less nurturing environment. Middle schoolers are expected to be more responsible for their own success and have to manage taking more classes from a larger number of teachers. Probably the biggest factor as to why no one likes the 6-8 middle schools is because MS is on the worst schedule having to start super early in the morning.

I don’t expect the rumblings of “6th to middle” to stop any time soon, especially if they continue to push to expand the pre-K programs, but I think the logistics and family resistance will be too hard to overcome.

Fcps switched middle schools to the bock schedule, 4 longer classes every other day.

The block schedule is simply not developmentally appropriate for younger kids, especially since many 6th graders are 10/11 when they begin 6th grade.

My 6th grader was 10 at the start of 6th grade. Some of the 8th graders are 15 years old.

10/11 year old kids with 14/15 year old teenagers is not an appropriate mix, while kindergarten kids with 10/11 year old kids is much more appropriate and safer for the 6th graders.

Why are 6th graders typically 10/11 while 8th graders are 14/15? Based off the cutoff, 6th graders are largely 11/12 through the school year and 8th graders are 13/14.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 6-8 MS model makes it a lot easier to do 6th grade algebra, which is a big push at the moment. It also makes instrumental music easier logistically and gives the 6th graders access to a full time strings/band program.

Parents don’t like it because there are obviously more behavioral issues in middle school vs. elementary, and it’s a less nurturing environment. Middle schoolers are expected to be more responsible for their own success and have to manage taking more classes from a larger number of teachers. Probably the biggest factor as to why no one likes the 6-8 middle schools is because MS is on the worst schedule having to start super early in the morning.

I don’t expect the rumblings of “6th to middle” to stop any time soon, especially if they continue to push to expand the pre-K programs, but I think the logistics and family resistance will be too hard to overcome.

Fcps switched middle schools to the bock schedule, 4 longer classes every other day.

The block schedule is simply not developmentally appropriate for younger kids, especially since many 6th graders are 10/11 when they begin 6th grade.

My 6th grader was 10 at the start of 6th grade. Some of the 8th graders are 15 years old.

10/11 year old kids with 14/15 year old teenagers is not an appropriate mix, while kindergarten kids with 10/11 year old kids is much more appropriate and safer for the 6th graders.

The block scheduling is awful in general for MS and HS both. It’s too disruptive when there are so many days off and so many unplanned weather days in the winter. They should go back to single class periods of ~45 minutes and have every core class every day.

[Anonymous]

Agree on the block schedule. Too much wasted time. One or two subs and the whole day is just sitting around. The class periods are a little bit of teaching and then kids sit and do work and goof off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They'll need at least 3 new or expanded middle schools if they ever expect to move to 6-8 county wide to align with most of the rest of the country.

No one wants to move to 6-8

Most of the middle schools are 7-8.

The 6-8 middle schools need to be eliminated so the middle schools are uniformly 7-8.

You don't speak for everyone. 6-8 MS provides more opportunities for talented students, whether it be academically, musically, athletically (so weird FCPS doesn't have middle school sports like the rest of the state), etc.

All future CIP planning should emphasize building or expanding middle schools to handle 6-8 rather than adding any capacity to elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They'll need at least 3 new or expanded middle schools if they ever expect to move to 6-8 county wide to align with most of the rest of the country.

No one wants to move to 6-8

Most of the middle schools are 7-8.

The 6-8 middle schools need to be eliminated so the middle schools are uniformly 7-8.

You don't speak for everyone. 6-8 MS provides more opportunities for talented students, whether it be academically, musically, athletically (so weird FCPS doesn't have middle school sports like the rest of the state), etc.

All future CIP planning should emphasize building or expanding middle schools to handle 6-8 rather than adding any capacity to elementary schools.

DP. Totally disagree. Grade 7-8 middle schools have worked fine in FCPS for decades. Renovating aging high schools is far more important than plowing hundreds of millions into middle school expansions to handle another grade.

And Glasgow MS, which is 6-8, has been a mess for a long time. Even though it’s technically not that overcrowded, it’s still chaotic and out of control because there are too many unruly tweens in one location. Why on earth would we want to replicate that elsewhere?

[Anonymous]

Will we see map today?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They'll need at least 3 new or expanded middle schools if they ever expect to move to 6-8 county wide to align with most of the rest of the country.

No one wants to move to 6-8

Most of the middle schools are 7-8.

The 6-8 middle schools need to be eliminated so the middle schools are uniformly 7-8.

You don't speak for everyone. 6-8 MS provides more opportunities for talented students, whether it be academically, musically, athletically (so weird FCPS doesn't have middle school sports like the rest of the state), etc.

All future CIP planning should emphasize building or expanding middle schools to handle 6-8 rather than adding any capacity to elementary schools.

DP. Totally disagree. Grade 7-8 middle schools have worked fine in FCPS for decades. Renovating aging high schools is far more important than plowing hundreds of millions into middle school expansions to handle another grade.

And Glasgow MS, which is 6-8, has been a mess for a long time. Even though it’s technically not that overcrowded, it’s still chaotic and out of control because there are too many unruly tweens in one location. Why on earth would we want to replicate that elsewhere?

Most of the state, much less country, have 6-8 MS. It is by no means developmentally inappropriate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will we see map today?

Not until January 8 when Reid presents her recommendations, I think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They'll need at least 3 new or expanded middle schools if they ever expect to move to 6-8 county wide to align with most of the rest of the country.

No one wants to move to 6-8

Most of the middle schools are 7-8.

The 6-8 middle schools need to be eliminated so the middle schools are uniformly 7-8.

You don't speak for everyone. 6-8 MS provides more opportunities for talented students, whether it be academically, musically, athletically (so weird FCPS doesn't have middle school sports like the rest of the state), etc.

All future CIP planning should emphasize building or expanding middle schools to handle 6-8 rather than adding any capacity to elementary schools.

DP. Totally disagree. Grade 7-8 middle schools have worked fine in FCPS for decades. Renovating aging high schools is far more important than plowing hundreds of millions into middle school expansions to handle another grade.

And Glasgow MS, which is 6-8, has been a mess for a long time. Even though it’s technically not that overcrowded, it’s still chaotic and out of control because there are too many unruly tweens in one location. Why on earth would we want to replicate that elsewhere?

Most of the state, much less country, have 6-8 MS. It is by no means developmentally inappropriate.

I agree with that, but PP makes a good point about membership. Most of the 6-8 middle schools in Loudoun and Arlington are designed for 1200-ish students. In Fairfax County, that’s a common capacity for a 7-8 Middle School. Class sizes in FCPS pyramids are huge. Some with 700+ and many with 600+. That’d mean some middle schools would have 2100+ and 1800+ populations. Glasgow is only 1739 and considered too big. The 6-8 model would not work in Fairfax County unless they created more middle schools to keep the students per grade under control.

[Anonymous]

I remember, as a young teacher years ago, a teacher aide with a sixth grader talking about her child. She said she never knew what she was going to find when her DD came home: a child playing with dolls or a teenager obsessed with music.

Sixth grade teachers in my children's school did a terrific job of preparing them for middle school. They switched of language arts and math,and gave interesting assignments and made the transition to middle school easy. Going from fifth grade to a sixth grade with block scheduling, lockers, and switching classes--not to mention far more students, etc, would have been difficult.

Sure, it can be done, but just because other systems do it does not make it a great idea. Kind of like "whole language." There are some good aspects to "whole language" but it certainly is not the right model to teach kids to read.

[Anonymous]

All of the hand-wringing about 6th in MS baffles me. I have a 6th grader in Glasgow, and the experience has been great. I grew up in this very common model, and while people seem to think 6th graders shouldn't be with 8th graders, it baffles me more that they want kindergartners sharing the halls with 6th graders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They'll need at least 3 new or expanded middle schools if they ever expect to move to 6-8 county wide to align with most of the rest of the country.

No one wants to move to 6-8

Most of the middle schools are 7-8.

The 6-8 middle schools need to be eliminated so the middle schools are uniformly 7-8.

You don't speak for everyone. 6-8 MS provides more opportunities for talented students, whether it be academically, musically, athletically (so weird FCPS doesn't have middle school sports like the rest of the state), etc.

All future CIP planning should emphasize building or expanding middle schools to handle 6-8 rather than adding any capacity to elementary schools.

DP. Totally disagree. Grade 7-8 middle schools have worked fine in FCPS for decades. Renovating aging high schools is far more important than plowing hundreds of millions into middle school expansions to handle another grade.

And Glasgow MS, which is 6-8, has been a mess for a long time. Even though it’s technically not that overcrowded, it’s still chaotic and out of control because there are too many unruly tweens in one location. Why on earth would we want to replicate that elsewhere?

Most of the state, much less country, have 6-8 MS. It is by no means developmentally inappropriate.

I didn’t say it was developmentally inappropriate. I said it would be fiscally irresponsible to spend hundreds of millions adding capacity to middle schools built to accommodate two grades, not three.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of the hand-wringing about 6th in MS baffles me. I have a 6th grader in Glasgow, and the experience has been great. I grew up in this very common model, and while people seem to think 6th graders shouldn't be with 8th graders, it baffles me more that they want kindergartners sharing the halls with 6th graders.

Oh, please. Ricardy Anderson’s top priority for six years has been shrinking Glasgow, which is well known to be a chaotic zoo.

And even if she pulls it off by finally getting kids moved to Holmes and Poe this fall it doesn’t mean they can just snap their fingers and add another grade to other middle schools. Those three schools are the outliers in FCPS, not the other middle schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of the hand-wringing about 6th in MS baffles me. I have a 6th grader in Glasgow, and the experience has been great. I grew up in this very common model, and while people seem to think 6th graders shouldn't be with 8th graders, it baffles me more that they want kindergartners sharing the halls with 6th graders.

At our ES, the 6th graders helped take care of the kindergarteners, who had their own separate hallway. My DD was a bus patrol kid and the assignment that all the patrols loved the most was being the kindergartener escort. They'd sit with the Ks in the front of the bus and escort them to their classes in the morning and back to the bus again in the afternoon.

We don't need to change the system we have now. More importantly, we can't afford to change the system we have now. There is no money to build new MS or renovate ES to be used as a MS.