New curriculum for FCPS - dumbing down school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7th graders have not been writing anything.

+1. What happened to writing?

My 6th grader just completed her 2nd essay of the year.

No essays in 7th grade so far. Anybody else have a similar grade 7?

My seventh grader has written at least five moderately-lengthy responses (350-1000 words) to articles read in English and has written one essay (four paragraphs) in history. She also has to write reflections every week in response to her learning in Lexia.

[Anonymous]

It's not any better in high school. No papers so far and very little to no homework. Teachers want work done in class - to avoid cheating? to address equity issues? I don't know. Most expect a paragraph to a couple of sentences for written work. So far it doesn't seem rigorous at all.

[Anonymous]

The new Benchmark curriculum under discussion is only for elementary school language arts, not MS and not HS.

I agree with the many on DCUM that FCPS prior elementary language arts curriculum was both watered down and remarkably ineffective. Because of those issues, the MS and HS expectations also were watered down. FCPS School Board does not give the appearance if being focused on Academics, which is sad.

As a PP noted, it will take at least 7-8 years for the full effects of any new lower elementary language arts curriculum (which starts with K) to be visible at MS and HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach AAP and the kids hate it. So boring and disjointed!

Nice try, we know you're corn mom.

No. I am corn mom. This was not me. CORN MOM!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

It sounds much better than what FCPS had before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach AAP and the kids hate it. So boring and disjointed!

I also teach AAP and my kids also hate it.

I think a lot of kids hate it - not just AAP. Having said that, I don't think kids should have to love everything about school. The 2nd unit seems to be much better than the first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not any better in high school. No papers so far and very little to no homework. Teachers want work done in class - to avoid cheating? to address equity issues? I don't know. Most expect a paragraph to a couple of sentences for written work. So far it doesn't seem rigorous at all.

Which HS? Not my 9th grader at Marshall; yes she is in Honors but people in this forum think Marshall isn't good enough. She's has lots of writing in English and World History. They start prepping them for IB level writing from the get go. I would imagine it's similar in other high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’ve got a first grader in FCPS, was just talking with DW about how much time our DC will be missing over the next couple of weeks and we realized that she’ll learn a lot more at home with us during that time than she would in school.

Disappointing to hear it doesn’t sound much better in fifth grade. I wish they would focus on academics, not equity at the exclusion of all else.

What are you even talking about? How is "equity" being taught in 1st grade and taking away from academics? Seriously. Give specifics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’ve got a first grader in FCPS, was just talking with DW about how much time our DC will be missing over the next couple of weeks and we realized that she’ll learn a lot more at home with us during that time than she would in school.

Disappointing to hear it doesn’t sound much better in fifth grade. I wish they would focus on academics, not equity at the exclusion of all else.

What are you even talking about? How is "equity" being taught in 1st grade and taking away from academics? Seriously. Give specifics.

DP.

Elementary math in FCPS now follows the lower standards of the “E3” math curriculum. Yes, the “E” is for equity.

Language arts have also been dumbed-down, again, for racial equity reasons. Homework is discouraged because it is seen as racist / not equitable.

FCPS is desperate to “close the racial achievement gap.” The easiest way to do that is to dumb-down the whole curriculum, which is exactly what FCPS is doing.

[Anonymous]

All the English is hoarded at school, so parents don’t see it. There’s zero homework in English. On the flip side, the parent can’t tutor meaningfully to help child in this subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’ve got a first grader in FCPS, was just talking with DW about how much time our DC will be missing over the next couple of weeks and we realized that she’ll learn a lot more at home with us during that time than she would in school.

Disappointing to hear it doesn’t sound much better in fifth grade. I wish they would focus on academics, not equity at the exclusion of all else.

What are you even talking about? How is "equity" being taught in 1st grade and taking away from academics? Seriously. Give specifics.

DP.

Equity is our school board’s primary goal. They have stated this many times: it’s their main goal. What is significant here is that academics are - not - the school board’s primary goal.

The school board governs every graded (including 1st) in FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was talking with a few other parents and they were complaining about how FCPS’s new curriculum has been dumbed down and how their 5th grader hasn’t even written any papers yet and are doing very rudimentary work. Has this been your experience as well?

I can speak to high school in FCPS. Yes, FCPS has dumbed-down the education provided in the county. Specifically, our school board is behind this change.

The majority of our school board, and particularly the chair, follow an ideology which Kamala Harris publicly spoke of several times in speeches and interviews; the “woke” ideology. Google it.

Another poster described it so well:

“ Or in our schools, the woke idea that gifted and talented classes aren’t fair and we should lump remedial learners with advanced learners, thus forcing teachers to teach to the common denominator. This sort of woke thinking makes the entire nation dumber. I know it feels good and whatever, but do you want an engineer who was just scooted by and pushed up to the next grade and is less qualified because we have water down academic vigor? Because we eliminated neutral testing for entry to rigorous schools? No dude. That’s how you get Boeing 737 type planes everywhere.

I’m a pro-choice liberal who voted for Harris and who lives in SE DC the way. I live in a nice row house and I drive a cargo bike and do all the normal urban city sht every other parent here does, but I’m sick of the idiocy and woke policies with crime and school. It’s fking up our world standing, competitiveness and domestic safety.”


I am a parent and I live here in Fairfax with my partner and two children, but I agree completely with the D.C. voter / DCUM parent who wrote the above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’ve got a first grader in FCPS, was just talking with DW about how much time our DC will be missing over the next couple of weeks and we realized that she’ll learn a lot more at home with us during that time than she would in school.

Disappointing to hear it doesn’t sound much better in fifth grade. I wish they would focus on academics, not equity at the exclusion of all else.

What are you even talking about? How is "equity" being taught in 1st grade and taking away from academics? Seriously. Give specifics.

DP.

Elementary math in FCPS now follows the lower standards of the “E3” math curriculum. Yes, the “E” is for equity.

Language arts have also been dumbed-down, again, for racial equity reasons. Homework is discouraged because it is seen as racist / not equitable.

FCPS is desperate to “close the racial achievement gap.” The easiest way to do that is to dumb-down the whole curriculum, which is exactly what FCPS is doing.

I don't like E3, but the E is not for "equity." It's 3 'E's - extending, enriching, and engaging. It was the E3 Math Pilot Network and now it's gone because E3 3rd grade standards are throughout FCPS.

E3 never impacted first grade anyway. It was piloted in 3rd and 4th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was talking with a few other parents and they were complaining about how FCPS’s new curriculum has been dumbed down and how their 5th grader hasn’t even written any papers yet and are doing very rudimentary work. Has this been your experience as well?

I can speak to high school in FCPS. Yes, FCPS has dumbed-down the education provided in the county. Specifically, our school board is behind this change.

The majority of our school board, and particularly the chair, follow an ideology which Kamala Harris publicly spoke of several times in speeches and interviews; the “woke” ideology. Google it.

Another poster described it so well:

“ Or in our schools, the woke idea that gifted and talented classes aren’t fair and we should lump remedial learners with advanced learners, thus forcing teachers to teach to the common denominator. This sort of woke thinking makes the entire nation dumber. I know it feels good and whatever, but do you want an engineer who was just scooted by and pushed up to the next grade and is less qualified because we have water down academic vigor? Because we eliminated neutral testing for entry to rigorous schools? No dude. That’s how you get Boeing 737 type planes everywhere.

I’m a pro-choice liberal who voted for Harris and who lives in SE DC the way. I live in a nice row house and I drive a cargo bike and do all the normal urban city sht every other parent here does, but I’m sick of the idiocy and woke policies with crime and school. It’s fking up our world standing, competitiveness and domestic safety.”


I am a parent and I live here in Fairfax with my partner and two children, but I agree completely with the D.C. voter / DCUM parent who wrote the above.

Other than dumbing down 3rd grade advanced math, please prove what this current school board, elected in 2023, has actually done. They definitely talk a big game about equity, but have they really implemented changes? Not many.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’ve got a first grader in FCPS, was just talking with DW about how much time our DC will be missing over the next couple of weeks and we realized that she’ll learn a lot more at home with us during that time than she would in school.

Disappointing to hear it doesn’t sound much better in fifth grade. I wish they would focus on academics, not equity at the exclusion of all else.

What are you even talking about? How is "equity" being taught in 1st grade and taking away from academics? Seriously. Give specifics.

DP.

Elementary math in FCPS now follows the lower standards of the “E3” math curriculum. Yes, the “E” is for equity.

Language arts have also been dumbed-down, again, for racial equity reasons. Homework is discouraged because it is seen as racist / not equitable.

FCPS is desperate to “close the racial achievement gap.” The easiest way to do that is to dumb-down the whole curriculum, which is exactly what FCPS is doing.

There isn't LA homework because Benchmark doesn't have homework (yet), not because of equity or racism. Part of the idea is that classwork is done in class where teachers can see and assist (and make sure kids are the ones doing it, no cheating) - but also, kids these days don't do homework. This isn't an FCPS issue, it's across the board, all over the country. Something has happened to Gen Z, maybe it's the pandemic, maybe it's chromebooks/phones? But kids just don't do homework anymore, and some don't do classwork either. Wealthy kids, poor kids, neither of them do it.