Predicted Enrollment Decline in FCPS Materializes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe it, but we are leaving NOVA because we’re tired of the FCPS school board. We have watched the quality of education go down and the board acts totally oblivious to it.

They squabble over new magnet programs, the most convoluted boundary review, non stop surveys with silly start time options.

All while they haven’t adequately addressed learning loss, they raise the caps on class sizes, get rid of class monitors, push early algebra when our math scores are already abysmal so there’s no indication these kids are ready for it.

I don’t doubt it’s all in best intention, but this school board and superintendent have absolutely lost the plot. I’m done waiting for them to get it together.

💯 FCPS has gone downhill fast since Covid. If my kids were young, I would never put them in FCPS, would go the private route. The LA and Math is abysmal. School board makes decisions to help their future politics. They do not care about the students anymore. There is zero accountability across the board from the school board down to the teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe it, but we are leaving NOVA because we’re tired of the FCPS school board. We have watched the quality of education go down and the board acts totally oblivious to it.

They squabble over new magnet programs, the most convoluted boundary review, non stop surveys with silly start time options.

All while they haven’t adequately addressed learning loss, they raise the caps on class sizes, get rid of class monitors, push early algebra when our math scores are already abysmal so there’s no indication these kids are ready for it.

I don’t doubt it’s all in best intention, but this school board and superintendent have absolutely lost the plot. I’m done waiting for them to get it together.

There are only a few places in the country you can move to and have a better public school experience, hope your heading to one of those. Search for the West Virginia thread from a few years ago. A person posted about a friend moving to West Virginia for cheaper housing and a not woke school district. How great it was going to be and how jealous they were of that friend. Six months into the school year the person was back posting about how bad the education was and how behind the schools were. My friends who moved in from other states have all commented that their kids were behind when they got to FCPS.

Why the heck will I move to West Virginia?
I didn’t say I was moving to find somewhere cheaper. I don’t mind paying for quality.

FCPS is no longer a top district.. it certainly used to be. Even among VA schools, FCPS wasn’t in the top 10 for any SOL metric in any grade.

Combine the fact that we’re not top performing even within Virginia, and that Harvard’s pandemic education recovery scores rank VA as 41/51 (States plus DC) for math recovery and 51/51 in reading recovery.. you’re a bit off base thinking there are only “a few” places better than FCPS.

I will agree that West VA isn’t one. Didn’t think I’d need to say that thought 😆

FCPS doesn’t equal all of VA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe it, but we are leaving NOVA because we’re tired of the FCPS school board. We have watched the quality of education go down and the board acts totally oblivious to it.

They squabble over new magnet programs, the most convoluted boundary review, non stop surveys with silly start time options.

All while they haven’t adequately addressed learning loss, they raise the caps on class sizes, get rid of class monitors, push early algebra when our math scores are already abysmal so there’s no indication these kids are ready for it.

I don’t doubt it’s all in best intention, but this school board and superintendent have absolutely lost the plot. I’m done waiting for them to get it together.

There are only a few places in the country you can move to and have a better public school experience, hope your heading to one of those. Search for the West Virginia thread from a few years ago. A person posted about a friend moving to West Virginia for cheaper housing and a not woke school district. How great it was going to be and how jealous they were of that friend. Six months into the school year the person was back posting about how bad the education was and how behind the schools were. My friends who moved in from other states have all commented that their kids were behind when they got to FCPS.

There are a lot of other places besides West-by-God-Virginia.

It’s amazing how many suburbs of mid-tier cities in the South and Midwest have nicer schools than FCPS, and the academics in FCPS are grossly overrated. They just take credit for the extra efforts that parents make.

Good luck, my neighbor moved to the Midwest for work, 5 miles outside of a major city. The school district just dropped all electives in elementary because of budget cuts. No PE, art, music - nothing.

That is too bad. What it means is that the classroom teacher will teach all those specials. Most do already, in some way. It does not mean that the kids won't have them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe it, but we are leaving NOVA because we’re tired of the FCPS school board. We have watched the quality of education go down and the board acts totally oblivious to it.

They squabble over new magnet programs, the most convoluted boundary review, non stop surveys with silly start time options.

All while they haven’t adequately addressed learning loss, they raise the caps on class sizes, get rid of class monitors, push early algebra when our math scores are already abysmal so there’s no indication these kids are ready for it.

I don’t doubt it’s all in best intention, but this school board and superintendent have absolutely lost the plot. I’m done waiting for them to get it together.

There are only a few places in the country you can move to and have a better public school experience, hope your heading to one of those. Search for the West Virginia thread from a few years ago. A person posted about a friend moving to West Virginia for cheaper housing and a not woke school district. How great it was going to be and how jealous they were of that friend. Six months into the school year the person was back posting about how bad the education was and how behind the schools were. My friends who moved in from other states have all commented that their kids were behind when they got to FCPS.

Why the heck will I move to West Virginia?
I didn’t say I was moving to find somewhere cheaper. I don’t mind paying for quality.

FCPS is no longer a top district.. it certainly used to be. Even among VA schools, FCPS wasn’t in the top 10 for any SOL metric in any grade.

Combine the fact that we’re not top performing even within Virginia, and that Harvard’s pandemic education recovery scores rank VA as 41/51 (States plus DC) for math recovery and 51/51 in reading recovery.. you’re a bit off base thinking there are only “a few” places better than FCPS.

I will agree that West VA isn’t one. Didn’t think I’d need to say that thought 😆

FCPS doesn’t equal all of VA

Correct. As I said FCPS isn’t even in top 10 in Virginia AND Virginia is at the absolute rear in educational recovery.

If FCPS had top SOL scores you could argue they are not in the group bringing VA scores down, but that’s not the case.

[Anonymous]

I feel like language arts has been improved since covid. It was abysmal with Lucy Calkins. Hasn't this been an improvement? The math they change every 3 to 5 years so its harder to track. I thought they found a middle ground between too much acceleration and too little. For awhile the state was talking about not even allowing acceleration which backfired. To me either the state and/or school board has improved these subjects over the years if for no other reason than they were going downhill and they had to do something different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like language arts has been improved since covid. It was abysmal with Lucy Calkins. Hasn't this been an improvement? The math they change every 3 to 5 years so its harder to track. I thought they found a middle ground between too much acceleration and too little. For awhile the state was talking about not even allowing acceleration which backfired. To me either the state and/or school board has improved these subjects over the years if for no other reason than they were going downhill and they had to do something different.

This new LA program is the worst. I have heard from multiple kids how bored they are with it and how it’s their least favorite subject now.

I think a balance between rigor and not killing kids enthusiasm to learn is possible. When LA is as fun as a root canal I’m not sure it’s a success though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like language arts has been improved since covid. It was abysmal with Lucy Calkins. Hasn't this been an improvement? The math they change every 3 to 5 years so its harder to track. I thought they found a middle ground between too much acceleration and too little. For awhile the state was talking about not even allowing acceleration which backfired. To me either the state and/or school board has improved these subjects over the years if for no other reason than they were going downhill and they had to do something different.

Algebra in 6th is an example of too much acceleration. LA is atrocious at FCPS. They don’t teach anything!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My guess is that this is from layoffs as well as immigration enforcement activities in Northern Virginia. The area is getting hit hard from multiple angles.

I was at my family’s house in OH recently and there was a news report on declining enrollment numbers in Columbus by 11%, they linked it to several reasons including reduced birth rates.

Of course they did. MAGAs don’t want to own up to the fact that throwing immigrants out will have an impact. Easier to blame it on something else.

And the left marketing having children as ruining the planet. Easier to blame it on something else but the real issue is the declining birth rate, which has nothing to do with maga

To be fair, declining birth rates among citizens has largely been blunted by generally higher birth rates among immigrant populations.

So both things can be true at once. It's amazing how that works.

Except the data includes the biggest growth of immigrant populations in this country since the Eliis Island era.

None of trump's policies are part of the declining birth rate stats.

It is amazing how statistics work.

Republicans are directly responsible for policies that discourage parenthood and add to the declining birthrate. Limiting social safety nets, limiting regulations that protect workers, supporting the upward movement of wealth, gutting women's healthcare, etc etc, etc. All of these contribute to declining birthrates.

You conveniently left out one of the biggest reasons of all- abortion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like language arts has been improved since covid. It was abysmal with Lucy Calkins. Hasn't this been an improvement? The math they change every 3 to 5 years so its harder to track. I thought they found a middle ground between too much acceleration and too little. For awhile the state was talking about not even allowing acceleration which backfired. To me either the state and/or school board has improved these subjects over the years if for no other reason than they were going downhill and they had to do something different.

This new LA program is the worst. I have heard from multiple kids how bored they are with it and how it’s their least favorite subject now.

I think a balance between rigor and not killing kids enthusiasm to learn is possible. When LA is as fun as a root canal I’m not sure it’s a success though.

Are teachers required to use a script?

[Anonymous]

Benchmark is pretty much scripted. Teachers read from the manual.

[Anonymous]

Here is an idea, why don’t we dust off curriculum from the 70s and 80s. We had the best schools back then. Not write new stuff but update that old stuff and get back on track.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like language arts has been improved since covid. It was abysmal with Lucy Calkins. Hasn't this been an improvement? The math they change every 3 to 5 years so its harder to track. I thought they found a middle ground between too much acceleration and too little. For awhile the state was talking about not even allowing acceleration which backfired. To me either the state and/or school board has improved these subjects over the years if for no other reason than they were going downhill and they had to do something different.

This new LA program is the worst. I have heard from multiple kids how bored they are with it and how it’s their least favorite subject now.

I think a balance between rigor and not killing kids enthusiasm to learn is possible. When LA is as fun as a root canal I’m not sure it’s a success though.

Are teachers required to use a script?

Not a script.. but the same reading passages for all kids across all schools and they’re universally disliked, lol. Reading them evokes the same feelings as watching paint dry. There’s only so much even the best teachers can do to make it interesting when they have to give specific reading and work that reads like it was written by ChatGPT under a prompt asking for reading material to put you to sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is an idea, why don’t we dust off curriculum from the 70s and 80s. We had the best schools back then. Not write new stuff but update that old stuff and get back on track.

Honestly it would be so much better. We have talented teachers here.. we just have relegated them to a role of implementing standardized curriculum which is not the same as teaching. Let the teachers TEACH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe it, but we are leaving NOVA because we’re tired of the FCPS school board. We have watched the quality of education go down and the board acts totally oblivious to it.

They squabble over new magnet programs, the most convoluted boundary review, non stop surveys with silly start time options.

All while they haven’t adequately addressed learning loss, they raise the caps on class sizes, get rid of class monitors, push early algebra when our math scores are already abysmal so there’s no indication these kids are ready for it.

I don’t doubt it’s all in best intention, but this school board and superintendent have absolutely lost the plot. I’m done waiting for them to get it together.

There are only a few places in the country you can move to and have a better public school experience, hope your heading to one of those. Search for the West Virginia thread from a few years ago. A person posted about a friend moving to West Virginia for cheaper housing and a not woke school district. How great it was going to be and how jealous they were of that friend. Six months into the school year the person was back posting about how bad the education was and how behind the schools were. My friends who moved in from other states have all commented that their kids were behind when they got to FCPS.

There are a lot of other places besides West-by-God-Virginia.

It’s amazing how many suburbs of mid-tier cities in the South and Midwest have nicer schools than FCPS, and the academics in FCPS are grossly overrated. They just take credit for the extra efforts that parents make.

Good luck, my neighbor moved to the Midwest for work, 5 miles outside of a major city. The school district just dropped all electives in elementary because of budget cuts. No PE, art, music - nothing.

California did that decades ago.

Only the rich schools with a lot of SAHMs have electives, or even basics like yearbooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is an idea, why don’t we dust off curriculum from the 70s and 80s. We had the best schools back then. Not write new stuff but update that old stuff and get back on track.

I totally agree.

Returning to textbooks and ditching all the online programs and DIY curriculum that makes so much more work for teachers would help too.