Fairfax County Schools -- Is there a deterioration?
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Anonymous
I've been teaching ESOL for 15 years in FCPS and I do see a difference in the students we have gotten in the last couple of years. They are, in general, older, less educated, and predominantly male - a different group from whom I used to teach in the past. While we try to help all of our students get an education and graduate, it is very difficult when a student comes at age 18 with a 3rd grade education - no matter how hard they work, that is HUGE gap in learning. People at other fcps high schools around the county notice this trend, too - it is not just my school. Many of these students will never graduate from high school as they will age out before they get enough credits - we really need to start thinking about other options of how we should educate this population of students who just keep on coming. |
Anonymous
| That's because in many countries education ends in the 3rd grade. |
Anonymous
That may be the case, but accordingly to their transcripts most of them have been in school until high school, although sometimes with interruptions. But what that schooling was for most of them has been minimal because their skills are so low even in their native language. But of course we cannot put them in 3rd grade when they are 18, so they go to high school where they need to pass U.S. History and Algebra. |
Anonymous
| Why are we putting them into school at age 18? |
Anonymous
Because that's allowed in FCPS if you're in ESOL. You can stay until you're 22. It's the only county around here that does it I think. It's a problem, but I don't think a lot of people know about it. |
Anonymous
|
You are all missing the point. FCPS has plenty of money, perfectly adequate resources, and illuminated artificial turf football fields.
What FCPS does not have is quality instruction. FCPS used to have varied instruction and today that is gone. It is only common sense that teachers should vary their instructional methodologies. Some students are visual learners, others are audible learners, some are kinetic learners, etc, etc. FCPS used to have a red paper back book they distributed to teachers called "The Effective Teacher". It described and gave examples of effective teaching methods where the bottom line was to vary the instruction to appeal to every child's learning style. Makes sense right!?!? FCPS no longer has varied instruction. Frankly, they have no instruction at all. The entire FCPS system in one form or another has adopted Problem Based Learning or in some schools they've come up a deceptive euphemism and they are calling it Project Based Learning to give the appearance that students are constantly collaborating on highly interesting dynamic mind riveting projects together. It's the BIG LIE The reality of FCPS instruction today is that the students are given a quantity of facts to learn by themselves and a test date three weeks later. They are then essentially abandoned by they teachers for the next three weeks. They are told they can work in groups or alone to learn the material and then they are tested on it three weeks later. They are told if they need the teacher they should go looking for them or find them after school which of course is impossible because the majority of teachers are beating the kids out the door every afternoon. The teachers in FCPS are so out of touch they no longer have any idea how to engage or communicate with their students. Because nothing is being learned in their classrooms students are now required to teach themselves at home. Students used to have seven hours of school and a couple hours of homework. It was decent balance that allowed time for sports and socializing. Not anymore, today FCPS students have seven hours of school and seven hours of homework to make up for everything they didn't learn in school that day. Our children are driven and they want to succeed so they are self-educating themselves to appease their teachers and to qualify for entry into their dream-school universities. They are doing it, but the costs are too high. Some kids are succeeding, but too many are being destroyed. The kids are burned out and they have ridiculously high stress levels. The students are detached from their teachers because they are not being taught anything but self-reliance. Teachers used to be mentors, but today their have reduced themselves down to being the guy or the lady who passes out and then collects those assignments three weeks later. Between social media and too much homework, our kids hardly seem to know each other anymore and they don't seem to be particular fond of each other either. Dr. Garza some of your students are alive and well, but too many are being crushed alive. |
Anonymous
| Well the teachers will tell you the detachment has to do with too many requirements and too large class sizes, none of which seem to be getting better. |
Anonymous
So it's not a federal requirement? Why are we doing this? Why can't these people go to alternative learning schools instead of high school if the classes are too hard for them at the very least? |
Anonymous
No, it's not. It's something Fairfax Co. has chosen to offer. We have some alternative schools, but they meet in the afternoons and there is no transportation or breakfast/lunch offered. I love teaching ESOL, but I agree a regular high school is not the right place for these students who are starting school at such an academic deficit. But to make a new type of program for them would cost even more money and the county is not going to spend it. |
Anonymous
They say so, but it's just one more excuse for not working hard enough and simply not doing their jobs. It's actually better to teach large classes than small classes. Small classes have low energy so the teacher is forced to carry all the weigh. Have a couple kids absent and it turns into snoozville. Large classes have energy and dozens of perspectives on every topic. Why would a professional educator who introduces subject matter, dicusses it, has Q&A, assigns work, grades papers, reviews material and has unit assessments be detached from the students in a large class? Kids don't need a teacher to be a BFF, they need them to be fully-engaged professional educators. Unfortunately, in FCPS it doesn't matter if there fifteen or forty-students in a classroom the teachers pass out papers and then go sit at their desks until the class period ends. They call that Project Based Learning. |
Anonymous
Haven't you hijacked enough posts on this forum? Create your own thread if you want a constructive dialog. |
Anonymous
| This thread is just a racist rant. |
Anonymous
| Are all children allowed to stay in high school even if they aren't ESOL students? |
Anonymous
how so? |
Anonymous
No. |