Is FCPS overhyped? even top rated schools seem meh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest attends a NOVA Catholic high school (certainly a sports-focused environment) where the class sizes are reasonable and we don't get phone calls or emails about poor performance. The thing to remember is that the kids are in high school now so they're expected to manage their work load and be proactive in reaching out to the teacher for help if they need it.

Ew. Any public school comment always brings out the supposed non MAGA Catholics.

DP. I’m not a MAGA Catholic, but I am a person who has taught in both public and Catholic high schools. They simply don’t compare. In public, I was tasked with performing miracles with no resources. I burned out. In private, I am given the resources and respect to do my job well.

It’s about teacher support and teacher morale, and the publics aren’t doing well on either front right now.

And this has nothing to do with politics or religion. It’s about resources.

But, no when you teach or have your kids attend a Catholic school, it absolutely IS about the religion. That is the point of their religion classes and chapel. It is very, very clear. You may be happier with being able to kick behavior issues out, or problem parents out or whatever, but that doesn’t change the fact that religious schools teach religion. They aren’t sponsoring public schools, they aren’t tending to the poor students en mass. These are Catholics who accept money from people to teach their children reading, writing, socialstudies and religion.

The question was about teacher support and morale, which is absolutely about resources and not religion.

At the Catholic school, I’m provided with time to grade papers (additional planning periods), whereas in the public it had to be done at home.

At the Catholic school, I have a max of 90 students, whereas my largest load in the public was 176.

At the Catholic school, I have a small administration tasked with supporting teachers. At the public, I had a large admin and a ton of “specialists” who created work for me in order to justify their positions outside of the classroom.

At the Catholic school, I can be intentional with my curriculum. At the public, I was given a poor curriculum I had to spend time tailoring and altering to fit the needs of my students.

And you’re wrong about kicking kids out. We have many students with learning plans and behavioral issues. The difference is we can help them better because teachers have more time and more supports.

So say what you will about Catholic schools, but my direct experience with both leads me to believe teachers are better supported in Catholic. That can lead, understandably, to better student outcomes.

It explains why grading is so slow, which is the only tool parents have to monitor their kid's progress here. It's a huge issue, if it's not timely then parents have little they can do in terms of allocating any resources to help their kid. Grading has to be fast, no matter what and it's asinine that over-bloated FCPS administration doesn't f-ing understand this. I am beyond mad. Half of these people should be fired and don't deserve half of their salary if they don't understand this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest attends a NOVA Catholic high school (certainly a sports-focused environment) where the class sizes are reasonable and we don't get phone calls or emails about poor performance. The thing to remember is that the kids are in high school now so they're expected to manage their work load and be proactive in reaching out to the teacher for help if they need it.

Ew. Any public school comment always brings out the supposed non MAGA Catholics.

DP. I’m not a MAGA Catholic, but I am a person who has taught in both public and Catholic high schools. They simply don’t compare. In public, I was tasked with performing miracles with no resources. I burned out. In private, I am given the resources and respect to do my job well.

It’s about teacher support and teacher morale, and the publics aren’t doing well on either front right now.

And this has nothing to do with politics or religion. It’s about resources.

But, no when you teach or have your kids attend a Catholic school, it absolutely IS about the religion. That is the point of their religion classes and chapel. It is very, very clear. You may be happier with being able to kick behavior issues out, or problem parents out or whatever, but that doesn’t change the fact that religious schools teach religion. They aren’t sponsoring public schools, they aren’t tending to the poor students en mass. These are Catholics who accept money from people to teach their children reading, writing, socialstudies and religion.

The question was about teacher support and morale, which is absolutely about resources and not religion.

At the Catholic school, I’m provided with time to grade papers (additional planning periods), whereas in the public it had to be done at home.

At the Catholic school, I have a max of 90 students, whereas my largest load in the public was 176.

At the Catholic school, I have a small administration tasked with supporting teachers. At the public, I had a large admin and a ton of “specialists” who created work for me in order to justify their positions outside of the classroom.

At the Catholic school, I can be intentional with my curriculum. At the public, I was given a poor curriculum I had to spend time tailoring and altering to fit the needs of my students.

And you’re wrong about kicking kids out. We have many students with learning plans and behavioral issues. The difference is we can help them better because teachers have more time and more supports.

So say what you will about Catholic schools, but my direct experience with both leads me to believe teachers are better supported in Catholic. That can lead, understandably, to better student outcomes.

How much do Catholic schools cost? Do you have to force your kids to take on this specific religion? I really prefer not to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seven of the top 10 high schools in Virginia are in FCPS according to U.S. News.

An example of correlation, not causation.

If so, a happy coincidence. But, more likely, a refusal on your part to acknowledge what FCPS still does well.

Not a happy coincidence. This area has a large population of high earning, high achieving parents who invest heavily in their children’s education in time and/ or money. Higher rates of test prep, tutoring, homework support, etc all directly translate into higher test scores.

If the county had some magic formula for success, you’d see it across all the schools, not clustered in the most affluents parts of the county.

North Arlington and parts of Loudoun are more affluent than most of Fairfax yet their schools are generally not rated as highly by U.S. News.

It’s not a magic formula for success but suggesting it’s all purely a function of economics and parental effort on the side is misleading.

Niche ranks Arlington as #2, Loudoun as #4 and Fairfax as #6 for VA school districts.

US news rates, Loudoun#60 in the U.S., Arlington: #93 in the U.S Fairfax: #128 in the U.S.

So.. idk maybe that also supports what I’m saying. So thank you.

Also keep in mind TJ is a governors school, so Fairfax is behind even with the boost of the highest scorers from LCPS and APS added to FCPS.

And when you look at the SAT data, keep in mind TJ is pulling the county up by A LOT

The last year I think they released the data was 2021. The average SAT score from TJ was 1531. The FCPS average (with the boost from TJ included) was 1201.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/virginia

8 out of 10 of the VA's best high schools are FFX County.

That’s 7.

And yes, nobody’s disputing that. We know that those pockets with heavily involved and wealthy parents translates to excellent test taking students who will have high graduation rates and high college acceptance rates.

It does not translate to best school system though, as the success is not seen across the county as it is dependent on the students family much more than the school.

That’s why you see that over all APS and LCPS are higher ranked than FCPS even when we do have the high achievement parents boosting FCPS.

All of this very much proves the point.

Your point, then, isn't that FCPS isn't doing a good job so much as that student demographics in APS and LCPS are now more affluent overall.

But, when you look at the affluent schools in each of these districts, it's the affluent schools in FCPS coming out on top.

🤦‍♀️

[Anonymous]

Cannot answer OP’s question if they do not tell us which high school. There is a difference between Langly and Mount Vernon.

I’m guessing that the catholic school boosters are in Mt Vernon boundary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest attends a NOVA Catholic high school (certainly a sports-focused environment) where the class sizes are reasonable and we don't get phone calls or emails about poor performance. The thing to remember is that the kids are in high school now so they're expected to manage their work load and be proactive in reaching out to the teacher for help if they need it.

Ew. Any public school comment always brings out the supposed non MAGA Catholics.

DP. I’m not a MAGA Catholic, but I am a person who has taught in both public and Catholic high schools. They simply don’t compare. In public, I was tasked with performing miracles with no resources. I burned out. In private, I am given the resources and respect to do my job well.

It’s about teacher support and teacher morale, and the publics aren’t doing well on either front right now.

And this has nothing to do with politics or religion. It’s about resources.

Interesting. Can you please elaborate more on resources with specific examples? What resources did parochial schools provide specifically that public schools do not? Or was this mostly smaller class sizes? Was it 2 teachers per class (teacher and assistant)? Was it involvement and help of parent volunteers in each classroom? We had "class parents" in early elementary out of state (public) and volunteering was very much expected, although led to a lot of grumbling between FT working moms vs. SAHMs. Our class sizes were large and in early elementary there was at first an assistant per each class to help out the teacher. Later it went downhill and assistants disappeared.

Of COURSE. It has to do with religion. That is why the schools exist. They offer discounted tuition to clergy members. The entire premise of the school is based on religion and people paying to have their kids go to the school because of the religion.

Of COURSE your workload is better. You aren’t in a union. You get little retirement. You don’t have to pay for children with profound disabilities because the weird intrepretation of the Bible religious schools use says that you should pay to be educated and not take care of everyone.

You aren’t using resources better. You are relying on private money and church money to pay for your salary and “resources.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest attends a NOVA Catholic high school (certainly a sports-focused environment) where the class sizes are reasonable and we don't get phone calls or emails about poor performance. The thing to remember is that the kids are in high school now so they're expected to manage their work load and be proactive in reaching out to the teacher for help if they need it.

Ew. Any public school comment always brings out the supposed non MAGA Catholics.

DP. I’m not a MAGA Catholic, but I am a person who has taught in both public and Catholic high schools. They simply don’t compare. In public, I was tasked with performing miracles with no resources. I burned out. In private, I am given the resources and respect to do my job well.

It’s about teacher support and teacher morale, and the publics aren’t doing well on either front right now.

And this has nothing to do with politics or religion. It’s about resources.

But, no when you teach or have your kids attend a Catholic school, it absolutely IS about the religion. That is the point of their religion classes and chapel. It is very, very clear. You may be happier with being able to kick behavior issues out, or problem parents out or whatever, but that doesn’t change the fact that religious schools teach religion. They aren’t sponsoring public schools, they aren’t tending to the poor students en mass. These are Catholics who accept money from people to teach their children reading, writing, socialstudies and religion.

The question was about teacher support and morale, which is absolutely about resources and not religion.

At the Catholic school, I’m provided with time to grade papers (additional planning periods), whereas in the public it had to be done at home.

At the Catholic school, I have a max of 90 students, whereas my largest load in the public was 176.

At the Catholic school, I have a small administration tasked with supporting teachers. At the public, I had a large admin and a ton of “specialists” who created work for me in order to justify their positions outside of the classroom.

At the Catholic school, I can be intentional with my curriculum. At the public, I was given a poor curriculum I had to spend time tailoring and altering to fit the needs of my students.

And you’re wrong about kicking kids out. We have many students with learning plans and behavioral issues. The difference is we can help them better because teachers have more time and more supports.

So say what you will about Catholic schools, but my direct experience with both leads me to believe teachers are better supported in Catholic. That can lead, understandably, to better student outcomes.

It explains why grading is so slow, which is the only tool parents have to monitor their kid's progress here. It's a huge issue, if it's not timely then parents have little they can do in terms of allocating any resources to help their kid. Grading has to be fast, no matter what and it's asinine that over-bloated FCPS administration doesn't f-ing understand this. I am beyond mad. Half of these people should be fired and don't deserve half of their salary if they don't understand this.

I'm not even sure what this is in response to, but I'm both a parent and a teacher in FCPS and "overbloated" admin is the best and most succinct description of the county. I just started teaching after a long stint in a private and I'm just beyond shocked at the nuclear-level red tape and pure bureaucratic stupidity I'm encountering. The whole grading/assignment/digital resources system could not be clunkier and more difficult to use if someone tried to design it that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest attends a NOVA Catholic high school (certainly a sports-focused environment) where the class sizes are reasonable and we don't get phone calls or emails about poor performance. The thing to remember is that the kids are in high school now so they're expected to manage their work load and be proactive in reaching out to the teacher for help if they need it.

Ew. Any public school comment always brings out the supposed non MAGA Catholics.

DP. I’m not a MAGA Catholic, but I am a person who has taught in both public and Catholic high schools. They simply don’t compare. In public, I was tasked with performing miracles with no resources. I burned out. In private, I am given the resources and respect to do my job well.

It’s about teacher support and teacher morale, and the publics aren’t doing well on either front right now.

And this has nothing to do with politics or religion. It’s about resources.

Interesting. Can you please elaborate more on resources with specific examples? What resources did parochial schools provide specifically that public schools do not? Or was this mostly smaller class sizes? Was it 2 teachers per class (teacher and assistant)? Was it involvement and help of parent volunteers in each classroom? We had "class parents" in early elementary out of state (public) and volunteering was very much expected, although led to a lot of grumbling between FT working moms vs. SAHMs. Our class sizes were large and in early elementary there was at first an assistant per each class to help out the teacher. Later it went downhill and assistants disappeared.

Of COURSE. It has to do with religion. That is why the schools exist. They offer discounted tuition to clergy members. The entire premise of the school is based on religion and people paying to have their kids go to the school because of the religion.

Of COURSE your workload is better. You aren’t in a union. You get little retirement. You don’t have to pay for children with profound disabilities because the weird intrepretation of the Bible religious schools use says that you should pay to be educated and not take care of everyone.

You aren’t using resources better. You are relying on private money and church money to pay for your salary and “resources.”

You clearly have NO IDEA what you’re talking about. Your post isn’t even comprehensible to me.

From what I can gather from your far-reaching post:

1. High schools don’t offer discounted tuition to parish members. K-8 schools often do.

2. My school is less than 50% Catholic, so your argument that people pick it for faith purposes is invalid.

3. I don’t remotely get your union argument. You are correct; I do not have a union. Public schools do. Wouldn’t that mean their workload would be better than mine cause they have an organization fighting for it? Yet it’s the opposite. My workload is better without the union.

4. Retirement: my work contributes to my retirement. I no longer contribute to a pension, but my retirement is growing quite well because of these contributions.

5. Your argument about “profound disabilities” is incoherent, but we (Catholic schools) do take students with severe disabilities. And we serve them well. We even have an entire wing of our school devoted to special education services.

So my point stands: teachers in private Catholic schools have access to stronger resources. I’ll add that is, at least in part, because we don’t have to waste resources on a central office full of people avoiding classrooms.

I’m not sure you have sufficient access
to reliable experiences or information to make your arguments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest attends a NOVA Catholic high school (certainly a sports-focused environment) where the class sizes are reasonable and we don't get phone calls or emails about poor performance. The thing to remember is that the kids are in high school now so they're expected to manage their work load and be proactive in reaching out to the teacher for help if they need it.

Ew. Any public school comment always brings out the supposed non MAGA Catholics.

DP. I’m not a MAGA Catholic, but I am a person who has taught in both public and Catholic high schools. They simply don’t compare. In public, I was tasked with performing miracles with no resources. I burned out. In private, I am given the resources and respect to do my job well.

It’s about teacher support and teacher morale, and the publics aren’t doing well on either front right now.

And this has nothing to do with politics or religion. It’s about resources.

But, no when you teach or have your kids attend a Catholic school, it absolutely IS about the religion. That is the point of their religion classes and chapel. It is very, very clear. You may be happier with being able to kick behavior issues out, or problem parents out or whatever, but that doesn’t change the fact that religious schools teach religion. They aren’t sponsoring public schools, they aren’t tending to the poor students en mass. These are Catholics who accept money from people to teach their children reading, writing, socialstudies and religion.

The question was about teacher support and morale, which is absolutely about resources and not religion.

At the Catholic school, I’m provided with time to grade papers (additional planning periods), whereas in the public it had to be done at home.

At the Catholic school, I have a max of 90 students, whereas my largest load in the public was 176.

At the Catholic school, I have a small administration tasked with supporting teachers. At the public, I had a large admin and a ton of “specialists” who created work for me in order to justify their positions outside of the classroom.

At the Catholic school, I can be intentional with my curriculum. At the public, I was given a poor curriculum I had to spend time tailoring and altering to fit the needs of my students.

And you’re wrong about kicking kids out. We have many students with learning plans and behavioral issues. The difference is we can help them better because teachers have more time and more supports.

So say what you will about Catholic schools, but my direct experience with both leads me to believe teachers are better supported in Catholic. That can lead, understandably, to better student outcomes.

It explains why grading is so slow, which is the only tool parents have to monitor their kid's progress here. It's a huge issue, if it's not timely then parents have little they can do in terms of allocating any resources to help their kid. Grading has to be fast, no matter what and it's asinine that over-bloated FCPS administration doesn't f-ing understand this. I am beyond mad. Half of these people should be fired and don't deserve half of their salary if they don't understand this.

I'm not even sure what this is in response to, but I'm both a parent and a teacher in FCPS and "overbloated" admin is the best and most succinct description of the county. I just started teaching after a long stint in a private and I'm just beyond shocked at the nuclear-level red tape and pure bureaucratic stupidity I'm encountering. The whole grading/assignment/digital resources system could not be clunkier and more difficult to use if someone tried to design it that way.

I appreciate your perspective. Do teachers complain clunky systems they are forced to use? Or do you think change can be and has to be spearheaded by parents? What can we do to initiate any sort of change to this system, so that we have visibility in our kid's performance and challenges to help them in a timely manner before they slip with more and more material piling up? What is your opinion as a teacher forced to be part of this system and as a parent. When you see a test going ungraded for 2 weeks or missing assignments that don't get processed for multiple weeks and you keep nagging your kids but really have no control over this, what do you advise to do? I am a little lost because i do not have experience with this school system .

[Anonymous]

No but my kids have been in AAP, honors, IB. I hear regular classes are a hot mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We came from city public elementary/middle which I thought would be bar set low. But we would get teachers calls and emails if kids would do poorly on assessments and would be invited to talk to teachers to set a plan to improve and know exactly where children need help or more advanced material. I am surprised with the level of indifference and "cattle-like" experience from what was touted as top suburban publics in one of the top educated metro areas. Classes are overcrowded and teachers seem overwhelmed and overloaded. Grading is incredibly slow and it's hard to see if your kid is truly thriving or failing based on this info posted online, it's this unclear. Not to mention try to get access to the information where exactly they need help.

I do see tons of test prep places of all kinds. Is this what essentially becomes the necessary extension of school here? There is a lot of focus on sport, but we aren't a sports family, so it's like an alternative universe. I don't see the academic culture, am I completely off base?

The post-1990s FCPS is basically a big scam, and the hype surrounding it as a top district is riding on fumes. If you pay your (high) property taxes and expect quality commensurate with what you pay, then you will usually be disappointed. At least the families who choose to send their kids to private accept that it is a scam, swallow the essentially unused tax burden, and carry on. Those who pay tuition can't be bitter about leaving money on the table because they are making a choice. I don't recall any families who have regretted this choice.

Obviously, not everyone has the financial flexibility to go private, but many of the loud voices do. They fantasize about what FCPS once was, but it will not get better. Apparently, it is actually getting worse.

Gatehouse is a juicy target and certainly culpable. However, the school board is not effective and hasn't been for many years. Everyone from everywhere is educated in FCPS. It sounds good on paper, but too many of your and your teachers' resources have been directed to educating everyone. It’s a giant rug pull, and even Langley, TJ, McLean, etc. are in the same boat.

This is not 1985. If your kids are in the middle 60-75% of the students in FCPS, they are getting the shaft. You should either lower your expectations for what you're going to get from FCPS, or you should leave.

[Anonymous]

We have been very happy with FCPS. Oldest DC is at a T20 college for STEM major and excelling. Getting As in the most challenging classes - Physics, orgo chem, thermodynamics, python. DC feels the FCPS math and science are on par or better compared to peers. DC has been helping others in discussion sections. Some of the info is material DC learned in high school advanced classes.

FCPS does not handhold. Students need to self advocate. This is the same as at a large university and while employed. Some students need small classes and more individualized instruction. Our friends with kids who were not self motivated went to catholic or private high schools. Most are not at T20 colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have been very happy with FCPS. Oldest DC is at a T20 college for STEM major and excelling. Getting As in the most challenging classes - Physics, orgo chem, thermodynamics, python. DC feels the FCPS math and science are on par or better compared to peers. DC has been helping others in discussion sections. Some of the info is material DC learned in high school advanced classes.

FCPS does not handhold. Students need to self advocate. This is the same as at a large university and while employed. Some students need small classes and more individualized instruction. Our friends with kids who were not self motivated went to catholic or private high schools. Most are not at T20 colleges.

Exactly. It isn’t about the FCPS, it’s about the kids and parents. If you have the type of kids that are going to end up at T20, it really doesn’t matter what high school they go to.

[Anonymous]

I would say for top 50 colleges it doesn't matter cor high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest attends a NOVA Catholic high school (certainly a sports-focused environment) where the class sizes are reasonable and we don't get phone calls or emails about poor performance. The thing to remember is that the kids are in high school now so they're expected to manage their work load and be proactive in reaching out to the teacher for help if they need it.

Ew. Any public school comment always brings out the supposed non MAGA Catholics.

DP. I’m not a MAGA Catholic, but I am a person who has taught in both public and Catholic high schools. They simply don’t compare. In public, I was tasked with performing miracles with no resources. I burned out. In private, I am given the resources and respect to do my job well.

It’s about teacher support and teacher morale, and the publics aren’t doing well on either front right now.

And this has nothing to do with politics or religion. It’s about resources.

Interesting. Can you please elaborate more on resources with specific examples? What resources did parochial schools provide specifically that public schools do not? Or was this mostly smaller class sizes? Was it 2 teachers per class (teacher and assistant)? Was it involvement and help of parent volunteers in each classroom? We had "class parents" in early elementary out of state (public) and volunteering was very much expected, although led to a lot of grumbling between FT working moms vs. SAHMs. Our class sizes were large and in early elementary there was at first an assistant per each class to help out the teacher. Later it went downhill and assistants disappeared.

Of COURSE. It has to do with religion. That is why the schools exist. They offer discounted tuition to clergy members. The entire premise of the school is based on religion and people paying to have their kids go to the school because of the religion.

Of COURSE your workload is better. You aren’t in a union. You get little retirement. You don’t have to pay for children with profound disabilities because the weird intrepretation of the Bible religious schools use says that you should pay to be educated and not take care of everyone.

You aren’t using resources better. You are relying on private money and church money to pay for your salary and “resources.”

You clearly have NO IDEA what you’re talking about. Your post isn’t even comprehensible to me.

From what I can gather from your far-reaching post:

1. High schools don’t offer discounted tuition to parish members. K-8 schools often do.

2. My school is less than 50% Catholic, so your argument that people pick it for faith purposes is invalid.

3. I don’t remotely get your union argument. You are correct; I do not have a union. Public schools do. Wouldn’t that mean their workload would be better than mine cause they have an organization fighting for it? Yet it’s the opposite. My workload is better without the union.

4. Retirement: my work contributes to my retirement. I no longer contribute to a pension, but my retirement is growing quite well because of these contributions.

5. Your argument about “profound disabilities” is incoherent, but we (Catholic schools) do take students with severe disabilities. And we serve them well. We even have an entire wing of our school devoted to special education services.

So my point stands: teachers in private Catholic schools have access to stronger resources. I’ll add that is, at least in part, because we don’t have to waste resources on a central office full of people avoiding classrooms.

I’m not sure you have sufficient access
to reliable experiences or information to make your arguments.

My argument boils down to your funding stream. It comes from private money and church money. Parents pay your salary and the church pays some as well.

Your point: “Teachers have access to stronger resources” and that is THE most OBVIOUS thing in the world because parents are PAYING and the church is PAYING for your school. You aren’t relying on tax payer money and you are having to deal with tax payers who don’t want to pay taxes as a funding stream.


The school claims to be Christian and want to help all, but in actuality you are sitting in a school where you aren’t using a collective strategy in our society to educate kids. You are using a capitalistic, private pay structure to pay for the school. You aren’t helping all of society, you are just helping those who can pay or the church deems they want to pay for (if they are scholarship students). Using a capitalistic structure to pay for academic (and religious) training instead of acting on the principles in the Bible and trying to help ALL kids is ridiculous and hypocritical.

Unions don’t help with pay as much as they provide a lawyer if a teacher is ever accused by a student of inappropriate behavior. We all know how the Catholic Church handles that, so you are right, you don’t need one.

You claim it is central office that is the difference. You have a central office and it in part falls under the church as they help with the grounds keeping, and can provide . You don’t necessarily see how the priest is paid, or the custodians because that sometimes comes from the church part, not just the school.

Please link me to Catholic run ABA centers or centers for profoundly disabled children (life skills curriculum)

You can’t brag about “better resources” when you are charging tuition. Really simple. It is self explanatory that you would have better resources. Not because of better management, but because you are charging people to use the school and have church donations to help you out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest attends a NOVA Catholic high school (certainly a sports-focused environment) where the class sizes are reasonable and we don't get phone calls or emails about poor performance. The thing to remember is that the kids are in high school now so they're expected to manage their work load and be proactive in reaching out to the teacher for help if they need it.

Ew. Any public school comment always brings out the supposed non MAGA Catholics.

DP. I’m not a MAGA Catholic, but I am a person who has taught in both public and Catholic high schools. They simply don’t compare. In public, I was tasked with performing miracles with no resources. I burned out. In private, I am given the resources and respect to do my job well.

It’s about teacher support and teacher morale, and the publics aren’t doing well on either front right now.

And this has nothing to do with politics or religion. It’s about resources.

Interesting. Can you please elaborate more on resources with specific examples? What resources did parochial schools provide specifically that public schools do not? Or was this mostly smaller class sizes? Was it 2 teachers per class (teacher and assistant)? Was it involvement and help of parent volunteers in each classroom? We had "class parents" in early elementary out of state (public) and volunteering was very much expected, although led to a lot of grumbling between FT working moms vs. SAHMs. Our class sizes were large and in early elementary there was at first an assistant per each class to help out the teacher. Later it went downhill and assistants disappeared.

Of COURSE. It has to do with religion. That is why the schools exist. They offer discounted tuition to clergy members. The entire premise of the school is based on religion and people paying to have their kids go to the school because of the religion.

Of COURSE your workload is better. You aren’t in a union. You get little retirement. You don’t have to pay for children with profound disabilities because the weird intrepretation of the Bible religious schools use says that you should pay to be educated and not take care of everyone.

You aren’t using resources better. You are relying on private money and church money to pay for your salary and “resources.”

You clearly have NO IDEA what you’re talking about. Your post isn’t even comprehensible to me.

From what I can gather from your far-reaching post:

1. High schools don’t offer discounted tuition to parish members. K-8 schools often do.

2. My school is less than 50% Catholic, so your argument that people pick it for faith purposes is invalid.

3. I don’t remotely get your union argument. You are correct; I do not have a union. Public schools do. Wouldn’t that mean their workload would be better than mine cause they have an organization fighting for it? Yet it’s the opposite. My workload is better without the union.

4. Retirement: my work contributes to my retirement. I no longer contribute to a pension, but my retirement is growing quite well because of these contributions.

5. Your argument about “profound disabilities” is incoherent, but we (Catholic schools) do take students with severe disabilities. And we serve them well. We even have an entire wing of our school devoted to special education services.

So my point stands: teachers in private Catholic schools have access to stronger resources. I’ll add that is, at least in part, because we don’t have to waste resources on a central office full of people avoiding classrooms.

I’m not sure you have sufficient access
to reliable experiences or information to make your arguments.

My argument boils down to your funding stream. It comes from private money and church money. Parents pay your salary and the church pays some as well.

Your point: “Teachers have access to stronger resources” and that is THE most OBVIOUS thing in the world because parents are PAYING and the church is PAYING for your school. You aren’t relying on tax payer money and you are having to deal with tax payers who don’t want to pay taxes as a funding stream.


The school claims to be Christian and want to help all, but in actuality you are sitting in a school where you aren’t using a collective strategy in our society to educate kids. You are using a capitalistic, private pay structure to pay for the school. You aren’t helping all of society, you are just helping those who can pay or the church deems they want to pay for (if they are scholarship students). Using a capitalistic structure to pay for academic (and religious) training instead of acting on the principles in the Bible and trying to help ALL kids is ridiculous and hypocritical.

Unions don’t help with pay as much as they provide a lawyer if a teacher is ever accused by a student of inappropriate behavior. We all know how the Catholic Church handles that, so you are right, you don’t need one.

You claim it is central office that is the difference. You have a central office and it in part falls under the church as they help with the grounds keeping, and can provide . You don’t necessarily see how the priest is paid, or the custodians because that sometimes comes from the church part, not just the school.

Please link me to Catholic run ABA centers or centers for profoundly disabled children (life skills curriculum)

You can’t brag about “better resources” when you are charging tuition. Really simple. It is self explanatory that you would have better resources. Not because of better management, but because you are charging people to use the school and have church donations to help you out.

You’re arguing a different point. If you want to feel disdain toward Catholic schools, I’m not stopping you.

My point remains the same: I have better access to resources (time being the largest one, followed by more manageable classloads and more useful professional development). This affords me the opportunity to create more targeted lessons, provide more valuable / timely feedback, and communicate more regularly with parents.

Screaming into the wind about your perceived nature of a Catholic school isn’t going to change my point.

And you are still wrong… about what unions do, about our ability to serve students with disabilities, etc. (And nice job throwing in a reference to the priest abuse scandal. I could educate you about our very strict child safety procedures vs. those at my former public, but I doubt you’ll listen.)

It’s quite possible you aren’t familiar with Catholic schools and therefore are arguing from a place of ignorance. You’ll be welcomed into a neighboring one. Why don’t you go check it out so you can see some of its work.