General Frustration and Disappointment

[Anonymous]

I have two in college and one in high school. All three were required read multiple books in middle and high school. All three have done extensive writing both by hand and using their computer. Yes, they used Google slide for some assignments, mostly middle school. My two in college are thriving! They both feel very well prepared. Yes they had some bad classes and teachers in FCPS but over all we have been extremely happy.

[Anonymous]

Benchmark is new in the past 2 years. What have they done to catch up the masses who never had Benchmark? They never had grammar, phonics, or spelling in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also grew up going to FCPS K-12 and now my kids have been through FCPS (last one just completing 11th grade)

My parents used to say that FCPS was good because of the parents. It’s a well educated area and when the education was lacking, parents would supplement, even back then.

I remember being assigned a 2nd/3rd combo class. No way for teacher to teach both grades at the same time at appropriate grade levels/needs for the different student abilities. My parents ultimately had to supplementarer when I was behind.

+1. I grew up in a public system similar to FCPS. Parents were supplementing even back then, 40 years ago. OP may not have known that because they were a kid, and supplementing in general wasn’t as common, but it was definitely being done by families wanting to go to the top universities.

[Anonymous]

For whatever it is worth, my sixth grader hates Benchmark. He thinks that it does nothing to teach the things it is asking him to do. This is a student in AAP in a middle school who finished with all A's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Benchmark is new in the past 2 years. What have they done to catch up the masses who never had Benchmark? They never had grammar, phonics, or spelling in school.

Nothing. Those are the now high schoolers in the other thread who have completely illegible handwriting, can't read or write cursive, barely wrote anything in ES, and never had spelling instruction or math facts drills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No standards in elementary. Passing kids that should be held back. No more classroom novels with discussions. No spelling tests. Kids can’t read and write on grade-level and are pushed through the system.

Escape if you can.

And the middle and high schools aren't much better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in FCPS in the 90's. When we decided to start a family, we moved back to the area specifically because we knew the FCPS was a very good public school system and we would never be able to afford private school. My kids were still little when COVID shut downs happened, so we weren't deep into school yet. So, I can't compare immediate pre-COVID to post-COVID. But now that my kids have gotten a little older, I have felt like the whole system is floundering around my kids and I'm having to fill gaps educationally that my parents never had to fill for me. I couldn't tell you if it is because of computers in school, social media comparison or distraction, COVID lags, or just every parent/kid getting on a race track to no where. I do feel, however, that the news about public education is scary and feels slightly hopeless and I don't feel like FCPS is responding in the right ways. I don't think it's the teachers. I think that the teachers, and even most school administrators, feel the same way. I think FCPS is being mismanaged and losing its focus on what matters most. I think COVID broke a lot of it, and maybe we're finally starting to climb out of it. I don't know what the answer is and I know I haven't defined the problem very well, if at all. I'm just venting and wondering if anyone else feels the same way.

The issues run deep in FCPS....schools are struggling on many levels and we do have a lot of teachers who are just shutting down and it impacts student learning. I'm not saying I blame them but honestly if I could do it again we would not have moved to Fairfax. We are extremely disappointed. All three of mine had tutors not because they were struggling with material but because teachers were not teaching the material. It was slides and independent learning. Two of ours are in good universities now but without tutors who actually taught the concepts I don't think they would have been successful. Can't wait till our last one is done and we can be done with FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My students who come back to visit me their freshman year of college largely report that college is much easier than their high school experience, so I think they're well prepared.

I also think the experience (especially in elementary) is very non-standardized. My own child has been writing 5 paragraph essays since 3rd grade, so the anecdote about being overwhelmed by an essay is odd to me.

My now 9th and 11th graders, who were in AAP, barely wrote anything through middle school and I have been surprised at how little they write in HS.

This

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No standards in elementary. Passing kids that should be held back. No more classroom novels with discussions. No spelling tests. Kids can’t read and write on grade-level and are pushed through the system.

Escape if you can.

And the middle and high schools aren't much better.

Academically FCPS high schools are still good for high achieving students IF they can ignore all the extraneous behavior nonsense and have a decent work ethic. The students who are on the AP/Honors track aren't taking high school classes with the kids who can't read or do basic math facts. They'll get a solid education and be well prepared for college or the workforce or whatever they decide to do after they graduate. They'll walk the stage with peers who are in no way prepared for the real world but that doesn't mean they've interacted much with those peers for the past four years.

Elementary and middle schools increasingly teach to the lowest denominator at all class levels and that's a problem.

[Anonymous]

^ this.

I’m one of the previous FCPS graduates still in the area. I sent my kids to private K-8 and then switched to FCPS for high school. They were all on the AP/Honors track and have had generally good experiences and outcomes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My students who come back to visit me their freshman year of college largely report that college is much easier than their high school experience, so I think they're well prepared.

I also think the experience (especially in elementary) is very non-standardized. My own child has been writing 5 paragraph essays since 3rd grade, so the anecdote about being overwhelmed by an essay is odd to me.

My now 9th and 11th graders, who were in AAP, barely wrote anything through middle school and I have been surprised at how little they write in HS.

This

I think current MS and HSers had the absolute worst education, with Covid distruptions and huge reliance on google slides, st math, no books, no writing on paper, etc.

[Anonymous]

Elementary education in FCPs is at all time low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Elementary education in FCPs is at all time low.

Oh no, it was much worse the 1.3 covid years and the following Year of the Google Slide and Mask

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My students who come back to visit me their freshman year of college largely report that college is much easier than their high school experience, so I think they're well prepared.

I also think the experience (especially in elementary) is very non-standardized. My own child has been writing 5 paragraph essays since 3rd grade, so the anecdote about being overwhelmed by an essay is odd to me.

My now 9th and 11th graders, who were in AAP, barely wrote anything through middle school and I have been surprised at how little they write in HS.

Send them to an IB high school, they will be writing constantly.

The writing instruction is the best part of IB. My DD drafted essays regularly when she was in IB English. She went off to college very confident about her writing abilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My students who come back to visit me their freshman year of college largely report that college is much easier than their high school experience, so I think they're well prepared.

I also think the experience (especially in elementary) is very non-standardized. My own child has been writing 5 paragraph essays since 3rd grade, so the anecdote about being overwhelmed by an essay is odd to me.

My now 9th and 11th graders, who were in AAP, barely wrote anything through middle school and I have been surprised at how little they write in HS.

Send them to an IB high school, they will be writing constantly.

The writing instruction is the best part of IB. My DD drafted essays regularly when she was in IB English. She went off to college very confident about her writing abilities.

And, my AP kid who majored in English Lit in college also did great. Lots of writing in her AP English classes. \She also wrote in AP History and AP foreign language. Not so much in BC Calculus or AP Physics. Lots of writing in AP Comparative Government, too.

IB proponents seem to think that AP students don't write.
I don't question that IB has a lot of writing, but AP Composition and AP Lit also requires a lot.