Is FCPS "cheating" my kids out of the minimum instruction required by the state?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been teaching in FCPS for 22 years. My DW has 8 years with FCPS. Neither one of us has heard much about or have been trained for either PBL or Flipped Classroom.

Is your complaint about one school and one teacher? I can believe regardless of instructional method, that some teachers are disconnected. But your sweeping statements are disingenuous at best. This isn't how flipped classrooms work, nor is it how project based learning works. If either method is utilized correctly, they provide more teacher support as the teacher can and does move from group to group guiding the students and answering questions all along.

Did you talk with the teacher(s) directly? The principal? I have seen your generalized complaints on a few thread, but no specifics, so I can only guess you just don't like the idea of these methods, but haven't truly seen them in action....

Yes ... of course we spoke directly to the teachers and administrators. Their responses were the same. They said this is the future of education across the country and in Fairfax County in particular. Those of you who are buying into Flipped Classrooms and Project Based Learning models are buying into theories and not best teaching practices. They look better in therory than they function in practice. In practice long-term work is assigned and between that point and collection of the assignments the teachers punch out disconnecting from the students because they a no longer required to teach. They essentially show up in the morning and then hang around for several hours waiting for the day to end so they can leave.

People who ascribe to Flipped Classrooms and Project Based Learning are believing in educational theories not educational practices which actually work.

Communism, Laissez Faire Capitalism, Flipped Classrooms, and Project Based Learning all appear pretty good on paper and in therory, but all are horrible in practice because they each fails to take human nature into consideration.

Stop Flipped Classrooms and Project Based Learning NOW!!!

I am finding it an odd conversation, that you had with the principal and teacher. You stated your reasons for not liking it, which I can only hope were more specific than you have described here, and they simply said, "it is the future of education"? Was this one year, one child of yours? Or have you seen this same misuse of flipped classroom and project based learning with another teacher? Truly, I have never utilized flipped classrooms because it seemed like more work than typical. Having to video tape all lessons that were previously taught in the classroom, trust that technology would work, then spend the day working with small groups is beyond what is normally done....video taping would obviously occur in the evening, taking away grading papers time....so now that gets squeezed in elsewhere. The teachers I have seen you have used this (only two out of hundreds...meaning no others are doing it like you are claiming) are the hardest working teachers in our building, and are always working directly with the kids...never sitting at their desk, never ignoring questions.

You had a bad year with a teacher instructing your child...but it isn't these methods, it was the teacher. And as stated before, lazy teachers existed decades ago and now, regardless of instructional methods/fads are utilized.

[Anonymous]

pp here, and "you" above should be "who"...and sorry the quote aspect didn't work correctly. It looked like my response was part of the blue quote area...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The current calendar accounts for way more than 990 hours. The county hits the minimum of 990 hours EVEN if there are 13 days of snow. So, basically, if there is no snow, they are getting 990 hours PLUS 13 extra days. I would not stress a about the 10 minutes of putting away your coat, greeting your teacher, and sitting in your seat being counted as "instructional time."

OP here.. I think the "new" accounting method (i.e. counting 60 hrs/ school year of "walk to and from the bus" time as "instructional time" misleads us into believing we have 13 snow days "in the bank" when we really only have 3 snow days banked. After that, the kids will simply lose instructional time that in years past they would have received. Basically the school district is claiming we are getting 70 additional hours when 60 of those 70 are imaginary hours based on new accounting methods (counting the walk to and from the bus as instructional time). I'm not 100% certain, but that's my suspicion.

Here's my calculations. There are 180 days of school (6 days are early release by 2 hrs each). FCPS is counting each of the 180 school days as 6 hrs of instructional time (except for the 6 early release days). 180×6=1080 (-12hrs for early release days) =1068 hrs.

1068 hrs far exceeds the required 990 hrs. Except, that 6 hrs of instruction is based on 20 min. of "walk to/from the bus time".... (20 min/day. ×180 days = 3600 min. or 60 hrs of "walk to/from bus" time. So 1068 hrs (claimed instructional time) - 60 hrs (false time) = 1008 hrs. of instruction......which still meets the state requirement of 990.....so all is well.....so long as there are less than 18 hrs (i.e. 3 days) of cancelled classes (snow days or delays). If my calculations are correct, we don't have 13 snow days in the bank...we have 3 snow days (or fewer if there are any weather delays). Beyond that, I think FCPS is now just choosing not to make up days and they are simply claiming that the next 10 missed days are covered by kids walking to and from the buses for 60 hrs/school year.

I hope I'm wrong. It seems quite shifty for FCPS to claim they added 70 hrs of extra school time and 13 snow days when most of what they did is pretend that walking to and from a bus counts as instruction. If this is their strategy, wow. I have lost faith in the school board. Either they weren't paying attention to the details or they were perpetuating a fraud on the parents/students in Fairfax. It would be very disappointing if this is how they are running the system.

[Anonymous]

Your math is correct. And it is "shifty".

[Anonymous]

It is a little odd, however I did notice changes at my school. In previous years students came in and sat in the gym or cafeteria for up to 20 mins and then were dismissed to home rooms. This year students are coming in the school doors and going right to class. I'm not saying that great amounts of learning are happening but at least they can go in and start working on morning assignments instead of sitting around waiting to go to class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is a little odd, however I did notice changes at my school. In previous years students came in and sat in the gym or cafeteria for up to 20 mins and then were dismissed to home rooms. This year students are coming in the school doors and going right to class. I'm not saying that great amounts of learning are happening but at least they can go in and start working on morning assignments instead of sitting around waiting to go to class.

But that doesn't align with OP's narrative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If those 20 minutes are the make or break point for your kids they need to be in a special class.

So I should just be ok with the school reducing the year by a week and a half less than the minimum requirements b/c it doesn't matter?

I am OK with it. What I am not OK with is that instead of cutting the actual time the kids are at school they are filling it with this kind of nonsense!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The current calendar accounts for way more than 990 hours. The county hits the minimum of 990 hours EVEN if there are 13 days of snow. So, basically, if there is no snow, they are getting 990 hours PLUS 13 extra days. I would not stress a about the 10 minutes of putting away your coat, greeting your teacher, and sitting in your seat being counted as "instructional time."

OP here.. I think the "new" accounting method (i.e. counting 60 hrs/ school year of "walk to and from the bus" time as "instructional time" misleads us into believing we have 13 snow days "in the bank" when we really only have 3 snow days banked. After that, the kids will simply lose instructional time that in years past they would have received. Basically the school district is claiming we are getting 70 additional hours when 60 of those 70 are imaginary hours based on new accounting methods (counting the walk to and from the bus as instructional time). I'm not 100% certain, but that's my suspicion.

Here's my calculations. There are 180 days of school (6 days are early release by 2 hrs each). FCPS is counting each of the 180 school days as 6 hrs of instructional time (except for the 6 early release days). 180×6=1080 (-12hrs for early release days) =1068 hrs.

1068 hrs far exceeds the required 990 hrs. Except, that 6 hrs of instruction is based on 20 min. of "walk to/from the bus time".... (20 min/day. ×180 days = 3600 min. or 60 hrs of "walk to/from bus" time. So 1068 hrs (claimed instructional time) - 60 hrs (false time) = 1008 hrs. of instruction......which still meets the state requirement of 990.....so all is well.....so long as there are less than 18 hrs (i.e. 3 days) of cancelled classes (snow days or delays). If my calculations are correct, we don't have 13 snow days in the bank...we have 3 snow days (or fewer if there are any weather delays). Beyond that, I think FCPS is now just choosing not to make up days and they are simply claiming that the next 10 missed days are covered by kids walking to and from the buses for 60 hrs/school year.

I hope I'm wrong. It seems quite shifty for FCPS to claim they added 70 hrs of extra school time and 13 snow days when most of what they did is pretend that walking to and from a bus counts as instruction. If this is their strategy, wow. I have lost faith in the school board. Either they weren't paying attention to the details or they were perpetuating a fraud on the parents/students in Fairfax. It would be very disappointing if this is how they are running the system.

These kids don't need more time at school especially for filler s_ _ T!

[Anonymous]

I don't get it - everyone is saying their schools are counting those 10 minutes as instruction time when they're just getting off the bus. But, our school really is starting class time 10 minutes earlier. Why the discrepancy? If our school says they are required by FCPS to do it that way, why is everyone else not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get it - everyone is saying their schools are counting those 10 minutes as instruction time when they're just getting off the bus. But, our school really is starting class time 10 minutes earlier. Why the discrepancy? If our school says they are required by FCPS to do it that way, why is everyone else not?

We are definitely not starting at a different time. The principal is saying the "new school hours" are [10 min. earlier than last year] to [10 min. later than last year]. At the same time, principal is saying the "late bell" will ring and announcements will be read at the same time we had last year and kids will begin dismissal at the same time as last year. So clearly, there is nothing different from last year except how they are accounting for kids to walk to and from the front door or bus.

At my other child's school (for AAP), the rule is that no kids are allowed into the school more than 5 min. before the start time (which is last year's start time) and the release is the same as last year's release time. They are not even bothering parents with "new school hours" and imaginary accounting methods. They are leaving the posted start and end times exactly as they were last year.