The sky is falling in the DMV

[Anonymous]

So many threads right now about how bad MCPS, FCPS, and APS are. Lots of admins and teachers leaving each school system. Is the DCUM noise justified, or is this much ado about nothing?

[Anonymous]

A lot easier to be motivated to post about something you are mad about rather than checking in to say: hey all, another day where nothing went wrong and my expectations were met

[Anonymous]

We are in APS and I think there is reason for significant concern about the big picture.

[Anonymous]

I think there are challenges, but in the large scope of things these are excellent high performing school systems. There are nationwide educator shortages and these issues are being experienced everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think there are challenges, but in the large scope of things these are excellent high performing school systems. There are nationwide educator shortages and these issues are being experienced everywhere.

Why are they excellent though? They are mostly filled with children of well educated and wealthy parents who do whatever they need to make sure their kids are successful. That doesn't mean the school system is great. Swap those students and families from students from Baltimore City and that's when you'll see how good they really are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think there are challenges, but in the large scope of things these are excellent high performing school systems. There are nationwide educator shortages and these issues are being experienced everywhere.

Why are they excellent though? They are mostly filled with children of well educated and wealthy parents who do whatever they need to make sure their kids are successful. That doesn't mean the school system is great. Swap those students and families from students from Baltimore City and that's when you'll see how good they really are.

This could be said of a lot of school districts. I don't think the school districts here are perfect, no school district is, but some of the parents around these parts expect the school district to be perfect in every way to every child. That's not possible. I'm not saying that we shouldn't push or advocate for better, but sometimes you have to accept that not everything will be perfect.

[Anonymous]

I think more and more people are waking up to the fact that all the schools around here are being overrun by underperformers which takes away time and resources from everyone else

The above average performers are either clustering in the remaining "decent school pyramids" aka the wealthier ones supplementing and desperately holding on or going private

The average performers are really hurting and I think people are waking up and saying enough is enough you need to focus on my children

[Anonymous]

This is normal. Teaching and administration are really challenging. A recent study indicated that 80 percent of DC teachers had considered leaving the profession in the last two years. Folks have been studying teacher turnover nationwide and how to stabilize it. (Money helps, but working conditions matter.)

Through it all, the vast majority of folks who got into teaching did so for the right reasons. They want children to be safe and happy and they want the satisfaction of doing a good job. So even if there are some customer service issues along the way, most of the time the problems folks report are not crises.

Agreed with the poster who mentioned that you’re more likely to hear about complaints. Not only is this true, but at this time of year it’s especially the case. People are burnt out right now.

[Anonymous]

OP thanks for posting. I've wondered the same thing as all I read on here is how terrible all the schools are (save a few, and even then there are detractors). Part of me totally panicked. And part of me realized that most of the schools in the area are as good as the one I went to and often notably better.

[Anonymous]

I think we've had huge low income immigrant population shifts here. Our school systems are struggling to handle it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP thanks for posting. I've wondered the same thing as all I read on here is how terrible all the schools are (save a few, and even then there are detractors). Part of me totally panicked. And part of me realized that most of the schools in the area are as good as the one I went to and often notably better.

The reality is kids of college-educated, middle class or richer parents will do fine, basically regardless of the school they attend (unless it is truly a dangerous place -- think the worst parts of Anacostia, LA, NYC, or Detroit, not anything in the DMV suburbs). This has basically always been true.

Non-magnet public schools have always been geared towards the average to below-average kid. They're meant to provide an adequate education. Essentially, you're getting a Chevy. It's not fancy, but it's fine, especially if you do some work on it at home. If you want a Cadillac education, you have to either have a kid who can get into a magnet program, or you pay for a good private school.

My parents found this with my sister and me in Chappaqua schools back in the 90s (aka a district that is ranked much higher than the DMV school districts). They ended up putting us into private school because the public school teachers were burned out and could really only deal with the kids who were struggling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think more and more people are waking up to the fact that all the schools around here are being overrun by underperformers which takes away time and resources from everyone else

The above average performers are either clustering in the remaining "decent school pyramids" aka the wealthier ones supplementing and desperately holding on or going private

The average performers are really hurting and I think people are waking up and saying enough is enough you need to focus on my children

As harsh as this is, I second it in MoCo. Special needs / problem kids are taking all of the attention. I hear more and more parents telling stories of teachers lauding their children for "not causing problems." I heard one say "I hardly even notice she's there" as a positive comment. As far as parents clustering in the remaining decent pyramids, I've seen this too, which is why there's all this uproar about busing. Parents have spent $1M+ for a pyramid, and now some County Council do-gooder is going to "close the achievement gap" using kids as pawns... that's the perception. Many parents long for the days of great teachers dominating schools--today it seems like schools are mostly admin + paraeducators + big curriculum companies. It's definitely a long slide to mediocrity.

[Anonymous]

I'm in ACPS and thinking of leaving before middle school. I look at the threads on DCUM about other districts and get the feeling that there's nowhere really better to go, except private. And even then people complain. Sheesh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in ACPS and thinking of leaving before middle school. I look at the threads on DCUM about other districts and get the feeling that there's nowhere really better to go, except private. And even then people complain. Sheesh.

We looked at Arlington, Fairfax, MoCo, DCPS. All are trying to respond to Federal law focusing schools on closing the achievement gap. This is a more and more impossible goal as at the the proportion of well supported at home students has been declining every year. That trend is happening at a higher rate in the dmv than many other areas.

[Anonymous]

Consider the platform.
Everything people talk about on social media is of extreme urgency and the sky is falling.