Justice High School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s disheartening to work in a high school where 18 year old freshman are unable to converse in basic English without benefit of a translator.

Would you prefer those kids don’t go to school at all?

DP, but if one were to optimize for economic optimization without any regard to “kindness” then an argument could be made to exclude the migration of those having low income/limited English who are already around adult age. I say this as an immigrant myself.

Quite the opposite. It would be an economic disaster to have even more folks who can’t read and didn’t graduate high school.

Thanks for illustration the importance of the ability to read and understand English. The PP asked why admit them into the US. How would such a scenario be a economic disaster for the US?

Not sure what your agenda is but not all of them were formally “admitted” and others are refugees fleeing with asylum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s disheartening to work in a high school where 18 year old freshman are unable to converse in basic English without benefit of a translator.

Would you prefer those kids don’t go to school at all?

DP, but if one were to optimize for economic optimization without any regard to “kindness” then an argument could be made to exclude the migration of those having low income/limited English who are already around adult age. I say this as an immigrant myself.

Quite the opposite. It would be an economic disaster to have even more folks who can’t read and didn’t graduate high school.

Thanks for illustration the importance of the ability to read and understand English. The PP asked why admit them into the US. How would such a scenario be a economic disaster for the US?

Not sure what your agenda is but not all of them were formally “admitted” and others are refugees fleeing with asylum.

My agenda is talking about facts using logic. The PP was specifically talking about the US immigration policy that is not merit-based and admits low-skilled low-education economic migrants for the sake of "diversity". I would further add that the soft-stance that Democrats take on illegal immigration exacerbates the problem. All of these low-skilled low-education immigrants serve to suppress low end wages that is a key driver behind the divergence of wages vs GPD/capita that the left love to crow about. We see this fact proven with the COVID restrictions that severely limited illegal immigration, and immigration in general, with the resulting wage growth that we've seen for the past couple of years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are also multiple English teachers leaving. This comes on the heels of eliminating Honors English 11 and 12 courses and pushing unprepared kids into IB English classes.

They eliminated honors and regular English 11. Everyone is taking IB English 11.

Yikes.

Not everyone is taking IB English as the school has a large ESOL population. But if you don’t want to be in a remedial course, IB English is your only option as Honors English 11 and 12 have been eliminated.

Many of the departing teachers are English teachers. Draw your own conclusion as to how they feel about this experiment.

I work there and everyone is taking IB 11 English, including all ESOL students.

[Anonymous]

Justice HS is next to Culmore area. Enough said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Justice HS is next to Culmore area. Enough said.

Please elaborate how that pertains to this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t Justice the worst high school in fcps? Assuming it isn’t a great place to work?

Open your eyes teachers are leaving all over the county. It's not only justice. There are lots of jobs on the vacancy list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t Justice the worst high school in fcps? Assuming it isn’t a great place to work?

Open your eyes teachers are leaving all over the county. It's not only justice. There are lots of jobs on the vacancy list.

There is churn every year everywhere. Justice stands out this year.

[Anonymous]

Honest review: this year has not been that great. What many people are saying in this forum is true. Justice is really going down the drain because of extremely poor and weak leadership and very low morale of the staff. The administration this year is very similar to the administration when Calhoun was principal. Honestly, the administration overall doesn’t care about the school climate, culture, and well-being of the students and staff. At Spring Fest, one of Justice’s most highly anticipated events during the year where the entire school comes together to have fun and experience a caring culture, there were barely any administrators that were present and many students walked off the campus because of little security guarding the campus exits. What does this say about the administration’s care of the school? It says negligence. In the end, new leadership needs to come to Justice or the whole administration needs to be coached. One or the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honest review: this year has not been that great. What many people are saying in this forum is true. Justice is really going down the drain because of extremely poor and weak leadership and very low morale of the staff. The administration this year is very similar to the administration when Calhoun was principal. Honestly, the administration overall doesn’t care about the school climate, culture, and well-being of the students and staff. At Spring Fest, one of Justice’s most highly anticipated events during the year where the entire school comes together to have fun and experience a caring culture, there were barely any administrators that were present and many students walked off the campus because of little security guarding the campus exits. What does this say about the administration’s care of the school? It says negligence. In the end, new leadership needs to come to Justice or the whole administration needs to be coached. One or the other.

After the problems with Calhoun at Stuart, there was an extended period when FCPS leadership was very careful about placing and in some cases re-assigning top administrators to Stuart/Justice and also to Glasgow, which is a huge middle school that houses both a large high-needs population and an AAP center.

Maybe because Penny Gros and Maria Eck had done so much to improve Justice, FCPS let up its guard when it came to Eck's replacement and hired a principal who had no prior experience with FCPS. She seems to engage in a lot more community outreach than Calhoun ever did, but she doesn't seem to have the school under control on a day-to-day basis. Add to that some questionable academic policies such as pushing kids into IB English classes for which they aren't ready, and you have a lot of teachers leaving for greener pastures.

[Anonymous]

This may shed some light as to why so many teachers are leaving Justice HS, as Eric Welch is a long-time teacher at Justice and is seeing how current practices there are harming students. It would be not surprising if other teachers with similar reactions are looking for opportunities where the pressure to pass or graduate students who just aren't ready isn't as great.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/15/pandemic-easy-teaching-hurting-students/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This may shed some light as to why so many teachers are leaving Justice HS, as Eric Welch is a long-time teacher at Justice and is seeing how current practices there are harming students. It would be not surprising if other teachers with similar reactions are looking for opportunities where the pressure to pass or graduate students who just aren't ready isn't as great.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/15/pandemic-easy-teaching-hurting-students/

It is such a difficult balance at low-SES schools. Yes, the system could take a "tough love" approach and have high expectations for kids who are 17 and don't know English or are missing parents or have no formal education whatsoever (take your pick for the disadvantage), but there is no way you take an old teenager and make them meet high school standards created for native-born English speakers in such a short time span. This would only lead to drop outs as they'll likely choose to work at age 18 instead.

The real solution has to be to have different minimum graduation requirements for students who enter the US school system at a significantly delayed stage. Their statistics shouldn't count in the same pool as those who have been in the US education system since grade school. GEDs shouldn't hurt the ratings of the school and principal. That way, administrators won't be inclined to cheat the system for their appraisal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This may shed some light as to why so many teachers are leaving Justice HS, as Eric Welch is a long-time teacher at Justice and is seeing how current practices there are harming students. It would be not surprising if other teachers with similar reactions are looking for opportunities where the pressure to pass or graduate students who just aren't ready isn't as great.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/15/pandemic-easy-teaching-hurting-students/

It is such a difficult balance at low-SES schools. Yes, the system could take a "tough love" approach and have high expectations for kids who are 17 and don't know English or are missing parents or have no formal education whatsoever (take your pick for the disadvantage), but there is no way you take an old teenager and make them meet high school standards created for native-born English speakers in such a short time span. This would only lead to drop outs as they'll likely choose to work at age 18 instead.

The real solution has to be to have different minimum graduation requirements for students who enter the US school system at a significantly delayed stage. Their statistics shouldn't count in the same pool as those who have been in the US education system since grade school. GEDs shouldn't hurt the ratings of the school and principal. That way, administrators won't be inclined to cheat the system for their appraisal.

A very legitimate concern is whether the relaxation of the requirements and expectations for the high-needs community spills over into what is expected for all the students at a school.

It's a whipsaw at a school like Justice that is simultaneously pushing kids into IB English classes yet sending out the message that teachers need to find a way to graduate kids at all costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This may shed some light as to why so many teachers are leaving Justice HS, as Eric Welch is a long-time teacher at Justice and is seeing how current practices there are harming students. It would be not surprising if other teachers with similar reactions are looking for opportunities where the pressure to pass or graduate students who just aren't ready isn't as great.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/15/pandemic-easy-teaching-hurting-students/

It is such a difficult balance at low-SES schools. Yes, the system could take a "tough love" approach and have high expectations for kids who are 17 and don't know English or are missing parents or have no formal education whatsoever (take your pick for the disadvantage), but there is no way you take an old teenager and make them meet high school standards created for native-born English speakers in such a short time span. This would only lead to drop outs as they'll likely choose to work at age 18 instead.

The real solution has to be to have different minimum graduation requirements for students who enter the US school system at a significantly delayed stage. Their statistics shouldn't count in the same pool as those who have been in the US education system since grade school. GEDs shouldn't hurt the ratings of the school and principal. That way, administrators won't be inclined to cheat the system for their appraisal.

A very legitimate concern is whether the relaxation of the requirements and expectations for the high-needs community spills over into what is expected for all the students at a school.

It's a whipsaw at a school like Justice that is simultaneously pushing kids into IB English classes yet sending out the message that teachers need to find a way to graduate kids at all costs.

I hear you. Those were probably good intentions but bad implementation. If VDOE had once upon a time separated their published graduation statistics into "traditional" and "non-traditional" student groups, we would probably not see some of our schools having such poor unsalvageable reputations as they do now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s disheartening to work in a high school where 18 year old freshman are unable to converse in basic English without benefit of a translator.

Would you prefer those kids don’t go to school at all?

DP, but if one were to optimize for economic optimization without any regard to “kindness” then an argument could be made to exclude the migration of those having low income/limited English who are already around adult age. I say this as an immigrant myself.

Quite the opposite. It would be an economic disaster to have even more folks who can’t read and didn’t graduate high school.

Thanks for illustration the importance of the ability to read and understand English. The PP asked why admit them into the US. How would such a scenario be a economic disaster for the US?

Not sure what your agenda is but not all of them were formally “admitted” and others are refugees fleeing with asylum.

My agenda is talking about facts using logic. The PP was specifically talking about the US immigration policy that is not merit-based and admits low-skilled low-education economic migrants for the sake of "diversity". I would further add that the soft-stance that Democrats take on illegal immigration exacerbates the problem. All of these low-skilled low-education immigrants serve to suppress low end wages that is a key driver behind the divergence of wages vs GPD/capita that the left love to crow about. We see this fact proven with the COVID restrictions that severely limited illegal immigration, and immigration in general, with the resulting wage growth that we've seen for the past couple of years.

Oh sweet summer child. They don’t admit them for the sake of diversity. They (GOP and Democrats) look the other way because they are cheap labor. If either party was tough on immigration, they would go after businesses. But that would cut into profits so they don’t. Always follow the money regardless of political party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This may shed some light as to why so many teachers are leaving Justice HS, as Eric Welch is a long-time teacher at Justice and is seeing how current practices there are harming students. It would be not surprising if other teachers with similar reactions are looking for opportunities where the pressure to pass or graduate students who just aren't ready isn't as great.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/15/pandemic-easy-teaching-hurting-students/

It is such a difficult balance at low-SES schools. Yes, the system could take a "tough love" approach and have high expectations for kids who are 17 and don't know English or are missing parents or have no formal education whatsoever (take your pick for the disadvantage), but there is no way you take an old teenager and make them meet high school standards created for native-born English speakers in such a short time span. This would only lead to drop outs as they'll likely choose to work at age 18 instead.

The real solution has to be to have different minimum graduation requirements for students who enter the US school system at a significantly delayed stage. Their statistics shouldn't count in the same pool as those who have been in the US education system since grade school. GEDs shouldn't hurt the ratings of the school and principal. That way, administrators won't be inclined to cheat the system for their appraisal.

A very legitimate concern is whether the relaxation of the requirements and expectations for the high-needs community spills over into what is expected for all the students at a school.

It's a whipsaw at a school like Justice that is simultaneously pushing kids into IB English classes yet sending out the message that teachers need to find a way to graduate kids at all costs.

Standards should not be watered down and students should not be allowed to graduate without a minimum level of academic competency. But equally important (to the educational aspect) in some circles, is creating an inspiring environment where kids want to learn and teachers want to teach. Justice is finally sprucing up its facility and the school just unveiled the new "JUSTICE" logo over the library windows. Falls Church HS will soon get its long-delayed renovation. So there are some positives.