Is FCPS overhyped? even top rated schools seem meh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 .

I've only been dealing with this system since the beginning of this year and I'd be lying if I said I actually understand it. If your concern is that grading isn't transparent enough, there are several issues. First, the county mandates a certain number of assignments and test per quarter, meaning I'm doing more grading than I want to in the first place. Second, all that stuff you see in Schoology isn't actually the grades. We have to take all that stuff and enter it separately into a different grading system because Schoology doesn't communicate with the gradebook program. Which is insane. We also don't have enough time to do all the grading. I have 5 periods of 3 different classes and only 1 hour planning time 3 times a week. I stay about two hours late every day to get more done, but I still can't catch up. I need to actually plan lessons or else your kids will just sit there doing nothing for 1.5 hours. Finally, the rolling gradebook means that kids are handing in assignments at different times, and I'm spending a lot of time figuring out who handed in what and trying to remind them to do things that are missing before they become zeroes. And since people are handing things in at different times, I can't just put aside a certain amount of time to get all the grading done, because I never know when something will be handed in. And don't get me started on the ten or so additional platforms that we use to create assignments, none of which communicate with Schoology or the gradebook, and many of which are just difficult to use. It's just a huge, disorganized, scattered system that causes grading tracking assignments to take about 10 times the amount of time it took back when everything was just on paper. I truly wish we could go back to that. It was much, much better. And of course, the county spends a ton of money on all this stuff that actually makes teaching and learning worse and not better. No one asks us what we think, and no one listens when we tell them.

I don't think there is much parents can do - if you complain that grading is not fast enough, we'll just get some mandate to grade everything within 24 hours and send more emails to parents, and that will just mean even more of a burden.

[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.

Is this question for real? Not PP, but I sent my child to private (non-Catholic) for several years. He had about 10 kids per class, one teacher, and if a kid was struggling, they would send a specialist in to help them during that period. You'd hear about it same day if grades dropped or an assignment didn't get done, and they wouldn't leave it alone until the kid was caught up. The school building was beautiful and clean and teachers had everything they could want, as well as full control over the curriculum and how they taught it.

Now....well, I teach in a high school myself. My classroom is a tiny, filthy (like, super gross) trailer that is literally falling down. It's dark, it stinks, I have 28 kids in a class and about half the desks are broken and wobbly or slanted. I had to buy all my own supplies, including a stapler, pencils, paper, white board markers, a file cabinet, bookshelf, etc. I don't even have a desk - just a slightly larger table than a student desk. The only free thing is copy paper, which I can steal from the copier room as much as I want. Most of my students are living in poverty, a lot of them work full time and miss class a lot, and about half of them don't speak any English. I'm just going to leave it there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 .

I've only been dealing with this system since the beginning of this year and I'd be lying if I said I actually understand it. If your concern is that grading isn't transparent enough, there are several issues. First, the county mandates a certain number of assignments and test per quarter, meaning I'm doing more grading than I want to in the first place. Second, all that stuff you see in Schoology isn't actually the grades. We have to take all that stuff and enter it separately into a different grading system because Schoology doesn't communicate with the gradebook program. Which is insane. We also don't have enough time to do all the grading. I have 5 periods of 3 different classes and only 1 hour planning time 3 times a week. I stay about two hours late every day to get more done, but I still can't catch up. I need to actually plan lessons or else your kids will just sit there doing nothing for 1.5 hours. Finally, the rolling gradebook means that kids are handing in assignments at different times, and I'm spending a lot of time figuring out who handed in what and trying to remind them to do things that are missing before they become zeroes. And since people are handing things in at different times, I can't just put aside a certain amount of time to get all the grading done, because I never know when something will be handed in. And don't get me started on the ten or so additional platforms that we use to create assignments, none of which communicate with Schoology or the gradebook, and many of which are just difficult to use. It's just a huge, disorganized, scattered system that causes grading tracking assignments to take about 10 times the amount of time it took back when everything was just on paper. I truly wish we could go back to that. It was much, much better. And of course, the county spends a ton of money on all this stuff that actually makes teaching and learning worse and not better. No one asks us what we think, and no one listens when we tell them.

I don't think there is much parents can do - if you complain that grading is not fast enough, we'll just get some mandate to grade everything within 24 hours and send more emails to parents, and that will just mean even more of a burden.

Or another pseudo-admin position will be created. Yet another teacher will be able to escape the classroom into a position that solely exists to monitor teachers and create more work for teachers. This person will conduct meetings, stealing precious time that could be used to grade so that teachers can sit around and talk about the importance of grading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 .

I've only been dealing with this system since the beginning of this year and I'd be lying if I said I actually understand it. If your concern is that grading isn't transparent enough, there are several issues. First, the county mandates a certain number of assignments and test per quarter, meaning I'm doing more grading than I want to in the first place. Second, all that stuff you see in Schoology isn't actually the grades. We have to take all that stuff and enter it separately into a different grading system because Schoology doesn't communicate with the gradebook program. Which is insane. We also don't have enough time to do all the grading. I have 5 periods of 3 different classes and only 1 hour planning time 3 times a week. I stay about two hours late every day to get more done, but I still can't catch up. I need to actually plan lessons or else your kids will just sit there doing nothing for 1.5 hours. Finally, the rolling gradebook means that kids are handing in assignments at different times, and I'm spending a lot of time figuring out who handed in what and trying to remind them to do things that are missing before they become zeroes. And since people are handing things in at different times, I can't just put aside a certain amount of time to get all the grading done, because I never know when something will be handed in. And don't get me started on the ten or so additional platforms that we use to create assignments, none of which communicate with Schoology or the gradebook, and many of which are just difficult to use. It's just a huge, disorganized, scattered system that causes grading tracking assignments to take about 10 times the amount of time it took back when everything was just on paper. I truly wish we could go back to that. It was much, much better. And of course, the county spends a ton of money on all this stuff that actually makes teaching and learning worse and not better. No one asks us what we think, and no one listens when we tell them.

I don't think there is much parents can do - if you complain that grading is not fast enough, we'll just get some mandate to grade everything within 24 hours and send more emails to parents, and that will just mean even more of a burden.

Or another pseudo-admin position will be created. Yet another teacher will be able to escape the classroom into a position that solely exists to monitor teachers and create more work for teachers. This person will conduct meetings, stealing precious time that could be used to grade so that teachers can sit around and talk about the importance of grading.

+100% And we'll need PD about the importance of grading, too. Don't forget that. At least half a day, once a quarter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 .

I've only been dealing with this system since the beginning of this year and I'd be lying if I said I actually understand it. If your concern is that grading isn't transparent enough, there are several issues. First, the county mandates a certain number of assignments and test per quarter, meaning I'm doing more grading than I want to in the first place. Second, all that stuff you see in Schoology isn't actually the grades. We have to take all that stuff and enter it separately into a different grading system because Schoology doesn't communicate with the gradebook program. Which is insane. We also don't have enough time to do all the grading. I have 5 periods of 3 different classes and only 1 hour planning time 3 times a week. I stay about two hours late every day to get more done, but I still can't catch up. I need to actually plan lessons or else your kids will just sit there doing nothing for 1.5 hours. Finally, the rolling gradebook means that kids are handing in assignments at different times, and I'm spending a lot of time figuring out who handed in what and trying to remind them to do things that are missing before they become zeroes. And since people are handing things in at different times, I can't just put aside a certain amount of time to get all the grading done, because I never know when something will be handed in. And don't get me started on the ten or so additional platforms that we use to create assignments, none of which communicate with Schoology or the gradebook, and many of which are just difficult to use. It's just a huge, disorganized, scattered system that causes grading tracking assignments to take about 10 times the amount of time it took back when everything was just on paper. I truly wish we could go back to that. It was much, much better. And of course, the county spends a ton of money on all this stuff that actually makes teaching and learning worse and not better. No one asks us what we think, and no one listens when we tell them.

I don't think there is much parents can do - if you complain that grading is not fast enough, we'll just get some mandate to grade everything within 24 hours and send more emails to parents, and that will just mean even more of a burden.

Or another pseudo-admin position will be created. Yet another teacher will be able to escape the classroom into a position that solely exists to monitor teachers and create more work for teachers. This person will conduct meetings, stealing precious time that could be used to grade so that teachers can sit around and talk about the importance of grading.

+100% And we'll need PD about the importance of grading, too. Don't forget that. At least half a day, once a quarter.

Absolutely! And if you fall behind on your grading, they’ll make sure you are provided with additional “support”… like a weekly admin check-in during your only planning time.

[Anonymous]

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.

I agree with this. I went to a small all girls Catholic School in the area, back in the day. Very small classes and mostly very engaged teachers, and they were never calling anyone's parents (no emails then). It was on the kids to navigate school and classes, and your parents didn't have terribly much insight into what was going on or your grade until it showed up on the report card.

This post worries me about what a ridiculous society we have become babying teenagers. HS kids, and yes MS kids need to be navigating school on their own, barring some extenuating circumstance. Having parents and teachers running behind them discussing the nuances of their school performance sounds ridiculous and a very bad idea. Kids need to spread their wings and do some sinking or swimming. And maybe they have some screwups but that's how they learn. I feel bad for teachers who need to somehow be providing 24-7 updates and feedback and grades. It's just not realistic or useful. Teachers need to focus on the kids and teaching when they are in the classroom, not afterhours interaction with parents!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 .

I've only been dealing with this system since the beginning of this year and I'd be lying if I said I actually understand it. If your concern is that grading isn't transparent enough, there are several issues. First, the county mandates a certain number of assignments and test per quarter, meaning I'm doing more grading than I want to in the first place. Second, all that stuff you see in Schoology isn't actually the grades. We have to take all that stuff and enter it separately into a different grading system because Schoology doesn't communicate with the gradebook program. Which is insane. We also don't have enough time to do all the grading. I have 5 periods of 3 different classes and only 1 hour planning time 3 times a week. I stay about two hours late every day to get more done, but I still can't catch up. I need to actually plan lessons or else your kids will just sit there doing nothing for 1.5 hours. Finally, the rolling gradebook means that kids are handing in assignments at different times, and I'm spending a lot of time figuring out who handed in what and trying to remind them to do things that are missing before they become zeroes. And since people are handing things in at different times, I can't just put aside a certain amount of time to get all the grading done, because I never know when something will be handed in. And don't get me started on the ten or so additional platforms that we use to create assignments, none of which communicate with Schoology or the gradebook, and many of which are just difficult to use. It's just a huge, disorganized, scattered system that causes grading tracking assignments to take about 10 times the amount of time it took back when everything was just on paper. I truly wish we could go back to that. It was much, much better. And of course, the county spends a ton of money on all this stuff that actually makes teaching and learning worse and not better. No one asks us what we think, and no one listens when we tell them.

I don't think there is much parents can do - if you complain that grading is not fast enough, we'll just get some mandate to grade everything within 24 hours and send more emails to parents, and that will just mean even more of a burden.

You complain so much! I am tired of hearing your complaints.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

My point also remains the same. I’m not trying to change your mind. We are in many ways agreeing that you have more resources, but you are denying WHY you have more resources. You are coming from at this from a ridiculous perspective and you aren’t able to address the actual point.

You are taking a religious school that has massive funding from the Vatican and the Catholic Church and combining it with tuition parents pay to provide a select group of children religious and academic education with a system that serves every child and has to please everyone (Lawmakers, parents, community members etc). You are saying you are better resourced. Of COURSE you are. It is blindingly obvious you would be.

The Catholic Church is still talking about the abuse, don’t sweep that under the rug. And I can tell you have zero idea about security in FCPS these days as well.
Of

[Anonymous]

Aside from TJ, FCPS has always been overrated.

Even my low budget HS back in NJ had much better college placement and better instruction.

I guess you get what you pay for.

[Anonymous]

(Hit send too soon!)
Of all the things to pick on, with changes in entry patterns, metal detectors, fingerprint checks on all volunteers etc that have been implemented in FCPS this year, this is silly.

I believe it is our moral imperative to educate ALL children and that we should do it together as a citizenry. I think THAT is What Jesus Would Do. You don’t and you aren’t even acknowledging how and where your “better resources’ come from. And how your choices, instead of helping the masses, leave even more in the “have not” category.

[Anonymous]

Don't know what to tell you. I have never been contacted by teachers, because of my kid doing poorly or well. I have skipped as many parent teacher conferences that I could. I went to school only 3 times in 7 years.
One kid is doing very well in college and the other is doing well in middle school. Their ability to do well will always be there unless they have some special need.
Kids being happy was my only worry.
Why complicate things. Mine skipped 30 days of 12th grade, but went to college with 30 credits already. He is a regular kid.

[Anonymous]

Teacher here.

If teachers had all of the TWD/ER days with no meetings/PD a lot more could be done. We have a ridiculous amount of TWD and honestly the days that we have PD are mostly a waste of time. Teachers on Monday will be doing another equity training when they could be grading/planning.

Class sizes should be maxed at certain levels. IMO all classes should be capped at 25 kids. If teachers go above that cap they should be paid more and have additional planning time.

[Anonymous]

I have been happy with the education my kids received/are receiving in FCPS AAP and in honors/AP classes in high school. But we supplement where needed and I am not afraid of being THAT mom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here.

If teachers had all of the TWD/ER days with no meetings/PD a lot more could be done. We have a ridiculous amount of TWD and honestly the days that we have PD are mostly a waste of time. Teachers on Monday will be doing another equity training when they could be grading/planning.

Class sizes should be maxed at certain levels. IMO all classes should be capped at 25 kids. If teachers go above that cap they should be paid more and have additional planning time.

I wish that stupid diversity training thing was it for Monday. It would still be most of a day free. Some teachers have meetings for the rest of the day as well, and many of us have to drive 30 minutes to another school for an another completely useless, poorly done PD. They talk about equity, but there is none for us - some teachers have 1 prep and hardly any PD or meetings, and others have 4 preps and meetings and PD for two departments. I'm so over this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 .

I've only been dealing with this system since the beginning of this year and I'd be lying if I said I actually understand it. If your concern is that grading isn't transparent enough, there are several issues. First, the county mandates a certain number of assignments and test per quarter, meaning I'm doing more grading than I want to in the first place. Second, all that stuff you see in Schoology isn't actually the grades. We have to take all that stuff and enter it separately into a different grading system because Schoology doesn't communicate with the gradebook program. Which is insane. We also don't have enough time to do all the grading. I have 5 periods of 3 different classes and only 1 hour planning time 3 times a week. I stay about two hours late every day to get more done, but I still can't catch up. I need to actually plan lessons or else your kids will just sit there doing nothing for 1.5 hours. Finally, the rolling gradebook means that kids are handing in assignments at different times, and I'm spending a lot of time figuring out who handed in what and trying to remind them to do things that are missing before they become zeroes. And since people are handing things in at different times, I can't just put aside a certain amount of time to get all the grading done, because I never know when something will be handed in. And don't get me started on the ten or so additional platforms that we use to create assignments, none of which communicate with Schoology or the gradebook, and many of which are just difficult to use. It's just a huge, disorganized, scattered system that causes grading tracking assignments to take about 10 times the amount of time it took back when everything was just on paper. I truly wish we could go back to that. It was much, much better. And of course, the county spends a ton of money on all this stuff that actually makes teaching and learning worse and not better. No one asks us what we think, and no one listens when we tell them.

I don't think there is much parents can do - if you complain that grading is not fast enough, we'll just get some mandate to grade everything within 24 hours and send more emails to parents, and that will just mean even more of a burden.

Rolling grade book does not mean that assignments don't have deadlines. It just means that the grade book doesn't reset each quarter. There is nothing incompatible about rolling grade books and strict deadlines and assignments turning into zeros immediately. If you have students handing in assignments at all different times, that is your/your school's decision that is separate from rolling gradebook.