FCPS has been such a disappointments - not sure what to do

[Anonymous]

We moved to NoVa from DC because we thought FCPS would be a great school system. If we knew how horrible it was going to be we would have stayed in DC and sent our kids to private. Now we bought out in NoVa and are still going to have to send our kids to private. I cannot believe how disappointed I am in this school system. In the next 2 weeks they have like 5 total days of school! I don’t think my kids are learning anything this year other than how to change the background on their computer screen!

[Anonymous]

Yep. Exactly my feeling. We are applying to private like mad right now!

[Anonymous]

How long have you been here? If you’re basing it just on a pandemic year, I’d say give it another chance. But if you’ve been here for a while and even in normal times you’re still not happy, yeah I don’t blame you.

I’m not quite as pleased with FCPS as I thought I’d be (and I definitely think they’re failing at distance learning for many kids), but I don’t have the resources to move or go private. If you do, go and don’t look back.

[Anonymous]

Did you go to public school yourself?

Our kids do go to public school (FCPS)- normally - though with the pandemic we are applying to private for next year - anyway my husband and I both went to public school as kids and I think therefore we had realistic expectations of what public school is like - even in a supposedly good system.

In my opinion - going to school with local kids in the neighborhood is priceless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you go to public school yourself?

Our kids do go to public school (FCPS)- normally - though with the pandemic we are applying to private for next year - anyway my husband and I both went to public school as kids and I think therefore we had realistic expectations of what public school is like - even in a supposedly good system.

In my opinion - going to school with local kids in the neighborhood is priceless.

Me again - that said - I think FCPS has totally failed with education during the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

We both went to public school and DH and I are both unbelievably disappointed in FCPS. We received much stronger educations in what I thought were crappy 1980s public schools.

[Anonymous]

I despise FCPS January schedule, there are far too many days off. At least this year we are less likely to deal with snow and cold days.

[Anonymous]

Yes - FCPS has been a huge disappointment.

[Anonymous]

Move again.

[Anonymous]

Agree, but privates devour your funds and want you to believe they are brilliant.
We need an education system reform.

[Anonymous]

You should absolutely go private. The education won’t be any better but you can be smug about leaving public and isn’t that what’s really important?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We both went to public school and DH and I are both unbelievably disappointed in FCPS. We received much stronger educations in what I thought were crappy 1980s public schools.

DH and I are FCPS graduates and have had FCPS students since 2005. It’s been a precipitous decline.

I know that our DC aren’t experiencing the same level of academic rigor that we did.

My graduating senior shouldn’t be making poster board projects, for example.

[Anonymous]

It’s not just FCPS. It’s any diverse school system. We can’t afford private so we supplement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not just FCPS. It’s any diverse school system. We can’t afford private so we supplement.

+ Go read the MCPS forum. It’s the same.

[Anonymous]

We need an education overhaul across the whole country. I’m ready to start from scratch. So many things wrong. And I would agree that they aren’t handling diversity well at all. Why is there not a separate system for getting esol kids up to speed in English? They’re just failing those students by keeping them in mainstream when they don’t understand.