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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]According to this (gift) article from the New York Times, learning used to be a national priority but fell to the wayside in the Bush-Obama years during which principals became focused on NOT failing - rather than succeeding.  Now, Louisiana leading the way is introducing reforms that are really working, including the idea that, "Developing a mature attention span is crucial for work."

That means no screens.

"Unlike in many elementary-school classrooms, the students did not have computers or tablets on their desks. They had open books, which they were avidly marking up with highlighters and pencils ... Children cannot learn to focus their attention on books or anything else if they are constantly distracted by addictive technology."

They also focus on building a big vocabulary through science and social studies, the exact subjects that the Bush-Obama reforms often stripped from the school day. Louisiana is teaching history in elementary school. From the article,

"Ms. Cascio reviewed vocabulary words that students would need: heretic, rational, skepticism, heliocentric. Then, over the course of an hour, 10- and 11-year-olds broke into groups to discuss why Leonardo da Vinci was interested in human anatomy. They wrote about how the ideas of Copernicus and Galileo differed from those of the ancient Greeks."

In our FCPS elementary school, we definitely are NOT learning about the Renaissance.

During the Bush-Obama years, schools were punished when their kids did not pass standardized tests - "Tying punishments to test scores led to a predictable outcome: a curriculum that, in too many schools, centered on test prep. Students practiced reading short passages and answering multiple choice questions about those passages, over and over again." Long form books were out, short passages were in - and as a result, many kids have never read a full book before college.

[b]What will it take to make FCPS care about learning rather than just not failing? [/b]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/10/us/education-politics-learning.html?unlocked_article_code=1.GU8.iFDG.q9HYXoaiuR_S&smid=url-share

[/quote]

To answer the bolded part of your question:

FCPS has, and continues, to emphasize their number one priority as a school system is NOT academics.

Again:  academics are not the school systems main priority.

Rather, as they continue to emphasize:  equity is their number one priority.

If you like, you could also call equity,  “just not failing.”  You are correct in concluding FCPS number one priority is indeed, “not just failing.”

As far as how to change that, you VOTED for making equity the first priority:  every single member of the current and the last, school board are partisan, progressive, democrats.  They chose progressive democrat Michelle Reid as Superintendent.  They promoted failed principal Nardos King to become Chief Equity Officer, and gave her a full time staff of 60 people to promote equity.

Given how blue FFX county has turned, you stand no chance of veering away from “not just failing” in the near future.[/quote]

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