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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]FCPS’s job is to educate children. One major metric of their performance is graduation rates. If there are unacceptable graduation rates at a school, then FCPS has failed to do its job. Is one explanation for the failure that a school has a less-prepared-for-graduation population when compared to other schools? Of course. But that does not mean that FCPS can simply say, hey, it’s harder to graduate everyone at MVHS than at Langley, so don’t blame us. No, it’s their job to do whatever it takes to make sure that MVHS anD Langley both have acceptable graduation rates. Not doing whatever it takes would mean that FCPS failed MVHS.

Parents at Langley will complain that MVHS is given more resources and that it’s not fair. That’s the wrong way to look at it. FCPS may spend more at MVHS but if they do, it’s because they’re doing what they think is necessary to give FCPS the best shot at achieving its goal. FCPS’s goal is not to make sure per pupil funding is the same at every school - it’s to make sure success rates (in this example, graduation rates) are the same at every school.

In an ideal world, that success would be achieved through having the same per pupil spending at ever6 school. But we don’t live in an ideal world. Instead, we live in a world where there are schools full of advantaged students and other schools full of disadvantaged students, and very few with a mix of students. Do you seriously want there to be different acceptable outcome metrics based on the advantaged status of schools? Langley must graduate 100% of kids, but MVHS only has to graduate a lower number? Really? If not, then you need to recognize that it costs more to attempt to level the playing field.[/quote]

Graduation rates are unfortunately increasingly meaningless.  What matters is proficiency.  I agree that FCPS should spend differently at Langley than at MVHS, and that focused efforts required (not sure if this is happening) may cost more at MVHS than at other schools.  About 10 years ago - back when FCPS actually posted school SAT scores - black students at MVHS outscored black students at South Lakes.  To be fair, this was a two year phenomena, so someone at South Lakes must have reacted to what was happening. Or maybe it was a statistical anomaly.  This was particularly interesting because Reston is really one the most supportive and socially conscious places in America.  Nature trails? Check.  Beautiful fitness centers? Check.  Commitment to diversity? Absolutely.  Quality (for the most part) Section 8 housing? Check.  Asked a black fellow Duke alum in Reston if resources could quickly be made available at no cost for SAT test prep.  She said you bet.  Bi-racial marriages?  Lots of them.  Generally very tolerant?  Yes.  The point here is that SAT scores ought to be approaching the non-minority mean.  And MVHS should not have had scores 50 points higher given the disparities in environment.   I am supportive of the schools and I think casting aside the few dumb decisions every year Fairfax does a decent job.  There is a lot of criticism of the SAT but the black kids who do well generally not only come from decent homes but also take classes where they really run up against rigor and competition - meaning like most everyone else they learn to deal with good days and bad days - and imperfect teachers.  The answer is not to run away from the tests, but rather to put kids in an environment where they can in the short term hit bumps in the road and pick themselves back up again.  Putting kids in safe spaces doesn't mean you don't challenge them. 
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FCPS stopped publishing SAT scores disaggregated by race and other factors on school profiles several years ago.  I don't think they ever explained why.  It's possible they were concerned that they don't allow for as much of an apples-to-apples comparison as one might assume if, for example, one school really encourages Black students to take SATs and another doesn't (in which case the scores of the more motivated students who sign up to take the SATs may be higher).

FCPS has long had, and continues to have, special programs like AVID that are geared towards motivating Black and Hispanic kids and putting them on the course to attend college.  They also arrange college tours that are unique to AVID programs.  Langley doesn't need, and therefore doesn't have, a similar program, as it's understood that Langley families know what needs to be done to ready their kids for college.  And there are other ways in which FCPS spends more per student at schools with more low-income kids.

No one has objected to that until relatively recent, when FCPS appeared to be embracing "anti-racist" and "pro-equity" rhetoric (of which "equal outcomes for all students, without exception" is just one example) that suggests that the differential in spending per student should be vastly increased in favor of kids in lower-income schools.  Given that this is happening at the same time as FCPS continues to refuse to address severe overcrowding at some of its higher-performing high schools like Chantilly and McLean, and has these weird incidents like a few schools not providing timely notice to students commended by the NMSF,  it is starting to come across as if FCPS wants to encourage higher-income families to pull their kids out of FCPS.

Somehow they have to figure out how to strike the right tone again.  I really believe that the vast majority of FCPS families support the past and current policy of spending more on kids with greater educational needs.  But they would be so better off if they could figure out a common-sense way to articulate realistic and achievable goals without all the equity babble.  [/quote]

It is also relatively recently (within the past 5 years or so) that disparities between top and bottom schools have ballooned to staggering differences. 10 years ago even low performing schools still had sizable student cohorts at every level. Sports and activities had parity. Now the general trend is that the low performing schools have college-track cohorts measured in the tens of students. MVHS has advanced math (calculus) senior enrollment in the single digits. FCPS is very top heavy and scores at low-SES schools are dropping off a cliff. That's why there is such a big push to lift those schools up again.[/quote]

At least where I am, there has been a sizable increase in low income students in the last 10 years.[/quote]

Yes, there is an elephant in the room.[/quote]

What is the data on increase in low income students?[/quote]

The high school mean of F/R lunch was, if I remember correctly, in the low 20s (percent) about 15 years ago. Now it is in the low 30s. Obviously not distributed evenly in the county.[/quote]

Found some old data.

In [b]2002[/b]:
[list]The high school mean of F/R lunch in Fairfax was [b]13.8%[/b] (half the schools above, half below). [/list]
[list]Ten high schools had single digit F/R lunch. [/list]
[list]No high schools in Fairfax were over 50%.[/list]
[list] Gap between top and bottom was 45.5% (Langley to Justice)[/list]
Those 2002 numbers were from the Virginia Department of Education. Since that is not available for 2022, the FCPS site provides the following (FCPS numbers, for some reason, always tend to run a bit higher than what the state reports - so the numbers below for 2022 might be a bit off, but the magnitude is not).

In [b]2022[/b]:
[list]The high school mean of F/R lunch in Fairfax was [b]31.8%[/b] (half the schools above, half below). [/list]
[list]Only two high schools had single digit F/R lunch (Langley and TJ). [/list]
[list]Five high schools were over 50% and Herndon was 49.98% - so essentially six schools at 50% or above. [/list]
[list]Four of the over 50% high schools were actually over 60% (Justice, Annandale, Mt. Vernon, and Lewis). [/list]
[list]Gap between top and bottom was 63% (Langley to Annandale). [/list]
From 2002 to 2022 the schools with the largest increase in F/R lunch were Lewis (39%), Herndon (36%), and Annandale (33%). The smallest increases were at Langley (2.6%), Marshall (3.1%), and McLean (4.9%). All schools had an increase. TJ increased 6.9% from 2002 to 2022, but most of that was likely in the last couple of years.

The disturbing trend in F/R increases across the county (13.8% to 31.8%) should concern everyone. And more concerning is that only certain parts of the county are feeling the brunt of this change. But no one cares.[/quote]

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