Reply to FCPS Boundary Review Updates

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you've followed these threads, these boundary changes have been described at times as the "Great Reset."

I think that is what Reid and the School Board want.  They want to make so many changes that anyone who objects will just be part of the noise (thereby canceling each other out); they want to change the demographics at some schools so much that the historic reputations of some schools will be rendered meaningless; and they want to make grandfathering impossible, so that kids will be shell-shocked and families will be sent the clear message that their preferences count for nothing and that Reid and the School Board are in charge.  "If you don't like it, you can leave (see PP today), but don't expect us to let you get in our way."[/quote]

What is the meaning of "historic reputation" in the context of FCPS's public schools? It's not like there is any selectivity for students to be allowed attend. Only TJHSST and private schools have a claim to a reputation of selective standards that makes any real sense. The rest only amounts to chitchat amongst neighbors.[/quote]

Many schools besides TJ have a well earned reputation for excellence, built over years, and others do not. You can pretend, as Reid and most on the School Board wish to do, that schools (apart from TJ) are completely fungible, but all they’ll end up doing is further diminishing the FCPS brand.

You’ll keep cheering them on, because you’re hoping for a possible upgrade at someone else’s expense, but they’re shrinking the FCPS pie just as rapidly as Trump is destroying the American economy. [/quote]

Let's be real, reputation for excellence = higher income families willing to invest in enrichment, tutoring, and academic extra curriculars. We should all know that the data show that regions with higher incomes, have better academic outcomes.  Swap Langley kids with Justice kids and keep the same facilities and the same teachers and the same admin and Justice will suddenly have amazing test scores and Langley's test scores will drop. The school rankings for FCPS track with the economic wealth of the student population.

Like it or not, SLHS test scores moved to the middle of FCPS rankings when the county moved kids from other HS to SLHS 20 some years ago. I doubt that there was a significant gain in test scores for the FARMs population that makes up the school. The change came from the new students' tests scores.

TJ's scores are high because the kids have to meet certain criteria to apply and be accepted to TJ. Many of the strongest students in FCPS, LCPS, APS apply to TJ. Mclean, Langley, and Oakton have high test scores because the families value school, push their kids to attend highly ranked colleges, and are able/willing to pay for enrichment and tutoring to make sure that kids achieve high test scores and go to college. There is nothing wrong with any of that but those schools' reputations have little to do with the schools and more to do with the wealth in the area.

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The factors that have resulted in high scores at TJ are generaly the same as the factors that result in high scores at McLean, Langley, and Oakton.  Of course, some of that relates to family resources and support, but not all of it.  All these schools benefit from a wider community of staff, teachers, parents, and students pulling together, for the most part, to make those schools academically strong environments.  Same can be said for some other schools like Chantilly as well.

Treating everything as determined purely by family economics is way too simplistic.  [/quote]

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