Reply to We know ACPS is bad but WHY

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[quote=Anonymous]Size for MS/HS but elementary is so dependent on specific school.  The teachers at ours really make it.  But it's also grade dependent ie K and 4th was good, 3rd sucked.  Both our kids had the MOST amazing K teachers.  We are in private schools now and I'm going to say that those 2 K teachers were still the best both my kids are is MS and 5th grade now.

In terms of ACPS in general, the whole equity thing is ridiculous.  They want everyone to achieve to mediocrity.  If you do better, it doesn't matter.  So you'll never have a great school just them wanting to pretend they don't suck.

In terms of public education, you tend to find this par for the course but esp for ACPS the testing is out of control.  I think APS does it a bit differently where you may still need to test but ACPS just blatantly has weeks of testing.  No homework, no teaching happens, just testing weeks at a time.  Hate it.

I don't know that any of the publics are really great.  I agree with PP about the fact that private is a stone's throw away.  Expensive but avail if you really need it (like us!) so you really just leave for MS to go private when you need or of course, even before if you'd like.  People talk about how great APS is but I think post COVID, they even have lost a lot of their shiny reputation and overcrowding was always a sore point there.  FCPS is another system people talk about being great but that's a huge territory and it depends on what location/school you speak of.  In general, my understanding is that FCPS is well run but I still feel that there are specific schools that suck.

Finally, ACPS has TAG which is supposed to be phased out in the near future.  The biggest thing about this program is that getting into it is a horrid experience.  Unless your kid happens to test really well, the measurements for the program are wrong - they don't select kids who show that TAG potential and have the ability to learn - they rely simply on test scores.  The TAG program itself is also to me not worth it.  The exception is that in math, you get the opportunity to get ahead in prep for MS - they fit 2 years into 1 but for reading, it's just more tests.  On some level the regular classes are almost better.

We pulled our kids out late in elementary and probably could have stuck it out until end.  I think on the whole they are better off leaving for private earlier but I can't say it was horrible.  The curriculum sucks but the teachers didn't.  The whole idea of 20 min to talk to 2 teachers for parent teacher conf is also a big joke.  There are def better schools in APS, FCPS, LCPS and FCC where in ACPS that probably numbers 2-3 tops elementary schools.[/quote]

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