Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of two elementary school students. Very disappointed so far. I’ve noticed that all these DCUM threads are venting about elementary school education. What happens in middle and high schools? Are elementary gen ed kids doomed in middle and high school?

They say, and it has been my experience as well as that of my friends in Fairfax and Arlington, that Arlington has better elementary schools and Fairfax has better high schools.

But here’s what I’m trying to figure out. If elementary schools are bad, how are middle and high schools better? Wouldn’t you need to build a strong foundation for the later years?

Anywhere in the US, the biggest indicator of how well a child does in school is the parents’ income, no?

No. Of course not. Do more research.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a background in education and agree with most of the negative posts here.

We used to live in the Boston suburbs so I am also very familiar with the schools Massachusetts. I agree with the MA teacher that the standards are outrageously higher there. That said, the "tutor culture" is also rampant in Massachusetts. As much as it is here. In that sense, it is not so different.

What bothers me the most is how FCPS, the schools, the neighborhood parents constantly boast about how strong these schools are, using test scores and math competitions to prove it. I find that most parents are actually quite satisfied with the neighborhood schools. My kids went through FCPS AAP, too, in one of the cream-of-the-crop schools and, sure it's great that they had every opportunity under the sun, but if parents have to prepare them outside of school, then the results are no reflection on the quality of the school! As many others have said, the success of many of these schools is entirely based on the driven, academically focused, well-off parents.

You still might want to move to the neighborhood for the opportunities themselves or for the peers--but don't do it for the education.

The one thing I will say is that the education my kids received at Longfellow and McLean was dramatically better. Pretty much everyone I know agrees. My friends a couple blocks away in Arlington seem to have a different experience.

Your post is confusing. Longfellow and McLean were dramatically better than Boston schools? Is that what you are saying? You are happy with the FCPS schools your children attended, yet agree with most of the negative posts.

You find that most parents are actually quite satisfied with their neighborhood schools. That seems like a good thing. They’re the ones we aren’t hearing from on this board.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of two elementary school students. Very disappointed so far. I’ve noticed that all these DCUM threads are venting about elementary school education. What happens in middle and high schools? Are elementary gen ed kids doomed in middle and high school?

They say, and it has been my experience as well as that of my friends in Fairfax and Arlington, that Arlington has better elementary schools and Fairfax has better high schools.

But here’s what I’m trying to figure out. If elementary schools are bad, how are middle and high schools better? Wouldn’t you need to build a strong foundation for the later years?

Anywhere in the US, the biggest indicator of how well a child does in school is the parents’ income, no?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of two elementary school students. Very disappointed so far. I’ve noticed that all these DCUM threads are venting about elementary school education. What happens in middle and high schools? Are elementary gen ed kids doomed in middle and high school?

They say, and it has been my experience as well as that of my friends in Fairfax and Arlington, that Arlington has better elementary schools and Fairfax has better high schools.

But here’s what I’m trying to figure out. If elementary schools are bad, how are middle and high schools better? Wouldn’t you need to build a strong foundation for the later years?

Anywhere in the US, the biggest indicator of how well a child does in school is the parents’ income, no?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet FCPS has enough funding to push FCPSon down to middle schools this year, and elementary schools after that, even though they don't have funding to supply teachers and students with textbooks and workbooks. I'm so sick of seeing the worksheets that come home that are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, and the deemphasis on correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar usage in elementary school. Like a previous poster, I have many of my FCPS papers from (ahem) 30+ years ago, when I went to a school that was then, and is now, rated far lower than the ones my kids attend. Yet from grades K-3, the 1980s schoolwork was ALL on handwriting paper with lines, everything was corrected by the teachers for spelling and punctuation, and by the end of 2nd grade, the work (from the entire class, many of whom were 1st generation or immigrants) was far better than the stuff the current, highly rated school, posts as its "show-off" work for parents.

I know. This is what I don't get. How did teachers in the past grade papers daily and yet I can't get a single FCPS teacher to grade more than 2 writing assignments a year with more than 1 comment for each and for the most part I don't see a single comment because "we don't want to discourage elementary writers". Somehow generations went through school and got comments on their writing and survived. It's so silly and just an obvious push to have the teacher do less work.

When I went through school, parent volunteers in the classroom edited our writing and gave us that feedback. That is no longer allowed (and for good reason!) So yeah, I got more feedback as a kid, but was it better? Doubtful.

Parent volunteers or subs have no business on daily classroom work. None. Why would a parent be allowed in her/ his kid’s grade?

Why not?

My kids aren't learning anything anyways, hence why they have to take classes outside of school otherwise they fall behind when they had back to our home country during the summers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of two elementary school students. Very disappointed so far. I’ve noticed that all these DCUM threads are venting about elementary school education. What happens in middle and high schools? Are elementary gen ed kids doomed in middle and high school?

They say, and it has been my experience as well as that of my friends in Fairfax and Arlington, that Arlington has better elementary schools and Fairfax has better high schools.

But here’s what I’m trying to figure out. If elementary schools are bad, how are middle and high schools better? Wouldn’t you need to build a strong foundation for the later years?

Anywhere in the US, the biggest indicator of how well a child does in school is the parents’ income, [/b]no?[b]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of two elementary school students. Very disappointed so far. I’ve noticed that all these DCUM threads are venting about elementary school education. What happens in middle and high schools? Are elementary gen ed kids doomed in middle and high school?

They say, and it has been my experience as well as that of my friends in Fairfax and Arlington, that Arlington has better elementary schools and Fairfax has better high schools.

But here’s what I’m trying to figure out. If elementary schools are bad, how are middle and high schools better? Wouldn’t you need to build a strong foundation for the later years?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of two elementary school students. Very disappointed so far. I’ve noticed that all these DCUM threads are venting about elementary school education. What happens in middle and high schools? Are elementary gen ed kids doomed in middle and high school?

They say, and it has been my experience as well as that of my friends in Fairfax and Arlington, that Arlington has better elementary schools and Fairfax has better high schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yet FCPS has enough funding to push FCPSon down to middle schools this year, and elementary schools after that, even though they don't have funding to supply teachers and students with textbooks and workbooks. I'm so sick of seeing the worksheets that come home that are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, and the deemphasis on correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar usage in elementary school. Like a previous poster, I have many of my FCPS papers from (ahem) 30+ years ago, when I went to a school that was then, and is now, rated far lower than the ones my kids attend. Yet from grades K-3, the 1980s schoolwork was ALL on handwriting paper with lines, everything was corrected by the teachers for spelling and punctuation, and by the end of 2nd grade, the work (from the entire class, many of whom were 1st generation or immigrants) was far better than the stuff the current, highly rated school, posts as its "show-off" work for parents.

I know. This is what I don't get. How did teachers in the past grade papers daily and yet I can't get a single FCPS teacher to grade more than 2 writing assignments a year with more than 1 comment for each and for the most part I don't see a single comment because "we don't want to discourage elementary writers". Somehow generations went through school and got comments on their writing and survived. It's so silly and just an obvious push to have the teacher do less work.

When I went through school, parent volunteers in the classroom edited our writing and gave us that feedback. That is no longer allowed (and for good reason!) So yeah, I got more feedback as a kid, but was it better? Doubtful.

Parent volunteers or subs have no business on daily classroom work. None. Why would a parent be allowed in her/ his kid’s grade?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I moved my kid out of highly rated FCPS elementary school to a private school in 7th grade. He was WAY behind his private school peers. Behind in math, behind in writing, he had learned no grammar beyond what verbs and nouns were so completely bombed their weekly grammar review quizzes and started from square one with foreign language as kids at the private had been taking foreign language for years.

I knew I was dissatisfied with the education he was getting in FCPS but could not believe how little he actually learned.

Was he in AAP before? I always wonder if it’s general Ed, AAP or both that are so far behind. I’m less concerned about grammar. They do a good job teaching that in middle school and my child took some tutoring and is now acing grammar tests. It seems like an easy area to catch up and tutors love to teach grammar because it’s so straight forward. It’s more of the writing that I feel is missing in fcps. I get the feeling students just read, write, and discuss so much more in private than public.

When I went through school, parent volunteers in the classroom edited our writing and gave us that feedback. That is no longer allowed (and for good reason!) So yeah, I got more feedback as a kid, but was it better? Doubtful.


Parent volunteers or subs have no business on daily classroom work. None. Why would a parent be allowed in her/ his kid’s grade?

Anonymous wrote:There is no special needs here. In proportion to the very elevated taxes we pay in this neighborhood, the quality of education is mediocre plus. 2 out of 4 teachers do the bare minimum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of two elementary school students. Very disappointed so far. I’ve noticed that all these DCUM threads are venting about elementary school education. What happens in middle and high schools? Are elementary gen ed kids doomed in middle and high school?

They say, and it has been my experience as well as that of my friends in Fairfax and Arlington, that Arlington has better elementary schools and Fairfax has better high schools.