Anonymous wrote:The issue isn’t ESL kids per se. I was one and I have a graduate degree. The issue is kids who are barely literate in their own language and/or have other issues impacting academics. And the fact that FCPS (and every other public school system) keep passing kids along (ESL or otherwise) when they haven’t come close to mastering the material.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest shift in demographics for FCPS in general (not just MVHS) has been an increase in Latino students. If you look at most schools, Latino students are the ones struggling. Im Latina and I came to this country as a teen. But my parents were educated and ESL was something you were in for a few months. I think it’s very different now. Lots of kids are dealing with more than just learning a new language. It’s trauma, poverty, and to a degree self-segregation that makes it even harder to break certain molds. I don’t know what the solution is but it’s so much more complicated than FCPS bad/expectations low.

The solution is for FCPS to adopt a significant shift towards CTE programs. We need to stop pretending that teenage English Language Learners are best served by a traditional high school diploma meant to lead to a university path. It's setting them up for failure; they will not learn subject content at a level needed to succeed in college nor will they learn practical skills. They are left in a limbo zone where their test scores are horrible but they are given a pass using loopholes. I've seen it first-hand.

Principals are encouraged to keep their enrollment numbers up for funding and test scores which is why they don't actively push kids to alternative programs (ISAEP, NCRA) that are a better fit given their life circumstances. In the end it's a huge disservice to ELL kids who will absolutely not be ready to succeed in college at 18.

Anonymous wrote:The biggest shift in demographics for FCPS in general (not just MVHS) has been an increase in Latino students. If you look at most schools, Latino students are the ones struggling. Im Latina and I came to this country as a teen. But my parents were educated and ESL was something you were in for a few months. I think it’s very different now. Lots of kids are dealing with more than just learning a new language. It’s trauma, poverty, and to a degree self-segregation that makes it even harder to break certain molds. I don’t know what the solution is but it’s so much more complicated than FCPS bad/expectations low.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When your school has hundreds of empty seats (Mount Vernon) and the School Board nevertheless funds a massive expansion of the nearest school (West Potomac) to keep kids from being reassigned there - unlike in other situations where they've changed boundaries and reassigned kids - it's basically confirmation that FCPS sees the school as a pariah. It accelerates the flight of higher-income families out of the school.

You can thank former School Board member Karen Corbett Sanders for this, although she was cheered on by other local politicians.

No one is going to allow their kids to be redistricted to Mount Vernon as there is no point living in Fairfax County if your kids have to go to a bad school. It's foolish to even think that would be politically viable. You want MVHS improved? Send your own kids and be an activist PTO president.

MVHS Class of 2015 - MVHS isn't a bad school. Poverty rate were high so sometimes is not easy to do well in school when nothing is right at home.
They were serval students who just didn't care and didn't complete any work or attend class, they either dropped out or were transfer to Bryant or a different school. I remember my Major Time Class, its homeroom had 15 kids on the first day of freshman year, and it ended up with 10 kids by Senior year. (some kids move, some transferred, some failed or dropped out.)
My final GPA was around 2.87, no IB classes, but passed most my SOLs, and at the end of the day its not a bad school.
It might be a bad school compare to some schools in FCPS, because they have high standards, but overall it was a pretty average in other parts of VA.
We need to remember SOLS and SAT scores are not everything.
It does have a bad rap, but if you hang out with the right crowd you will graduated and do okay in either NOVA or a 4 year school.
We did have a problem with bullying, but all schools do.
The Principal Ms.King, was funny, but she will always serious when needed, she had a strict cell phone policy, unlike other schools in FCPS at the same time, but she got to know everyone and will even buy us Chipotle and other foods. She even paid some kids to come watch the football game. Freshman year my parents were unemployed in 2011-2022 doing the peak of the Great Recession, I remember telling her something how I wasn't looking forward for Thanksgiving because what was going on at home.... The Friday before Thanksgiving she called my mom telling us where we could go pick up a Thanksgiving Dinner.

Thanks for sharing your experience. What a kind and caring principal you had.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1991 alum here.
I went to school w a Senator’s son and Congressman’s daughter.
Donald Reagan, US Sec of Treasury lived down the street.
We trick or treated at football Hall of Famer Sonny Jorgensen’s (who had a kid or two there).
We weren’t rich and while I do remember “the other side of the highway” was less well-off, I think they were still mainly non immigrant families? Thinking of friends, mainly all white from all over the boundaries.

Overall it thought it was a good school - we had winning sports teams, a fabulous marching band, great music and theater programs… it was small then too- less than 400 in my graduating class — the administrators seemed to know us (the assistant principal had a couple of kids there at the time).

Sooo many years later—Sounds like demographics are way different.

Hope they still have the MV Pride!

Yes, there is still MV Pride. We are a 2nd generation MV family and know many other students who have one parent (sometimes both) who graduated from MVHS. Yes, test scores are low, there is a high number of ESOL and FARMS students. But if you take advantage of what MVHS offers, you can be very successful. Contrary to the bashers on this board, MVHS is a hidden gem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When your school has hundreds of empty seats (Mount Vernon) and the School Board nevertheless funds a massive expansion of the nearest school (West Potomac) to keep kids from being reassigned there - unlike in other situations where they've changed boundaries and reassigned kids - it's basically confirmation that FCPS sees the school as a pariah. It accelerates the flight of higher-income families out of the school.

You can thank former School Board member Karen Corbett Sanders for this, although she was cheered on by other local politicians.

WestPo's poverty rate is also one of the highest in the county. Maybe they invest in it because they don't want even more flight on that side of the county

Triage is an odd way to run a school system.

Blame the county for crowing so much low income housing along a single corridor

Anonymous wrote:1991 alum here.
I went to school w a Senator’s son and Congressman’s daughter.
Donald Reagan, US Sec of Treasury lived down the street.
We trick or treated at football Hall of Famer Sonny Jorgensen’s (who had a kid or two there).
We weren’t rich and while I do remember “the other side of the highway” was less well-off, I think they were still mainly non immigrant families? Thinking of friends, mainly all white from all over the boundaries.

Overall it thought it was a good school - we had winning sports teams, a fabulous marching band, great music and theater programs… it was small then too- less than 400 in my graduating class — the administrators seemed to know us (the assistant principal had a couple of kids there at the time).

Sooo many years later—Sounds like demographics are way different.

Hope they still have the MV Pride!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When your school has hundreds of empty seats (Mount Vernon) and the School Board nevertheless funds a massive expansion of the nearest school (West Potomac) to keep kids from being reassigned there - unlike in other situations where they've changed boundaries and reassigned kids - it's basically confirmation that FCPS sees the school as a pariah. It accelerates the flight of higher-income families out of the school.

You can thank former School Board member Karen Corbett Sanders for this, although she was cheered on by other local politicians.

WestPo's poverty rate is also one of the highest in the county. Maybe they invest in it because they don't want even more flight on that side of the county

Triage is an odd way to run a school system.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When your school has hundreds of empty seats (Mount Vernon) and the School Board nevertheless funds a massive expansion of the nearest school (West Potomac) to keep kids from being reassigned there - unlike in other situations where they've changed boundaries and reassigned kids - it's basically confirmation that FCPS sees the school as a pariah. It accelerates the flight of higher-income families out of the school.

You can thank former School Board member Karen Corbett Sanders for this, although she was cheered on by other local politicians.

WestPo's poverty rate is also one of the highest in the county. Maybe they invest in it because they don't want even more flight on that side of the county