Anonymous wrote:We are deeply disappointed with McLean high, even though it was a highly rated school it appears to have fallen over the last few years and it's updated score truly does reflect that it is no longer the 10/10 school it once was. I attribute it to unsupportive school board who are busy taking funding from McLean and putting it towards struggling schools. McLean is a shell of what it once was and the disgusting building and trailers from overcrowding only being to tell the story of its decline. Sad.

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Anonymous wrote:I think the education of my oldest who has graduated in high school and was in AAP since 3rd grade has been much better what I received in the 1990s. We did no tutoring and ended up at a T25 university in a demanding major and doing well.

The education of my younger child who is 8 years behind her sibling and not in AAP has been a joke. No writing instruction in our McLean ES and her math class is only 20 mins a day and in a class of 30 kids. No homework is given. The disrupted weeks of school w/o 5 days do not help. She scored borderline for reading/math intervention on the Fall VGAs, so missed out on getting extra help at school. After hearing from her principal that she was doing much better than her peers and that I should not worry, I was done. We started supplementing with a private writing tutor and daily math practice at home using a textbook. I also stopped volunteering at school entirely since that the school does not welcome the presence of parents. It is clear that academics especially for general education students is not a priority at our ES.

I’m hoping that the honors classes in MS will be step up, but not holding my breath.

My advice to parents who have students in FCPS is to build into your budget a tutoring line item of $300-$600 per month during the school year. Just do it. Think about it as an assessment on your property taxes or something, but don’t fail your child by thinking FCPS will take care of their education.

This is best advice. Completely agree.

Anonymous wrote:Big time. The administration doesn’t care.

Anonymous wrote:I think the education of my oldest who has graduated in high school and was in AAP since 3rd grade has been much better what I received in the 1990s. We did no tutoring and ended up at a T25 university in a demanding major and doing well.

The education of my younger child who is 8 years behind her sibling and not in AAP has been a joke. No writing instruction in our McLean ES and her math class is only 20 mins a day and in a class of 30 kids. No homework is given. The disrupted weeks of school w/o 5 days do not help. She scored borderline for reading/math intervention on the Fall VGAs, so missed out on getting extra help at school. After hearing from her principal that she was doing much better than her peers and that I should not worry, I was done. We started supplementing with a private writing tutor and daily math practice at home using a textbook. I also stopped volunteering at school entirely since that the school does not welcome the presence of parents. It is clear that academics especially for general education students is not a priority at our ES.

I’m hoping that the honors classes in MS will be step up, but not holding my breath.

My advice to parents who have students in FCPS is to build into your budget a tutoring line item of $300-$600 per month during the school year. Just do it. Think about it as an assessment on your property taxes or something, but don’t fail your child by thinking FCPS will take care of their education.

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Anonymous wrote:Yes, I remember book reports and research projects in elementary school. I even remember having to memorize the Emmancipation Proclamation and recite it in front of our class. When I told my kid about that they were stunned. I’m very disappointed.

Book reports and research projects ok. Memorizing the emancipation proclamation sounds like a hilarious waste of time.

I think reciting something important in front of your class is great for public speaking.

It's also good for learning to memorize, learning how to use your attention and memory. Memorizing a poem, a speech, a song - all valuable and all no-longer-required.

Because this is a huge time suck of instructional time; but, more importantly, it’s not on a standardized test, thus not deemed important.

NCLB lingers on, decades later.

Virginia's SOLs were established in 1995, predating NCLB.

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Anonymous wrote:Yes, I remember book reports and research projects in elementary school. I even remember having to memorize the Emmancipation Proclamation and recite it in front of our class. When I told my kid about that they were stunned. I’m very disappointed.

Book reports and research projects ok. Memorizing the emancipation proclamation sounds like a hilarious waste of time.

I think reciting something important in front of your class is great for public speaking.

It's also good for learning to memorize, learning how to use your attention and memory. Memorizing a poem, a speech, a song - all valuable and all no-longer-required.

Because this is a huge time suck of instructional time; but, more importantly, it’s not on a standardized test, thus not deemed important.

NCLB lingers on, decades later.

Virginia's SOLs were established in 1995, predating NCLB.

Yes, standardized tests predated NCLB. But teaching to the test, spending weeks or longer on SOL prep, dropping subjects that aren't on the SOLs, those are all caused by NCLB. The difference between when we went to school and our children's experience is due, in large part, to NCLB.

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Anonymous wrote:Yes, I remember book reports and research projects in elementary school. I even remember having to memorize the Emmancipation Proclamation and recite it in front of our class. When I told my kid about that they were stunned. I’m very disappointed.

Book reports and research projects ok. Memorizing the emancipation proclamation sounds like a hilarious waste of time.

I think reciting something important in front of your class is great for public speaking.

It's also good for learning to memorize, learning how to use your attention and memory. Memorizing a poem, a speech, a song - all valuable and all no-longer-required.

Because this is a huge time suck of instructional time; but, more importantly, it’s not on a standardized test, thus not deemed important.

NCLB lingers on, decades later.

Virginia's SOLs were established in 1995, predating NCLB.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I remember book reports and research projects in elementary school. I even remember having to memorize the Emmancipation Proclamation and recite it in front of our class. When I told my kid about that they were stunned. I’m very disappointed.

Book reports and research projects ok. Memorizing the emancipation proclamation sounds like a hilarious waste of time.

I think reciting something important in front of your class is great for public speaking.

It's also good for learning to memorize, learning how to use your attention and memory. Memorizing a poem, a speech, a song - all valuable and all no-longer-required.

Because this is a huge time suck of instructional time; but, more importantly, it’s not on a standardized test, thus not deemed important.

NCLB lingers on, decades later.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I remember book reports and research projects in elementary school. I even remember having to memorize the Emmancipation Proclamation and recite it in front of our class. When I told my kid about that they were stunned. I’m very disappointed.

Book reports and research projects ok. Memorizing the emancipation proclamation sounds like a hilarious waste of time.

I think reciting something important in front of your class is great for public speaking.

It's also good for learning to memorize, learning how to use your attention and memory. Memorizing a poem, a speech, a song - all valuable and all no-longer-required.

Because this is a huge time suck of instructional time; but, more importantly, it’s not on a standardized test, thus not deemed important.

Anonymous wrote:When cursive writing stopped being taught, the decline began.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I remember book reports and research projects in elementary school. I even remember having to memorize the Emmancipation Proclamation and recite it in front of our class. When I told my kid about that they were stunned. I’m very disappointed.

Book reports and research projects ok. Memorizing the emancipation proclamation sounds like a hilarious waste of time.

I think reciting something important in front of your class is great for public speaking.

It's also good for learning to memorize, learning how to use your attention and memory. Memorizing a poem, a speech, a song - all valuable and all no-longer-required.