Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My students who come back to visit me their freshman year of college largely report that college is much easier than their high school experience, so I think they're well prepared.

I also think the experience (especially in elementary) is very non-standardized. My own child has been writing 5 paragraph essays since 3rd grade, so the anecdote about being overwhelmed by an essay is odd to me.

My now 9th and 11th graders, who were in AAP, barely wrote anything through middle school and I have been surprised at how little they write in HS.

That's what I mean, for much of recent history it's been non standardized.

Benchmark has definitely created more commonality across schools, but it's also decreased the amount of reading/writing required. Instead of reading novels and writing essays, it's reading excerpts and writing paragraph responses. His AAP teacher has tried to create essays for them, but it's hard to write a full essay on a bunch of half page excerpts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My students who come back to visit me their freshman year of college largely report that college is much easier than their high school experience, so I think they're well prepared.

I also think the experience (especially in elementary) is very non-standardized. My own child has been writing 5 paragraph essays since 3rd grade, so the anecdote about being overwhelmed by an essay is odd to me.

My now 9th and 11th graders, who were in AAP, barely wrote anything through middle school and I have been surprised at how little they write in HS.

Anonymous wrote:No standards in elementary. Passing kids that should be held back. No more classroom novels with discussions. No spelling tests. Kids can’t read and write on grade-level and are pushed through the system.

Escape if you can.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My students who come back to visit me their freshman year of college largely report that college is much easier than their high school experience, so I think they're well prepared.

I also think the experience (especially in elementary) is very non-standardized. My own child has been writing 5 paragraph essays since 3rd grade, so the anecdote about being overwhelmed by an essay is odd to me.

My now 9th and 11th graders, who were in AAP, barely wrote anything through middle school and I have been surprised at how little they write in HS.

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in FCPS in the 90's. When we decided to start a family, we moved back to the area specifically because we knew the FCPS was a very good public school system and we would never be able to afford private school. My kids were still little when COVID shut downs happened, so we weren't deep into school yet. So, I can't compare immediate pre-COVID to post-COVID. But now that my kids have gotten a little older, I have felt like the whole system is floundering around my kids and I'm having to fill gaps educationally that my parents never had to fill for me. I couldn't tell you if it is because of computers in school, social media comparison or distraction, COVID lags, or just every parent/kid getting on a race track to no where. I do feel, however, that the news about public education is scary and feels slightly hopeless and I don't feel like FCPS is responding in the right ways. I don't think it's the teachers. I think that the teachers, and even most school administrators, feel the same way. I think FCPS is being mismanaged and losing its focus on what matters most. I think COVID broke a lot of it, and maybe we're finally starting to climb out of it. I don't know what the answer is and I know I haven't defined the problem very well, if at all. I'm just venting and wondering if anyone else feels the same way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is very common for parents to remember their own experiences with rose-colored glasses. When my kids started in FCPS I was very wary of certain ways of doing things that were different from when I was in school. I had a hard time with the lack of physical text books and differentiated learning was a very new type of learning than I had experienced.

But what I have come to learn is that different doesn't mean worse and that education is an evolving discipline. There is a lot in 2026 that is different than it was in the 1990s. Namely, the internet and computers have reshaped education completely.

Now as the parent of two FCPS educated college students both of whom are at universities that attract students from all over the country, I can say that comparatively speaking, my students are better prepared than many of their peers. Not just in the knowledge accrued, but in work habits and their approach to education.

If you look at statistics of outcomes, FCPS also ranks very well when compared across the country.

I think it's easy to criticize without fully understanding the whole picture. But also, comparing today's educational landscape to the landscape of 30 years ago when most of us were just children ourselves and probably didn't grasp the larger picture of what was going on around us is probably not the most accurate assessment of the reality and the evolution.

See, you were doing real well until this. I had four kids go to various colleges, including highly prestigious ones, and I couldn't tell you how prepared they are compared to their peers. How on earth can you possibly know that?

DP here. I'm a teacher and have many graduates each year come and say the same thing. Just as in high school where everyone knows who the smart ones and the less-smart ones are, college students know who is prepared and who is not.

Well, I'll tell you this: I've never had a discussion with any of my kids, ever, about how "prepared" their college classmates and friends are compared to them. Certainly not enough to come up with a hierarchy of a "preparedness" to come to the conclusion that they are more prepared than "many." That's just plain weird.

On top of that, with the average GPA in almost every college being well above a 3.0 how the hell can you possibly know?

Then maybe your kid just isn't one of the more "prepared" kids in college bc my kids talk about it all the time. They talk about how their friends spend more time partying and miss important deadlines for classes, how group projects are frustrating because other students don't do the required reading before coming to the meetings and how they thought college would be harder than it is but they think high school was harder in a lot of ways.

Your kid is a real nerd if all they're doing is complaining to their mommy while in friggin COLLEGE about their classmates.

My kids never did any such thing. They had fun in good colleges AND did well. So, yea, they were both prepared AND mature.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is very common for parents to remember their own experiences with rose-colored glasses. When my kids started in FCPS I was very wary of certain ways of doing things that were different from when I was in school. I had a hard time with the lack of physical text books and differentiated learning was a very new type of learning than I had experienced.

But what I have come to learn is that different doesn't mean worse and that education is an evolving discipline. There is a lot in 2026 that is different than it was in the 1990s. Namely, the internet and computers have reshaped education completely.

Now as the parent of two FCPS educated college students both of whom are at universities that attract students from all over the country, I can say that comparatively speaking, my students are better prepared than many of their peers. Not just in the knowledge accrued, but in work habits and their approach to education.

If you look at statistics of outcomes, FCPS also ranks very well when compared across the country.

I think it's easy to criticize without fully understanding the whole picture. But also, comparing today's educational landscape to the landscape of 30 years ago when most of us were just children ourselves and probably didn't grasp the larger picture of what was going on around us is probably not the most accurate assessment of the reality and the evolution.

See, you were doing real well until this. I had four kids go to various colleges, including highly prestigious ones, and I couldn't tell you how prepared they are compared to their peers. How on earth can you possibly know that?

DP here. I'm a teacher and have many graduates each year come and say the same thing. Just as in high school where everyone knows who the smart ones and the less-smart ones are, college students know who is prepared and who is not.

Well, I'll tell you this: I've never had a discussion with any of my kids, ever, about how "prepared" their college classmates and friends are compared to them. Certainly not enough to come up with a hierarchy of a "preparedness" to come to the conclusion that they are more prepared than "many." That's just plain weird.

On top of that, with the average GPA in almost every college being well above a 3.0 how the hell can you possibly know?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is very common for parents to remember their own experiences with rose-colored glasses. When my kids started in FCPS I was very wary of certain ways of doing things that were different from when I was in school. I had a hard time with the lack of physical text books and differentiated learning was a very new type of learning than I had experienced.

But what I have come to learn is that different doesn't mean worse and that education is an evolving discipline. There is a lot in 2026 that is different than it was in the 1990s. Namely, the internet and computers have reshaped education completely.

Now as the parent of two FCPS educated college students both of whom are at universities that attract students from all over the country, I can say that comparatively speaking, my students are better prepared than many of their peers. Not just in the knowledge accrued, but in work habits and their approach to education.

If you look at statistics of outcomes, FCPS also ranks very well when compared across the country.

I think it's easy to criticize without fully understanding the whole picture. But also, comparing today's educational landscape to the landscape of 30 years ago when most of us were just children ourselves and probably didn't grasp the larger picture of what was going on around us is probably not the most accurate assessment of the reality and the evolution.

See, you were doing real well until this. I had four kids go to various colleges, including highly prestigious ones, and I couldn't tell you how prepared they are compared to their peers. How on earth can you possibly know that?

DP here. I'm a teacher and have many graduates each year come and say the same thing. Just as in high school where everyone knows who the smart ones and the less-smart ones are, college students know who is prepared and who is not.

Well, I'll tell you this: I've never had a discussion with any of my kids, ever, about how "prepared" their college classmates and friends are compared to them. Certainly not enough to come up with a hierarchy of a "preparedness" to come to the conclusion that they are more prepared than "many." That's just plain weird.

On top of that, with the average GPA in almost every college being well above a 3.0 how the hell can you possibly know?

Then maybe your kid just isn't one of the more "prepared" kids in college bc my kids talk about it all the time. They talk about how their friends spend more time partying and miss important deadlines for classes, how group projects are frustrating because other students don't do the required reading before coming to the meetings and how they thought college would be harder than it is but they think high school was harder in a lot of ways.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is very common for parents to remember their own experiences with rose-colored glasses. When my kids started in FCPS I was very wary of certain ways of doing things that were different from when I was in school. I had a hard time with the lack of physical text books and differentiated learning was a very new type of learning than I had experienced.

But what I have come to learn is that different doesn't mean worse and that education is an evolving discipline. There is a lot in 2026 that is different than it was in the 1990s. Namely, the internet and computers have reshaped education completely.

Now as the parent of two FCPS educated college students both of whom are at universities that attract students from all over the country, I can say that comparatively speaking, my students are better prepared than many of their peers. Not just in the knowledge accrued, but in work habits and their approach to education.

If you look at statistics of outcomes, FCPS also ranks very well when compared across the country.

I think it's easy to criticize without fully understanding the whole picture. But also, comparing today's educational landscape to the landscape of 30 years ago when most of us were just children ourselves and probably didn't grasp the larger picture of what was going on around us is probably not the most accurate assessment of the reality and the evolution.

See, you were doing real well until this. I had four kids go to various colleges, including highly prestigious ones, and I couldn't tell you how prepared they are compared to their peers. How on earth can you possibly know that?

DP here. I'm a teacher and have many graduates each year come and say the same thing. Just as in high school where everyone knows who the smart ones and the less-smart ones are, college students know who is prepared and who is not.

Well, I'll tell you this: I've never had a discussion with any of my kids, ever, about how "prepared" their college classmates and friends are compared to them. Certainly not enough to come up with a hierarchy of a "preparedness" to come to the conclusion that they are more prepared than "many." That's just plain weird.

On top of that, with the average GPA in almost every college being well above a 3.0 how the hell can you possibly know?

You sound crazy. If your kid is getting A+s and As in college pre-med classes and the grade distribution is 5% or fewer A+ and 25% or fewer As, then your kid was well prepared relative to their peers. It is not that hard.

Anonymous wrote:My students who come back to visit me their freshman year of college largely report that college is much easier than their high school experience, so I think they're well prepared.

I also think the experience (especially in elementary) is very non-standardized. My own child has been writing 5 paragraph essays since 3rd grade, so the anecdote about being overwhelmed by an essay is odd to me.