Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in NOVA and the school situation is depressing. The biggest problem I see is that teachers can't control the behavioral problems of kids (not blaming teachers btw) so not a lot of learning is happening and the whole school environment is just really stressful for kids. I was honestly thinking about moving but I hear complaints about this from people in many different places. Are there any places in the US where this isn't the trend?

My kids are doing amazing but I think it's because I made sure they didn't slack off during remote. In the end this was mostly about parenting not schools, but that's always been true.

I’m glad your kids don’t have special needs. Mine do, so I wasn’t able to meet their needs during the pandemic. That’s made everything SO much more challenging. We’re spending $300 a WEEK on various therapies and we’re very thankful to be able to do so. Kids need even more, but $300/week is what we can afford. Now imagine a family with similar needs on free/reduced lunch. The kids wouldn’t get those services and would be a nightmare in school. Please don’t judge the families who are struggling. It takes almost endless resources to dig some kids out of the hole we got in during the last few years.

Medicaid pays generously for therapies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in NOVA and the school situation is depressing. The biggest problem I see is that teachers can't control the behavioral problems of kids (not blaming teachers btw) so not a lot of learning is happening and the whole school environment is just really stressful for kids. I was honestly thinking about moving but I hear complaints about this from people in many different places. Are there any places in the US where this isn't the trend?

My kids are doing amazing but I think it's because I made sure they didn't slack off during remote. In the end this was mostly about parenting not schools, but that's always been true.

I’m glad your kids don’t have special needs. Mine do, so I wasn’t able to meet their needs during the pandemic. That’s made everything SO much more challenging. We’re spending $300 a WEEK on various therapies and we’re very thankful to be able to do so. Kids need even more, but $300/week is what we can afford. Now imagine a family with similar needs on free/reduced lunch. The kids wouldn’t get those services and would be a nightmare in school. Please don’t judge the families who are struggling. It takes almost endless resources to dig some kids out of the hole we got in during the last few years.

It's the education sector losing ground - less money to offer teachers. Less ability for teachers in public to teach well - it's all testing now. Done I believe is a matter of kids being less well behaved but I think more of it is that the public school model is broken. Some of it is sociology - we just have so many more people and not enough funds to organize a teaching structure well. As a society we look for short cuts on everything and I think in the education front that's true too.

Front line teachers are not getting the support they need from school administrators in bed with the teachers union.

Total lack of discipline in todays schools. Need to put some cells in a lot of places and let the SROs lock those misbehave up for the day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. We moved to the region of the country that is performing the best post-pandemic (growth, economy, test scores-- most measures). We had our kids in MCPS prior to moving. It was a bit if a shock and the kids had to adjust to the greater demands of their new schools, but we are very happy. We were planning to switch to private, but an opportunity to move came up so we took it.

Where is this because we have got to get out of here?

DP but I’m assuming the north - MN, WI, maybe IA.

Anonymous wrote:NP. We moved to the region of the country that is performing the best post-pandemic (growth, economy, test scores-- most measures). We had our kids in MCPS prior to moving. It was a bit if a shock and the kids had to adjust to the greater demands of their new schools, but we are very happy. We were planning to switch to private, but an opportunity to move came up so we took it.

Where is this because we have got to get out of here?

Anonymous wrote:NP. We moved to the region of the country that is performing the best post-pandemic (growth, economy, test scores-- most measures). We had our kids in MCPS prior to moving. It was a bit if a shock and the kids had to adjust to the greater demands of their new schools, but we are very happy. We were planning to switch to private, but an opportunity to move came up so we took it.

Mountain West?

Pandemic decimated AP exam performance.

https://moderatelymoco.com/mcps-advanced-placement-ap-tests-scores-by-school-2019-2021-data-analysis/

Let's see if 2023 shows recovery.

NP. We moved to the region of the country that is performing the best post-pandemic (growth, economy, test scores-- most measures). We had our kids in MCPS prior to moving. It was a bit if a shock and the kids had to adjust to the greater demands of their new schools, but we are very happy. We were planning to switch to private, but an opportunity to move came up so we took it.

They were already bad prepandemic.

Anonymous wrote:Kids seem apathetic now

I don’t agree with this. My kids and their friends are really invested in things like the environment/climate change; gun control; and gay rights; and also seem to track things like space exploration, developments in AI and social media; etc. I don’t know that kids in the 80s and 90s were this engaged.

I don’t think the curriculum always matches their interest, though. Per pupils spending has not kept up with inflation over the decades and there is less money for things like science experiments in k-8, or purchasing individual fiction books so the whole class can read the same book together. Also, the standardized curriculum is good insofar as it means that every class is getting at least the basics, but it really has cut down on teachers ability to follow the kids’ interests or to follow their own passions (and really when teachers teach something they really love, it shows and the enthusiasm is infectious).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in NOVA and the school situation is depressing. The biggest problem I see is that teachers can't control the behavioral problems of kids (not blaming teachers btw) so not a lot of learning is happening and the whole school environment is just really stressful for kids. I was honestly thinking about moving but I hear complaints about this from people in many different places. Are there any places in the US where this isn't the trend?

Ban cell phones in school (not just in class) and behavior will improve considerably.

This. There was a school system that did this and grades and behavior improved. I'll look for the article later.

Allow them flip phones for emergency use only. Cheaper to own so doesn't favor rich kids and way harder to use for bullying and nefarious things.

god, this one person who can't get enough of her trad lifestyle and need to judge others who don't share her fetish.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Public schools legally do not have the same ability to expel students that repeatedly exhibit disruptive behaviors. In the past these students could be sent to alternative schools however due to 'equity' they are now generally expected to remain with students who do not exhibit these behaviors.



Its not due to equity, thats just lip service. Its cheapness.
Separate SN schools cost a fortune to run.

Interesting that PP assumes the only disruptive behaviors are from special needs kids. There are plenty of kids without any specific special need that disrupt classes with attention-getting behavior or disrespectful language.

Overall, parents need to do their part if they want schools to get better. Stop expecting teachers to do all the parenting. Teach your kids to respect teachers--this is learned at home. Stop assuming the teacher is in the wrong--it is often your kid. Stop putting travel, sports and ECs first--when you do this, you send a signal to your kids that academics are not important.

I don't think it's "interesting." I think a disproportionate amount of disruption comes from kids with IEPs.

My son attends a school where every child is on an IEP and is considered so needy that the public school system pays to send them to this school. It's the best-behaved group of students I've ever seen. Parenting matters. Individual profiles and needs can exacerbate the effects of bad parenting but are rarely the sole cause of the disruptive behavior.

Anonymous wrote:

Public schools legally do not have the same ability to expel students that repeatedly exhibit disruptive behaviors. In the past these students could be sent to alternative schools however due to 'equity' they are now generally expected to remain with students who do not exhibit these behaviors.



Its not due to equity, thats just lip service. Its cheapness.
Separate SN schools cost a fortune to run.

Interesting that PP assumes the only disruptive behaviors are from special needs kids. There are plenty of kids without any specific special need that disrupt classes with attention-getting behavior or disrespectful language.

Overall, parents need to do their part if they want schools to get better. Stop expecting teachers to do all the parenting. Teach your kids to respect teachers--this is learned at home. Stop assuming the teacher is in the wrong--it is often your kid. Stop putting travel, sports and ECs first--when you do this, you send a signal to your kids that academics are not important.

I don't think it's "interesting." I think a disproportionate amount of disruption comes from kids with IEPs.