This is pathetic to me. I am a product of FCPS and remember our high school English grammar program - it was a system/book called "Links" which was all about parts of speech, diagramming sentences, etc. I hated it at the time, but it was a great program that has stayed with me through the years.

Nothing like this exists now. Kids are not actually taught how to write correctly and it's disgraceful.

The curriculum is just poor and changes all the time. It's obvious that new curriculum is not better when kids using old curriculum are doing better. We are just spending too much time writing lesson plans and disciplining or enabling and not teaching and doing and actually following educational and disciplinary standards.

Mathnasium or Kumon or bust, OP

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grammar like math are being short changed in FCPS. Why? Because they differentiate students and FCPS does not want that. They want equitable outcomes. In grammar and math some kids have an inherent advantage such as English being the native language or in math having more exposure outside of what FCPS offers. So it is much harder to have equitable outcomes in these two areas.

LOL. What school is your kid attending? Because equity has zero to do with this.

I think the grammar sucks across the board and grades in FCPS. Ditto the writing curriculum. But kids were "differentiated" in math and "language arts" all the time in our pyramid. And still are in HS. And, where I thought more was needed, I actually parented and provided that to my kid. This is a PUBLIC school system, not an individual development plan. You want more than what's mandated ? Then provide it.

But don't resort to the lame "equity is killing education" BS. I know y'all have that on the GOP Bingo Card lately. But it's tiresome. And stupid. And you look lazy but pulling it out and by, implicitly, acknowledging you do little on your end to help your kid succeed.

Your right grammar sucks across the board, and so does reading and math. FCPS test scores prove it. This is about FCPS not having standards, not teaching to those standards and providing a disciplined environment to allow every FCPS student to the best of their ability.

It is about way too much money being spent on inept middle management staff, the fad of he day program for math and English, and a failure to provide boots on the ground in the classroom to maintain order and discipline. FCPS has more resources than some small countries, they squander and waste what they have and as a result FCPS students do not read at grade level, do math at grade level or have the grammatical skills they need to succeed in life.

So not asking for more than mandated just asking to meet the standard, which FCPS and most public schools in America are simply not doing.

Equity partly has to do with it. It's lack of standards because people have different cutural backgrounds and different parenting methods and different genetics. Lack of standards leads to a more diverse range of things being taught which leads to some things not being taught.

Anonymous wrote:Grammar like math are being short changed in FCPS. Why? Because they differentiate students and FCPS does not want that. They want equitable outcomes. In grammar and math some kids have an inherent advantage such as English being the native language or in math having more exposure outside of what FCPS offers. So it is much harder to have equitable outcomes in these two areas.

LOL. What school is your kid attending? Because equity has zero to do with this.

I think the grammar sucks across the board and grades in FCPS. Ditto the writing curriculum. But kids were "differentiated" in math and "language arts" all the time in our pyramid. And still are in HS. And, where I thought more was needed, I actually parented and provided that to my kid. This is a PUBLIC school system, not an individual development plan. You want more than what's mandated ? Then provide it.

But don't resort to the lame "equity is killing education" BS. I know y'all have that on the GOP Bingo Card lately. But it's tiresome. And stupid. And you look lazy but pulling it out and by, implicitly, acknowledging you do little on your end to help your kid succeed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle and High School English classes are supposed to have 20 kids per class on average. Elementary classes should have helpers and better programs. FCPS needs to stop changing learning programs in this area of study every year and start putting more teachers on this type of learning and they will see some of the decline complaints go away.

I wish!

I teach English, and my classes usually have 28-32 students!

The state pays for teachers for every 20 students. What fcps does with the money is another matter

Students per class or student to teacher ratio? If true, my bet is on the latter. They aren’t the same thing. A quick online search shows the district’s ratio at 14:1.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle and High School English classes are supposed to have 20 kids per class on average. Elementary classes should have helpers and better programs. FCPS needs to stop changing learning programs in this area of study every year and start putting more teachers on this type of learning and they will see some of the decline complaints go away.

I wish!

I teach English, and my classes usually have 28-32 students!

The state pays for teachers for every 20 students. What fcps does with the money is another matter

Anonymous wrote:Middle and High School English classes are supposed to have 20 kids per class on average. Elementary classes should have helpers and better programs. FCPS needs to stop changing learning programs in this area of study every year and start putting more teachers on this type of learning and they will see some of the decline complaints go away.

I wish!

I teach English, and my classes usually have 28-32 students!

FCPS teaches grammar in both general and advanced academics. It seems to be the right amount for the majority of FCPS students who can retain it and then implicitly develop their sense of grammar further through reading and writing. Some students struggle and need more direct instruction though. In general, in my opinion, FCPS serves students who are roughly in the top 1/4 of the national sample in terms of academic skills very well (this probably reflects at least 1/2 the students in FCPS given the highly educated population). It also does a reasonable job with students who receive special education services and English language learners (at least compared to many other public school systems). I think it's less effective for students who do not qualify for services but are average or slightly below/above average relative to national norms.

Grammar like math are being short changed in FCPS. Why? Because they differentiate students and FCPS does not want that. They want equitable outcomes. In grammar and math some kids have an inherent advantage such as English being the native language or in math having more exposure outside of what FCPS offers. So it is much harder to have equitable outcomes in these two areas.

Middle and High School English classes are supposed to have 20 kids per class on average. Elementary classes should have helpers and better programs. FCPS needs to stop changing learning programs in this area of study every year and start putting more teachers on this type of learning and they will see some of the decline complaints go away.

Most people, other than complaints about computer programs for learning, mainly have issues with the English programs in FCPS, but they end up impacting all areas of learning.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is making all these people so insistent that we hold onto every last thing that was taught when they were young? People weren't smarter or better educated in the past. Different things were prioritized.

I don't think extensive learning of the parts of speech is that relevant anymore. A quick pass is good enough. We are in an age with AI assist built into software, speech-to-text, AI generated text. Even if you write a book, there is no longer a human editor marking up your grammar (I just finished writing one last year--for a major publisher). Editors comment on your tone, audience, originality etc. Grammar checks are automated with a light review. At the same time, texting and on-line communication forms are rapidly evolving to become less formal and non-verbal. There is little agreement on proper grammar.

There are many important things to learn and diagramming sentences may not make the cut anymore. Just encourage kids to read widely, write freely and learn to make good arguments using evidence and logic.

I think a lot of people are just trying to hold the children back from the future because they are afraid.

Most writers and readers are lamenting that publishers have fired lots of editors and proofreaders. You're the first I've seen who is happy about it.

And fyi, people were better educated back in the day.

I'm sad they have lost their jobs. A great editor is worth their weight in gold--but not because they edit grammar Proofreaders are not that much better than the software. I'm not happy about it--I'm facing reality. I don't think people were better educated back in the day. I think they were educated to the needs of their moment which were different than the needs of today. I think every generation makes the same complaint.

More people are educated today. They are not being educated at the level that is being advertised and there are many missing steps in education in order to keep that advertisement alive for all students. Watch the film Idiocracy. People can become less educated than previous generations. You see that all over Europe.

I've seen Idiocracy. I think we just have access to more information through social media to how people think that we used to never have access to before and it's disturbing to see. But back in our day, you didn't get to hear the perspectives of every last person around. But now anyone with an internet connection can spout off and get a following for hare-brained views. I don't think it's education. More people are educated than ever before so the average reported scores etc are going to go down because at one point the lower 1/3 would be dropping out of high school. But the high end of kids are achieving at heights that far exceed what many of the top 10% used to do.
My kid just completed college. I saw the quality of education he received at a FCPS high school and in college and I thought it was strong. Did he receive the same education I did in the 90s? No, it was far stronger in some ways (e.g. he was expected to regularly use many peer-reviewed sources for research papers and process firsthand scholarship) and it was weaker in others (e.g., he had far less exposure to classic literature than I did). He also learned programming and data science despite not being a STEM major -- not a part of my education at all. My younger two are in middle and high school. The quality of the electives, math and science has improved from my education and I went through what was regarded as "very good schools." I'm disappointed in the literature (e.g. they read far fewer classic novels), but impressed by the range of non-fiction they read. I actually like that they read a lot of diverse short forms of writing beyond fiction and learn about rhetorical techniques of persuasion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is making all these people so insistent that we hold onto every last thing that was taught when they were young? People weren't smarter or better educated in the past. Different things were prioritized.

I don't think extensive learning of the parts of speech is that relevant anymore. A quick pass is good enough. We are in an age with AI assist built into software, speech-to-text, AI generated text. Even if you write a book, there is no longer a human editor marking up your grammar (I just finished writing one last year--for a major publisher). Editors comment on your tone, audience, originality etc. Grammar checks are automated with a light review. At the same time, texting and on-line communication forms are rapidly evolving to become less formal and non-verbal. There is little agreement on proper grammar.

There are many important things to learn and diagramming sentences may not make the cut anymore. Just encourage kids to read widely, write freely and learn to make good arguments using evidence and logic.

I think a lot of people are just trying to hold the children back from the future because they are afraid.

Most writers and readers are lamenting that publishers have fired lots of editors and proofreaders. You're the first I've seen who is happy about it.

And fyi, people were better educated back in the day.

I'm sad they have lost their jobs. A great editor is worth their weight in gold--but not because they edit grammar Proofreaders are not that much better than the software. I'm not happy about it--I'm facing reality. I don't think people were better educated back in the day. I think they were educated to the needs of their moment which were different than the needs of today. I think every generation makes the same complaint.

More people are educated today. They are not being educated at the level that is being advertised and there are many missing steps in education in order to keep that advertisement alive for all students. Watch the film Idiocracy. People can become less educated than previous generations. You see that all over Europe.