Not Happy With Public Schools (Fairfax, Linton Hall: assess, budget, friendly)

[claremarie]

"Enacting laws to limit divorce, discouraging single parenthood in responsible adults, or staying with an abusive spouse "for the sake of the kids" is about as productive as buying lots of books."

Hmmm...don't think I advocated for any of that, although discouraging women from having sexual relations with men who aren't prepared to be fathers would go a LONG way towards eliminating most of the social ills that plague our society.
However, if you want to pick a SINGLE factor predictive of success in later life, on pretty much any dimension, it's the presence of the father in the home. It's an inconvenient truth, but there it is.

[housewatcher]

It may be truth to you, but not to me.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by claremarie

if you want to pick a SINGLE factor predictive of success in later life, on pretty much any dimension, it's the presence of the father in the home. It's an inconvenient truth, but there it is.

But meaningless. I'm sure you'll find the value of the cars in the driveway or home square footage are just as predictive and probably easier to determine from available data.

[claremarie]

It's only meaningless if you are willing to believe that fathers are superfluous.
You can try to convince yourself and others that one mother, or two mothers (or two fathers, for that matter) is "just as good" as a mother and a father. You can try replacing fathers with welfare, child support, food stamps, WIC, after-school programs, foster parents, Big Brothers, boyfriends, anti-gang counselors, parole officers, peer mediators, and whatever other trendy program comes along.
But the data still stubbornly support the notion that children raised by both parents do better.
Go figure.

[CAVA1990]

I'll bet that if you compared a child raised by a professional single mother making $100,000 a year to one in a household with two parents with high school diplomas making half that, you'd find the former more likely to be successful than the latter. The gender of the adults doesn't matter nearly as much as their incomes and levels of education. Under your theory a household with two dads would be even better.

[bmwguydc]

Let's please keep the topic relevant to Northern Virginia, otherwise this is a discussion for the Education forum. Thanks.

[qwertman]

Originally Posted by Denton56

Think about it. How many of those Asian kids have single moms? And how many Black kids do? Asians don't have kids they can't support and can't educate. It's a cultural thing.

whoa whoa, whoa whoa whoa whoa!! be careful with the generalizations, you seem to be taking them way, way too far. First off, single mother hood is not always caused by popping out kids you can't support. People die for one.

Originally Posted by Denton56

Asian kids do whatever is necessary to get good grades, even homework that is beneath them.

You must be very surprised then to know that some of the kids i knew through college with the worst work ethic were east asian or south asian.

Originally Posted by housewatcher

Denton - it looked like ClaireMarie was saying that simply having 2 parents at home (vs. 1 parent at home and all other things being equal), is "better". It looks like she dismissed other factors and that is what concerned me.

I don't think having just the fact of having only 1 parent in the home is an automatic recipe for disaster. Thinking like that can prevent people from leaving abusive, etc. households because they may think it is worse if they leave. Or a single person who has the wherewithall to raise a child who is a good student and good citizen, etc. choosing not to because they've been told it will be a bad choice to have/keep the child. It may not be a bad choice!

It is similar to some of the response to that old Murphy Brown TV segment in which she was going to have a baby on her own. I just don't like it when people blindly think that, no matter what, having 2 parents at home is "better". It may be or it may not be - there can be lots of things in play for both situations.

Originally Posted by claremarie

"it looked like ClaireMarie was saying that simply having 2 parents at home (vs. 1 parent at home and all other things being equal), is "better" "

It IS better, and social science research confirms that fact. It's not politically correct, because families come in all shapes and sizes, and all of that, but some family structures are simply better for children than others. Children need both of their parents.
There are always exceptions, and statistics cannot predict the outcome in individual cases, but ON AVERAGE, children raised in two-parent families will do better on every observable dimension than children raised by single parents.
Honestly, does this come as a surprise to anyone?

both ClaireMarie and Housewatcher make valid points here. Yes it's certainly true that on average children raised in two parent families do better, but there have been many valid studies that suggest the impact of this is often way overstated. Basically, for example, rich kids from single parent households, while as a group might perform lower then rich kids from two parent households, perform closer to rich kids in general then poor kids, single parent or not.

Don't get me wrong, I think growing up with a single parent vs. two is a significant disadvantage in many areas, but there are other indicators that are equally, likely more important.

[Jremy]

Originally Posted by ajzjmsmom

I came to NOVA expecting outstanding schools, especially when you read about how high the test scores are in this area. Coming from a very poor state with low test scores I expected my boys to either be behind or have problems, instead I have found for my 2 older boys they are perhaps alittle more advanced.

This is a bit off-topic, but as a former Virginia public-school teacher I can tell you that low or high test scores do not necessarily equate to good education. Many public-school teachers resort to "drill and kill" to ensure that their students pass the SOLs because they are so afraid of the consequences of their school not making AYP or coming under sanctions. The messy result of all of this is that students are not taught higher-level thinking skills (analysis, inferring, etc.) but are simply taught low-level regurgitation of facts.

Don't be fooled by test scores. The public school system has mastered the art of creating the illusion that they are improving and going forward. The reality is that education is not much better today than it was many years ago. At the end of the day, your kids will do well in school insofar as they have a strong work ethic, buy into the whole education thing, have good teachers, and receive strong support from you as a parent. All of these components are necessary.

[Jremy]

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

No argument from me. As I've said on this thread and another, there's really very little to no difference in the curriculum and Prince William County vs. Fairfax County schools. There is a pretty significant difference in scores though. Totally has to do with economic factors.

Economic factors can't be ignored, but it's wrong to say that it "totally" has to do with income. I used to teach in a low-income school in PWC, and I had quite a few students who came from lower-income households that did very well. They were very self-disciplined, motivated, and had a strong work ethic.

[ajzjmsmom]

Originally Posted by Jremy

This is a bit off-topic, but as a former Virginia public-school teacher I can tell you that low or high test scores do not necessarily equate to good education. Many public-school teachers resort to "drill and kill" to ensure that their students pass the SOLs because they are so afraid of the consequences of their school not making AYP or coming under sanctions. The messy result of all of this is that students are not taught higher-level thinking skills (analysis, inferring, etc.) but are simply taught low-level regurgitation of facts.

Don't be fooled by test scores. The public school system has mastered the art of creating the illusion that they are improving and going forward. The reality is that education is not much better today than it was many years ago. At the end of the day, your kids will do well in school insofar as they have a strong work ethic, buy into the whole education thing, have good teachers, and receive strong support from you as a parent. All of these components are necessary.

OMgosh I think this is probably one of the best posts I have read on here.