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Distance learning was just the final straw. Sadly, the education was subpar even while things were “normal.”
Without trying to blame any individual school, I think the problem is systemic — FCPS is just too big, too unwieldy, too spread out, and too disconnected from parents. FCPS is coasting on its reputation as a once “good” (or even “great”) school district, but it’s deteriorating rapidly. The rigor of the academics pales in comparison to even middling schools in the mid-Atlantic of which I’m familiar (PA and NJ in particular). One glaring difference is the enormous size of the FCPS school district as compared to those other districts. The result is a weird combination of relatively well-off leafy suburbs and a massive urban-sized school district.
Yes, others may have different experiences. But the problems and deficiencies we saw first hand don’t seem specific to the schools our children attended (e.g. decisions to abandon textbooks - even for complex subjects like math - was a FCPS district decision, not a local school decision).
There are always people who'd prefer smaller town-based school systems based on their experiences elsewhere. Of course, if McLean and Vienna had their own school systems, Herndon and the Alexandria part of Fairfax County, to take two examples, would be cash-strapped. We spread the resources around, yet FCPS still has 8 of the top 10 high schools in the state according to US News.
My kid had the option to graduate from college in 3 years due to the credits he'd accumulated coming out of FCPS, and is now heading to a top grad school program. I don't think that much has changed over the past 5 years.
My kid had the option to graduate from college in 3 years due to the credits he'd accumulated coming out of FCPS, and is now heading to a top grad school program. I don't think that much has changed over the past 5 years.
I only know what we’ve seen first-hand at the elementary and middle school level over the last 3 years; it’s been a low-level of academic rigor from Day 1. In the case of your grad student child (congrats btw), a child who graduated from FCPS high school 5 years ago began his elementary school experience with FCPS in around 2002-2003. A lot can change in that amount of time. Think about how much change has occurred in Fairfax and in the world in general during that time.
I have spoken with quite a few other parents who have kids slightly older than mine (e.g., their youngest is close in age to my oldest) with older children in high school or college but younger children still in elementary school, and they’ve told me that the academic quality of FCPS schools has deteriorated over the past 10 years. I expect that 5 years from now, the high school performance metrics will be worse than they are now, and that, unless systemic changes are made, the downward trend will continue.
That’s what I meant by FCPS currently coasting on a reputation built up in former years.
It’s unfortunate - we like our neighborhood and like living here, and we pay enough in taxes such that we should have access to good public schools. I also know that my property value is closely tied to the “prestige” of FCPS, so I take no pleasure in noticing the decline. But it’s real. Somebody has to say it.
And it may help others - perhaps plan for private school and expand your housing search to less “desirable” FCPS school pyramids, because your children will probably be better off in private school anyway. Even the “good” FCPS schools are underwhelming, in my family’s experience.
Probably any school is going to struggle to implement a transition to online learning in the middle of a semester. Some of the colleges dropped grading requirements.
I only know what we’ve seen first-hand at the elementary and middle school level over the last 3 years; it’s been a low-level of academic rigor from Day 1. In the case of your grad student child (congrats btw), a child who graduated from FCPS high school 5 years ago began his elementary school experience with FCPS in around 2002-2003. A lot can change in that amount of time. Think about how much change has occurred in Fairfax and in the world in general during that time.
I have spoken with quite a few other parents who have kids slightly older than mine (e.g., their youngest is close in age to my oldest) with older children in high school or college but younger children still in elementary school, and they’ve told me that the academic quality of FCPS schools has deteriorated over the past 10 years. I expect that 5 years from now, the high school performance metrics will be worse than they are now, and that, unless systemic changes are made, the downward trend will continue.
That’s what I meant by FCPS currently coasting on a reputation built up in former years.
It’s unfortunate - we like our neighborhood and like living here, and we pay enough in taxes such that we should have access to good public schools. I also know that my property value is closely tied to the “prestige” of FCPS, so I take no pleasure in noticing the decline. But it’s real. Somebody has to say it.
And it may help others - perhaps plan for private school and expand your housing search to less “desirable” FCPS school pyramids, because your children will probably be better off in private school anyway. Even the “good” FCPS schools are underwhelming, in my family’s experience.
I've pretty consistently seen parents of elementary school kids in FCPS worry that the curriculum wasn't sufficiently rigorous for their kids and gradually relax as the kids get older and the classes become more challenging. At the upper levels, classes can be very challenging. The main concern usually is that teachers in large classes can't spend enough time working on students' writing skills, although there is still a lot of writing required in IB and some AP courses.
It may be things have deteriorated over the past five years. Watching from a distance, I'm not blown away by current FCPS leadership. The current superintendent lucked out in the sense that the state and local economy was doing well when he was hired, so he was able to take credit for increases in teacher salaries. But obviously conditions have now changed, and he's done a poor job managing both distance learning and the overcrowding at some FCPS schools.
In any event, good luck with the choices you're making. It's not an easy time.
This didn't used to be. In fact at one time at least two of the NOVA schools were among the top 10 in the USA. Sadly, the one from which I graduated wasn't among them, Lee High School in Springfield.
Just today I got this disturbing email from a fellow Lee alumnus:
"Unbelieveably and stupidly our school is being renamed John R Lewis High School. A guy who had nothing to do with Virginia or Springfield. It’s a soppy bow down to lily white sissies. I say let them put the new name up and let’s go spray paint it. Let’s have his head dangling from the Lancer’s shaft."
I understand that schools everywhere have been dumbed-down quite a bit since I graduated from Lee almost 59 years ago. That dumbing down means that people who would have had to repeat a year or two no longer have to. And if you are someone who thinks this is a tragedy, then I guess you, too, would be regarded as a RACIST! John R. Lewis had nothing at all to do with anything dealing with Fairfax county and I agree with my fellow Lee graduate that this is a tragedy.
This didn't used to be. In fact at one time at least two of the NOVA schools were among the top 10 in the USA. Sadly, the one from which I graduated wasn't among them, Lee High School in Springfield.
Just today I got this disturbing email from a fellow Lee alumnus:
"Unbelieveably and stupidly our school is being renamed John R Lewis High School. A guy who had nothing to do with Virginia or Springfield. It’s a soppy bow down to lily white sissies. I say let them put the new name up and let’s go spray paint it. Let’s have his head dangling from the Lancer’s shaft."
I understand that schools everywhere have been dumbed-down quite a bit since I graduated from Lee almost 59 years ago. That dumbing down means that people who would have had to repeat a year or two no longer have to. And if you are someone who thinks this is a tragedy, then I guess you, too, would be regarded as a RACIST! John R. Lewis had nothing at all to do with anything dealing with Fairfax county and I agree with my fellow Lee graduate that this is a tragedy.
It used to be that people who had particular views were more covert and so you never really knew where anyone stood and most people kept their opinions to themselves most of the time. The great thing about the time we’re in now is folks expose their backwards illinformed idiotic views all on their own, most of the time unprompted without anyone having to say a word.
This didn't used to be. In fact at one time at least two of the NOVA schools were among the top 10 in the USA. Sadly, the one from which I graduated wasn't among them, Lee High School in Springfield.
Just today I got this disturbing email from a fellow Lee alumnus:
"Unbelieveably and stupidly our school is being renamed John R Lewis High School. A guy who had nothing to do with Virginia or Springfield. It’s a soppy bow down to lily white sissies. I say let them put the new name up and let’s go spray paint it. Let’s have his head dangling from the Lancer’s shaft."
I understand that schools everywhere have been dumbed-down quite a bit since I graduated from Lee almost 59 years ago. That dumbing down means that people who would have had to repeat a year or two no longer have to. And if you are someone who thinks this is a tragedy, then I guess you, too, would be regarded as a RACIST! John R. Lewis had nothing at all to do with anything dealing with Fairfax county and I agree with my fellow Lee graduate that this is a tragedy.
I've followed this renaming. Many of the current students and teachers supported renaming the school after John R. Lewis. Alumni tended to prefer keeping the name or just renaming it "Springfield HS." The response to renaming the school has been largely positive.
To suggest that John Lewis had nothing to do with Virginia or Fairfax County is absurd. When Lewis marched for civil rights, many schools in Virginia were still resisting integration and many counties were still engaged in voter suppression. He periodically visited schools in FCPS, including West Potomac and Westfield, and spoke to students about his experiences. If a closer connection to Virginia is required, FCPS would need to rename Edison HS, Key MS, Longfellow MS, and Thoreau MS, among many others. Walden Pond wasn't another name for Lake Accotink.
Your fellow Lee alumnus sounds like a bigoted jerk.
I've pretty consistently seen parents of elementary school kids in FCPS worry that the curriculum wasn't sufficiently rigorous for their kids and gradually relax as the kids get older and the classes become more challenging. At the upper levels, classes can be very challenging. The main concern usually is that teachers in large classes can't spend enough time working on students' writing skills, although there is still a lot of writing required in IB and some AP courses.
It may be things have deteriorated over the past five years. Watching from a distance, I'm not blown away by current FCPS leadership. The current superintendent lucked out in the sense that the state and local economy was doing well when he was hired, so he was able to take credit for increases in teacher salaries. But obviously conditions have now changed, and he's done a poor job managing both distance learning and the overcrowding at some FCPS schools.
In any event, good luck with the choices you're making. It's not an easy time.
This was my impression. To me, elementary school seemed way too easy for my daughter and a lot easier than I remembered school from when I was a kid. I though they weren't challenging her enough so I supplemented it. Middle school seemed about right. Now that she's in high school, she's much more challenged, but still does well. I can't help her with most of her work as it's beyond what I learned in high school. She's taking AP courses, which weren't even offered (and still aren't) where I grew up.
I am overall happy with the schools. My daughter is learning and is learning more than I did at her age. The only reason I live here is because of the schools. It's a long story, but in short, I am divorced and stayed here mostly for the schools and so my daughter could stay close to her dad. Once she graduates, I am moving back to the rural area I came from. NOVA is okay, but it's not my preferred place to live. There are just too many people for me.
Like you, I think the FCPS leadership seems a bit lacking. I find them to be indecisive and I don't think they plan well. But I don't think I could do any better. So I try not to be too critical. I am a bit worried about the virtual learning this fall, but I am trying to be hopeful that it will be better than the fiasco that was spring. But even with the mess this spring, my daughter did well. I am lucky to have a child who is a dedicated student whom I can trust to do her best and her teachers seem to be some of the best.
It used to be that people who had particular views were more covert and so you never really knew where anyone stood and most people kept their opinions to themselves most of the time. The great thing about the time we’re in now is folks expose their backwards illinformed idiotic views all on their own, most of the time unprompted without anyone having to say a word.
Thread closed, a deliberate troll thread started by a returned troll. The info in post 1 is probably as bogus as the troll, do your own research on schools in NOVA. When I lived there, for 31 years, Fairfax County school system was always in the top ten nationally and people paid a premium to live in Fairfax County so their kids could go to school there.
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Last edited by Mike from back east; 08-07-2020 at 11:32 AM..
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