I have a hard time coming to the SB's defense on this morality report. I read all of the documents presented and it was irresponsible to present this and not expect people to be outraged at the "conclusions" they were drawing. The analogy I will draw is when my kids come home with a bad grade on their report card. I hate it when they say, "I didn't know I had a D...". To me it is just as bad t
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Why do these SB members write such crap? I swear they think we are stupid. It is actually amusing to pick apart the stupid and inaccurate things they say and write. On to bigger and better things, folks. I would like to play a little game with everyone. I will cite stats on some schools and you guys guess the schools. We will then, collectively solve the problem within FCPS that the inept SB
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I saw the report as well. It comes from the MSAOC 12th Report Card issued June 2006. Page 15 has the GT data. AP data is on page 16. IB Data is 8% Whites, 7% Latinos and 6% Black. It would be interesting to see per school data on these measurements. I stumbled on this School Inprovement Plan for Lake Braddock that was a pretty detailed 100 page report with lots of data. Does anyone know if
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SURVEYS- I never suggested that you give an inspirational speech-on the contrary-you were to give a speech to 15000 students that will drop out of FCPS in the next 5 years, that they don't matter and that the schools have done all they can to help them. Be sure to blame their parents-so constructive. You sure are defensive of Jack Dale-does he sign your paycheck? Most policymakers are coming t
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The vote was whether to accept the report-whatever the hell that means. How come the SB members were not bothered by the report before The WAPO article? Weird, huh? To Surveys- I pray you are not one of the cynical, burnt out educators in one of our classrooms-or worse, one of Dale's many ineffective lieutenants who is creating these disastrous studies. I see you are one of the dying breed
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I think you need to find out how this survey was conducted-how big was the sample, which schools were selected, how were special ed students used, etc. Both my 8th and 12th graders participated in the survey and they both said it was no big deal. They said the kids felt comfortable answering the questions honestly. After they filled it out, it was collected in a folder by the teacher and suppos
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Clearly most posters have only read the article and not the actual report put out by the nitwits in FCPS. The source of the data as to whether a kid is moral or not is from FCPS. They used assessments on report cards for goodness sakes and REPORTED disciplinary offenses-we know how accurate the school safety report card data is, right?? The ONLY data that is worth a hill of beans came from the
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taxpayer- I honestly don't get it. Please explain to me how Lake Braddock went from 600 empy seats to at capacity in the last year. What about Hayfield and Mt Vernon? Someone is fudging the numbers.
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The absence of Langley in the redistricting tells you it was about socio-economic rebalancing. Madison Island with its 35 students was the sacrificial lamb- just to make it look good. This school system doesn't have a clue what to do with the persistent minority achievement gaps-so they are engaging in a big reshuffle. All the other school districts have had these plans in place and are chippi
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To Gaydar- Definitely the hand movements-I didn't notice the jewelry or the tan. It is wierd that if Dale is gay that he continues to look the other way about Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Can't be a coach with them if you are gay-because of course that makes you "immoral". Jeeze, who are these people? I feel like Fairfax County is stuck in a time warp. Great FCPS bashing articles in the
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I think it is time we looked at each individual school within FCPS and evaluate what sort of results we are getting from the dollars we spend. Let's take a look at Lynbrook Elem in Springfield which feeds into Key/Lee: The principal makes $118k per year which is an increase of 16% in 3 years. The asst principal makes $89k per year -works 219 days per year BTW. One librarian makes $81k per year-
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I am genuinely at the disgust level with some of these failing schools. The Lee pyramid in particular has some dreadful elementary schools. Look at Crestwood, Garfield and Lynbrook Elem. We have 60-70 percent failure rates on these SOLs and then these kids are passed on to Key where they inherit the academic deficiencies and try to play catch-up. By the time they get to high school many aren't
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If FCPS claims their goal in the redistricting was socioeconomic rebalancing, they have an uphill fight given how "White" Langley, Oakton, Madison and McLean are. I also wonder how concerned they were about racial balance when deciding on the SOCO/Mt Vernon boundary. There are so many areas where they are inconsistent. I fully support CAPS in their efforts to take on this Stalinist School Board
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I am hearing that Madison Island folks are getting rejects on requests for pupil placement out of Sunrise Valley. The goal was to fill South Lakes-I don't know why they can't let these kids finish in their elementary school. It seems so mean spirited. On another note, not that I care, but is Jack Dale gay?
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FCPS Morality Report Analysis-PART 2 According to student surveys of 12th graders in FCPS, 60% of Whites, 59% of Hispanics and 44% of Blacks reported using one of 15 forms of illegal substances including alcohol, drugs, tobacco, etc within the last 30 days. The usage could occur on or off school property. I find it interesting that the Whites led the pack. Certainly FCPS disciplinary data sho
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OK-so I took some tome looking into this "Morality Gap" report the geniuses in accountability came up with. According to the survey, 36% of Hispanic and 21% of Whites and Blacks (the percentage was identical) in 8th grade reported using any of 15 different illegal substances (alcohol, tobacco, drugs, etc) over the prior 30 day period. The use could occur on or off school grounds. There are about
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If the goal is to eliminate islands-take a look at the Woodson Island smack in the middle of the Robinson District. The argument of arbitrary and capricious does have some weight.
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Someone referenced the SAT participation rate at South Lakes. Where did you get that data? I asked accountability office for per school data and they claimed they didn't keep it. I would be curious to see the per school data broken down by race. This school system is desperate to keep the SAT averages up so they hardly have an incentive to encourage more kids to take the test. I guess it is
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This study on racial morality is positively disturbing. Every other school district in this country is scrambling to figure out where the failures are and how to fix them. I have read dozens of studys and books on minority underachievement and am yet to stumble on one that talks about morality. Behavior measurements are so subjective and biased, to place some sort of scientific conclusion on
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It is really hard to demonize parents who are advocating strongly for their children. Based on test scores, South Lakes does not appear to be a strong academic school. Many of these parents' concerns are valid. If we need a villain here than I think the likely parties are the SL PTA who hijacked these students from neighboring schools and the School Board who, thru all their back room deals, s
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I saw an article a week or so ago about Prince William County losing 1000 students since beginning of the school year due to housing/immigration issues. Has anyone seen a figure from FCPS. They are probably sitting on it so they can continue to ask for this new school. The At Large members need to show some backbone on this SOCO Middle School Issue and stop this out of control Storck/Bradsher
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The South County Federation group is pretty intense. They are pushing for the middle school. Their Land Use Committe Chairman is Linwood Gorham who donated to Dan Storck. ALL of Dan's donors come from SOCO neighborhoods. Dan is bought and paid for. This SOCO middle school nonsense needs to stop. Take it off the table immediately. It is not needed and wasteful. There are so many pressing is
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Lopter- What exactly is your point, moron? None of those arrested were Lee students-one was from Arlington. I guess, according to you all Westfield students are mass murderers and heroin users???? GROW UP.
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Holy cow I figured out wht Dan Storck continues to suck up to the SOCO community and dump on the rest of his district! Campaign contributors- Linwood Gorham 6036 Chapman Road Lorton SOCO Kim Kern 10610 Belmont Blvd Lorton SOCO Dave Kyle 10532 Anita Drive Lorton SOCO Tom Moore 8307 Knotty Pine Lane Fairfax Station SOCO K and M Salisbury
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What baffles me is why does Dan Storck continue to suck up to the SOCO community? The Mt Vernon District includes Lee, Hayfield and West Springfield, yet he continues to rape and pillage those schools to accomodate the SOCO crew. Why does Storck continue to give money to SOCO when some of the other schools in his district are struggling? Maybe it is time to take a look into Dan's business inter
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I honestly don't understand this continued debate over IB vs. AP. If you are being redistricted to SL you will be able to go to an AP school if you wish. The schools with IB (Lee included) seem quite content with what they have. While neither of my 2 HS students pursued the full IB diploma, due to SGA, sports and other obligations, their exposure to IB taught them to write, write, write and bot
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We need more watchdogs over this school district. Parents need to be involved in decisions that this SB makes that affects all of our children-and not just jump in when it is in their neighborhood. We have no organized council to protect our interests-PTAs are not getting it done and the County Council of PTAs is way too passive. The SOCO Boundary was pure incompetence thru and thru. And it al
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Attention all Stu Gibson haters!! Check out his comments in the SB minutes of Regular Meeting #14 on 2/23/2006-pages 8-9. The topic was about boundary changes involving Lee and West Springdield which apparently got pretty ugly. I will quote him: "That over the years he had seen a proliferation of the use of PTAs to advance positions, which he felt was a slippery slope; that when PTAs become i
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I guess the Falls Church bus incident is why we need that new $50 million bus transportation center!! Does anyone have any info on this nasty email response from Kathy Smith where she calls the Westfield parent, Pamela Jones "vile and toxic"? I saw the email from Jones to Jennifer Campbell and I really did not think she was out of bounds for confronting her. It really disturbs me that a SB mem
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I stumbled on a February 2007 Task Force Report for TJHS that was chaired by Janie Strauss. There was some discussion in the report to create another TJ or expand somehow. They concluded that (1) there isn't enough land at TJ to expand on their campus unless they give up athletic fields, (2) there is not enough vacant land in the county to house a new campus, and (3) they shot down a possibilit
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