With four more school principals confessing they withheld National Merit awards from students, bringing the total to seven schools so far, the Fairfax County Parents Association sent the school district, state and local leaders a scathing letter, calling them out for saying that the awards “don’t matter.”
Full article, HERE from Fairfax Co Times.
FCPS is NOT looking real good here, but more interesting is how it now seems some VA legislators and local activists are saying it’s no big thing…
I guess THEY make enough to send their kids to school and pay cash for their educations!
I just find this hard to believe, but then again Fairfax and Loudon dem bastions in northern Virginia, and truly thing they can do whatever they want to with no accountability. MAYBE that is changing!
Until the guns or the lawyers come out, this isn’t going to change.
Me and my wife moved from California with our sons in 96 to Loudoun County and found the schools to be poor. Our sons finished in 2004 and 2005. Me and my wife had issues with the teachers, the admin, and the school board but got nowhere. We ended up tutoring our sons in all classes to teach them properly and also taught them extra thing they were not getting.
Both ended up deciding on different Trade Schools and are making over 6 figures, have houses, cars, and good bank accounts. We all have moved south out of Virginia.
The long-term tragedy here:
There IS true value in rewarding not only achievement, but also effort. Not EVERY student can ‘ring the bell’ of high test scores and perfect A report cards, but truly do deserve our encouragement for what they can accomplish. We have LOTS of research to support that.
Nowhere, though, in that research is there any justification for the decapitation of the student body, which is what happens when those who earn national awards have their efforts ignored.
And, since high-achieving, involved students often have high-achieving, involved parents, the decision to apply the principle in such an extreme and restrictive fashion is singularly disruptive.
The program ought NEVER to be “reward EITHER achieve OR effort;” instead, it should be “reward BOTH achievement AND effort.”
The backlash from this wrong-headed (because extremist) program is going to affect ALL learners. Sadly, the primary sufferer is going to be the student without family resources who has earned access to higher education on their own merits, only to have the door slammed in their face.
John- Sadly, I think you are right…
JG- Good for y’all on ALL counts!
Pat-Very true… dammit!
Sure hope so, and since when did Virginia, of all places, become a hotbed of Frankfort School Bolshevism?
Sorry, rhetorical question.
Latest count is 13 schools have withheld National Merit notifications. Thank heaven the British papers are doing the job American papers won’t.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11644847/At-THIRTEEN-Virginia-high-schools-delayed-merit-awards-targeting-Asian-American-students.html
Welp, we’re up to “at least 16”: https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/01/at-least-16-virginia-schools-allegedly-withheld-merit-awards-from-students/
It makes you wonder when they pop up and volunteer that information as opposed to going their best to hide their malfeasance.
They’re *proud* of what they’ve done, and want everyone to know.
CNN helpfully “explains” what it’s “really” about.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2023/01/17/cnn-goes-for-insanely-ignorant-take-to-mislead-on-fairfax-countys-equity-push-n2618408