Posts Tagged ‘FCPS’
FCPS’s Advisory Committee “Reforms” Avoided Real Reform
Earlier this year, the Fairfax County School Board made several changes to its policies and procedures relating to its Community Advisory Committees, but the Board didn’t address the most important problem with these bodies: They tend to echo the preexisting views of Board members rather than being a source of independent advice. Background Over the…
Read MoreGood Riddance to TJ’s Principal
Earlier this week, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) announced that Ann Bonitatibus, the principal of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (“TJ”), was “resigning” to take a new position in the central office. The announcement followed the release of data showing that TJ’s number of National Merit semifinalists had plummeted from 165 last…
Read MoreAlert: FCPS Students Will Be Automatically Enrolled in Unpopular Unisex Sex-Ed Classes Unless Parents Opt Out Soon.
In 2022-23, when transgender advocates urged the Fairfax County School Board to eliminate gender-separate sex-ed classes for boys and girls, 84% of the community opposed the idea in a public survey. The School Board therefore ducked the issue and didn’t vote on it. Nonetheless, FCPS administrators thereafter quietly decided to proceed with a version of…
Read MoreSchool Board’s Contempt for Parents on Full Display
A perceptive journalist, Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, just eliminated a project I had planned for today. I intended to write an article about last week’s meeting of the Fairfax County School Board at which the Board once again dismissed the results of a community survey because the results were not to its liking. The Board also decided,…
Read MoreUnisex Sex-Ed Classes Are Being Implemented in FCPS Elementary and Middle Schools
The Fairfax County public school system (FCPS) has one of the most far-reaching transgender policies in the nation. Under it a student can change his or her name and gender-indicative pronouns without parental consent, and all other students and school personnel must use those altered designations. If a student exhibits gender dysphoria at school, FCPS…
Read MoreTJ Drops in Quality Rankings, Again
Fairfax County’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) used to be the #1 high school in the country in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings. It achieved this status in three consecutive years — 2020, 2021 and 2022. But it slipped to #5 in 2023. And it has dropped to #14 in…
Read MoreFCPS Promises Transparency, But Hides the Ball
Several prior posts on this site have reported on a lawsuit stemming from the failure of Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) to provide timely notice to high school students of commendations they had received from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. As reported earlier, the failure created intense controversy. In response, the school Superintendent announced in…
Read MoreFCPS Violates Its Policy on Political Advertising
A Regulation of the Fairfax County School Board states that “Campaign literature supporting one or more candidates shall not be distributed within the schools or on school buses by students, teachers, or others; nor shall campaign posters be displayed at or within the schools ….” (Regulation 4426.5). School administrators are ignoring this policy at at…
Read MoreFCPS Spins the Decline in SAT Scores
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) posted a misleading article last week entitled “Fairfax County Students Continue to Outperform SAT State and Global Averages.” The school Superintendent, Michelle Reid, touted the same data at the October 12 meeting of the School Board, using a chart labeled “Fairfax seniors have consistently outperformed state and global SAT outcomes.” The…
Read MoreAppeals Court Overturns District Court Ruling in TJ Case
In a 2-1 split decision today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the lower court’s ruling in Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board. The district court had ruled in February 2022 that the Fairfax County School Board’s revision of admissions criteria for the elite Thomas Jefferson High School for…
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