I used to teach in Loudoun. I'm sure they do have a very high graduation rate-- because they pressure teachers to pass students even if they are completely illiterate in 11th or 12th grade.

Posted by martavalle123 (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 3:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Yep. I work in the Loudoun County school system. Teachers are only allowed to fail a student if the parent agrees to it. Hardly anyone is ever held back, even for a single grade. Half my class should be failing this year. (They should have never set foot in my class to begin with because they hadn't met the benchmarks for the previous year.) But onward and upward they go.

Posted by crashprevention (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 4:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)

yes social promotion ensures that completely illiterate students are passed on becuase no system or parent wants to own up to the fact that they are failing the future.

Posted by a.s.hippolyte (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 6:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I teach 12th grade in Loudoun. I have not encountered the problems mentioned by the previous posters. I assure you that it is not a county policy to only fail a student if the parent agrees to it (at least not at the high school level). And while some of my students read well below grade level, I have not encountered students that are completely illiterate in the 11th or 12th grade.

Posted by vrjenia (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 9:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Do these posts alarm people? Educational "reform" of the past several years has been about massaging numbers to make it look as if there are improvements, when, in actuality, there have been dramatic declines. Consider Joel Klein's "credit recovery" program in New York City. Students can "make up" for failed classes by writing one barely literate paper. "Give me a packet," is the demand of all too savy kids, who know that one lame assignment will be allowed to count for an entire year's work. What an insult to children, to parents, to teachers! Believe me, I've seen it in action. It's appalling. Lies cannot be allowed to stand as truth in this debate on education. It is a HUGE disservice to all our nation's children to substitute fuzzy math parading as "data-driven reform" for real deep, delightful learning. And the sad part is, the entire society will suffer if we don't demand an end to the smoke-and-mirrors reform game.

Posted by jwright16 (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 9:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Well, what's a school system to do? They can't carry out their baby-sitting role if the kids are not in school. If they fail a child a number of times he/she will eventually quit. If they require a considerable number of students to repeat courses, it will increase teaching load and require more teachers and classrooms. Increased numbers of failures would cause parents and politicians to blame the system.

Hypocritically, we go along with the pretense that a teacher can in her spare time bring up to par socially promoted students that the previous teacher could not adequately teach full time.

Posted by caxtontype1 (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 11:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Here we go again. Never is it allowed to have a positive comment about public education. My kids ran the full course through LCPS and have excelled tremendously. Its the parents responsibility to insure their kids are succeeding by following their progress. They should know long before HS if their kids have a problem. I am proud of my kids and very proud of LCPS! Please stop the bashing.

Posted by vanzal1 (anonymous) on June 15, 2009 at 12:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I know for a fact they are arbitrarily passing minorities in Ashburn... a friend of mine is a teacher there, and he had a kid who completely failed every assignment, despite getting plenty of accommodations paid for by all of us. The principal passed this idiot student, despite the failing grade and against the recommendation of the teacher, because the principal didn't want the kid to muck with the next year's SOL numbers.

Posted by Hoqenishy (anonymous) on June 15, 2009 at 9:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Hoqenishy: That's a severe charge and hearsay for this forum. If true the teacher should report this to the principal's superior or a investigative reporter to flush it out. However, if the truth is somewhat muddled (eg. maybe it was only one subject that the kid did not pass, not many) then the kid should be allowed to continue and get remedial help in the next level. "minority" - nice qualifying dig there to show YOUR real problem (those damn foreigners!). Again, note it was one kid in your so-called story, not "minorities" implying many kids.

Posted by vanzal1 (anonymous) on June 16, 2009 at 4:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Hoqenishy: Also you don't know if there are other possible issues in the particular case, like being a Special Ed kid or another learn disability. One instance does not make a complete indictment of an entire system.

PLEASE LET US ENJOY GOOD NEWS FOR WHAT IT IS!!!

Posted by vanzal1 (anonymous) on June 16, 2009 at 4:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)

There is a Loudoun County Public School policy forbidding High School Teachers from giving any student anything less than 55% for a final grade during the first three quarters. This includes a 55% on the mid-term exam. I wonder if this policy will change next year when LCPS switches to a ten point grade scale.

Posted by waxtraxs (anonymous) on July 5, 2009 at 10:30 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Anybody who shows up at LoudounExtra and does not read the comments: You are missing out. These are fabulous.

Posted by Craig_Colgan (anonymous) on August 6, 2009 at 4:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)