Some days, I feel like Fairfax County's little brother. Whenever I, or someone else, want a change to LCPS policy or practice, the question comes up: How does Fairfax do it? When we look at the budget the perennial opening questions are "How much is Fairfax paying its teachers?" and "How much is the Fairfax budget/tax rate changing?" Nobody asks this about Prince William, Faquier or Clark counties who we also share borders with.

Today's question is: how does Fairfax grade its students? And if Fairfax changes its grading policies, should Loudoun do the same? I wrote about this back in February in a post called What Should a B Be? in response to another Washington Post story on the grading and I don't have anything new to add to the coversation today except that I'm interested, I'm paying attention, I'm trying to judge how much interest there is among Loudoun parents.

In reading today's article here was the most fascinating paragraph:

Meetings at McLean High and Langley High each drew more than 100 parents.
Meetings are scheduled at Centreville High, Herndon High and South County
Secondary in the next few weeks. A presentation in Korean is scheduled for May 2
in Tysons Corner.

LCPS also holds meetings in schools around the County to make them more accessible to parents (the recent meetings about Math Investigations come to mind). I also advocate holding our Board meetings in high schools around Loudoun on occasion but that's a topic for another day.

When reading the paragraph, did you notice that the first two meetings in Fairfax were at Langley and McLean High Schools, the two wealthiest schools in Fairfax? They're next door to each other, they provide no geographic diversity. Why? Is their influence disproportionate due to their wealth? Is their interest in this issue disproportionate due to their wealth?

The other thing that struck me was: Presentations in languages other than English are a fantastic idea. But Korean? Is this of more interest to Korean parents than Latinos who outnumber Koreans dramatically? This fascinates me. Still, it's a good reminder that Spanish is not the only language besides English spoken in our students' homes. Not by a long shot.

Just some thoughts on a Sunday night. Discuss.