FCPS vs. MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The quality of a school system generally depends on several factors.

1. Resources and funding.
2. Student population
3. Teacher pay
4. Teacher ability to focus on instruction/more freedom/morale
5. Leadership/Oversight

1. Fairfax wins. MoCo is out of money and already diverts most money toward the growing list of underperforming schools. Fairfax is in a better position, if the voters allow it, to stay funded.
2. Fairfax- Montgomery County is getting poorer and MCPS is struggling to deal with this. There are a ridiculous number of private schools ranging from big, prestigious ones to tons of catholic and other more moderately priced privates. As MCPS declines, parents just opt out.
3. MCPS wins. MCPS still pays better and offers better benefits so it will attractor teachers and keep existing ones even if they can't stand MCPS.
4. Fairfax wins. MCPS is VERY toxic for teachers. Good teachers get demoralized quickly, more time is spent collecting data than grading student work, and its probably one of the worst systems in the country to work in right now.
5. Fairfax wins. I'm not saying that Fairfax has stellar leadership but MCPS has set the bar very low. MCPS is plagued with sex abuse scandals, a pattern of hiding and protecting employee abuses against kids, no discipline in the schools, dangerous facilities, discrimination investigations, sinking test scores, and a botched curriculum. There is no accountability in MCPS. Heck the principal that didn't call the police immediately when she found out one of the kids had been raped in school was simply transferred into the central office with full pay, not even a demotion.

Agree. We moved from dc to MCPS BETHESDA and now are in a k-12 private school. MCPS k-8 essentially gutted their curriculum in 2012 and refused to fix it until a routine audit two years ago. Still isn’t implemented tho...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The quality of a school system generally depends on several factors.

1. Resources and funding.
2. Student population
3. Teacher pay
4. Teacher ability to focus on instruction/more freedom/morale
5. Leadership/Oversight

1. Fairfax wins. MoCo is out of money and already diverts most money toward the growing list of underperforming schools. Fairfax is in a better position, if the voters allow it, to stay funded.
2. Fairfax- Montgomery County is getting poorer and MCPS is struggling to deal with this. There are a ridiculous number of private schools ranging from big, prestigious ones to tons of catholic and other more moderately priced privates. As MCPS declines, parents just opt out.
3. MCPS wins. MCPS still pays better and offers better benefits so it will attractor teachers and keep existing ones even if they can't stand MCPS.
4. Fairfax wins. MCPS is VERY toxic for teachers. Good teachers get demoralized quickly, more time is spent collecting data than grading student work, and its probably one of the worst systems in the country to work in right now.
5. Fairfax wins. I'm not saying that Fairfax has stellar leadership but MCPS has set the bar very low. MCPS is plagued with sex abuse scandals, a pattern of hiding and protecting employee abuses against kids, no discipline in the schools, dangerous facilities, discrimination investigations, sinking test scores, and a botched curriculum. There is no accountability in MCPS. Heck the principal that didn't call the police immediately when she found out one of the kids had been raped in school was simply transferred into the central office with full pay, not even a demotion.

Agree. We moved from dc to MCPS BETHESDA and now are in a k-12 private school. MCPS k-8 essentially gutted their curriculum in 2012 and refused to fix it until a routine audit two years ago. Still isn’t implemented tho...

Having gone to FCPS I honestly find the opposite to be true. At least for high-achieving students MCPS seems to always win hands down.

[Anonymous]

True, AAP is so watered compared to MCPS special programs. Everyone who can afford to just appeals and hires some quack to claim their kid is a genius. Not exactly a rigorous environment.

[Anonymous]

Mcps special programs who are risky dink in size and located in the middle of nowhere, rendering them moot for Bethesda. Yeah!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mcps special programs who are risky dink in size and located in the middle of nowhere, rendering them moot for Bethesda. Yeah!

You probably don't even know where MoCo is located.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll be transferring a 6th to MCPS and a bit worried because the academic/curriculum aren’t the same. FCPS is better in my opinion compared to MCPS from my personal experience.

Are there any private schools in GAITHERSBURG. The school assigned to the property in GBURG is rated a 4/10, her current school is rated 9/10 a bit more advanced than MCPS. I might need to reconsider this move.

Stay un fcps hands down

I went to FCPS, but my kids go to MCPS. I can say without hesitation MCPS hands down.

Based on FCPS 25-30 years ago? Okay then.

FCPS 25-30 years ago was still accepting of people from all political ideologies, FCPS now brainwashes little children and teaches children what to think, not how to think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is better than FCPS. FCPS just has better demographics at the moment.

Mcps is over half underperformers at 1-3 grade levels below where they should be at. They are solely focused on these bottom half of students - esol, farms, under performers- and closing the achievement gap from both sides. They cut the magne t program admits to make a large section for diversity and highly able URMs.

Still butt-hurts your kid didn't make it.

Classy, are you here repping mcps? thats all I’d need to know to decide.

There are some parents who are obsessed with magnet admissions in MCPS. The older system relied on parent recommendations and many didn't even know about magnets so the competition wasn't that high but to raise URM participation the county started universal screening a couple of years ago which made it harder for parents who were used to just signing up their kids to get in the program. Many are very bitter about it.

BUT mcps also introduced anti-asian discrimination for magnet and advanced program placement so if you are asian fcps is a much better choice that wont hold your kids back because of their skin color or ethnicity.

Actually, that's not exactly the case. With universal screening the county is testing 10X the number of kids than before and Asians just make up a lower percentage of the applicant pool than was previously true.

After their diversified admission policy, mcps magnet teachers needed to develop new teaching methods to meet the special needs of some newly admitted students. They lowered the standard and got many students who cannot handle the regular magnet curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is better than FCPS. FCPS just has better demographics at the moment.

Mcps is over half underperformers at 1-3 grade levels below where they should be at. They are solely focused on these bottom half of students - esol, farms, under performers- and closing the achievement gap from both sides. They cut the magne t program admits to make a large section for diversity and highly able URMs.

Still butt-hurts your kid didn't make it.

Classy, are you here repping mcps? thats all I’d need to know to decide.

There are some parents who are obsessed with magnet admissions in MCPS. The older system relied on parent recommendations and many didn't even know about magnets so the competition wasn't that high but to raise URM participation the county started universal screening a couple of years ago which made it harder for parents who were used to just signing up their kids to get in the program. Many are very bitter about it.

BUT mcps also introduced anti-asian discrimination for magnet and advanced program placement so if you are asian fcps is a much better choice that wont hold your kids back because of their skin color or ethnicity.

No, they did not. They simply stopped the testing because Asian families hired someone to start teaching their child the test at age 2. My AA child was accepted to both SMCS programs and is thriving at RM SMCS and enjoys every minute of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is better than FCPS. FCPS just has better demographics at the moment.

Mcps is over half underperformers at 1-3 grade levels below where they should be at. They are solely focused on these bottom half of students - esol, farms, under performers- and closing the achievement gap from both sides. They cut the magne t program admits to make a large section for diversity and highly able URMs.

Still butt-hurts your kid didn't make it.

Classy, are you here repping mcps? thats all I’d need to know to decide.

There are some parents who are obsessed with magnet admissions in MCPS. The older system relied on parent recommendations and many didn't even know about magnets so the competition wasn't that high but to raise URM participation the county started universal screening a couple of years ago which made it harder for parents who were used to just signing up their kids to get in the program. Many are very bitter about it.

BUT mcps also introduced anti-asian discrimination for magnet and advanced program placement so if you are asian fcps is a much better choice that wont hold your kids back because of their skin color or ethnicity.

Actually, that's not exactly the case. With universal screening the county is testing 10X the number of kids than before and Asians just make up a lower percentage of the applicant pool than was previously true.

After their diversified admission policy, mcps magnet teachers needed to develop new teaching methods to meet the special needs of some newly admitted students. They lowered the standard and got many students who cannot handle the regular magnet curriculum.

Wrong but nice racist assumption. Is your child even in a magnet program? RM is not dumbed down and I have not heard of PHS SMCS being dumbed down either but did hear that they had a summer camp to prepare the kids for the program in the fall, if that is what you are referring to. I assure you, the kids in my child's class are there because they earned the scores and absolutely are bright enough to compete there. And, I mostly see Asians in these programs anyway, so I am not sure how it hurt them..... More propaganda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is better than FCPS. FCPS just has better demographics at the moment.

Mcps is over half underperformers at 1-3 grade levels below where they should be at. They are solely focused on these bottom half of students - esol, farms, under performers- and closing the achievement gap from both sides. They cut the magne t program admits to make a large section for diversity and highly able URMs.

Still butt-hurts your kid didn't make it.

Classy, are you here repping mcps? thats all I’d need to know to decide.

There are some parents who are obsessed with magnet admissions in MCPS. The older system relied on parent recommendations and many didn't even know about magnets so the competition wasn't that high but to raise URM participation the county started universal screening a couple of years ago which made it harder for parents who were used to just signing up their kids to get in the program. Many are very bitter about it.

BUT mcps also introduced anti-asian discrimination for magnet and advanced program placement so if you are asian fcps is a much better choice that wont hold your kids back because of their skin color or ethnicity.

Actually, that's not exactly the case. With universal screening the county is testing 10X the number of kids than before and Asians just make up a lower percentage of the applicant pool than was previously true.

After their diversified admission policy, mcps magnet teachers needed to develop new teaching methods to meet the special needs of some newly admitted students. They lowered the standard and got many students who cannot handle the regular magnet curriculum.

Wrong but nice racist assumption. Is your child even in a magnet program? RM is not dumbed down and I have not heard of PHS SMCS being dumbed down either but did hear that they had a summer camp to prepare the kids for the program in the fall, if that is what you are referring to. I assure you, the kids in my child's class are there because they earned the scores and absolutely are bright enough to compete there. And, I mostly see Asians in these programs anyway, so I am not sure how it hurt them..... More propaganda.

The changes to admission policy had no noticeable impact by any objective measures. It did however increase the number of URM and low-income students by 2X.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll be transferring a 6th to MCPS and a bit worried because the academic/curriculum aren’t the same. FCPS is better in my opinion compared to MCPS from my personal experience.

Are there any private schools in GAITHERSBURG. The school assigned to the property in GBURG is rated a 4/10, her current school is rated 9/10 a bit more advanced than MCPS. I might need to reconsider this move.

Stay un fcps hands down

I went to FCPS, but my kids go to MCPS. I can say without hesitation MCPS hands down.

Based on FCPS 25-30 years ago? Okay then.

FCPS 25-30 years ago was still accepting of people from all political ideologies, FCPS now brainwashes little children and teaches children what to think, not how to think.

I remember they would teach us things like the civil war was about state rights and other nonsense. Glad to hear they stopped that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mcps special programs who are risky dink in size and located in the middle of nowhere, rendering them moot for Bethesda. Yeah!

The larger HS STEM magnet is a 20 min drive from Bethesda HS.
https://goo.gl/maps/iSWyXX3UH7ANLMT58

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll be transferring a 6th to MCPS and a bit worried because the academic/curriculum aren’t the same. FCPS is better in my opinion compared to MCPS from my personal experience.

Are there any private schools in GAITHERSBURG. The school assigned to the property in GBURG is rated a 4/10, her current school is rated 9/10 a bit more advanced than MCPS. I might need to reconsider this move.

Stay un fcps hands down

I went to FCPS, but my kids go to MCPS. I can say without hesitation MCPS hands down.

Based on FCPS 25-30 years ago? Okay then.

FCPS 25-30 years ago was still accepting of people from all political ideologies, FCPS now brainwashes little children and teaches children what to think, not how to think.

+ 1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is better than FCPS. FCPS just has better demographics at the moment.

Mcps is over half underperformers at 1-3 grade levels below where they should be at. They are solely focused on these bottom half of students - esol, farms, under performers- and closing the achievement gap from both sides. They cut the magne t program admits to make a large section for diversity and highly able URMs.

Still butt-hurts your kid didn't make it.

Classy, are you here repping mcps? thats all I’d need to know to decide.

There are some parents who are obsessed with magnet admissions in MCPS. The older system relied on parent recommendations and many didn't even know about magnets so the competition wasn't that high but to raise URM participation the county started universal screening a couple of years ago which made it harder for parents who were used to just signing up their kids to get in the program. Many are very bitter about it.

BUT mcps also introduced anti-asian discrimination for magnet and advanced program placement so if you are asian fcps is a much better choice that wont hold your kids back because of their skin color or ethnicity.

Actually, that's not exactly the case. With universal screening the county is testing 10X the number of kids than before and Asians just make up a lower percentage of the applicant pool than was previously true.

After their diversified admission policy, mcps magnet teachers needed to develop new teaching methods to meet the special needs of some newly admitted students. They lowered the standard and got many students who cannot handle the regular magnet curriculum.

Wrong but nice racist assumption. Is your child even in a magnet program? RM is not dumbed down and I have not heard of PHS SMCS being dumbed down either but did hear that they had a summer camp to prepare the kids for the program in the fall, if that is what you are referring to. I assure you, the kids in my child's class are there because they earned the scores and absolutely are bright enough to compete there. And, I mostly see Asians in these programs anyway, so I am not sure how it hurt them..... More propaganda.

The changes to admission policy had no noticeable impact by any objective measures. It did however increase the number of URM and low-income students by 2X.

Agreed. My child is an URM but not low-income by any measure. I have noticed more low-income African, Hispanic and Asian families this year. Quite a few are from MS gifted programs though and are vetted for and competitive.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I think they are the same. I say this as a former MCPS employee and now an AAP parent in FCPS. Same crap. both huge school systems attempting to deal with diversity. I like VA better because I’m not a fan of the sprawl and I find 395 easier to commute on than 270. But they are the same. Your kid will get a similar experience in either one.
Enjoy it!