MCPS Is Broken What Are Your Ideas to Fix It?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer has been right in front of us all along:

Break up the county.
Too big to thrive.

There aren’t too many large school districts that are high-performing.

Most of the large urban public school districts aren’t all that great. And with the push to urbanize MoCo, it will just get worse.

This sounds bad but I actually agree with it. I have not looked too thoroughly but from what I can tell 60,000 students seems to be the limit for high performing school districts, which basically allows for breaking MCPS up into thirds: east, west and north. The benefit of this is that each of the new districts will be better placed to serve the needs of their districts.

I think we have to acknowledge the issues. Or else, you’ll have an exodus of middle class families from the school system. Which is what happens in the cities. Wealthy families go private.

The district is clearly too big and needs some dramatic work.

[Anonymous]

Wouldn’t it take a state constitutional amendment to break up the school district? I thought Maryland constitution makes the county the relevant jurisdictional body. I think the most mcps could do is break it up into three subdivisions but that would just create a lot more bureaucracy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t it take a state constitutional amendment to break up the school district? I thought Maryland constitution makes the county the relevant jurisdictional body. I think the most mcps could do is break it up into three subdivisions but that would just create a lot more bureaucracy.

I think they have sort of done this already because I believe there are regional administrators who the principals report to. But they could certainly make it more pronounced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t it take a state constitutional amendment to break up the school district? I thought Maryland constitution makes the county the relevant jurisdictional body. I think the most mcps could do is break it up into three subdivisions but that would just create a lot more bureaucracy.

Correct. It would take a shift at the state-wide level, which is exceedingly unlikely and would trigger a bunch of lawsuits. I mean, it would be very entertaining to watch a bunch of racist DCUM posts get dragged into court as proof that the split was motivated by a desire for more white kids in the smaller district, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I substituted in my kids' school for a day last year. There is a large swath of low SES students who essentially behave like barn animals. I am a college professor, and I would be absolutely shocked if half of these kids end up in college at all. If they do, I'm not sure those colleges should exist (and financially, I expect many will probably fold in the upcoming student loan reckoning within a decade). So, why are they in the same school as my 99th percentile student? It does nothing but drag everyone down to the lowest common denominator. The U.S. has been coasting on entrepreneurial spirit, good planning, and good luck for the past 50 years. In my opinion "improving schools" is a losing battle until we recognize that 50% of students are better trained as bricklayers or for other rudimentary tasks. Forget algebra - they need to learn basic stuff like how to sit down quietly and concentrate on a task.

This is brutal but it’s true. I’m sick of trying to get the same results from both groups of students. It’s not possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so many people don't realize how good they have it. Still one of the best school systems in the nation

give teachers hazard pay during this difficult time too

This must be a joke, right? I just pulled my kids out to go to private out of state. They have learned more in 10 school days then in 3 years in MCPS. They actually have tests they need to study for and aren’t given sentence starters for their writing assignments. It’s not a terrible district, but let’s not call it the BEST.

It seems like they have also learned more in that 10 days than you have in your lifetime.

DP

You’re not nearly as cute as you think. Maybe it was a typo. Or the PP might be an immigrant. My parents were immigrants and would make such errors. However, they wanted a better education for me and my siblings. Luckily, we lived elsewhere and I got a fantastic public education.

You mocking the PP for a grammar error? That’s just silly.

And you are on this thread because....?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so many people don't realize how good they have it. Still one of the best school systems in the nation

give teachers hazard pay during this difficult time too

This must be a joke, right? I just pulled my kids out to go to private out of state. They have learned more in 10 school days then in 3 years in MCPS. They actually have tests they need to study for and aren’t given sentence starters for their writing assignments. It’s not a terrible district, but let’s not call it the BEST.

It seems like they have also learned more in that 10 days than you have in your lifetime.

DP

You’re not nearly as cute as you think. Maybe it was a typo. Or the PP might be an immigrant. My parents were immigrants and would make such errors. However, they wanted a better education for me and my siblings. Luckily, we lived elsewhere and I got a fantastic public education.

You mocking the PP for a grammar error? That’s just silly.

And you are on this thread because....?

Same reason as you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so many people don't realize how good they have it. Still one of the best school systems in the nation

give teachers hazard pay during this difficult time too

This must be a joke, right? I just pulled my kids out to go to private out of state. They have learned more in 10 school days then in 3 years in MCPS. They actually have tests they need to study for and aren’t given sentence starters for their writing assignments. It’s not a terrible district, but let’s not call it the BEST.

It seems like they have also learned more in that 10 days than you have in your lifetime.

Thanks for correcting my grammar! You just demonstrated the second reason we moved.
And if you’re wondering why I am still on this forum, it’s because I did Disenroll my student, yet for some reason, the school hasn’t processed it yet. He just keeps getting marked absent. 10 school days and counting……..

[Anonymous]

I think central office employees can all be distributed among offices in schools to be closer to students and in school administrators. They can clearly all work virtually anyway most of the time and they can be a backup for subs and lunch duty if there is a shortage. Some central office space can be maintained but only for major meetings etc.
i would love more and smaller ES so you can gave fewer busses, remove the tiers and have smaller classes. But that is a big $ ask and will never happen.

[Anonymous]

Break up the "county runs one huge school system" model. We live in suburbs of a major city. Let's go to the suburban local school model, like those used in the burbs of Philly, Pittsburgh, and Westchester County NY. Local schools. Local school boards. Local control and decision making. There is no Apple Ballot or other machine running candidates through. You know who you are voting for, as you seem them at the grocery store, soccer fields, etc. and your kids are in the same schools as their kids. They know the issues. They and their families have to live out the same issues at school that your kids face. The one size fits all here is just not working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Break up the "county runs one huge school system" model. We live in suburbs of a major city. Let's go to the suburban local school model, like those used in the burbs of Philly, Pittsburgh, and Westchester County NY. Local schools. Local school boards. Local control and decision making. There is no Apple Ballot or other machine running candidates through. You know who you are voting for, as you seem them at the grocery store, soccer fields, etc. and your kids are in the same schools as their kids. They know the issues. They and their families have to live out the same issues at school that your kids face. The one size fits all here is just not working.

Yep. I had this system growing up. Better accountability when it is town-based.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Break up the "county runs one huge school system" model. We live in suburbs of a major city. Let's go to the suburban local school model, like those used in the burbs of Philly, Pittsburgh, and Westchester County NY. Local schools. Local school boards. Local control and decision making. There is no Apple Ballot or other machine running candidates through. You know who you are voting for, as you seem them at the grocery store, soccer fields, etc. and your kids are in the same schools as their kids. They know the issues. They and their families have to live out the same issues at school that your kids face. The one size fits all here is just not working.

Yep. I had this system growing up. Better accountability when it is town-based.

Problem is that most of Montgomery County is unincorporated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Break up the "county runs one huge school system" model. We live in suburbs of a major city. Let's go to the suburban local school model, like those used in the burbs of Philly, Pittsburgh, and Westchester County NY. Local schools. Local school boards. Local control and decision making. There is no Apple Ballot or other machine running candidates through. You know who you are voting for, as you seem them at the grocery store, soccer fields, etc. and your kids are in the same schools as their kids. They know the issues. They and their families have to live out the same issues at school that your kids face. The one size fits all here is just not working.

Yep. I had this system growing up. Better accountability when it is town-based.

Never going to happen because, equity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer has been right in front of us all along:

Break up the county.
Too big to thrive.

There aren’t too many large school districts that are high-performing.

Most of the large urban public school districts aren’t all that great. And with the push to urbanize MoCo, it will just get worse.

This sounds bad but I actually agree with it. I have not looked too thoroughly but from what I can tell 60,000 students seems to be the limit for high performing school districts, which basically allows for breaking MCPS up into thirds: east, west and north. The benefit of this is that each of the new districts will be better placed to serve the needs of their districts.

Yes. And if we're being perfectly honest, there are cultural differences between TKPK and Poolesville/Damascus.

It would def be more expensive to break into 3 systems, but I do think that's the right decision.

Plus, one major bonus: snow decisions would be regional!

That’s exactly right. It would also allow each district to prioritize their resources as they see fit. The north of the county should be allowed to prioritize funding big time HS football, if that’s what they want. Let the west of the county do more tracking and then allow the east to focus on the achievement gap. It makes sense for everyone.

Sure. Northwest Branch to the 200/370 to Muddy Branch makes a natural cut. TKPK, SS, CC, Bethesda, Potomac, Rockville, Kensington, Aspen Hill, Wheaton together could all be one big HS choice consortium. Break the rest E-W at Rock Creek/dotted line north, with Olney, Ashton, Sandy Spring, Burtonsville Colesville, Fairland, White Oak and Hillandale together -- Layhill, Redland, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Montgomery Village, Clarksburg, Damascus, Poolesville and Urbana make up the rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer has been right in front of us all along:

Break up the county.
Too big to thrive.

There aren’t too many large school districts that are high-performing.

Most of the large urban public school districts aren’t all that great. And with the push to urbanize MoCo, it will just get worse.

This sounds bad but I actually agree with it. I have not looked too thoroughly but from what I can tell 60,000 students seems to be the limit for high performing school districts, which basically allows for breaking MCPS up into thirds: east, west and north. The benefit of this is that each of the new districts will be better placed to serve the needs of their districts.

Yes. And if we're being perfectly honest, there are cultural differences between TKPK and Poolesville/Damascus.

It would def be more expensive to break into 3 systems, but I do think that's the right decision.

Plus, one major bonus: snow decisions would be regional!

That’s exactly right. It would also allow each district to prioritize their resources as they see fit. The north of the county should be allowed to prioritize funding big time HS football, if that’s what they want. Let the west of the county do more tracking and then allow the east to focus on the achievement gap. It makes sense for everyone.

Sure. Northwest Branch to the 200/370 to Muddy Branch makes a natural cut. TKPK, SS, CC, Bethesda, Potomac, Rockville, Kensington, Aspen Hill, Wheaton together could all be one big HS choice consortium. Break the rest E-W at Rock Creek/dotted line north, with Olney, Ashton, Sandy Spring, Burtonsville Colesville, Fairland, White Oak and Hillandale together -- Layhill, Redland, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Montgomery Village, Clarksburg, Damascus, Poolesville and Urbana make up the rest.

LOL. The demographics don’t work for your consortium dream. It would be over half the county population. We’re going to split this baby E-W at the railroad tracks up to Derwood where the N district will start at 200/370. Demographics are perfect.