Culture at Carson vs. Franklin

[Anonymous]

Carson has long had a large group of AAP kids who boost test scores, receive accolades, and mask the problems at the school. Maybe when every middle school has AAP they’ll finally start to pay more attention to the problems that have existed for years at Carson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Carson has long had a large group of AAP kids who boost test scores, receive accolades, and mask the problems at the school. Maybe when every middle school has AAP they’ll finally start to pay more attention to the problems that have existed for years at Carson.

This was always the case in MoCo where I grew up. Our IB school was placed at one of the lower performing less affluent areas so the smart kids could boost stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI, Franklin sent out yet another notice of two incidents involving racial slurs.

This is helpful as a future Franklin or Carson parent (we are undecided and not even sure if this will be a choice when centers are dismantled). I have found that when these letters are sent out, they show a responsive principal or VP. It’s when I hear reports from students and then don’t see the letters acknowledging reality and a commitment to working on community that I begin to worry.

I agree. I appreciate the transparency and proactive approach of Franklin's current administration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:October 01, 2024:
As an alumnus of Rachel Carson, I wish I could look back fondly on my time there, but unfortunately, the school's consistent failure to provide a safe environment overshadows much of my experience. While the academics were decent, the lack of attention to student safety was alarming. Incidents that should have been addressed immediately were often brushed aside, and I frequently felt the administration was more concerned with maintaining appearances than with protecting the well-being of its students. For a school that prides itself on community, it was disappointing to see how often bullying, harassment, and even physical altercations were mishandled or ignored altogether. The absence of proper response systems left many students feeling vulnerable. I sincerely hope the administration takes these concerns to heart because no student should have to prioritize their personal safety over their education. While I’m grateful for the friendships and a few dedicated teachers, I can’t in good conscience recommend this school until significant changes are made to ensure a safer, more supportive environment for all students.

I take everything I read on Great Schools with a grain of salt. This was clearly written by the parent, by the way.

It was not. We know the kid who wrote it and she was encouraged to write it from several counselors at the high school. This stuff is not a secret. It is widely known in the county and so many kids talk about it.

Yes, there is bullying and fighting at every school, PP. We are all aware.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:October 01, 2024:
As an alumnus of Rachel Carson, I wish I could look back fondly on my time there, but unfortunately, the school's consistent failure to provide a safe environment overshadows much of my experience. While the academics were decent, the lack of attention to student safety was alarming. Incidents that should have been addressed immediately were often brushed aside, and I frequently felt the administration was more concerned with maintaining appearances than with protecting the well-being of its students. For a school that prides itself on community, it was disappointing to see how often bullying, harassment, and even physical altercations were mishandled or ignored altogether. The absence of proper response systems left many students feeling vulnerable. I sincerely hope the administration takes these concerns to heart because no student should have to prioritize their personal safety over their education. While I’m grateful for the friendships and a few dedicated teachers, I can’t in good conscience recommend this school until significant changes are made to ensure a safer, more supportive environment for all students.

I take everything I read on Great Schools with a grain of salt. This was clearly written by the parent, by the way.

It was not. We know the kid who wrote it and she was encouraged to write it from several counselors at the high school. This stuff is not a secret. It is widely known in the county and so many kids talk about it.

No high school counselor would encourage a child to write a review of their middle school on Great Schools. If you're going to make things up, at least make up realistic things!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:October 01, 2024:
As an alumnus of Rachel Carson, I wish I could look back fondly on my time there, but unfortunately, the school's consistent failure to provide a safe environment overshadows much of my experience. While the academics were decent, the lack of attention to student safety was alarming. Incidents that should have been addressed immediately were often brushed aside, and I frequently felt the administration was more concerned with maintaining appearances than with protecting the well-being of its students. For a school that prides itself on community, it was disappointing to see how often bullying, harassment, and even physical altercations were mishandled or ignored altogether. The absence of proper response systems left many students feeling vulnerable. I sincerely hope the administration takes these concerns to heart because no student should have to prioritize their personal safety over their education. While I’m grateful for the friendships and a few dedicated teachers, I can’t in good conscience recommend this school until significant changes are made to ensure a safer, more supportive environment for all students.

I take everything I read on Great Schools with a grain of salt. This was clearly written by the parent, by the way.

It was not. We know the kid who wrote it and she was encouraged to write it from several counselors at the high school. This stuff is not a secret. It is widely known in the county and so many kids talk about it.

My kid is an 8th grader at Carson and he does not see bullying, harassment, or physical altercations at the school. I have heard his friends discuss a few "girl fights" and that is about it.

I am sure that there is bullying and harassment, because that happens at every school, but it is not rampant at Carson. I can see that a kid who is bullied or harassed thinks that the problem is massive. I can see that the family of the kid doesn't think it was well handled. I get that, but one persons perspective is not everyone's. We saw the same thing at our ES. Most kids had no experience with bullying or harassment, a few families discuss how awful it was. In the ES case, I can tell you that one of the families always complaining about bullying sure seemed to have the kid who was bullying others, at least that is what I saw.

On the balance, it seems to me that most of the schools do a good job dealing with bullying and harassment. I know that they don't get it right all of the time, there is no way to do that. But my kids experience at Carson, and that of his friends, have been positive. I am sorry that not every student has the same experience.

Your kid is a boy. Duh. It is not the boys experiencing the toxic culture at Carson. It is the girls. Same goes for many schools. It almost feels generationally they have taken a step back. Girls at my daughter’s high schools now record this incidents because it’s the only way admin takes notice. So in that sense I do agree this isn’t Carson specific.

I have two girls at Carson (7th and 8th) and could have written PP's post. They have never felt unsafe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Carson has long had a large group of AAP kids who boost test scores, receive accolades, and mask the problems at the school. Maybe when every middle school has AAP they’ll finally start to pay more attention to the problems that have existed for years at Carson.

My kid is one of those kids, Carson is his base school. Carson would have high test scores with the base students at the school. The transfers AAP kids do elevate the scores but there are plenty of kids coming from the base schools with high test scores.

[Anonymous]

One of the math 7 honors teachers at Franklin announced to the class there would be no retakes on this latest math test (taken just this Monday) because it’s too close to the end of the quarter. That is complete bs and against policy. We also use a rolling gradebook so that does not matter one bit. These are the kind of teachers I am talking about at Franklin.

Another teacher responded to my child, “what do you want me to do,” when my child told them about a technological issue they were having. Finally, kids aren’t allowed to take their composition notebooks home to study for quizzes and tests. They must stay in the classroom.

Does this make sense??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the math 7 honors teachers at Franklin announced to the class there would be no retakes on this latest math test (taken just this Monday) because it’s too close to the end of the quarter. That is complete bs and against policy. We also use a rolling gradebook so that does not matter one bit. These are the kind of teachers I am talking about at Franklin.

Another teacher responded to my child, “what do you want me to do,” when my child told them about a technological issue they were having. Finally, kids aren’t allowed to take their composition notebooks home to study for quizzes and tests. They must stay in the classroom.

Does this make sense??

I am surprised that they are using composition notebooks, our kid has binders with regular three-hole punch paper in it.

If your kid needs retakes in Math 7H then you should be thinking about dropping to Math 7. I would be more concerned that my kid needs retakes in honors math then that the retake might not be offered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the math 7 honors teachers at Franklin announced to the class there would be no retakes on this latest math test (taken just this Monday) because it’s too close to the end of the quarter. That is complete bs and against policy. We also use a rolling gradebook so that does not matter one bit. These are the kind of teachers I am talking about at Franklin.

Another teacher responded to my child, “what do you want me to do,” when my child told them about a technological issue they were having. Finally, kids aren’t allowed to take their composition notebooks home to study for quizzes and tests. They must stay in the classroom.

Does this make sense??

I am surprised that they are using composition notebooks, our kid has binders with regular three-hole punch paper in it.

If your kid needs retakes in Math 7H then you should be thinking about dropping to Math 7. I would be more concerned that my kid needs retakes in honors math then that the retake might not be offered.

My child is relating to me what the teacher said about retakes. It only matters to me because it’s against policy, even if my own child doesn’t actually need a retake. Bu what if my my child got an 85 and wants to try for a 90 to boost their quarter grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the math 7 honors teachers at Franklin announced to the class there would be no retakes on this latest math test (taken just this Monday) because it’s too close to the end of the quarter. That is complete bs and against policy. We also use a rolling gradebook so that does not matter one bit. These are the kind of teachers I am talking about at Franklin.

Another teacher responded to my child, “what do you want me to do,” when my child told them about a technological issue they were having. Finally, kids aren’t allowed to take their composition notebooks home to study for quizzes and tests. They must stay in the classroom.

Does this make sense??

I am surprised that they are using composition notebooks, our kid has binders with regular three-hole punch paper in it.

If your kid needs retakes in Math 7H then you should be thinking about dropping to Math 7. I would be more concerned that my kid needs retakes in honors math then that the retake might not be offered.

My child is relating to me what the teacher said about retakes. It only matters to me because it’s against policy, even if my own child doesn’t actually need a retake. Bu what if my my child got an 85 and wants to try for a 90 to boost their quarter grade?

I guess they are SOL at Franklin!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the math 7 honors teachers at Franklin announced to the class there would be no retakes on this latest math test (taken just this Monday) because it’s too close to the end of the quarter. That is complete bs and against policy. We also use a rolling gradebook so that does not matter one bit. These are the kind of teachers I am talking about at Franklin.

Another teacher responded to my child, “what do you want me to do,” when my child told them about a technological issue they were having. Finally, kids aren’t allowed to take their composition notebooks home to study for quizzes and tests. They must stay in the classroom.

Does this make sense??

I am surprised that they are using composition notebooks, our kid has binders with regular three-hole punch paper in it.

If your kid needs retakes in Math 7H then you should be thinking about dropping to Math 7. I would be more concerned that my kid needs retakes in honors math then that the retake might not be offered.

My child is relating to me what the teacher said about retakes. It only matters to me because it’s against policy, even if my own child doesn’t actually need a retake. Bu what if my my child got an 85 and wants to try for a 90 to boost their quarter grade?

Then they should have studied the first time around. They should cap the retake score closer to 80. It should be an option of last resort for a student that completely forgot about a test and bombed it, as a way to make it not fail them for a year. All these retakes just to get a 5 point higher score makes a ton of extra work for already overworked teachers and isn't necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the math 7 honors teachers at Franklin announced to the class there would be no retakes on this latest math test (taken just this Monday) because it’s too close to the end of the quarter. That is complete bs and against policy. We also use a rolling gradebook so that does not matter one bit. These are the kind of teachers I am talking about at Franklin.

Another teacher responded to my child, “what do you want me to do,” when my child told them about a technological issue they were having. Finally, kids aren’t allowed to take their composition notebooks home to study for quizzes and tests. They must stay in the classroom.

Does this make sense??

My kid has experienced the exact opposite of this at Franklin. Our kids must not have the same teachers.

-- My child has a binder for most classes.

-- She has a huge number of notes, annotated texts, teacher notes, and other resources for studying.

-- The teachers are extremely clear about retakes. Most of them post the retake procedures in Schoology after every quiz or test so the students remember how each class handles retakes.

-- The ELA teacher updated Schoology with very clear instructions about how to retake an essay that was due last week. She also left very detailed feedback to help my child understand how to fix the essay.

-- The Math 7 Honors teacher is one of the best communicators I've seen. She answers every question very quickly, both for kids and parents.

-- My child's teachers have bent over backwards to help her with technology issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Carson has long had a large group of AAP kids who boost test scores, receive accolades, and mask the problems at the school. Maybe when every middle school has AAP they’ll finally start to pay more attention to the problems that have existed for years at Carson.

My kid is one of those kids, Carson is his base school. Carson would have high test scores with the base students at the school. The transfers AAP kids do elevate the scores but there are plenty of kids coming from the base schools with high test scores.

In many instances the AAP boys are the ones causing the problems. It will be nice when they go back to Franklin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Carson has long had a large group of AAP kids who boost test scores, receive accolades, and mask the problems at the school. Maybe when every middle school has AAP they’ll finally start to pay more attention to the problems that have existed for years at Carson.

My kid is one of those kids, Carson is his base school. Carson would have high test scores with the base students at the school. The transfers AAP kids do elevate the scores but there are plenty of kids coming from the base schools with high test scores.

In many instances the AAP boys are the ones causing the problems. It will be nice when they go back to Franklin.

We have not heard of any problems at Carson, none reported by my kid or his friends. I am not certain what problems you are talking about. But there are AAP boys whose base school is Carson so I doubt that the kids returning to Franklin is the solution you think that it is.