Is anyone happy with MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher and a parent of two in MCPS, I am generally happy with MCPS. I do think we provided a better product 20 years ago, but I'd say that's a national trend rather than a local. I do believe there is some correction going on that's going to take time to shake out. Someone mentioned how many parents are happy with their teachers, but would like to see more educational rigor and accountability for their children. I'd say that's accurate for the teachers too. But there are a lot of policies put in place over the last decade that have to be undone. Still, my experience is that there are good teachers teaching good students.
Of course, the biggest factor to your child's education success is you. Keeping them exposed to reading, music, physical activity, and limiting their use of screens (especially at an early age) is going to do so much more for their educational outcomes than any policy from central office.

This. The academic rigor just isn’t there compared with my rigorous private school education 30 years ago. They barely teach writing. My 6th grader has never been asked to write even a book report let alone a real essay or paper. But I’m not sure any other local public is better. We don’t have the money for private. As far as school experience goes it’s been fine. Just I wonder about the curriculum. My 3rd grader is doing a bit more writing so maybe it is improving.

Reading books is overrated and doesn't necessarily make a school rigorous.
Welcome to the 21st century.

Teaching writing well is hard with such big class sizes that MCPS has, but my MCPS 4th grader does weekly reading reports that are similar to the book reports I did as a kid (although they're shorter). My 6th grader did essays (and they definitely increase in frequency in 7th and 8th grade).

That's fantastic, but that wasn't our experience at all in ES or MS. We didn't have weekly book reports in 4th. We had a chart where kids had to pick one activity (i.e. read for 15 minutes, or anwser one question in 2-3 sentences). MCPS really varies by school and teachers.

Yes, of course that's the case, and most people recognize that their experiences aren't universal in a large public school system, which is why I take statements like "my AP English kid read only 1 book" with a grain of salt. My kid struggled in 7th grade English with a teacher who assigned a lot of writing and some texts that I honestly thought were more suitable to high school. I was told he was the toughest English teacher in the school. My kid's 8th grade teacher assigns a lot more multiple choice assignments and a lot less writing.

You were really lucky then. We have had one book in AP English this year. We have never had more than 2 books a year, maybe one year we had three but that wasn't the norm. Never had lots of multiple choice. Most writing assignments are a paragraph or two.

My 4th grader read many books and wrote long essays in ELC last year and it was great. So I’m salty that’s the program that MCPS ditched for no apparent reason. We were told MCPS would be great for gifted kids and so far that really has not been the case.

[Anonymous]

We have one 2e SN student and one on the high-end of average and have been so happy with MCPS (although we are only through MS now).

[Anonymous]

We've been really happy with MCPS. That said, our experience was not typical. Early elementary was very good with just one dud of a teacher in 2nd, then our kid was in selective magnets that they could walk to for 4th - 8th grade and they now attend a top performing high school. They are very bright, self-motivated, and can thrive in a large school setting. So our experience is not worth a lot because it requires a lot of special dominos lining up, which for us they did, but they won't for many.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher and a parent of two in MCPS, I am generally happy with MCPS. I do think we provided a better product 20 years ago, but I'd say that's a national trend rather than a local. I do believe there is some correction going on that's going to take time to shake out. Someone mentioned how many parents are happy with their teachers, but would like to see more educational rigor and accountability for their children. I'd say that's accurate for the teachers too. But there are a lot of policies put in place over the last decade that have to be undone. Still, my experience is that there are good teachers teaching good students.
Of course, the biggest factor to your child's education success is you. Keeping them exposed to reading, music, physical activity, and limiting their use of screens (especially at an early age) is going to do so much more for their educational outcomes than any policy from central office.

This. The academic rigor just isn’t there compared with my rigorous private school education 30 years ago. They barely teach writing. My 6th grader has never been asked to write even a book report let alone a real essay or paper. But I’m not sure any other local public is better. We don’t have the money for private. As far as school experience goes it’s been fine. Just I wonder about the curriculum. My 3rd grader is doing a bit more writing so maybe it is improving.

Reading books is overrated and doesn't necessarily make a school rigorous.
Welcome to the 21st century.

Teaching writing well is hard with such big class sizes that MCPS has, but my MCPS 4th grader does weekly reading reports that are similar to the book reports I did as a kid (although they're shorter). My 6th grader did essays (and they definitely increase in frequency in 7th and 8th grade).

That's fantastic, but that wasn't our experience at all in ES or MS. We didn't have weekly book reports in 4th. We had a chart where kids had to pick one activity (i.e. read for 15 minutes, or anwser one question in 2-3 sentences). MCPS really varies by school and teachers.

Yes, of course that's the case, and most people recognize that their experiences aren't universal in a large public school system, which is why I take statements like "my AP English kid read only 1 book" with a grain of salt. My kid struggled in 7th grade English with a teacher who assigned a lot of writing and some texts that I honestly thought were more suitable to high school. I was told he was the toughest English teacher in the school. My kid's 8th grade teacher assigns a lot more multiple choice assignments and a lot less writing.

You were really lucky then. We have had one book in AP English this year. We have never had more than 2 books a year, maybe one year we had three but that wasn't the norm. Never had lots of multiple choice. Most writing assignments are a paragraph or two.

I wouldn’t judge the rigor of an AP English class on the number of books they’ve read. Are they reading historic texts? Classic short stories that are considered exemplary literary works? Sometimes the teacher is showing a specific literary device or teaching a specific theme that is featured for the AP exam and can do that with a shorter piece of literature. And you can do that whether or not something is a “book.”

+1 I would judge the rigor/quality of an AP English class by how many kids are earning 4s/5s. How has the school that the PP won’t name but allegedly only assigns one book on critical race theory (the name of which book PP won’t name) performing?

There are different posters. If they want a book on critical race theory, I'd be thrilled as at least they were reading a book.

Bottomline is some of these AP classes do not prepare students. Only one AP classes even uses a textbook. I cannot see how the kids will get 4/5's given the minimal curriculum. And, that's the point that posters are making is there is no consistency between schools or even teachers. Zero accountability.

What you “see” and predict that students will score (particularly students who are not your own kids) is useless. As the other PP mentioned, look up your school’s historical AP performance by school as it’s posted on the MCPS site. If it’s bad, perhaps it’s a problem of your kid’s teacher and/or their chosen curriculum, or perhaps your kids are just at a poorly performing school.

Its the curriculum the teacher has chosen and refusal to teach with the assigned AP books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher and a parent of two in MCPS, I am generally happy with MCPS. I do think we provided a better product 20 years ago, but I'd say that's a national trend rather than a local. I do believe there is some correction going on that's going to take time to shake out. Someone mentioned how many parents are happy with their teachers, but would like to see more educational rigor and accountability for their children. I'd say that's accurate for the teachers too. But there are a lot of policies put in place over the last decade that have to be undone. Still, my experience is that there are good teachers teaching good students.
Of course, the biggest factor to your child's education success is you. Keeping them exposed to reading, music, physical activity, and limiting their use of screens (especially at an early age) is going to do so much more for their educational outcomes than any policy from central office.

This. The academic rigor just isn’t there compared with my rigorous private school education 30 years ago. They barely teach writing. My 6th grader has never been asked to write even a book report let alone a real essay or paper. But I’m not sure any other local public is better. We don’t have the money for private. As far as school experience goes it’s been fine. Just I wonder about the curriculum. My 3rd grader is doing a bit more writing so maybe it is improving.

Reading books is overrated and doesn't necessarily make a school rigorous.
Welcome to the 21st century.

Teaching writing well is hard with such big class sizes that MCPS has, but my MCPS 4th grader does weekly reading reports that are similar to the book reports I did as a kid (although they're shorter). My 6th grader did essays (and they definitely increase in frequency in 7th and 8th grade).

That's fantastic, but that wasn't our experience at all in ES or MS. We didn't have weekly book reports in 4th. We had a chart where kids had to pick one activity (i.e. read for 15 minutes, or anwser one question in 2-3 sentences). MCPS really varies by school and teachers.

Yes, of course that's the case, and most people recognize that their experiences aren't universal in a large public school system, which is why I take statements like "my AP English kid read only 1 book" with a grain of salt. My kid struggled in 7th grade English with a teacher who assigned a lot of writing and some texts that I honestly thought were more suitable to high school. I was told he was the toughest English teacher in the school. My kid's 8th grade teacher assigns a lot more multiple choice assignments and a lot less writing.

You were really lucky then. We have had one book in AP English this year. We have never had more than 2 books a year, maybe one year we had three but that wasn't the norm. Never had lots of multiple choice. Most writing assignments are a paragraph or two.

I wouldn’t judge the rigor of an AP English class on the number of books they’ve read. Are they reading historic texts? Classic short stories that are considered exemplary literary works? Sometimes the teacher is showing a specific literary device or teaching a specific theme that is featured for the AP exam and can do that with a shorter piece of literature. And you can do that whether or not something is a “book.”

+1 My kid is reading a Shakespeare play in MCPS middle school. And some short stories by widely respected authors. And 2 books as of MP2. But even if they were reading zero books and all plays and short stories, I wouldn’t complain that having no books made the class inherently bad. That’s just narrow -minded thinking.

Every school and teacher makes different choices so the narrow mided thinking is on you not to understand that your children's experiences are not the same as other posters whose experiences are very different than yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher and a parent of two in MCPS, I am generally happy with MCPS. I do think we provided a better product 20 years ago, but I'd say that's a national trend rather than a local. I do believe there is some correction going on that's going to take time to shake out. Someone mentioned how many parents are happy with their teachers, but would like to see more educational rigor and accountability for their children. I'd say that's accurate for the teachers too. But there are a lot of policies put in place over the last decade that have to be undone. Still, my experience is that there are good teachers teaching good students.
Of course, the biggest factor to your child's education success is you. Keeping them exposed to reading, music, physical activity, and limiting their use of screens (especially at an early age) is going to do so much more for their educational outcomes than any policy from central office.

This. The academic rigor just isn’t there compared with my rigorous private school education 30 years ago. They barely teach writing. My 6th grader has never been asked to write even a book report let alone a real essay or paper. But I’m not sure any other local public is better. We don’t have the money for private. As far as school experience goes it’s been fine. Just I wonder about the curriculum. My 3rd grader is doing a bit more writing so maybe it is improving.

Reading books is overrated and doesn't necessarily make a school rigorous.
Welcome to the 21st century.

Teaching writing well is hard with such big class sizes that MCPS has, but my MCPS 4th grader does weekly reading reports that are similar to the book reports I did as a kid (although they're shorter). My 6th grader did essays (and they definitely increase in frequency in 7th and 8th grade).

That's fantastic, but that wasn't our experience at all in ES or MS. We didn't have weekly book reports in 4th. We had a chart where kids had to pick one activity (i.e. read for 15 minutes, or anwser one question in 2-3 sentences). MCPS really varies by school and teachers.

Yes, of course that's the case, and most people recognize that their experiences aren't universal in a large public school system, which is why I take statements like "my AP English kid read only 1 book" with a grain of salt. My kid struggled in 7th grade English with a teacher who assigned a lot of writing and some texts that I honestly thought were more suitable to high school. I was told he was the toughest English teacher in the school. My kid's 8th grade teacher assigns a lot more multiple choice assignments and a lot less writing.

You were really lucky then. We have had one book in AP English this year. We have never had more than 2 books a year, maybe one year we had three but that wasn't the norm. Never had lots of multiple choice. Most writing assignments are a paragraph or two.

I wouldn’t judge the rigor of an AP English class on the number of books they’ve read. Are they reading historic texts? Classic short stories that are considered exemplary literary works? Sometimes the teacher is showing a specific literary device or teaching a specific theme that is featured for the AP exam and can do that with a shorter piece of literature. And you can do that whether or not something is a “book.”

+1 My kid is reading a Shakespeare play in MCPS middle school. And some short stories by widely respected authors. And 2 books as of MP2. But even if they were reading zero books and all plays and short stories, I wouldn’t complain that having no books made the class inherently bad. That’s just narrow -minded thinking.

Every school and teacher makes different choices so the narrow mided thinking is on you not to understand that your children's experiences are not the same as other posters whose experiences are very different than yours.

The PP never wrote that their childrens’ MCPs. experiences were universal. Adults with a functioning brain can understand that experience in a large public school system will differ wildly.

They wrote that someone who uses the argument that an AP English class that teaches “only one book” must be inherently bad is narrow minded. You should work on your reading comprehension rather than critiquing the choices of a fictional English teacher that you complain is only assigning critical race theory for AP English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher and a parent of two in MCPS, I am generally happy with MCPS. I do think we provided a better product 20 years ago, but I'd say that's a national trend rather than a local. I do believe there is some correction going on that's going to take time to shake out. Someone mentioned how many parents are happy with their teachers, but would like to see more educational rigor and accountability for their children. I'd say that's accurate for the teachers too. But there are a lot of policies put in place over the last decade that have to be undone. Still, my experience is that there are good teachers teaching good students.
Of course, the biggest factor to your child's education success is you. Keeping them exposed to reading, music, physical activity, and limiting their use of screens (especially at an early age) is going to do so much more for their educational outcomes than any policy from central office.

This. The academic rigor just isn’t there compared with my rigorous private school education 30 years ago. They barely teach writing. My 6th grader has never been asked to write even a book report let alone a real essay or paper. But I’m not sure any other local public is better. We don’t have the money for private. As far as school experience goes it’s been fine. Just I wonder about the curriculum. My 3rd grader is doing a bit more writing so maybe it is improving.

Reading books is overrated and doesn't necessarily make a school rigorous.
Welcome to the 21st century.

Teaching writing well is hard with such big class sizes that MCPS has, but my MCPS 4th grader does weekly reading reports that are similar to the book reports I did as a kid (although they're shorter). My 6th grader did essays (and they definitely increase in frequency in 7th and 8th grade).

That's fantastic, but that wasn't our experience at all in ES or MS. We didn't have weekly book reports in 4th. We had a chart where kids had to pick one activity (i.e. read for 15 minutes, or anwser one question in 2-3 sentences). MCPS really varies by school and teachers.

Yes, of course that's the case, and most people recognize that their experiences aren't universal in a large public school system, which is why I take statements like "my AP English kid read only 1 book" with a grain of salt. My kid struggled in 7th grade English with a teacher who assigned a lot of writing and some texts that I honestly thought were more suitable to high school. I was told he was the toughest English teacher in the school. My kid's 8th grade teacher assigns a lot more multiple choice assignments and a lot less writing.

You were really lucky then. We have had one book in AP English this year. We have never had more than 2 books a year, maybe one year we had three but that wasn't the norm. Never had lots of multiple choice. Most writing assignments are a paragraph or two.

I wouldn’t judge the rigor of an AP English class on the number of books they’ve read. Are they reading historic texts? Classic short stories that are considered exemplary literary works? Sometimes the teacher is showing a specific literary device or teaching a specific theme that is featured for the AP exam and can do that with a shorter piece of literature. And you can do that whether or not something is a “book.”

+1 I would judge the rigor/quality of an AP English class by how many kids are earning 4s/5s. How has the school that the PP won’t name but allegedly only assigns one book on critical race theory (the name of which book PP won’t name) performing?

There are different posters. If they want a book on critical race theory, I'd be thrilled as at least they were reading a book.

Bottomline is some of these AP classes do not prepare students. Only one AP classes even uses a textbook. I cannot see how the kids will get 4/5's given the minimal curriculum. And, that's the point that posters are making is there is no consistency between schools or even teachers. Zero accountability.

What you “see” and predict that students will score (particularly students who are not your own kids) is useless. As the other PP mentioned, look up your school’s historical AP performance by school as it’s posted on the MCPS site. If it’s bad, perhaps it’s a problem of your kid’s teacher and/or their chosen curriculum, or perhaps your kids are just at a poorly performing school.

It’s the curriculum the teacher has chosen and refusal to teach with the assigned AP books.

what are the “assigned AP books” in your opinion? And why are you unwilling to name the HS you say is teaching AP English so poorly in your opinion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher and a parent of two in MCPS, I am generally happy with MCPS. I do think we provided a better product 20 years ago, but I'd say that's a national trend rather than a local. I do believe there is some correction going on that's going to take time to shake out. Someone mentioned how many parents are happy with their teachers, but would like to see more educational rigor and accountability for their children. I'd say that's accurate for the teachers too. But there are a lot of policies put in place over the last decade that have to be undone. Still, my experience is that there are good teachers teaching good students.
Of course, the biggest factor to your child's education success is you. Keeping them exposed to reading, music, physical activity, and limiting their use of screens (especially at an early age) is going to do so much more for their educational outcomes than any policy from central office.

This. The academic rigor just isn’t there compared with my rigorous private school education 30 years ago. They barely teach writing. My 6th grader has never been asked to write even a book report let alone a real essay or paper. But I’m not sure any other local public is better. We don’t have the money for private. As far as school experience goes it’s been fine. Just I wonder about the curriculum. My 3rd grader is doing a bit more writing so maybe it is improving.

Reading books is overrated and doesn't necessarily make a school rigorous.
Welcome to the 21st century.

Teaching writing well is hard with such big class sizes that MCPS has, but my MCPS 4th grader does weekly reading reports that are similar to the book reports I did as a kid (although they're shorter). My 6th grader did essays (and they definitely increase in frequency in 7th and 8th grade).

That's fantastic, but that wasn't our experience at all in ES or MS. We didn't have weekly book reports in 4th. We had a chart where kids had to pick one activity (i.e. read for 15 minutes, or anwser one question in 2-3 sentences). MCPS really varies by school and teachers.

Yes, of course that's the case, and most people recognize that their experiences aren't universal in a large public school system, which is why I take statements like "my AP English kid read only 1 book" with a grain of salt. My kid struggled in 7th grade English with a teacher who assigned a lot of writing and some texts that I honestly thought were more suitable to high school. I was told he was the toughest English teacher in the school. My kid's 8th grade teacher assigns a lot more multiple choice assignments and a lot less writing.

You were really lucky then. We have had one book in AP English this year. We have never had more than 2 books a year, maybe one year we had three but that wasn't the norm. Never had lots of multiple choice. Most writing assignments are a paragraph or two.

I wouldn’t judge the rigor of an AP English class on the number of books they’ve read. Are they reading historic texts? Classic short stories that are considered exemplary literary works? Sometimes the teacher is showing a specific literary device or teaching a specific theme that is featured for the AP exam and can do that with a shorter piece of literature. And you can do that whether or not something is a “book.”

+1 My kid is reading a Shakespeare play in MCPS middle school. And some short stories by widely respected authors. And 2 books as of MP2. But even if they were reading zero books and all plays and short stories, I wouldn’t complain that having no books made the class inherently bad. That’s just narrow -minded thinking.

Every school and teacher makes different choices so the narrow mided thinking is on you not to understand that your children's experiences are not the same as other posters whose experiences are very different than yours.

The PP never wrote that their childrens’ MCPs. experiences were universal. Adults with a functioning brain can understand that experience in a large public school system will differ wildly.

They wrote that someone who uses the argument that an AP English class that teaches “only one book” must be inherently bad is narrow minded. You should work on your reading comprehension rather than critiquing the choices of a fictional English teacher that you complain is only assigning critical race theory for AP English.

We weren't assigned a critical race theory book. It was someone else as I would have been thrilled, as at least they were reading a book and we'd talk about it at home. AP English should be reading at least 2 books a quarter, not two books a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be interested in hearing from the large number of people that came from DC to MCPS. This is mostly because we have comparison points whereas others may not. I can say that even the best schools in DC (and many of them are charters) offer far less than MCPS.

OP here. I would be interested to hear from former DCPS parents whose kids switched to MCPS, too, for comparison.

I read the DCPS forum sometimes and it does feel like those parents (in WOTP and CH schools) are happier overall than MCPS parents, aside from MCPS parents in “W” school pyramids.

OP, did you post in the DC forum as well? I think I see a very similar question. I would keep in mind that there are a lot more MCPS families and therefore, likely more complaints!

I'm a previous PP with a child in upper ES that's a focus school. We switched to MCPS from DC (charter school though) but did so for other factors as well, not just schools. I am happy that my child may have access to more options/pathways in MCPS (CES, magnet programs) that were not available in DC, but I also recognize that these programs are not guaranteed to exist when my child gets to high school. We were hoping to eventually use the DCC but now that's going away. I personally wouldn't take into much consideration what parents of much older children are saying here since so much can change between now and then, but I do think MCPS overall has more resources.

My child is several years older than yours, and I remember the stress of trying to decide what to do for kindergarten and reading through these forums. Now, we take it the school experience year by year and try to anticipate/plan for needs 2-3 years in the future. Every year has brought us better understanding of not just what our child needs but what we, as parents, expect and want from a school. I personally would not change school districts for just kindergarten (unless of course there were other factors involved) but would instead use that first year as time to learn and refine your family's priorities.

[Anonymous]

We moved to MCPS from DC public (a well regarded charter with a decent high school path). Shifting from the DCPS board on DCUM to the MCPS board on DCUM has led me to believe that the MCPS parents on DCUM are a set of demanding, highly educated people with apparently no experience with public schools anywhere else. I wonder where they all grew up. Was it here? Anyway, the focus is on very niche things, often, and not the collective school system. The conversations are very different. DCPS DCUM posters would called onto the carpet for things that MCPS posters frequently complain about (eg. very specific and uncommon AP courses).

So, op, I think MCPS DCUM posters are a very select, very narrow slice of MCPS parents and their complaints here should not be taken a indicative of the overall performance of the school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher and a parent of two in MCPS, I am generally happy with MCPS. I do think we provided a better product 20 years ago, but I'd say that's a national trend rather than a local. I do believe there is some correction going on that's going to take time to shake out. Someone mentioned how many parents are happy with their teachers, but would like to see more educational rigor and accountability for their children. I'd say that's accurate for the teachers too. But there are a lot of policies put in place over the last decade that have to be undone. Still, my experience is that there are good teachers teaching good students.
Of course, the biggest factor to your child's education success is you. Keeping them exposed to reading, music, physical activity, and limiting their use of screens (especially at an early age) is going to do so much more for their educational outcomes than any policy from central office.

This. The academic rigor just isn’t there compared with my rigorous private school education 30 years ago. They barely teach writing. My 6th grader has never been asked to write even a book report let alone a real essay or paper. But I’m not sure any other local public is better. We don’t have the money for private. As far as school experience goes it’s been fine. Just I wonder about the curriculum. My 3rd grader is doing a bit more writing so maybe it is improving.

Reading books is overrated and doesn't necessarily make a school rigorous.
Welcome to the 21st century.

Teaching writing well is hard with such big class sizes that MCPS has, but my MCPS 4th grader does weekly reading reports that are similar to the book reports I did as a kid (although they're shorter). My 6th grader did essays (and they definitely increase in frequency in 7th and 8th grade).

That's fantastic, but that wasn't our experience at all in ES or MS. We didn't have weekly book reports in 4th. We had a chart where kids had to pick one activity (i.e. read for 15 minutes, or anwser one question in 2-3 sentences). MCPS really varies by school and teachers.

Yes, of course that's the case, and most people recognize that their experiences aren't universal in a large public school system, which is why I take statements like "my AP English kid read only 1 book" with a grain of salt. My kid struggled in 7th grade English with a teacher who assigned a lot of writing and some texts that I honestly thought were more suitable to high school. I was told he was the toughest English teacher in the school. My kid's 8th grade teacher assigns a lot more multiple choice assignments and a lot less writing.

You were really lucky then. We have had one book in AP English this year. We have never had more than 2 books a year, maybe one year we had three but that wasn't the norm. Never had lots of multiple choice. Most writing assignments are a paragraph or two.

I wouldn’t judge the rigor of an AP English class on the number of books they’ve read. Are they reading historic texts? Classic short stories that are considered exemplary literary works? Sometimes the teacher is showing a specific literary device or teaching a specific theme that is featured for the AP exam and can do that with a shorter piece of literature. And you can do that whether or not something is a “book.”

+1 I would judge the rigor/quality of an AP English class by how many kids are earning 4s/5s. How has the school that the PP won’t name but allegedly only assigns one book on critical race theory (the name of which book PP won’t name) performing?

Well that's stupid.

What would be your metric oh brilliant one? AP test scores are national independently assessed exams.

MCPS publishes AP scores by subject and school if you were interested looking at outcome data rather than posting whiny messages about MCPS teaching your kid only one book about “critical race theory” at a school you won’t name.

How dare you bring data on educational outcomes into a discussion about the PP’s opinions into what makes a good education. /s

It’s surprising how little MCPS performance metrics have come into the discussion here. Half of all MCPS students can’t do math or read at grade level. That is bad. Most of the discussion on this forum is about the changes to the gifted programs, school boundary changes and the teaching of LGBT topics…and snow days.

There’s very little discussion here about class sizes (huge) and quality of ES curricula to teach basic English and math (leaving aside the niche topic of complaints about an AP English teacher’s book choices.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher and a parent of two in MCPS, I am generally happy with MCPS. I do think we provided a better product 20 years ago, but I'd say that's a national trend rather than a local. I do believe there is some correction going on that's going to take time to shake out. Someone mentioned how many parents are happy with their teachers, but would like to see more educational rigor and accountability for their children. I'd say that's accurate for the teachers too. But there are a lot of policies put in place over the last decade that have to be undone. Still, my experience is that there are good teachers teaching good students.
Of course, the biggest factor to your child's education success is you. Keeping them exposed to reading, music, physical activity, and limiting their use of screens (especially at an early age) is going to do so much more for their educational outcomes than any policy from central office.

This. The academic rigor just isn’t there compared with my rigorous private school education 30 years ago. They barely teach writing. My 6th grader has never been asked to write even a book report let alone a real essay or paper. But I’m not sure any other local public is better. We don’t have the money for private. As far as school experience goes it’s been fine. Just I wonder about the curriculum. My 3rd grader is doing a bit more writing so maybe it is improving.

Reading books is overrated and doesn't necessarily make a school rigorous.
Welcome to the 21st century.

Teaching writing well is hard with such big class sizes that MCPS has, but my MCPS 4th grader does weekly reading reports that are similar to the book reports I did as a kid (although they're shorter). My 6th grader did essays (and they definitely increase in frequency in 7th and 8th grade).

That's fantastic, but that wasn't our experience at all in ES or MS. We didn't have weekly book reports in 4th. We had a chart where kids had to pick one activity (i.e. read for 15 minutes, or anwser one question in 2-3 sentences). MCPS really varies by school and teachers.

Yes, of course that's the case, and most people recognize that their experiences aren't universal in a large public school system, which is why I take statements like "my AP English kid read only 1 book" with a grain of salt. My kid struggled in 7th grade English with a teacher who assigned a lot of writing and some texts that I honestly thought were more suitable to high school. I was told he was the toughest English teacher in the school. My kid's 8th grade teacher assigns a lot more multiple choice assignments and a lot less writing.

You were really lucky then. We have had one book in AP English this year. We have never had more than 2 books a year, maybe one year we had three but that wasn't the norm. Never had lots of multiple choice. Most writing assignments are a paragraph or two.

I wouldn’t judge the rigor of an AP English class on the number of books they’ve read. Are they reading historic texts? Classic short stories that are considered exemplary literary works? Sometimes the teacher is showing a specific literary device or teaching a specific theme that is featured for the AP exam and can do that with a shorter piece of literature. And you can do that whether or not something is a “book.”

+1 I would judge the rigor/quality of an AP English class by how many kids are earning 4s/5s. How has the school that the PP won’t name but allegedly only assigns one book on critical race theory (the name of which book PP won’t name) performing?

Well that's stupid.

What would be your metric oh brilliant one? AP test scores are national independently assessed exams.

MCPS publishes AP scores by subject and school if you were interested looking at outcome data rather than posting whiny messages about MCPS teaching your kid only one book about “critical race theory” at a school you won’t name.

How dare you bring data on educational outcomes into a discussion about the PP’s opinions into what makes a good education. /s

It’s surprising how little MCPS performance metrics have come into the discussion here. Half of all MCPS students can’t do math or read at grade level. That is bad. Most of the discussion on this forum is about the changes to the gifted programs, school boundary changes and the teaching of LGBT topics…and snow days.

There’s very little discussion here about class sizes (huge) and quality of ES curricula to teach basic English and math (leaving aside the niche topic of complaints about an AP English teacher’s book choices.)

Its been discussed but not to teh same extent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher and a parent of two in MCPS, I am generally happy with MCPS. I do think we provided a better product 20 years ago, but I'd say that's a national trend rather than a local. I do believe there is some correction going on that's going to take time to shake out. Someone mentioned how many parents are happy with their teachers, but would like to see more educational rigor and accountability for their children. I'd say that's accurate for the teachers too. But there are a lot of policies put in place over the last decade that have to be undone. Still, my experience is that there are good teachers teaching good students.
Of course, the biggest factor to your child's education success is you. Keeping them exposed to reading, music, physical activity, and limiting their use of screens (especially at an early age) is going to do so much more for their educational outcomes than any policy from central office.

This. The academic rigor just isn’t there compared with my rigorous private school education 30 years ago. They barely teach writing. My 6th grader has never been asked to write even a book report let alone a real essay or paper. But I’m not sure any other local public is better. We don’t have the money for private. As far as school experience goes it’s been fine. Just I wonder about the curriculum. My 3rd grader is doing a bit more writing so maybe it is improving.

Reading books is overrated and doesn't necessarily make a school rigorous.
Welcome to the 21st century.

Teaching writing well is hard with such big class sizes that MCPS has, but my MCPS 4th grader does weekly reading reports that are similar to the book reports I did as a kid (although they're shorter). My 6th grader did essays (and they definitely increase in frequency in 7th and 8th grade).

That's fantastic, but that wasn't our experience at all in ES or MS. We didn't have weekly book reports in 4th. We had a chart where kids had to pick one activity (i.e. read for 15 minutes, or anwser one question in 2-3 sentences). MCPS really varies by school and teachers.

Yes, of course that's the case, and most people recognize that their experiences aren't universal in a large public school system, which is why I take statements like "my AP English kid read only 1 book" with a grain of salt. My kid struggled in 7th grade English with a teacher who assigned a lot of writing and some texts that I honestly thought were more suitable to high school. I was told he was the toughest English teacher in the school. My kid's 8th grade teacher assigns a lot more multiple choice assignments and a lot less writing.

You were really lucky then. We have had one book in AP English this year. We have never had more than 2 books a year, maybe one year we had three but that wasn't the norm. Never had lots of multiple choice. Most writing assignments are a paragraph or two.

Which AP English, Lang or Lit? They operate differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher and a parent of two in MCPS, I am generally happy with MCPS. I do think we provided a better product 20 years ago, but I'd say that's a national trend rather than a local. I do believe there is some correction going on that's going to take time to shake out. Someone mentioned how many parents are happy with their teachers, but would like to see more educational rigor and accountability for their children. I'd say that's accurate for the teachers too. But there are a lot of policies put in place over the last decade that have to be undone. Still, my experience is that there are good teachers teaching good students.
Of course, the biggest factor to your child's education success is you. Keeping them exposed to reading, music, physical activity, and limiting their use of screens (especially at an early age) is going to do so much more for their educational outcomes than any policy from central office.

This. The academic rigor just isn’t there compared with my rigorous private school education 30 years ago. They barely teach writing. My 6th grader has never been asked to write even a book report let alone a real essay or paper. But I’m not sure any other local public is better. We don’t have the money for private. As far as school experience goes it’s been fine. Just I wonder about the curriculum. My 3rd grader is doing a bit more writing so maybe it is improving.

Reading books is overrated and doesn't necessarily make a school rigorous.
Welcome to the 21st century.

Teaching writing well is hard with such big class sizes that MCPS has, but my MCPS 4th grader does weekly reading reports that are similar to the book reports I did as a kid (although they're shorter). My 6th grader did essays (and they definitely increase in frequency in 7th and 8th grade).

That's fantastic, but that wasn't our experience at all in ES or MS. We didn't have weekly book reports in 4th. We had a chart where kids had to pick one activity (i.e. read for 15 minutes, or anwser one question in 2-3 sentences). MCPS really varies by school and teachers.

Yes, of course that's the case, and most people recognize that their experiences aren't universal in a large public school system, which is why I take statements like "my AP English kid read only 1 book" with a grain of salt. My kid struggled in 7th grade English with a teacher who assigned a lot of writing and some texts that I honestly thought were more suitable to high school. I was told he was the toughest English teacher in the school. My kid's 8th grade teacher assigns a lot more multiple choice assignments and a lot less writing.

You were really lucky then. We have had one book in AP English this year. We have never had more than 2 books a year, maybe one year we had three but that wasn't the norm. Never had lots of multiple choice. Most writing assignments are a paragraph or two.

I wouldn’t judge the rigor of an AP English class on the number of books they’ve read. Are they reading historic texts? Classic short stories that are considered exemplary literary works? Sometimes the teacher is showing a specific literary device or teaching a specific theme that is featured for the AP exam and can do that with a shorter piece of literature. And you can do that whether or not something is a “book.”

+1 I would judge the rigor/quality of an AP English class by how many kids are earning 4s/5s. How has the school that the PP won’t name but allegedly only assigns one book on critical race theory (the name of which book PP won’t name) performing?

Well that's stupid.

What would be your metric oh brilliant one? AP test scores are national independently assessed exams.

MCPS publishes AP scores by subject and school if you were interested looking at outcome data rather than posting whiny messages about MCPS teaching your kid only one book about “critical race theory” at a school you won’t name.

How dare you bring data on educational outcomes into a discussion about the PP’s opinions into what makes a good education. /s

It’s surprising how little MCPS performance metrics have come into the discussion here. Half of all MCPS students can’t do math or read at grade level. That is bad. Most of the discussion on this forum is about the changes to the gifted programs, school boundary changes and the teaching of LGBT topics…and snow days.

There’s very little discussion here about class sizes (huge) and quality of ES curricula to teach basic English and math (leaving aside the niche topic of complaints about an AP English teacher’s book choices.)

It's been somewhat but I think there's a portion on DCUM (or at least one poster) who either doesn't understand or are okay with it because people say it's the general trend.

So if people say like 60 percent of students in MCPS don't meet the benchmarks or targets, then some people claim it's okay that their kids don't meet it either because that's just the trend. Then the argument in the earlier discussions of removing the countywide programs for the six regional model is that MCPS needs to focus on the general population as a whole that is underperforming instead of the select few small portion that are advanced.

What people don't realize is that if you dig into the data more, certain schools have high rates of meeting the benchmarks while others have really low which causes the county average to be as low as it is.

So the experience will really vary based on the specific schools and also on the family's specific situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher and a parent of two in MCPS, I am generally happy with MCPS. I do think we provided a better product 20 years ago, but I'd say that's a national trend rather than a local. I do believe there is some correction going on that's going to take time to shake out. Someone mentioned how many parents are happy with their teachers, but would like to see more educational rigor and accountability for their children. I'd say that's accurate for the teachers too. But there are a lot of policies put in place over the last decade that have to be undone. Still, my experience is that there are good teachers teaching good students.
Of course, the biggest factor to your child's education success is you. Keeping them exposed to reading, music, physical activity, and limiting their use of screens (especially at an early age) is going to do so much more for their educational outcomes than any policy from central office.

This. The academic rigor just isn’t there compared with my rigorous private school education 30 years ago. They barely teach writing. My 6th grader has never been asked to write even a book report let alone a real essay or paper. But I’m not sure any other local public is better. We don’t have the money for private. As far as school experience goes it’s been fine. Just I wonder about the curriculum. My 3rd grader is doing a bit more writing so maybe it is improving.

Reading books is overrated and doesn't necessarily make a school rigorous.
Welcome to the 21st century.

Teaching writing well is hard with such big class sizes that MCPS has, but my MCPS 4th grader does weekly reading reports that are similar to the book reports I did as a kid (although they're shorter). My 6th grader did essays (and they definitely increase in frequency in 7th and 8th grade).

That's fantastic, but that wasn't our experience at all in ES or MS. We didn't have weekly book reports in 4th. We had a chart where kids had to pick one activity (i.e. read for 15 minutes, or anwser one question in 2-3 sentences). MCPS really varies by school and teachers.

Yes, of course that's the case, and most people recognize that their experiences aren't universal in a large public school system, which is why I take statements like "my AP English kid read only 1 book" with a grain of salt. My kid struggled in 7th grade English with a teacher who assigned a lot of writing and some texts that I honestly thought were more suitable to high school. I was told he was the toughest English teacher in the school. My kid's 8th grade teacher assigns a lot more multiple choice assignments and a lot less writing.

You were really lucky then. We have had one book in AP English this year. We have never had more than 2 books a year, maybe one year we had three but that wasn't the norm. Never had lots of multiple choice. Most writing assignments are a paragraph or two.

I wouldn’t judge the rigor of an AP English class on the number of books they’ve read. Are they reading historic texts? Classic short stories that are considered exemplary literary works? Sometimes the teacher is showing a specific literary device or teaching a specific theme that is featured for the AP exam and can do that with a shorter piece of literature. And you can do that whether or not something is a “book.”

+1 I would judge the rigor/quality of an AP English class by how many kids are earning 4s/5s. How has the school that the PP won’t name but allegedly only assigns one book on critical race theory (the name of which book PP won’t name) performing?

Well that's stupid.

What would be your metric oh brilliant one? AP test scores are national independently assessed exams.

MCPS publishes AP scores by subject and school if you were interested looking at outcome data rather than posting whiny messages about MCPS teaching your kid only one book about “critical race theory” at a school you won’t name.

How dare you bring data on educational outcomes into a discussion about the PP’s opinions into what makes a good education. /s

It’s surprising how little MCPS performance metrics have come into the discussion here. Half of all MCPS students can’t do math or read at grade level. That is bad. Most of the discussion on this forum is about the changes to the gifted programs, school boundary changes and the teaching of LGBT topics…and snow days.

There’s very little discussion here about class sizes (huge) and quality of ES curricula to teach basic English and math (leaving aside the niche topic of complaints about an AP English teacher’s book choices.)

It's been somewhat but I think there's a portion on DCUM (or at least one poster) who either doesn't understand or are okay with it because people say it's the general trend.

So if people say like 60 percent of students in MCPS don't meet the benchmarks or targets, then some people claim it's okay that their kids don't meet it either because that's just the trend. Then the argument in the earlier discussions of removing the countywide programs for the six regional model is that MCPS needs to focus on the general population as a whole that is underperforming instead of the select few small portion that are advanced.

What people don't realize is that if you dig into the data more, certain schools have high rates of meeting the benchmarks while others have really low which causes the county average to be as low as it is.

So the experience will really vary based on the specific schools and also on the family's specific situation.

Even within schools it varies depending on the teacher, guidance counselor and assistant principal.