Montco Schools are no longer the best

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think someone on this forum is a 5yr old or at least acting and spelling like one.

To be fair, I saw lots of all-caps but no misspellings.

Thank You

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At B-CCs new student parents' night (so 9th graders and new other graders). There was an emphasis on both achievement and enabling all students to excel (no use of he language "achievement gap," it was more along the lines of access and encouragement. The principal and staff definitely stressed that B-CC is a strong school academically, but also stressed that they were trying to make sure that all students have access to the resources that they need. Maybe this reflects the line that B-CC has been forced to walk over the past five years or so that the other W schools have not - being a strong academic and inclusive school.

Well "closing the gap" is still a greater preoccupation of the lower schools - getting all the kids caught up. By HS this is far less of an issue (well, at BCC its definitely less of an issue).

[Anonymous]

Our children attend an excellent ES and MS in an area people don't know much about. In fact, as an educator, I'm fairly certain our beat out any W school.

So I hesitate to open up our area to any others b/c we like it as is!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our children attend an excellent ES and MS in an area people don't know much about. In fact, as an educator, I'm fairly certain our beat out any W school.

So I hesitate to open up our area to any others b/c we like it as is!

How is this a useful or helpful post in any way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Do you have any first-hand experience with MoCo schools vs. private? I do. We spent a total of ten years in MCPS with two kids before giving up and going private. There is FAR more grade inflation in MCPS than at private school, and the work is far more rigorous - lots of writing, creative thinking, project-based work, and NO MULTIPLE CHOICE WORKSHEETS! Read the article in Bethesda Magazine - very illuminating. Our county officials believe they have to choose between helping the immigrant children who will may not graduate, and the offspring of college-educated affluent people. Sadly, that's not the real choice. They need to do both. Our "good" schools are far behind those of other developed nations. We need to challenge all our kids to excel.

Yes I do. There are tons of 'valedictorians' in private school with mediocre SATs. That doesn't happen at public schools. At a MoCo high school there are perfect SATs with an unweighted 3.5.

It's also better for kids in the long run not to be coddled like they are in a private school. I also see the results of those coddled children at the university -- shocked at their first "B".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our children attend an excellent ES and MS in an area people don't know much about. In fact, as an educator, I'm fairly certain our beat out any W school.

So I hesitate to open up our area to any others b/c we like it as is!

How is this a useful or helpful post in any way?

New pp. I believe its a post written in the hope that it winds someone up into a frenzy. Don't fall for it. The W schools are proven to be the best, but if your kid goes to school outside that cluster then you are going to be competitive in this kind of sneaky way in the hope of undermining people.

Its fairly basic psychology 101.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our children attend an excellent ES and MS in an area people don't know much about. In fact, as an educator, I'm fairly certain our beat out any W school.

So I hesitate to open up our area to any others b/c we like it as is!

How is this a useful or helpful post in any way?

New pp. I believe its a post written in the hope that it winds someone up into a frenzy. Don't fall for it. The W schools are proven to be the best, but if your kid goes to school outside that cluster then you are going to be competitive in this kind of sneaky way in the hope of undermining people.

Its fairly basic psychology 101.

I'm not sure what your metrics are for what has been proven to be the best. I'm not this pp, but for example
Poolesville schools are just as good or better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Do you have any first-hand experience with MoCo schools vs. private? I do. We spent a total of ten years in MCPS with two kids before giving up and going private. There is FAR more grade inflation in MCPS than at private school, and the work is far more rigorous - lots of writing, creative thinking, project-based work, and NO MULTIPLE CHOICE WORKSHEETS! Read the article in Bethesda Magazine - very illuminating. Our county officials believe they have to choose between helping the immigrant children who will may not graduate, and the offspring of college-educated affluent people. Sadly, that's not the real choice. They need to do both. Our "good" schools are far behind those of other developed nations. We need to challenge all our kids to excel.

Yes I do. There are tons of 'valedictorians' in private school with mediocre SATs. That doesn't happen at public schools. At a MoCo high school there are perfect SATs with an unweighted 3.5.

It's also better for kids in the long run not to be coddled like they are in a private school. I also see the results of those coddled children at the university -- shocked at their first "B".

Please! Can you tell me the valedictorians of Holton, Sidwell, NCS, etc... I hear they are all average and couldn't survive in college. LOL. I have kids in both private and public and have been back and forth. I have also seen many kids leave to go back to public because the expectations are too much or they have to repeat a class, especially their math track or English because their writing is abysmal. I can assure you that private does a fantastic job of teaching and caring about individual students and their class sizes are in the low teens. But the expectations are high, tests aren't curved, midterms, finals, research and term papers still expected for each class. They learn, they don't memorize, and they don't take fake honors courses to bump up a GPA. I have seen the national honors society pics in public. It means nothing anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who else feels this way? At back to school night, Parents were lectured on inclusiveness in a prerecorded message by the Superintendent. But not a word about curriculum advances, or new technology or what MCPS is doing to better the learning environment for children. Not a word about excellence, acheivement, goals or EDUCATION. All Montco cares about is closing the acheivement gap which is impossible with an exploding immigrant class to the area. We moved here for the schools before curriculum 2.0. No way MCPS keeps its repuation as the best. It is all down hill when the goal for a school system is no longer about actual education and learning for all children but is instead about social justice.

#GIRL BYE!!
Only an ass would assume that inclusion and closing the gap somehow precludes excellence and achievement.
STFU!

NP here. Your post still begs the question as to why, assuming no incompatibility between these concepts, inclusiveness and closing an achievement gap are considered worth emphasizing, while academic excellence and innovation are not.

We all know it's easier to close a gap by bringing down the high-achievers than raising the performance of the low-achievers. If that's what MCPS articulates as its top priority, of course it will trigger concerns.

AND ONE VIDEO IS NOT A CURRICULUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE CURRICULUM IS WHAT THEY TEACH THE KIDS, NOT 2 MINUTES OF VIDEO EXPLAINING ONE OF THE PRIORITIES.
TELL US HOW THE CURRICULUM OR BETTER YET, THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CURRICULUM AT YOUR SCHOOL PROVES THAT THE HIGH ACHIEVERS ARE NOT HAVING THEIR NEEDS MET AND THEIR PROGRESS IS BEING DELIBERATELY THWARTED BY THE PRESENCE AND EDUCATION OF BLACK AND BROWN KIDS!
YES, I'M YELLING 'CAUSE I'M SICK OF THIS GARBAGE.
BETWEEN YOU AND DRUMPF, I'M ABOUT TO LOSE MY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lol at this poster screaming in caps and calling people names like dum dum (my fave ) racist and ass. You need anger management STAT. You sound like a real winner. Everything we needed to know about your level of sophistication is on full display. So funny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Do you have any first-hand experience with MoCo schools vs. private? I do. We spent a total of ten years in MCPS with two kids before giving up and going private. There is FAR more grade inflation in MCPS than at private school, and the work is far more rigorous - lots of writing, creative thinking, project-based work, and NO MULTIPLE CHOICE WORKSHEETS! Read the article in Bethesda Magazine - very illuminating. Our county officials believe they have to choose between helping the immigrant children who will may not graduate, and the offspring of college-educated affluent people. Sadly, that's not the real choice. They need to do both. Our "good" schools are far behind those of other developed nations. We need to challenge all our kids to excel.

Yes I do. There are tons of 'valedictorians' in private school with mediocre SATs. That doesn't happen at public schools. At a MoCo high school there are perfect SATs with an unweighted 3.5.

It's also better for kids in the long run not to be coddled like they are in a private school. I also see the results of those coddled children at the university -- shocked at their first "B".

When MoCo returns to teaching to potential of all students (including the top students),then I'll pull my non-coddled kids out of WIS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Do you have any first-hand experience with MoCo schools vs. private? I do. We spent a total of ten years in MCPS with two kids before giving up and going private. There is FAR more grade inflation in MCPS than at private school, and the work is far more rigorous - lots of writing, creative thinking, project-based work, and NO MULTIPLE CHOICE WORKSHEETS! Read the article in Bethesda Magazine - very illuminating. Our county officials believe they have to choose between helping the immigrant children who will may not graduate, and the offspring of college-educated affluent people. Sadly, that's not the real choice. They need to do both. Our "good" schools are far behind those of other developed nations. We need to challenge all our kids to excel.

Yes I do. There are tons of 'valedictorians' in private school with mediocre SATs. That doesn't happen at public schools. At a MoCo high school there are perfect SATs with an unweighted 3.5.

It's also better for kids in the long run not to be coddled like they are in a private school. I also see the results of those coddled children at the university -- shocked at their first "B".

My daughter moved to Holton-Arms with a 4.75 GPA and received two C's, mostly B's and only 3 A's all year her first year and nothing above a 92. Not final grades, each quarter grades. She was shocked at the expectations. But she also went from a Spanish class of 33 to 9 kids. She moved from a school with maybe 1/3 of the kids wanted to learn to a school where 100% want to learn. The teachers have so much more time invested in each child. They meet with them, they chat via email, no one skates by. The parents? We don't even know the grades unless we email a teacher and ask for an update. The kids have full autonomy and are required to self-advocate. There is no one in that school getting easy grades. The report cards alone are like 3-4 pages with in depth write-ups for each class. It has been amazing to watch her go from "I am so smart, school is so easy" to becoming humbled around a lot of high achieving teachers and girls and truly having to work hard and earn A's. I don't care what college she gets into and I honesty don't care if she graduates with a 3.0 in private vs a 4.5 in public. She is learning and understand more NOW and that is all I care about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Immigrants and their children do very well in school.

Yes I'm an immigrant, a very high achieving one and my kids are too. RACIST (to the original poster).

OP here. That word has absolutely lost it's meaning and does not hurt me one bit. It says way more about you that you would resort low ball name calling. My best friends are black, asian hispanic. A dinner party at my house looks like the UN. Guess what? They also wwant the public schools to focus on a quality education for the children, acheivement, excellence. But they aren't small minded like you.

Grow up and Get out -- we do not need your narrow minded,self centered, misleading, misinformed, mal-intentioned kind here in MCPS.
We can help folks along without dropping our own ball, but people like you fail to realize this.
You talk about kids for whom English is a 2nd language but I bet you want your precious snowflake to take a foreign language.
Here's a foreign language for you to teach them: COMPASSION

My kid's school PREACHES mastery as the goal, they are committed to excellence and achievement for EVERYONE. Some of my kid's classes have 20+, some have fewer than 15.
Your thinking is rotten and your attitude is worse.

Right on. But people like that don't see the hypocrisy of their actions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our children attend an excellent ES and MS in an area people don't know much about. In fact, as an educator, I'm fairly certain our beat out any W school.

So I hesitate to open up our area to any others b/c we like it as is!

How is this a useful or helpful post in any way?

it's not. she said she was an "educator"... not surprising at all. probably a mcps teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our children attend an excellent ES and MS in an area people don't know much about. In fact, as an educator, I'm fairly certain our beat out any W school.

So I hesitate to open up our area to any others b/c we like it as is!

How is this a useful or helpful post in any way?

it's not. she said she was an "educator"... not surprising at all. probably a mcps teacher.

I don't think she is an "educator" beyond parenting her own kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is what Democratic voters wanted and they voted for in this County. They wanted sanctuary city, well how was that going to be accommodated? Bring in the immigrants, bring in the refugees, keep them coming, but, eventually the tax base shrinks and the schools as a whole suffer. Sadly the social experiment failed and is probably not reversible at this point. Private school here I come.

OP here. I came home, looked at my partner and said I give up, no more public schools unless we want our kids brainwashed and illiterate because public schools aren't about learning and education anymore. Looking at privates for next year too. So sad. We want a public school experience for our kids, but not willing to risk their futures over it. And the class was exploding. 28 kids, one teacher and for at least half the class, English is not their first language. No way the teacher has time to give so many needy students what they need.

You should call around - you may be able to still get a spot, especially if it is for the early grades. Wish I had yanked mine last year, what a difference!