Weast has announced plans to retire at end of next year...

[Anonymous]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-news/maryland/moco-school-chief-jerry-weast.html?hpid=dynamiclead

[Anonymous]

Good Riddance! I'm sure we're not done hearing about this egomaniac yet. He's been prepping himself for bigger and better things for a long time now, all at the expense of county taxpayers.

[Anonymous]

This is old news. He talks about all the kids taking AP tests etc etc but they don't let you know how many pass etc.

[Anonymous]

Any word on his replacement?

[Anonymous]

Question from a parent new to MCPS - why don't we like Jerry Weast? I'm prepared to be convinced but with no background on this I just don't why he seems to be so unpopular.

[Anonymous]

It tells you everything you need to know about MCPS that it names a public elementary school that primarily is attended by lower-income Black and Hispanic students after a liberal Democrat politician (Sargent Shriver) who attended expensive private schools and also sent his kids to private schools. Getting press for being a good liberal, not running good schools, is what counts here.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but, under Jerry Weast's watch, MCPS has the highest graduating rate in the country and the schools are fantastic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but, under Jerry Weast's watch, MCPS has the highest graduating rate in the country and the schools are fantastic.

Not sure how long you have been here but they have always been the top schools, same with Fairfax.

Jerry Weast is not respected by the teachers, he is all about himself, he was basically run out of NC based on his push to the top and not caring how he did it or what happened around him. He might have gotten Montgomery County higher up on the list but it was not a huge climb due to the fact the schools were already great.

[Anonymous]

I agree that MCPS was highly ranked before Weast arrived -- maybe not quite where it is today, but, overall, the school system earned high marks. Weast's main accomplishment has been closing the gap between low-income Latino and African-American students on the one hand and other demographic groups in the student body. He deserves credit for that, however, he should also take the blame for the downside: a school system driven by standardized testing and numbers (even before NCLB, which only exacerbated this trend); a top-down, data-obcessed organizational structure that demoralizes teachers; a narrowly-focused elementary school curriculum (virtually no science or social studies, little art or music); and at all grade levels, a rote and shallow approach. MCPS continues to deliver a solid education with good test scores and respectable college admissions -- even impressive admissions stats in certain clusters and in the magnets -- but with little room for creativity on the part of principals, teachers or students. We stuck it out through elementary school with our two oldest kids (one now in college and one in high school), then switched to private; with our youngest, we just were too disheartened to go all the way through elementary school, so switched her over earlier than her brothers. It's a shame, but many parents, especially in the western part of the County, have noone to blame but themselves. Parents who only look at test scores and college admissions stats are missing a big part of the picture -- and it's not a pretty one.

[Anonymous]

The Gap has not changed a bit and before Thomas Jefferson, Whitman was the best school around.

[Anonymous]

That "cream of the crap" comment about the students was enough to make me disgusted with him.

[Anonymous]

I'm curious about the lack of science, music art etc. It seems that this is similar to other large school districts in our area. I know friends in Howard County that also only have specials once a week. Is it true that MCPS stands alone with this? Or was it more a reflection of NCLB that needed the focus to be on test scores in Math and English?

[Anonymous]

The school system as a whole may or may not be as good as everyone says, but the school my child is assigned to is one of those outliers with bad stats and a bad reputation. How much should I care that he has boosted the reputation of the school district when he has been unresponsive to concerns of our neighborhood. I wish him well, but I hope fresh blood will bring some real change Downcounty.

[Anonymous]

Maybe now MC will get our charter schools...wouldn't that be awesome!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious about the lack of science, music art etc. It seems that this is similar to other large school districts in our area. I know friends in Howard County that also only have specials once a week. Is it true that MCPS stands alone with this? Or was it more a reflection of NCLB that needed the focus to be on test scores in Math and English?

I don't know where you get that there is a lack of science and specials. My child is in MCPS and gets science. I can't remember how many times a week, but last year I was impressed with long running well-thought out experiments that the kids seemed to be really into. As for specials, they have one a day -- music, art, library, computers and PE, plus those who choose to do so can take instrumental music as well.