I see that you don’t disagree that Germany as a country is not nearly as diverse as Montgomery County is. You hold Germany up as a bastion of excellent education, without acknowledging the unique challenges that a more diverse county/country would face. But continue on with your smug superiority and generalizations. And, of course, your clear disdain for America. |
Southern states’ public schools generally lag way behind literally every country in the world. |
So then no kid should have had any loss of learning, amirite? Why is this thread even in existence? MCPS is doing just great. Lalalalalalalalalalllll |
Be a parent and help your kids. Mcps has always been bad. |
OK, if it's about percentage of non-English speakers, then definitely makes sense to compare to a (West) Germany model. Their non-German speaking immigrant population is comparable. I don't know the numbers on education level though. Personally, I find it more helpful to learn from other countries than to start with the premise that the US and MoCo are exceptional. Our family has had few complaints with MCPS but no harm in trying to do things better. |
So does mine but they hardly buy any books these days. Most of that material is obsolete by the time it hits the shelves and better is available online. |
There's so much bad information packed into this post that I don't know where to begin. |
Exactly, it's all based on an unvetted test that had only been given once before. Sure, I can accept that test scores across the country are down because of the emotional toll of the pandemic but these stats alone aren't all that credible. |
unvetted tests? It was the NAEP, and kids in MCPS have been taking that tests for a long time.
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I don’t really anyone on this thread saying that MCPS is ‘exceptional’. The entire basis of this thread is how Maryland students are underperforming. But, I’ll bite. What do you think that Germans do that shows how much they ‘value education’ that is different from what parents here in MoCo do? I am also from another country. I see plenty of parents in MoCo who care very much about their child’s education. And MCPS spends tons of money per student when compared to other jurisdictions. And what do you propose that MoCo do differently to improve our test scores. Your exact comment was ‘There’s no changing a culture that doesn’t value education’ was pretty derisive. How do you feel that MoCo does not ‘value education’ as compared to Germany? Someone unthread posted some good reasons as to what MCPS does well and what it does poorly. Your post was simply a chance to bash the US culture. But feel free to explain if I am misunderstanding. There is a TON of anti-American sentiment on this board and it is quite tiresome. |
DP. Americans are not ready to accept the German system, because it is inherently discriminatory. If a child is not a high performer (and disproportionately, this perception is linked to the national origin of the parents) they are simply placed in the hauptschule track and graduate into the apprenticeship world. You cannot compare the scores of 11th grade Germans and Americans and make meaningful conclusions because the lower performing German children have been kicked out into the working world. Maybe we will eventually adopt this system, but your comparison is ill informed. |
Exactly. Ridiculous to compare the two and declare that Germans somehow care more about education. |
I don’t think you can really compare demographics in Germany and the U.S. without talking about their complex histories with race. Before the influx of refugees, what were the minority stats in Germany? Historically, it really wasn’t that long ago that large numbers of POC were sent to the gas chambers. Whereas the U.S. merely enslaved and oppressed them. |
They get kicked out in primary school? That’s why German kids in the younger grades still outperform their American counterparts? They don’t even start learning to read until a couple years after American kids, the early years are pretty laid back. But yeah, we should be steering more students towards trades in high schools. Maybe we wouldnt have so many kids flunking out of college and then trying to pay back student loans while bagging groceries. |
Not only that, but the US has the opposite problem; here everyone overvalues IQ and thinks their kid is 'gifted' and therefore belongs in 'AP' or whatever class, leading to watered down classes and situations where no real learning occurs in the 'highest' classes. Culture wise, I suspect that Germans overall are more focused on education to the degree that parents are willing to help/work with their kids at home. Here in the US parents prefer to not deal with teaching them and instead throw lots of money on outside tutoring to the point that tutoring services has become a huge business. Comparisons have to be done across similar metrics and across various groups. The top kids here are certainly comparable to the top kids there, but the bottom kids here are likely way below the bottom kids there. The gap here is huge. |