MCPS Is Broken What Are Your Ideas to Fix It?

[Anonymous]

Stop pretending that statistically poor kids will ever mirror the results of rich kids. Stop screwing the kids in the middle trying to load balance said statistics

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:broken school system is not the cause, it's the result of poor county policies. low SES families = f'ed school system

It's not just because of low SES families. It's the culture of low expectations. There is a boy in my DC's MS who is a troublemaker and has done some terrible things. DC tells me that he's from a well off family. Zero consequences. MCPS doesn't do restorative justice the way it was intended.

IMO, MCPS leadership are too concerned with the optics of certain demographics not performing well. They are obsessed with the achievement gap without any good plans to address it other than lowering the bar and half-a$$ implementation of restorative justice.

They push certain groups to challenge themselves by taking more AP classes when that same group has an abysmal record on performing even at grade level. What a way to set them up for failure.

MCPS needs to focus on two things:
1. continuing to provide challenging curriculum and programs for the high achieving students
2. get the lower performing students to at least perform at grade level. Stop focusing on the fact that this group has low representation in test in magnets and such. There's a reason why that group has a low pass rate for AP exams. It would be one thing if they had a high pass rate and low representation in test in magnets, but if they can't even pass AP exams at a high rate, then there's no point in pushing them into test in magnets. Way to set them up for failure.

Focus instead on smaller class sizes and after school tutors where they are needed. I don't mind paying taxes to provide support for certain groups who need it. I myself grew up lower income to parents who don't speak English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:👏👏👏+1000 to everyone who responded. I soo wish folks would stop acting like complex issues are easily solved. I soo wish people would be willing to put in the same amount of time to help fix issues as they do in complaining about them. And I really wish people would stop saying MCPS is broken when in reality it has challenges or areas of improvement like any organization, but on the whole is doing much better than most school districts.

That’s BS. Most school districts had in person learning last year. MCPS time in and time out waste money on a bloated Central Office including their extra winter break vacation when they should have been working on a school system in crisis.

Make significant cuts in Central Office. Hire more staff including teachers, para educators, special educators, school counselors, school psychologists, bus drivers, and substitutes. MCPS would be able to attract people to these jobs with increased pay and benefits. We need staff in schools more than Central Office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really? The details are not important? That is why the entire system is broken. They have grand ideas, such as yours, with no logical, reasonable and realistic plan for implementation.

Granted details are important, but right now it seems impossible to even get people to agree to basic principles.

Do you agree that MCPS should have high standards for the quality of its staff? Do you believe that MCPS should have high standards and expectations for its students?

It would be good if we can start with agreeing to common principles and goal for our school system first, before arguing over details. Right now we don’t even seem to have a common starting place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:broken school system is not the cause, it's the result of poor county policies. low SES families = f'ed school system

It's not just because of low SES families. It's the culture of low expectations. There is a boy in my DC's MS who is a troublemaker and has done some terrible things. DC tells me that he's from a well off family. Zero consequences. MCPS doesn't do restorative justice the way it was intended.

IMO, MCPS leadership are too concerned with the optics of certain demographics not performing well. They are obsessed with the achievement gap without any good plans to address it other than lowering the bar and half-a$$ implementation of restorative justice.

They push certain groups to challenge themselves by taking more AP classes when that same group has an abysmal record on performing even at grade level. What a way to set them up for failure.

MCPS needs to focus on two things:
1. continuing to provide challenging curriculum and programs for the high achieving students
2. get the lower performing students to at least perform at grade level. Stop focusing on the fact that this group has low representation in test in magnets and such. There's a reason why that group has a low pass rate for AP exams. It would be one thing if they had a high pass rate and low representation in test in magnets, but if they can't even pass AP exams at a high rate, then there's no point in pushing them into test in magnets. Way to set them up for failure.

Focus instead on smaller class sizes and after school tutors where they are needed. I don't mind paying taxes to provide support for certain groups who need it. I myself grew up lower income to parents who don't speak English.

I agree with this post 100%

A culture of achievement starts with high expectations which then creates a positive feedback loop of success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My personal view is that they need to return to a focus on high standards and expectations for both staff and students. This can be accomplished through a number of different ways, but the details are probably not that important right now. What are your ideas?

Stop catering to hyper-privileged parents and continue doing their job.

What does this mean? How does MCPS cater to this group in your view and what part of their jobs would you like them to do more of/better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:broken school system is not the cause, it's the result of poor county policies. low SES families = f'ed school system

It's not just because of low SES families. It's the culture of low expectations. There is a boy in my DC's MS who is a troublemaker and has done some terrible things. DC tells me that he's from a well off family. Zero consequences. MCPS doesn't do restorative justice the way it was intended.

IMO, MCPS leadership are too concerned with the optics of certain demographics not performing well. They are obsessed with the achievement gap without any good plans to address it other than lowering the bar and half-a$$ implementation of restorative justice.

They push certain groups to challenge themselves by taking more AP classes when that same group has an abysmal record on performing even at grade level. What a way to set them up for failure.

MCPS needs to focus on two things:
1. continuing to provide challenging curriculum and programs for the high achieving students
2. get the lower performing students to at least perform at grade level. Stop focusing on the fact that this group has low representation in test in magnets and such. There's a reason why that group has a low pass rate for AP exams. It would be one thing if they had a high pass rate and low representation in test in magnets, but if they can't even pass AP exams at a high rate, then there's no point in pushing them into test in magnets. Way to set them up for failure.

Focus instead on smaller class sizes and after school tutors where they are needed. I don't mind paying taxes to provide support for certain groups who need it. I myself grew up lower income to parents who don't speak English.

Wrong they need to fix the gerrymandered boundaries and stop listening to the right-wing crazies. Sure, a bunch or people here hate the MCEA and all but most people support the Apple ballot. You gjuys are just way out of touch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:broken school system is not the cause, it's the result of poor county policies. low SES families = f'ed school system

It's not just because of low SES families. It's the culture of low expectations. There is a boy in my DC's MS who is a troublemaker and has done some terrible things. DC tells me that he's from a well off family. Zero consequences. MCPS doesn't do restorative justice the way it was intended.

IMO, MCPS leadership are too concerned with the optics of certain demographics not performing well. They are obsessed with the achievement gap without any good plans to address it other than lowering the bar and half-a$$ implementation of restorative justice.

They push certain groups to challenge themselves by taking more AP classes when that same group has an abysmal record on performing even at grade level. What a way to set them up for failure.

MCPS needs to focus on two things:
1. continuing to provide challenging curriculum and programs for the high achieving students
2. get the lower performing students to at least perform at grade level. Stop focusing on the fact that this group has low representation in test in magnets and such. There's a reason why that group has a low pass rate for AP exams. It would be one thing if they had a high pass rate and low representation in test in magnets, but if they can't even pass AP exams at a high rate, then there's no point in pushing them into test in magnets. Way to set them up for failure.

Focus instead on smaller class sizes and after school tutors where they are needed. I don't mind paying taxes to provide support for certain groups who need it. I myself grew up lower income to parents who don't speak English.

Wrong they need to fix the gerrymandered boundaries and stop listening to the right-wing crazies. Sure, a bunch or people here hate the MCEA and all but most people support the Apple ballot. You gjuys are just way out of touch.

Which boundaries are “gerrymandered”? And how would that improve achievement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:👏👏👏+1000 to everyone who responded. I soo wish folks would stop acting like complex issues are easily solved. I soo wish people would be willing to put in the same amount of time to help fix issues as they do in complaining about them. And I really wish people would stop saying MCPS is broken when in reality it has challenges or areas of improvement like any organization, but on the whole is doing much better than most school districts.

That’s BS. Most school districts had in person learning last year. MCPS time in and time out waste money on a bloated Central Office including their extra winter break vacation when they should have been working on a school system in crisis.

Make significant cuts in Central Office. Hire more staff including teachers, para educators, special educators, school counselors, school psychologists, bus drivers, and substitutes. MCPS would be able to attract people to these jobs with increased pay and benefits. We need staff in schools more than Central Office.

Here we go with sensational comments when details matter. A) MCPS did have in person school starting last year, they just didn’t offer it all year, 2) most school districts did not have in person school all of last year, particularly large school districts. MCPS did provide virtual learning all of last year and it was significantly better than what most school districts offered. MCPS also continues to offer a virtual academy with improvements over last year.

B)As for Central Office, while some cuts may be able to be made and probably should, taking a machete to central office would in fact lower support for all schools and staff and likely result in things like data reporting to county, state and federal offices being late or going undone, all of which would contribute to chaos and other problems in the school district.

C) Hiring of staff would be great if there wasn’t a national shortage of these very people. Additionally, while raising pay and benefits is a great idea it also requires changes to the current year’s budget as well as consideration of what it will do to the budget and employee relations long term. Nothing like getting everybody use to something for one year and then yanking it away the next because the funding isn’t there. And before you go indicating all the ESSR funding, its worth noting that ESSR funds have to be used for specific things so the whole bucket cannot be used for hiring and the ESSR funding isn’t forever.

[Anonymous]

Needs to be split up into smaller districts. Too big to run effectively.

Or school vouchers so that parents have a choice. Right now we are stuck with this disaster of a system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:broken school system is not the cause, it's the result of poor county policies. low SES families = f'ed school system

It's not just because of low SES families. It's the culture of low expectations. There is a boy in my DC's MS who is a troublemaker and has done some terrible things. DC tells me that he's from a well off family. Zero consequences. MCPS doesn't do restorative justice the way it was intended.

IMO, MCPS leadership are too concerned with the optics of certain demographics not performing well. They are obsessed with the achievement gap without any good plans to address it other than lowering the bar and half-a$$ implementation of restorative justice.

They push certain groups to challenge themselves by taking more AP classes when that same group has an abysmal record on performing even at grade level. What a way to set them up for failure.

MCPS needs to focus on two things:
1. continuing to provide challenging curriculum and programs for the high achieving students
2. get the lower performing students to at least perform at grade level. Stop focusing on the fact that this group has low representation in test in magnets and such. There's a reason why that group has a low pass rate for AP exams. It would be one thing if they had a high pass rate and low representation in test in magnets, but if they can't even pass AP exams at a high rate, then there's no point in pushing them into test in magnets. Way to set them up for failure.

Focus instead on smaller class sizes and after school tutors where they are needed. I don't mind paying taxes to provide support for certain groups who need it. I myself grew up lower income to parents who don't speak English.

Wrong they need to fix the gerrymandered boundaries and stop listening to the right-wing crazies. Sure, a bunch or people here hate the MCEA and all but most people support the Apple ballot. You gjuys are just way out of touch.

? this has nothing to do with right wing policies. If anything, it's the uber progressive policies that have gotten into this mess. What right wing policies has lowered the bar and implemented half a$$ restorative justice programs? You are deluded and part of the problem.

[Anonymous]

so many people don't realize how good they have it. Still one of the best school systems in the nation

give teachers hazard pay during this difficult time too

[Anonymous]

Completely agree with the poster who suggests revamping the teaching field and providing higher pay for higher quality. There are some amazing teachers, but also a lot of really mediocre ones. This is half the battle in providing a good quality education.

On top of this (which obviously will take time), much more autonomy needs to be given back to the individual schools (with Central Office cut accordingly). So much of the burn out and disenchantment at the schools comes from the inability to make decisions and act as appropriate for the community. There's no point in giving tests and gather statistics if they're never used. Teachers are stressed trying to teach curriculum that they, and none of their peers, have had a say in developing, and which is constantly changing. At least with the schools that we've been a part of, I've seen little use from anything Central Office has done or could do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:broken school system is not the cause, it's the result of poor county policies. low SES families = f'ed school system

It's not just because of low SES families. It's the culture of low expectations. There is a boy in my DC's MS who is a troublemaker and has done some terrible things. DC tells me that he's from a well off family. Zero consequences. MCPS doesn't do restorative justice the way it was intended.

IMO, MCPS leadership are too concerned with the optics of certain demographics not performing well. They are obsessed with the achievement gap without any good plans to address it other than lowering the bar and half-a$$ implementation of restorative justice.

They push certain groups to challenge themselves by taking more AP classes when that same group has an abysmal record on performing even at grade level. What a way to set them up for failure.

MCPS needs to focus on two things:
1. continuing to provide challenging curriculum and programs for the high achieving students
2. get the lower performing students to at least perform at grade level. Stop focusing on the fact that this group has low representation in test in magnets and such. There's a reason why that group has a low pass rate for AP exams. It would be one thing if they had a high pass rate and low representation in test in magnets, but if they can't even pass AP exams at a high rate, then there's no point in pushing them into test in magnets. Way to set them up for failure.

Focus instead on smaller class sizes and after school tutors where they are needed. I don't mind paying taxes to provide support for certain groups who need it. I myself grew up lower income to parents who don't speak English.

I agree with this post 100%

A culture of achievement starts with high expectations which then creates a positive feedback loop of success.

Agreed. The low expectations start from the top and run downhill.

[Anonymous]

I am all for getting rid of the 50% rule and putting back final exams but it would definitely hurt the grades of kids who work hard but don’t have support at home (many ADHD, ESOL, SPED, minorities). I would tweak the 50% rule down to a 35%. That would get ride of the easy B’a and C’s teachers are forced to give that hide deficiencies among groups and has lowered a lot of the academic standards in the county. I know some teachers that don’t really even both grading and just give every student an A. The teachers that give C’a and D’Souza regularly are far more likely to get in trouble. I have seen it happen. -a MCPS teacher