My 4th grader has no teacher.

[Anonymous]

Not sure of what you can do but I suppose you can threaten a lawsuit stating your child isn’t receiving equal compared to the rest of classes because of all the transition time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She will have a different teacher for each subject until they can find someone. She is having to move from classroom to classroom- one for homeroom with 1 teacher, 1 for language arts in a different classroom, followed by lunch and recess and specials, then math with a 3rd teacher in a third classroom, followed by returning to their officially assigned classroom (for the first time) where a para-educator will teach science and social studies.

We got told that the school also does not have their part time additional art/PE teachers and they haven’t figured out how they are handling that yet, but promise that this class won’t be impacted.

Oh, and this joy of a class is 29 kids- the largest in the school.

I know that the school is trying their best and all of the teachers are friendly and they are trying hard to get a substitute, but I am still not okay with this plan. I feel like I am in a tricky spot because it doesn’t seem like it’s the schools fault and the teachers are clearly going above and beyond. But it’s not fair to the kids!

What would you do in this situation? Any advice or suggestions?

There’s nothing to “do.” They aren’t going to add your kid to another class, or they’d have to do that for everyone. They can’t instantly magic up teachers out of thin air. We told you this would happen. I hope they find your kid a regular teacher soon.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know if there is really anything you can do, but I wonder if someone from Central Office could/should be dispatched to cover the class rather than this unfortunate solution they’ve come up with. I would do some digging around to see if this is possible. This situation sounds very unusual and unfortunate.

[Anonymous]

My kids graduated out of MCPS last year. I spent a lot of my time through the years to research the MCPS curriculum and enrich, expand, accelerate it for my children. Yes, I did send them to MCPS for normal socialization, for learning how school works and other fun and interesting stuff, but my kids always had my home grown parallel system of education at home. I covered most of the subjects (between DH and I, we have multiple college degrees in multiple fields) at home, except for FL which was taught by an MCPS teacher

My kids were also in the magnet pipeline and I am sorry to say that even in the magnet programs, it was common to have dud teachers and worse administrators. Of course, the magnet programs were a 100 times better than the regular program because of the excellent cohort of students, the informed parents, and the pace and rigor of the curriculum - but it also fell short especially in middle school because of some terrible teachers, exceptionally evil and lazy administrators, and the general exodus of great teachers.

Unfortunately, all this was happening way before COVID. The quality of MCPS education has been going downhill for a long time because of the swinging pendulum of extreme right and extreme left.

I have no words of wisdom for OP. My heart aches for her and her child. Please do whatever is necessary to make sure that they are getting a very good education at home, in private schools, in private coaching classes, through online resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids graduated out of MCPS last year. I spent a lot of my time through the years to research the MCPS curriculum and enrich, expand, accelerate it for my children. Yes, I did send them to MCPS for normal socialization, for learning how school works and other fun and interesting stuff, but my kids always had my home grown parallel system of education at home. I covered most of the subjects (between DH and I, we have multiple college degrees in multiple fields) at home, except for FL which was taught by an MCPS teacher

My kids were also in the magnet pipeline and I am sorry to say that even in the magnet programs, it was common to have dud teachers and worse administrators. Of course, the magnet programs were a 100 times better than the regular program because of the excellent cohort of students, the informed parents, and the pace and rigor of the curriculum - but it also fell short especially in middle school because of some terrible teachers, exceptionally evil and lazy administrators, and the general exodus of great teachers.

Unfortunately, all this was happening way before COVID. The quality of MCPS education has been going downhill for a long time because of the swinging pendulum of extreme right and extreme left.

I have no words of wisdom for OP. My heart aches for her and her child. Please do whatever is necessary to make sure that they are getting a very good education at home, in private schools, in private coaching classes, through online resources.

You're so extra. So was your response to a mention of not having a centralized teacher assignment in elementary.

[Anonymous]

What are your choices? What options are you choosing between?

There are no teachers, so the solution you are proposing is……what?

[Anonymous]

I'm so sorry, OP. As a long time 4th grade teacher I have so many questions. Is 29 the class size when she's added to another homeroom for content class or... What is it? This is very important. Also, how will they support this class of students on a socio emotional level?

How were students chosen? Are EMLs and IEPs effected? How so?

Is there anyone in the parent community who can become the sub, at least temporarily? If you can make it to January, a new class of graduates will be available for hire.

Does this effect programming such as compacted math, ELC, or instrumental music?

Who supervises them when they arrive? Who is the point person for parent communication?

What steps will they take to make sure these students are not effected if a similar situation arises in fifth grade?

[Anonymous]

So sorry, OP. This truly stinks. It is not ideal for anyone - teachers, students, staff. What kind of an effect will this have in morale.

I can’t believe people think we should just accept this nonsense. It has become abundantly clear that MCPS is just a dysfunctional school system and is too big and too overcrowded. How is this okay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK, maybe you can volunteer and help.

It’s not nearly as easy as you make it sound. I used to volunteer a ton before Covid. They have made it incredibly more complicated for parents to volunteer. Hopefully that will improve this year, but we’ll see.

Also, do you want a random parent without a teaching degree teaching your kid’s 4th grade class? Unlikely.

Parents can help, but parents should not be substitutes for teachers.

[Anonymous]

My kids both had multiple teachers in 4th and 5th and the oldest was pre-covid.

[Anonymous]

How many 4th grade classes/teachers are there at your school? It’s not a big deal for a child to have different teachers for different subjects when that’s the format everyone is following, but one class having 3-4 different teachers while all of the other 4th grade classes have the same teacher all day will eventually lead to things falling through the cracks. You can’t have a parent volunteer take over the teaching, but it would be great if there was a parent liaison who could be looped in to the 4th grade team’s plans and the school’s secretary to ensure that parents of this class receive communication about all upcoming school events and special projects and receive all of the handouts the other classes are receiving.

I really sympathize with your child’s class. Last year, dd was in 8th grade. Her science teacher left in October. For the first couple months, there wasn’t even a substitute; various other teachers took turns babysitting the class during their planning periods. After that, they had a rotating cast of daily subs for another few months. They didn’t get a long term sub until 4th quarter and she had no experience teaching 8th grade science, so she gamely attempted to help the kids with assignments, but she didn’t provide instruction. DD had no science instruction for more than 3/4 of the year. Her class just had to complete assignments without having been taught anything. They’d hear about experiments taking place in the other 8th grade science classes, but they didn’t get to participate or even observe any of them.

I don’t know what the answer is, but we’ve got to address the teacher shortage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK, maybe you can volunteer and help.

It’s not nearly as easy as you make it sound. I used to volunteer a ton before Covid. They have made it incredibly more complicated for parents to volunteer. Hopefully that will improve this year, but we’ll see.

Also, do you want a random parent without a teaching degree teaching your kid’s 4th grade class? Unlikely.

Parents can help, but parents should not be substitutes for teachers.

A few years ago we had multiple subs from September to January before the teacher came back from maternity leave and the best sub we had was a paraprofessional who did not have a teaching degree. Most subs aren't qualified.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids graduated out of MCPS last year. I spent a lot of my time through the years to research the MCPS curriculum and enrich, expand, accelerate it for my children. Yes, I did send them to MCPS for normal socialization, for learning how school works and other fun and interesting stuff, but my kids always had my home grown parallel system of education at home. I covered most of the subjects (between DH and I, we have multiple college degrees in multiple fields) at home, except for FL which was taught by an MCPS teacher

My kids were also in the magnet pipeline and I am sorry to say that even in the magnet programs, it was common to have dud teachers and worse administrators. Of course, the magnet programs were a 100 times better than the regular program because of the excellent cohort of students, the informed parents, and the pace and rigor of the curriculum - but it also fell short especially in middle school because of some terrible teachers, exceptionally evil and lazy administrators, and the general exodus of great teachers.

Unfortunately, all this was happening way before COVID. The quality of MCPS education has been going downhill for a long time because of the swinging pendulum of extreme right and extreme left.

I have no words of wisdom for OP. My heart aches for her and her child. Please do whatever is necessary to make sure that they are getting a very good education at home, in private schools, in private coaching classes, through online resources.

You're so extra. So was your response to a mention of not having a centralized teacher assignment in elementary.

I am giving a possible solution, you moron! Parents who can swing it should put together their own educational teams to support their kids since things are not going to get better at MCPS, and the kids cannot afford to not get an education during the academic year.

If the OP is able to solve her kid's problem in any other creative way or by escalating to MCPS then maybe she can share on this thread? IMHO, it is doubtful that she can move the dial at all, unless she raises a whole lot of stink. Good luck to all of you!

[Anonymous]

So for language arts and math, the class size is 55-60? The original class the teacher already has plus your DD’s class?

[Anonymous]

What grade? I would call Catholic schools near your house and ask if they have any openings. It sounds like a wasted school year. My son had a terrible second grade year with a revolving parade of subs. He also had a terrible first grade teacher and a k teacher was who went on illness leave. When he was going to get a third grade teacher who was going to go out on maternity leave in Nov. I moved him to Catholic school.