MCAP Results and thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I truly feel that schools need to focus on EDUCATION. There are plenty of other government agencies and non-profits who can do the rest.

Schools can’t do everything. Focus on one thing (teaching kids) and let other organizations handle the rest.

From an efficiency and value for money standpoint, it makes a lot of sense to serve kids where they are physically located. If you want to be sure kids get a healthy breakfast and lunch, then serving it to them directly conserves valuable resources and limits opportunities for fraud/misuse.

Similarly, embedding medical clinics in the highest needs schools saves taxpayer resources because the children are already there, elementary schools tend to be walking distance to homes, and schools can function as a distribution hub.

What I think folks fail to understand, however, is that MCPS funds are largely not going to those items. Free and reduced price breakfasts and lunches come from federal funds, while money for social services or medical care is a mix of federal/state/county funds. It's not being diverted from education - it's just being physically delivered in the place where kids/families are anyway.

I thought the bulk of MCPS funds went to fund central office bloat?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I truly feel that schools need to focus on EDUCATION. There are plenty of other government agencies and non-profits who can do the rest.

Schools can’t do everything. Focus on one thing (teaching kids) and let other organizations handle the rest.

From an efficiency and value for money standpoint, it makes a lot of sense to serve kids where they are physically located. If you want to be sure kids get a healthy breakfast and lunch, then serving it to them directly conserves valuable resources and limits opportunities for fraud/misuse.

Similarly, embedding medical clinics in the highest needs schools saves taxpayer resources because the children are already there, elementary schools tend to be walking distance to homes, and schools can function as a distribution hub.

What I think folks fail to understand, however, is that MCPS funds are largely not going to those items. Free and reduced price breakfasts and lunches come from federal funds, while money for social services or medical care is a mix of federal/state/county funds. It's not being diverted from education - it's just being physically delivered in the place where kids/families are anyway.

I thought the bulk of MCPS funds went to fund central office bloat?

People complain about central office bloat and the McPS budget but apparently have failed to do any real math calculations. Like the fact the district has 26K employees and 150K+ students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I truly feel that schools need to focus on EDUCATION. There are plenty of other government agencies and non-profits who can do the rest.

Schools can’t do everything. Focus on one thing (teaching kids) and let other organizations handle the rest.

From an efficiency and value for money standpoint, it makes a lot of sense to serve kids where they are physically located. If you want to be sure kids get a healthy breakfast and lunch, then serving it to them directly conserves valuable resources and limits opportunities for fraud/misuse.

Similarly, embedding medical clinics in the highest needs schools saves taxpayer resources because the children are already there, elementary schools tend to be walking distance to homes, and schools can function as a distribution hub.

What I think folks fail to understand, however, is that MCPS funds are largely not going to those items. Free and reduced price breakfasts and lunches come from federal funds, while money for social services or medical care is a mix of federal/state/county funds. It's not being diverted from education - it's just being physically delivered in the place where kids/families are anyway.

I thought the bulk of MCPS funds went to fund central office bloat?

People complain about central office bloat and the McPS budget but apparently have failed to do any real math calculations. Like the fact the district has 26K employees and 150K+ students.

Don't see how that's even relevant since it doesn't dispute the central office bloat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They get money for special needs and for kids who are low income. I don't now about ESOL.

That's very interesting considering how horrible Sp.Ed students are treated, not to mention the lack of support to even have a functional and safe classroom. Is it possible to audit the school?

[Anonymous]

I just received my DC's 3rd grade MCAP scores, but he's finishing up his 4th grade year. Is it typical to have a yearlong delay in receiving scores?

[Anonymous]

We just got our 4th grader's from last year (3rd). I guess they seem in line with her MAP scores and so on. I don't have a clue what this was supposed to tell us about our individual children, especially a year later. Is it more to see how the school is doing, on average?

[Anonymous]

Finally got my now 5th grade kid’s. He did really well and his school did better than average. I wish we’d had these results earlier in the week when he was freaking out about this year’s test.

[Anonymous]

Is it more to see how the school is doing, on average?

Yes, I think so. if your child's MCAP scores are way out of whack from what you're expecting -- for example, she's getting good grades in reading but MCAP says she's not proficient -- that's worth clarifying with your school. But I don't think you can reasonably make instructional changes based on MCAP because they're so delayed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Is it more to see how the school is doing, on average?

Yes, I think so. if your child's MCAP scores are way out of whack from what you're expecting -- for example, she's getting good grades in reading but MCAP says she's not proficient -- that's worth clarifying with your school. But I don't think you can reasonably make instructional changes based on MCAP because they're so delayed.

Which is the saddest part and why teachers and parents hate that the testing takes up so much time. These individual state exams are bogus. There needs to be one national test, given in key years(3,5, 7,9, and one for Algebra). After that there are PSAT/SAT, APs for HS. Take the MAP in Fall and Spring to show growth during the year and year to year. Done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Is it more to see how the school is doing, on average?

Yes, I think so. if your child's MCAP scores are way out of whack from what you're expecting -- for example, she's getting good grades in reading but MCAP says she's not proficient -- that's worth clarifying with your school. But I don't think you can reasonably make instructional changes based on MCAP because they're so delayed.

Which is the saddest part and why teachers and parents hate that the testing takes up so much time. These individual state exams are bogus. There needs to be one national test, given in key years(3,5, 7,9, and one for Algebra). After that there are PSAT/SAT, APs for HS. Take the MAP in Fall and Spring to show growth during the year and year to year. Done.

+100. MCAP is redundant with MAP/national testing and a terrible waste of what could have been ~12 hours of instruction time.

Also that is ridiculous it took an entire year to get results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Is it more to see how the school is doing, on average?

Yes, I think so. if your child's MCAP scores are way out of whack from what you're expecting -- for example, she's getting good grades in reading but MCAP says she's not proficient -- that's worth clarifying with your school. But I don't think you can reasonably make instructional changes based on MCAP because they're so delayed.

Just popping in to say I agree and I still haven’t received my child’s (was 5th, now 6th).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Is it more to see how the school is doing, on average?

Yes, I think so. if your child's MCAP scores are way out of whack from what you're expecting -- for example, she's getting good grades in reading but MCAP says she's not proficient -- that's worth clarifying with your school. But I don't think you can reasonably make instructional changes based on MCAP because they're so delayed.

Which is the saddest part and why teachers and parents hate that the testing takes up so much time. These individual state exams are bogus. There needs to be one national test, given in key years(3,5, 7,9, and one for Algebra). After that there are PSAT/SAT, APs for HS. Take the MAP in Fall and Spring to show growth during the year and year to year. Done.

+100. MCAP is redundant with MAP/national testing and a terrible waste of what could have been ~12 hours of instruction time.

Also that is ridiculous it took an entire year to get results.

Are these the same people who say that kids should get a "break" in late May and early June?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Is it more to see how the school is doing, on average?

Yes, I think so. if your child's MCAP scores are way out of whack from what you're expecting -- for example, she's getting good grades in reading but MCAP says she's not proficient -- that's worth clarifying with your school. But I don't think you can reasonably make instructional changes based on MCAP because they're so delayed.

Which is the saddest part and why teachers and parents hate that the testing takes up so much time. These individual state exams are bogus. There needs to be one national test, given in key years(3,5, 7,9, and one for Algebra). After that there are PSAT/SAT, APs for HS. Take the MAP in Fall and Spring to show growth during the year and year to year. Done.

+100. MCAP is redundant with MAP/national testing and a terrible waste of what could have been ~12 hours of instruction time.

Also that is ridiculous it took an entire year to get results.

My guess is they've had the results since kids took the test. It's on a computer. The problem was they had no way to interpret them because it's a new test that hasn't been calibrated or used before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Is it more to see how the school is doing, on average?

Yes, I think so. if your child's MCAP scores are way out of whack from what you're expecting -- for example, she's getting good grades in reading but MCAP says she's not proficient -- that's worth clarifying with your school. But I don't think you can reasonably make instructional changes based on MCAP because they're so delayed.

Which is the saddest part and why teachers and parents hate that the testing takes up so much time. These individual state exams are bogus. There needs to be one national test, given in key years(3,5, 7,9, and one for Algebra). After that there are PSAT/SAT, APs for HS. Take the MAP in Fall and Spring to show growth during the year and year to year. Done.

+100. MCAP is redundant with MAP/national testing and a terrible waste of what could have been ~12 hours of instruction time.

Also that is ridiculous it took an entire year to get results.

Are these the same people who say that kids should get a "break" in late May and early June?

By early June everyone should get a break. The seniors are done. AP and MCAP testing occurs in late April/early May which puts them early in 4th quarter because of our school calendar. Who wants to be doing major graded projects and assignments after the major testing???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They get money for special needs and for kids who are low income. I don't now about ESOL.

That's very interesting considering how horrible Sp.Ed students are treated, not to mention the lack of support to even have a functional and safe classroom. Is it possible to audit the school?

+1.