Anti-Racist Audit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you in support of these activities and audits, where is the evidence showing it helps? Frankly I find myself so overtly skeptical of this whole new industry that I find myself less inclined to want to help anyone. I miss MLK, Jr.’s message. I am not sure I completely buy into the message that focusing on race is better than trying to move beyond it. Change is slow and we have come a long way. Suddenly it’s not enough and we need all this training. Why? Is it helping? Who is it helping other than these new trainers and auditors?

Just because we’ve come a long way doesn’t mean we’ve reached the goal. And it’s not suddenly not enough, it hasn’t been enough all along. And what’s the measure of a long way? No longer allowing slavery? No longer have separate White’s and Colored bathrooms or separate schools. Make no mistake, there is still dramatic differences to how students of color are treated in classrooms and what they and their parents are informed about in term of opportunities. You not seeing that is actually the point. The racism or problems are not all resolved, folks have just gotten better at hiding it.

These are serious questions, not trolling: Do you have some sort of report or documentation about this? Is it documented at the system level, grade by grade, or even school by school?

I ask only because at Magruder, I don't really see any differences. White student enrollment is about 22%, so perhaps that's why. Perhaps schools where BIPOC kids are minorities are different, but there are not many of those. A school by school analysis would help identify issues that may differ by enrollment.

And I don't consider a survey to be evidence. Responders can be biased or even wrong. Their perceptions matter, but it's not evidence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you in support of these activities and audits, where is the evidence showing it helps? Frankly I find myself so overtly skeptical of this whole new industry that I find myself less inclined to want to help anyone. I miss MLK, Jr.’s message. I am not sure I completely buy into the message that focusing on race is better than trying to move beyond it. Change is slow and we have come a long way. Suddenly it’s not enough and we need all this training. Why? Is it helping? Who is it helping other than these new trainers and auditors?

Just because we’ve come a long way doesn’t mean we’ve reached the goal. And it’s not suddenly not enough, it hasn’t been enough all along. And what’s the measure of a long way? No longer allowing slavery? No longer have separate White’s and Colored bathrooms or separate schools. Make no mistake, there is still dramatic differences to how students of color are treated in classrooms and what they and their parents are informed about in term of opportunities. You not seeing that is actually the point. The racism or problems are not all resolved, folks have just gotten better at hiding it.

These are serious questions, not trolling: Do you have some sort of report or documentation about this? Is it documented at the system level, grade by grade, or even school by school?

I ask only because at Magruder, I don't really see any differences. White student enrollment is about 22%, so perhaps that's why. Perhaps schools where BIPOC kids are minorities are different, but there are not many of those. A school by school analysis would help identify issues that may differ by enrollment.

And I don't consider a survey to be evidence. Responders can be biased or even wrong. Their perceptions matter, but it's not evidence.

They can pretend they did something and gives them cover for neglecting education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Total waste of money. We are in one of the wealthiest and most diverse areas of the world and treat each other well almost without exception. Just another way for people to make money and create a victim mentality.

You must be wealthy and white to answer this way. MoCo is full of backstage racists, hence the need for an audit

[Anonymous]

If MCPS or any other school system wants to combat racism, they should prioritize raising the academic accomplishments of groups who traditionally underperform average student outcomes. Was this included in the audit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Total waste of money. We are in one of the wealthiest and most diverse areas of the world and treat each other well almost without exception. Just another way for people to make money and create a victim mentality.

You must be wealthy and white to answer this way. MoCo is full of backstage racists, hence the need for an audit

Even if that were true, and it isn't, the audit still would accomplish nothing. It's just a sideshow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS or any other school system wants to combat racism, they should prioritize raising the academic accomplishments of groups who traditionally underperform average student outcomes. Was this included in the audit?

Yes, they have been focusing on underperforming grous. They collect data by group and report to the board regularly.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/evidence-of-learning-framework/equity-accountability-model.aspx

[Anonymous]

If MCPS really cared about low income kids, they would have smaller class sizes, a ban on cell phones in class, and an actual attendance policy. I teach at a HS with a majority of immigrant students. There is a huge range of student ability in my classes but with class sizes of 30+ students including many students with IEPs, there is only so much I can do to help struggling students. Many students miss 2-3 days every week or they leave to visit their home country for 4-6 weeks and MCPS just says help them make up the missed learning. Most kids are also addicted to their cell phones so that is another battle teachers are expected to fight on their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Total waste of money. We are in one of the wealthiest and most diverse areas of the world and treat each other well almost without exception. Just another way for people to make money and create a victim mentality.

You must be wealthy and white to answer this way. MoCo is full of backstage racists, hence the need for an audit

I don't think racist means what you think it means

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS really cared about low income kids, they would have smaller class sizes, a ban on cell phones in class, and an actual attendance policy. I teach at a HS with a majority of immigrant students. There is a huge range of student ability in my classes but with class sizes of 30+ students including many students with IEPs, there is only so much I can do to help struggling students. Many students miss 2-3 days every week or they leave to visit their home country for 4-6 weeks and MCPS just says help them make up the missed learning. Most kids are also addicted to their cell phones so that is another battle teachers are expected to fight on their own.

Funny at both our MCPS ES and MS cellphones are banned. I assume this is true everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Total waste of money. We are in one of the wealthiest and most diverse areas of the world and treat each other well almost without exception. Just another way for people to make money and create a victim mentality.

You must be wealthy and white to answer this way. MoCo is full of backstage racists, hence the need for an audit

I don't think racist means what you think it means

Anyone who disagrees with me is racist!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS really cared about low income kids, they would have smaller class sizes, a ban on cell phones in class, and an actual attendance policy. I teach at a HS with a majority of immigrant students. There is a huge range of student ability in my classes but with class sizes of 30+ students including many students with IEPs, there is only so much I can do to help struggling students. Many students miss 2-3 days every week or they leave to visit their home country for 4-6 weeks and MCPS just says help them make up the missed learning. Most kids are also addicted to their cell phones so that is another battle teachers are expected to fight on their own.

Funny at both our MCPS ES and MS cellphones are banned. I assume this is true everywhere.

They were banned at my child's middle school. They were not banned at his high school last year. They cracked down more on cell phone use this year, and I think it helped some. But you can't always make people in adult bodies comply with rules in a school. And it's worse when they have varying levels of maturity and self-control (speaking from experience with my own teen). We have had at least one teacher assaulted this year.

I have methods of managing my child's behavior. I have tools in the toolkit, tried and true. The school system has taken away many of the teachers' tools for setting expectations and managing classroom behavior. This is what we get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS really cared about low income kids, they would have smaller class sizes, a ban on cell phones in class, and an actual attendance policy. I teach at a HS with a majority of immigrant students. There is a huge range of student ability in my classes but with class sizes of 30+ students including many students with IEPs, there is only so much I can do to help struggling students. Many students miss 2-3 days every week or they leave to visit their home country for 4-6 weeks and MCPS just says help them make up the missed learning. Most kids are also addicted to their cell phones so that is another battle teachers are expected to fight on their own.

+1 I teach at a middle school like this and the school is falling apart. If MCPS really cared, they would put money into fixing up the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS really cared about low income kids, they would have smaller class sizes, a ban on cell phones in class, and an actual attendance policy. I teach at a HS with a majority of immigrant students. There is a huge range of student ability in my classes but with class sizes of 30+ students including many students with IEPs, there is only so much I can do to help struggling students. Many students miss 2-3 days every week or they leave to visit their home country for 4-6 weeks and MCPS just says help them make up the missed learning. Most kids are also addicted to their cell phones so that is another battle teachers are expected to fight on their own.

MCPS does care about disadvantaged kids, it is a very hard problem to fix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Total waste of money. We are in one of the wealthiest and most diverse areas of the world and treat each other well almost without exception. Just another way for people to make money and create a victim mentality.

Wow. Step outside of your bubble sometime.

NP - but tell us the specific ways that you have been treated in a racist way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS really cared about low income kids, they would have smaller class sizes, a ban on cell phones in class, and an actual attendance policy. I teach at a HS with a majority of immigrant students. There is a huge range of student ability in my classes but with class sizes of 30+ students including many students with IEPs, there is only so much I can do to help struggling students. Many students miss 2-3 days every week or they leave to visit their home country for 4-6 weeks and MCPS just says help them make up the missed learning. Most kids are also addicted to their cell phones so that is another battle teachers are expected to fight on their own.

MCPS does care about disadvantaged kids, it is a very hard problem to fix.

Do they though? MCPS is very into things like the school leadership team spending hours on MCPS assigned anti-racist audit paperwork rather than using that time to work on strengthening the school, but every single time teachers suggest ways to be actively antiracist at the school or classroom level they are dismissed as "not being a team player" by absolutely everyone above them.


MCPS won't listen to you unless you are a white parent or a paid consultant. Prove me wrong.