Teacher exposes the craptastic decline iof MCPS in Reddit rant

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of it is true, but we have a few really good teacher this year who are holding the kids accountable and really tuff with grading but they are also teaching them the the skills that they didn't get in ES or MS. The teachers can do far more and some choose not to. The worst are the ones who will not read or return email when you try to work with them.

The teachers are probably holding the students as accountable as admin will allow. I would love to be at a school where deadlines were enforced unless there was a good reason to give an extension to a student. It shouldn’t be the case that any student can turn in work eight weeks late for any reason just two days before the end of the quarter.

That wouldn’t fly at private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a HS teacher in MCPS. This is all true.
I keep wondering who are the jokers in central office who come up with these policies.

Its all driven by the parents court cases and lawsuits. All school systems have headed this way unfortunately.

Without accountability, schools have turned into daycare and diploma mills.

[Anonymous]

That was a pretty enlightening Reddit thread. If a student is not self-motivated and high-performing, they are completely failed by MCPS schools today. It's a race to the bottom for average kids. And it's entirely caused by central office bureaucrats. Monica McKnight cannot leave soon enough.

[Anonymous]

I definitely feel like I'm babysitting high schoolers. I'm supposed to show grace and provide extra support. And I do, I check in, I have good relationships with most of the kids- they talk to me about what's going on at home and teenage drama and they ask me how my weekend was. I offer planning periods and lunch for them to stop by and they don't - until the last 2 days of the quarter. And by then they're so far gone that there's nothing I can do to actually help other that having them get in that assignment with higher points to maybe get that E to a D.

I see them in the hallway skipping class and remind them if they come to class today I can reteach what was on yesterday's test so they can retake it. They know it's a great idea. And they don't show up.

The hallway outside room get loud with the kids skipping class. I ask them to keep it down and I get cursed out.

I'm sad for these kids. Their classes are too hard for them, but yeah, let's put them in honors English when they're reading at 3rd grade level. Let's pass them in math and put them in the next level even though they don't have their basic concepts down.

By the time they even get to HS they are SO far behind. Having a kid myself who struggles academically, by mid elementary school we needed to ever resource we could to keep her at grade level, because I'm terrified of her getting to MS and not having the basic skills and falling that far behind because it feels helpless at that point.

It's so overwhelming. The parents don't know what to do. And the kids are giving up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of it is true, but we have a few really good teacher this year who are holding the kids accountable and really tuff with grading but they are also teaching them the the skills that they didn't get in ES or MS. The teachers can do far more and some choose not to. The worst are the ones who will not read or return email when you try to work with them.

Parents don’t care. Period. I have 12 kids who had over 26 absences each in quarter 1. It’s time for a mirror.

+1 in FCPS. Another PP asked which school. It’s happening at practically every school across the nation.

[Anonymous]

Whatever. Let the kids ‘pass’, graduate, and learn the hard way that their slacking off will not land them a career. They can work a crappy job and be miserable, get fired for not coming in, and deal with the consequences. These are not little kids- these are soon to be adults who have made a choice. Teachers- stop wasting your energy on these students/parents that don’t respect what you do. We can’t save them all and instead, focus your energy on the ones that want to learn and the ones you can make an impact on. I changed my ways in the last two years and it has made teaching so much more enjoyable and meaningful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whatever. Let the kids ‘pass’, graduate, and learn the hard way that their slacking off will not land them a career. They can work a crappy job and be miserable, get fired for not coming in, and deal with the consequences. These are not little kids- these are soon to be adults who have made a choice. Teachers- stop wasting your energy on these students/parents that don’t respect what you do. We can’t save them all and instead, focus your energy on the ones that want to learn and the ones you can make an impact on. I changed my ways in the last two years and it has made teaching so much more enjoyable and meaningful.

You must not have SLOs where you are. At my school, we were given a list of the lowest performers and told to focus on them for the SLO. In 2 months, I have to show multi-point data that they have improved although all of them are two or more years behind and one is chronically absent.

[Anonymous]

I agree about the leadership and metrics with honors, but tge attendance stuff is just not true at my kid's MCPS HS. I just hot a menacing letter say mine would be withdrawn if she missed more classes. It was a mistake in our case because her absences were related to illness and excused. But, they are on it. There are not kids roaming the halls, though I do see some outside, especially at lunch (even though they have closed lunch). Also, with class attendance, kids are absent if they miss more than 15/20 min of class. They are not stretching tardies for this metric at this school. Also there are no parent consultations when 0s are issued.

I agree about the OP on the 50% rule. It's frustrating. But, the sweeping accusations about attendance across schools and the jab at restorative justice seem to convey a bias. RJ isn't a cure all by any means but can do some good in the right situation. And, I do understand that sometimes it just exacerbates a bad situation.

I agree that there are serious issues with current MCPS leadership, but let's advocate for change without the broad strokes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree about the leadership and metrics with honors, but tge attendance stuff is just not true at my kid's MCPS HS. I just hot a menacing letter say mine would be withdrawn if she missed more classes. It was a mistake in our case because her absences were related to illness and excused. But, they are on it. There are not kids roaming the halls, though I do see some outside, especially at lunch (even though they have closed lunch). Also, with class attendance, kids are absent if they miss more than 15/20 min of class. They are not stretching tardies for this metric at this school. Also there are no parent consultations when 0s are issued.

I agree about the OP on the 50% rule. It's frustrating. But, the sweeping accusations about attendance across schools and the jab at restorative justice seem to convey a bias. RJ isn't a cure all by any means but can do some good in the right situation. And, I do understand that sometimes it just exacerbates a bad situation.

I agree that there are serious issues with current MCPS leadership, but let's advocate for change without the broad strokes.

Yeah, but it's like 10 consecutive days. (Don't quote me on the actual metrics). So they show up one day and it starts the clock over. And teachers don't consistently take attendance, so a kid looks like they're present in the system, but attendance wasn't taken. And it may not apply to SPED kids. There are a million reasons why that rule isn't working.

[Anonymous]

This whole reddit is exactly right. Further they punish and non renew teacher shortage have no protection or support if they actually want to teach instead of manipulate the data. So then the give up teaching g and just gi through the motions because no ones listening. The kids dint show up, the ones that do surf their phones, or argue why they need to be there when everyone else is hanging in the halls and will g we t the same grade, you can't reach out to parents without them turning it around as " I heard the teacher sucks", and admin pick and choose who gets good reviews based on favoritism. Also, they lie to unemployment when they cut you to block your state benefits. More bullying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That was a pretty enlightening Reddit thread. If a student is not self-motivated and high-performing, they are completely failed by MCPS schools today. It's a race to the bottom for average kids. And it's entirely caused by central office bureaucrats. Monica McKnight cannot leave soon enough.

I just read the reddit post, and agree with all, but I don't think what's happening in MCPS started with McKnight. It's been sliding for a while all in the name of equity.

The sad part of all this is that the system is failing the most neediest. What happens to these types of kids once they graduate HS? I guess it's no longer MCPS problem, so.. shrug. As long as their numbers look good.

I have one who graduated from a magnet program in MCPS, and now at college. Doing very well.

The other is an above average student who is taking a couple of AP classes, but the rest of the "honors" classes is a joke. Such a joke. They struggled a lot in the beginning of their AP classes because the lack of HW in the MS didn't teach them to study. They got such easy As, and then all of a sudden, the AP classes expected more. It was too high of a leap. I had to teach DC how to study. Luckily DC got their grades up in their AP classes.

MCPS is really doing a disservice to kids all around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That was a pretty enlightening Reddit thread. If a student is not self-motivated and high-performing, they are completely failed by MCPS schools today. It's a race to the bottom for average kids. And it's entirely caused by central office bureaucrats. Monica McKnight cannot leave soon enough.

So in summary, to increase graduation rates, MCPS stopped requiring kids actually go to class and stopped teachers from giving zeros for not doing any assignments. That caused a drop in attendance rates, so they redefined absences as just very tardy. The result is that kids without parental oversight are hanging out in the hallways and graduating with no skills, knowledge, or self-discipline. However, the graduation and attendance rates are meeting metrics.

Lol, you all need to name schools for me to believe this. And even more, you need to name schools because all that was done in the name of equity, but if true, it's actually hurting the kids who need equity.

[Anonymous]

This is an American culture problem. We want to pretend everyone is the same, but they aren't. Not every kid is college-bound. But every kid should be able to learn and thrive and end high school able to read and understand enough math to live life and pursue higher education if desired. Everyone who has an average IQ (and I mean everyone) can learn to read and do algebra. Also, we can teach kids what tools they can use to have success. What we can't do is pretend every kid needs to or is able to make it through AP calculus by their senior year in high school. Kids unfortunately do not start school on a level playing field. Schools can't level all the differences. If we were able and willing to meet kids where they are, spend more time reteaching kids who need repetition to get concepts and spend time building background knowledge for kids that need that, we'd end up with more kids happy and thriving in school. Unfortunately, we want to pretend different needs don't exist, all kids can meet the same benchmarks in the same time frame, and we consequently teach to an almost non-existent middle which leaves a lot of kids bored and a lot of kids perpetually confused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a pretty enlightening Reddit thread. If a student is not self-motivated and high-performing, they are completely failed by MCPS schools today. It's a race to the bottom for average kids. And it's entirely caused by central office bureaucrats. Monica McKnight cannot leave soon enough.

So in summary, to increase graduation rates, MCPS stopped requiring kids actually go to class and stopped teachers from giving zeros for not doing any assignments. That caused a drop in attendance rates, so they redefined absences as just very tardy. The result is that kids without parental oversight are hanging out in the hallways and graduating with no skills, knowledge, or self-discipline. However, the graduation and attendance rates are meeting metrics.

Lol, you all need to name schools for me to believe this. And even more, you need to name schools because all that was done in the name of equity, but if true, it's actually hurting the kids who need equity.

We left MCPS for private, but I was aware of the 50% thing. Here's a news article about it:
https://moco360.media/2023/07/24/some-mcps-grading-policies-incentivize-absenteeism-teachers-say/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a pretty enlightening Reddit thread. If a student is not self-motivated and high-performing, they are completely failed by MCPS schools today. It's a race to the bottom for average kids. And it's entirely caused by central office bureaucrats. Monica McKnight cannot leave soon enough.

So in summary, to increase graduation rates, MCPS stopped requiring kids actually go to class and stopped teachers from giving zeros for not doing any assignments. That caused a drop in attendance rates, so they redefined absences as just very tardy. The result is that kids without parental oversight are hanging out in the hallways and graduating with no skills, knowledge, or self-discipline. However, the graduation and attendance rates are meeting metrics.

Lol, you all need to name schools for me to believe this. And even more, you need to name schools because all that was done in the name of equity, but if true, it's actually hurting the kids who need equity.

Name schools? It’s happening at all of them at some level. Our MS and HS are doing this and it’s a total shame.