MoCo school trends

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember taking physics and chem in FCPS at a school with a GS rating of 10. The problem I had was the majority of kids lacked basic math skills needed to take these subjects so the classes were useless. MoCo has its problems for sure, but still seems better than this.

I think it's all relative. Is MCPS perfect? Obviously not. Are there other districts that are better? Sure. Are there others that are worse.. absolutely. I moved from one to mcps.

MCPS has challenges that most other districts do not. MCPS is huge. Most very large districts have lots of issues. Just the nature of the beast. I came from a small district, and they had their problems, too. There is no perfect answer. I still prefer MCPS to the one I moved from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember taking physics and chem in FCPS at a school with a GS rating of 10. The problem I had was the majority of kids lacked basic math skills needed to take these subjects so the classes were useless. MoCo has its problems for sure, but still seems better than this.

I think it's all relative. Is MCPS perfect? Obviously not. Are there other districts that are better? Sure. Are there others that are worse.. absolutely. I moved from one to mcps.

MCPS has challenges that most other districts do not. MCPS is huge. Most very large districts have lots of issues. Just the nature of the beast. I came from a small district, and they had their problems, too. There is no perfect answer. I still prefer MCPS to the one I moved from.

I don't disagree with you BUT I still believe that the policies they have implemented, like eliminating finals and making Math tests shorter assessments instead of larger unit tests and other as part of 2.0 have made the system much worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember taking physics and chem in FCPS at a school with a GS rating of 10. The problem I had was the majority of kids lacked basic math skills needed to take these subjects so the classes were useless. MoCo has its problems for sure, but still seems better than this.

I think it's all relative. Is MCPS perfect? Obviously not. Are there other districts that are better? Sure. Are there others that are worse.. absolutely. I moved from one to mcps.

MCPS has challenges that most other districts do not. MCPS is huge. Most very large districts have lots of issues. Just the nature of the beast. I came from a small district, and they had their problems, too. There is no perfect answer. I still prefer MCPS to the one I moved from.

The point isn't whether MCPS is "good" or "bad" today. Question is whether it has gotten worse (i.e., "trend) over the years. Answer is definitely it has.

[Anonymous]

Although I went to FCPS, it seemed comparable to MCPS back then.

My experience as a parent today at MCPS seems far better than my experience as a student at FCPS in the 80s.

It's not to say there aren't problems or things couldn't be better, but in spite of these problems they do a better job.

[Anonymous]

^ This is just my impression, but curious if any real data exists that speaks to decay in quality.

[Anonymous]

Education quality is declining everywhere, so yes it will remain one of the best.

[Anonymous]

Not sure about the criteria used to evaluate, but this site suggestions that there are many school systems that outrank both FCPS and MCPS: https://k12.niche.com/?sort=best

I'm from the NE and taught there as well- here I've taught in both FCPS and MCPS and find both systems to lack the rigor of schools in the NE. I wasn't surprised to see on the above site that many schools in NY, CT, and MA outrank schools in DC Metro Area.

[Anonymous]

The influx of Central Americans has taken its toll on mcps. MCPS wants to close the learning gap between the immigrants and the kids in the Churchill school district. That means slowing down the progress of the "white privileged " kids so that the lower achieving kids can appear to be learning more. Multiculturalism is really dragging us down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The influx of Central Americans has taken its toll on mcps. MCPS wants to close the learning gap between the immigrants and the kids in the Churchill school district. That means slowing down the progress of the "white privileged " kids so that the lower achieving kids can appear to be learning more. Multiculturalism is really dragging us down.

Then take the hint and realize that MCPS doesn't really want your white kid anymore. Time to move or private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The influx of Central Americans has taken its toll on mcps. MCPS wants to close the learning gap between the immigrants and the kids in the Churchill school district. That means slowing down the progress of the "white privileged " kids so that the lower achieving kids can appear to be learning more. Multiculturalism is really dragging us down.

Then take the hint and realize that MCPS doesn't really want your white kid anymore. Time to move or private.

I'm not pp you are responding to but what do you mean? Why would it not want white kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see a big difference even between my 9th grader and 7th grader. When 9th grader was in ES, she had lots of homework, projects, speeches, Math unit tests that she studied for a full week. 7th grader never had to memorize multiplication fact, state capitals--no science projects, math became only 30 minute assessments that never required studying. I am open to the fact I am wrong but it seems like MCPS dumbed everything down in order to prevent statistics showing no improvement in achievement gap. It pisses me off because my younger kid is really smart (older one average) but he does not get pushed at all. He gets no lower than 98% on anything in Algebra and never has big tests or big projects that he has to do outside of school. Without the challenge of a foreign language he would have nothing but 30 minutes a week of work. Getting rid of finals, which absolutely helps my older with her GPA, but I still feel is the worst decision the system could make. Thank goodness AP exams are national or they would get rid of those too. They provide too much data to evaluate results. I hope I am wrong but my opinion is that the system gets worse every year.

If you don't mind my asking, where did/do your children attend ES and MS? I have a 4th grader and he was drilled on the multiplication table last year, state geography is a big deal, there seems to be a lot of differentiation and the emphasis on writing is far superior to what I expected. I keep hearing these horror stories on DCUM and I'm not seeing it play out that way for my children (I also have a 1st grader) so I'm trying to figure out if my expectations are not high enough or the W pyramid we are in expects more from students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see a big difference even between my 9th grader and 7th grader. When 9th grader was in ES, she had lots of homework, projects, speeches, Math unit tests that she studied for a full week. 7th grader never had to memorize multiplication fact, state capitals--no science projects, math became only 30 minute assessments that never required studying. I am open to the fact I am wrong but it seems like MCPS dumbed everything down in order to prevent statistics showing no improvement in achievement gap. It pisses me off because my younger kid is really smart (older one average) but he does not get pushed at all. He gets no lower than 98% on anything in Algebra and never has big tests or big projects that he has to do outside of school. Without the challenge of a foreign language he would have nothing but 30 minutes a week of work. Getting rid of finals, which absolutely helps my older with her GPA, but I still feel is the worst decision the system could make. Thank goodness AP exams are national or they would get rid of those too. They provide too much data to evaluate results. I hope I am wrong but my opinion is that the system gets worse every year.

If you don't mind my asking, where did/do your children attend ES and MS? I have a 4th grader and he was drilled on the multiplication table last year, state geography is a big deal, there seems to be a lot of differentiation and the emphasis on writing is far superior to what I expected. I keep hearing these horror stories on DCUM and I'm not seeing it play out that way for my children (I also have a 1st grader) so I'm trying to figure out if my expectations are not high enough or the W pyramid we are in expects more from students.

I'm the pp. Both my DC have homework every night and biweekly spelling tests. I'm not sure what a pp is talking about in regards to math "blossoming"? It is taught like everything else. The new system teaches problem solving multiple ways in the early years to make sure students fully grasp the concepts. I disagree that this is problematic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The influx of Central Americans has taken its toll on mcps. MCPS wants to close the learning gap between the immigrants and the kids in the Churchill school district. That means slowing down the progress of the "white privileged " kids so that the lower achieving kids can appear to be learning more. Multiculturalism is really dragging us down.

Then take the hint and realize that MCPS doesn't really want your white kid anymore. Time to move or private.

I'm not pp you are responding to but what do you mean? Why would it not want white kids?

They care only about closing the achievement gap. White (and Asian) kids bring up the average, meaning the other kids have to work harder about closing the gap.

Here's what an outgoing MCPS board member said this week:

"Outgoing school board member Christopher Barclay Thursday night urged the board to address “the vestiges of white supremacy and colonialism” that create disparities in the education system."

http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/Web-2016/Outgoing-School-Board-Member-Urges-Attack-on-Systemic-Racism/

Now, how do you think they feel about white kids?

Overall, we're still satisfied with MCPS. Remember it's all relative -- if MCPS is lower quality due to Common Core, then other school systems are also if they need to do it also.

Ultimately, the biggest determinant of educational success is support at home. Sit down nightly with your kids to go over their homework and so on, and get tutors as needed, and they'll excel.

[Anonymous]

Is MCPS, slowly but surely, becoming like PGPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The influx of Central Americans has taken its toll on mcps. MCPS wants to close the learning gap between the immigrants and the kids in the Churchill school district. That means slowing down the progress of the "white privileged " kids so that the lower achieving kids can appear to be learning more. Multiculturalism is really dragging us down.

Then take the hint and realize that MCPS doesn't really want your white kid anymore. Time to move or private.

I'm not pp you are responding to but what do you mean? Why would it not want white kids?

They care only about closing the achievement gap. White (and Asian) kids bring up the average, meaning the other kids have to work harder about closing the gap.

Here's what an outgoing MCPS board member said this week:

"Outgoing school board member Christopher Barclay Thursday night urged the board to address “the vestiges of white supremacy and colonialism” that create disparities in the education system."

http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/Web-2016/Outgoing-School-Board-Member-Urges-Attack-on-Systemic-Racism/

Now, how do you think they feel about white kids?

Overall, we're still satisfied with MCPS. Remember it's all relative -- if MCPS is lower quality due to Common Core, then other school systems are also if they need to do it also.

Ultimately, the biggest determinant of educational success is support at home. Sit down nightly with your kids to go over their homework and so on, and get tutors as needed, and they'll excel.

What a racist Barclay is. Disgusting!