MCPS curriculum RFP-Second Attempt

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a group within the central office that still wants to cling to 2.0. They want Discovery Ed to win the bid so they don't have to change many things. They want their legacy to be a success not a humiliating failure. The focus is 100% on finding ways to keep the incumbent employees in their jobs and very little effort is being put forward to address the problem curriculum these employees created for the students.

And you say this based on what? Moreover, why would incumbent employees be afraid of losing their jobs? Given protections afforded public employees, playing a role in a bad curriculum won't get you fired and, if it could, it wouldn't matter who won the next contract.

[Anonymous]

If MCPS doesn’t fix this mess, the exodus from the school system will be enormous. Those who enjoy living in the county for other reasons, and who have money, will choose private. Others will move.

Personally, we’re just going private. We like the county otherwise and don’t want to take a chance on another school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS doesn’t fix this mess, the exodus from the school system will be enormous. Those who enjoy living in the county for other reasons, and who have money, will choose private. Others will move.

Personally, we’re just going private. We like the county otherwise and don’t want to take a chance on another school system.

Well, no. Most people can’t afford private and it’s not so easy to move and some of us like McPS teachers even if we think the curriculum stinks. Sounds like you want to tell yourself that there will be a “mass exodus” to justify your upcoming private school tuition bills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS doesn’t fix this mess, the exodus from the school system will be enormous. Those who enjoy living in the county for other reasons, and who have money, will choose private. Others will move.

Personally, we’re just going private. We like the county otherwise and don’t want to take a chance on another school system.

Well, no. Most people can’t afford private and it’s not so easy to move and some of us like McPS teachers even if we think the curriculum stinks. Sounds like you want to tell yourself that there will be a “mass exodus” to justify your upcoming private school tuition bills.

Nah, we can easily afford it so I feel no need to justify it.

What we can’t justify is continuing to subject our kid to a crappy curriculum. There’s only so much good teachers can do to mitigate a crappy curriculum that doesn’t even include more than passing instruction in science and history.

[Anonymous]

dcps will keep those families who otherwise would have moved to mcps. or maps or fps will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS doesn’t fix this mess, the exodus from the school system will be enormous. Those who enjoy living in the county for other reasons, and who have money, will choose private. Others will move.

Personally, we’re just going private. We like the county otherwise and don’t want to take a chance on another school system.

Well, no. Most people can’t afford private and it’s not so easy to move and some of us like McPS teachers even if we think the curriculum stinks. Sounds like you want to tell yourself that there will be a “mass exodus” to justify your upcoming private school tuition bills.

Nah, we can easily afford it so I feel no need to justify it.

What we can’t justify is continuing to subject our kid to a crappy curriculum. There’s only so much good teachers can do to mitigate a crappy curriculum that doesn’t even include more than passing instruction in science and history.

If you could easily afford it, then why didn’t you enroll your kid in McPS to start with rather than wasting your time with something that wasn’t working for your kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a group within the central office that still wants to cling to 2.0. They want Discovery Ed to win the bid so they don't have to change many things. They want their legacy to be a success not a humiliating failure. The focus is 100% on finding ways to keep the incumbent employees in their jobs and very little effort is being put forward to address the problem curriculum these employees created for the students.

And you say this based on what? Moreover, why would incumbent employees be afraid of losing their jobs? Given protections afforded public employees, playing a role in a bad curriculum won't get you fired and, if it could, it wouldn't matter who won the next contract.

Administrators are not protected the same way as teachers are. Different union. If someone in central is moved, they could be downgraded to an AP. They'd have a job in the county, but they'd lose their status and that pay bump. Some central employees could even be returned to the classroom. In this last shakeout, they didn't all even get principal positions. Some are APs, some took jobs they're calling "special assignment" or whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was the message we all got from MCPS's Maria Navarro in June--has there been any news about the RFP which she said should be reissued right about now (end August). I don't see anything on the curriculum review site that she said to check for updates.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/curriculum-review.aspx

Over the past month, we have reached out to all employee organizations, the Evaluation Core Team who participated in the initial phase, the Curriculum Advisory Assembly, central services staff and other school staff to solicit detailed feedback on the previous Request for Proposal (RFP). We have also analyzed the responses from the New Curriculum Survey, which received responses from over 1,700 members of the MCPS community—including parents, teachers and students. We will use this feedback to revise the RFP, which is scheduled to be reissued in late August 2018. Following the issuing of the RFP, it is anticipated that curriculum proposals will be evaluated late fall 2018, with options going to the Board of Education for approval in the middle of the 2018-19 school year.

they have another whole year to putz around on this.

personally I'd like to see the raw data and comments sent in from parents and teachers synthesized by a THIRD PARTY, not by mcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was the message we all got from MCPS's Maria Navarro in June--has there been any news about the RFP which she said should be reissued right about now (end August). I don't see anything on the curriculum review site that she said to check for updates.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/curriculum-review.aspx

Over the past month, we have reached out to all employee organizations, the Evaluation Core Team who participated in the initial phase, the Curriculum Advisory Assembly, central services staff and other school staff to solicit detailed feedback on the previous Request for Proposal (RFP). We have also analyzed the responses from the New Curriculum Survey, which received responses from over 1,700 members of the MCPS community—including parents, teachers and students. We will use this feedback to revise the RFP, which is scheduled to be reissued in late August 2018. Following the issuing of the RFP, it is anticipated that curriculum proposals will be evaluated late fall 2018, with options going to the Board of Education for approval in the middle of the 2018-19 school year.

they have another whole year to putz around on this.

personally I'd like to see the raw data and comments sent in from parents and teachers synthesized by a THIRD PARTY, not by mcps.

Me too. Of course even the results as processed by MCPS show that people want things MCPS will never provide, such as proper differentiation and thoughtful use of technology.

[Anonymous]

It will be interesting to see how MCPS writes the RFP-and whether they try to tailor it to favor Discovery Ed (although presumably Discovery Ed already has a lot of inside information about what MCPS wants due to all the ex-MCPS employees there.) hopefully McPS learned from the bad press from the Erick Lang incident and will choose more wisely this time around.

[Anonymous]

have the April/May feedback comments been made public?

I assume the K-8 curriculum RFP will be highly similar to the March one. Big difference is all the vendors have now have March 2018 through who knows what Fall or winter month to wine and dine MCPS Central office at dinners, conferences, golf, etc.

Remember all the boondoggles Starr went on!?

Sadly the RFP process was previously released, 30 days due, 30 days selection so less time for that BS conflict of interest stuff. Now everyone has known the 10th largest public school district in the country is out for big since March! And F'd it up and will be out with it again! So I suspect their has been a spring, summer and fall of kissing up to MCPS from every former and ongoing applicant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:have the April/May feedback comments been made public?

I assume the K-8 curriculum RFP will be highly similar to the March one. Big difference is all the vendors have now have March 2018 through who knows what Fall or winter month to wine and dine MCPS Central office at dinners, conferences, golf, etc.

Remember all the boondoggles Starr went on!?

Sadly the RFP process was previously released, 30 days due, 30 days selection so less time for that BS conflict of interest stuff. Now everyone has known the 10th largest public school district in the country is out for big since March! And F'd it up and will be out with it again! So I suspect their has been a spring, summer and fall of kissing up to MCPS from every former and ongoing applicant.

Let’s hope some proven curriculum providers are good at sucking up to McPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS doesn’t fix this mess, the exodus from the school system will be enormous. Those who enjoy living in the county for other reasons, and who have money, will choose private. Others will move.

Personally, we’re just going private. We like the county otherwise and don’t want to take a chance on another school system.

Well, no. Most people can’t afford private and it’s not so easy to move and some of us like McPS teachers even if we think the curriculum stinks. Sounds like you want to tell yourself that there will be a “mass exodus” to justify your upcoming private school tuition bills.

We are a two-teacher HH who left the county. I quit; my husband is still making the commute. But we're in a smaller area with a sensible curricular framework. My 9th grader is not taking AP courses, and my younger child will be getting the basics he needs.

I spent close to 25 years in a system that mistreated teachers, dismissed disciplinary measures, and embraced every new fad that came down the pike.

It wasn't always like this, however. Years ago, when I first started, teachers had the autonomy to determine what was best for their students. And principals had the strength to say no to central office "mandates." But as the country grows more spineless each day, "leaders" in the system will continue to go limp when barked at.

issues: ignoring size; passing along kids who can't read and write; ignoring the ugly effects of poverty and instead, blaming teachers for low scores; and simply allowing testing companies to own the system (pervasive, of course, throughout the nation)

And if you're not "in the know," I suggest you read this article on the new rating system - http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/k-12/bs-md-grading-schools-20170627-story.html#

telling:

Schools will have to pay close attention to how well their immigrant students are learning English. The achievement of these students will represent 10 percent of a school's rating, even if a school only has 10 of these students.

So a "good school" by DCUM standards could lose status based on these changes.

bottom line - Everyone BUT the community owns schools (nationwide issue), but b/c of the county's size and economic disparity, it will crumble sooner unless we address some big elephants in the room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It will be interesting to see how MCPS writes the RFP-and whether they try to tailor it to favor Discovery Ed (although presumably Discovery Ed already has a lot of inside information about what MCPS wants due to all the ex-MCPS employees there.) hopefully McPS learned from the bad press from the Erick Lang incident and will choose more wisely this time around.

Discovery Ed broke apart from Discovery. I'm not sure how they're operating but yes, the group has quite a bit of insider knowledge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It will be interesting to see how MCPS writes the RFP-and whether they try to tailor it to favor Discovery Ed (although presumably Discovery Ed already has a lot of inside information about what MCPS wants due to all the ex-MCPS employees there.) hopefully McPS learned from the bad press from the Erick Lang incident and will choose more wisely this time around.

Yes, it will. But it hasn't come out yet. I, personally, am going to wait until the RFP actually comes out, and we can actually read it, before concluding that it's terrible and will only lead to certain further doom.