Maryland Accountability Report Card

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It doesn’t post until December 4th, so how could you possibly have it unless you are a central office employee or state employee in which case you are breaking ethics and that NDA that you signed.

Me thinks they do protest too much. It hasn't even been released yet and Dr. Smith is saying it's only one measurement... He's trying to make the case that it's not the end all be all. If there was good news in the report card for MCPS he wouldn't have to do that.

I actually read it as virtue signaling, that MCPS wants to be seen as ahead of the curve by adding a measurement that can assess equity. Only they should be more focused on doing stuff to get rid of the rape culture within MCPS. If they want to be seen as functional, they need to ditch a ton of people starting with those coaches.

Most attempts I've seen that try to factor equity into the equation actually hurt more than help. It ends up being that any diverse school is failing because there's a gap and all the segregated schools are great because there's so little diveristy the gap doesn't exist there. These metrics are completely useless.

[Anonymous]

So ridiculous.

Instead of saying something like MCPS had poor results, and this is what we hope to do to change it, he is saying that the results are simply flawed.

Give me a freakin break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So ridiculous.

Instead of saying something like MCPS had poor results, and this is what we hope to do to change it, he is saying that the results are simply flawed.

Give me a freakin break.

Well, the county sure likes to manipulate data. I'm a teacher and our staff school climate survey was abysmal last spring. On the second day of preservice (after we had been off for 2 months), we were given a survey that mirrored the school climate survey and--shocker!!--the data had improved! So instead of admin. digging deep and changing things to improve the school climate, we were told that it was all fixed now and we should celebrate the improvement! It was a complete insult to our intelligence to pretend that the data was apples to apples. I will not be surprised if they do a "check in" right after winter break as well.

[Anonymous]

To address the limitations of the Maryland Report Card, MCPS has developed an Equity Accountability Model that provides a more detailed and focused report of school success. The Equity Accountability Model uses multiple and frequent measures of students’ progress to determine if a school is meeting the needs of ALL students with a special emphasis on reducing and eliminating disparities in student achievement. Both the report card for Maryland and the local equity accountability model will include measures of student well-being in the future and that is a positive step forward.

Most attempts I've seen that try to factor equity into the equation actually hurt more than help. It ends up being that any diverse school is failing because there's a gap and all the segregated schools are great because there's so little diversity the gap doesn't exist there. These metrics are completely useless.

THat's every equity metric I've ever seen too. They're worse than useless. Any serious effort would take the school's diversity into account not automatically give schools with little to no diversity a 10 and any diverse school low marks because well there's this achievement gap. It's not like figuring out how to do this in an "equitable" a fair manner is all that hard which leads me to believe they're not being up front about their actual motives.

[Anonymous]

This is awesome! Bulk averages provide such great insight into a school's performance. All these things do is measure an area's affluence. They have no value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So ridiculous.

Instead of saying something like MCPS had poor results, and this is what we hope to do to change it, he is saying that the results are simply flawed.

Give me a freakin break.

Well, the county sure likes to manipulate data. I'm a teacher and our staff school climate survey was abysmal last spring. On the second day of preservice (after we had been off for 2 months), we were given a survey that mirrored the school climate survey and--shocker!!--the data had improved! So instead of admin. digging deep and changing things to improve the school climate, we were told that it was all fixed now and we should celebrate the improvement! It was a complete insult to our intelligence to pretend that the data was apples to apples. I will not be surprised if they do a "check in" right after winter break as well.

This is the kind of BS that MCPS pulls that’s so infuriating, though I suspect this particular tactic was principal-driven so admin didn’t look as bad. The county should be doing a lot more about attrition, too. Some schools have practically none, and others have had a 25% or more turnover in the last three or so years. But lo and behold, the same principal returns regardless of how many staff members fled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So ridiculous.

Instead of saying something like MCPS had poor results, and this is what we hope to do to change it, he is saying that the results are simply flawed.

Give me a freakin break.

Well, the county sure likes to manipulate data. I'm a teacher and our staff school climate survey was abysmal last spring. On the second day of preservice (after we had been off for 2 months), we were given a survey that mirrored the school climate survey and--shocker!!--the data had improved! So instead of admin. digging deep and changing things to improve the school climate, we were told that it was all fixed now and we should celebrate the improvement! It was a complete insult to our intelligence to pretend that the data was apples to apples. I will not be surprised if they do a "check in" right after winter break as well.

This is the kind of BS that MCPS pulls that’s so infuriating, though I suspect this particular tactic was principal-driven so admin didn’t look as bad. The county should be doing a lot more about attrition, too. Some schools have practically none, and others have had a 25% or more turnover in the last three or so years. But lo and behold, the same principal returns regardless of how many staff members fled.

You must be talking about our school! We had SO much staff turnover in the past 5 years at our ES. And our climate surveys are just terrible. Very poor staff morale. Definitely related to the principal. And yet, the same principal is back year after year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So ridiculous.

Instead of saying something like MCPS had poor results, and this is what we hope to do to change it, he is saying that the results are simply flawed.

Give me a freakin break.

Well, the county sure likes to manipulate data. I'm a teacher and our staff school climate survey was abysmal last spring. On the second day of preservice (after we had been off for 2 months), we were given a survey that mirrored the school climate survey and--shocker!!--the data had improved! So instead of admin. digging deep and changing things to improve the school climate, we were told that it was all fixed now and we should celebrate the improvement! It was a complete insult to our intelligence to pretend that the data was apples to apples. I will not be surprised if they do a "check in" right after winter break as well.

This is the kind of BS that MCPS pulls that’s so infuriating, though I suspect this particular tactic was principal-driven so admin didn’t look as bad. The county should be doing a lot more about attrition, too. Some schools have practically none, and others have had a 25% or more turnover in the last three or so years. But lo and behold, the same principal returns regardless of how many staff members fled.

I'm the 2nd PP, not the first one, which might in fact be your elementary school. I was referring to a W middle, though.
You must be talking about our school! We had SO much staff turnover in the past 5 years at our ES. And our climate surveys are just terrible. Very poor staff morale. Definitely related to the principal. And yet, the same principal is back year after year.

[Anonymous]

I'm the 2nd PP, not the first one, which might in fact be your elementary school. I was referring to a W middle, though.

[Anonymous]

MCPS is something awful. Truly embarrassing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is something awful. Truly embarrassing.

What's embarrassing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is something awful. Truly embarrassing.

What's embarrassing?

MCPS is actually doing well if you compare the student performance to other parts of the country but not compare the current data to the old and glorious past. If I remember it right, the Blacks in MCPS performance better than Black in the US. Ten years ago, Hispanic students in MCPS performance better than the blacks and also better than Hispanics in the rest of the country.
MCPS is lucky to have many students from African immigrant communities. Montgomery County also has many Hispanic students whose parents are highly educated. They work at World Bank, WHO, NIH, WMF, or FDA. Many of the recent black star students are new immigrants or born to new immigrant families.

[Anonymous]

THat's every equity metric I've ever seen too. They're worse than useless. Any serious effort would take the school's diversity into account not automatically give schools with little to no diversity a 10 and any diverse school low marks because well there's this achievement gap. It's not like figuring out how to do this in an "equitable" a fair manner is all that hard which leads me to believe they're not being up front about their actual motives.

Conversely, there is no reason to disproportionately lower a school's ranking because a small sub group does poorly and that sub group happens to be a target minority group. What would actually be a great measurement would be growth, Take off the ceiling and allow the high performers to work toward their potential while making sure that the low performing students make as much progress as they possible can and reward the growth increases. MCPS needs to stop looking at education as something with a built in ceiling and base line low expectations. Foster some competition between schools for the most growth progress and stop trying to make all schools look the same. You'll only lower the bar that way not rise above it.

[Anonymous]

All report cards are out. Way worse than I expected for many schools. Thoughts?