interesting discussion regarding abysmal decline of MoCo schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whenever are people talking about how tracking would solve all of the school's problems I have to roll my eyes. I think people only like the idea of tracking as long as their kid is at the highest track if your kid got into a lower track they'd start complaining and suing

Those debates would happen at the margin. Overall, however, if you group kids, you decrease the range of skills in any one class, making it easier for teachers to target instruction where it's needed. Students in all of the groups benefit from targeted instruction.

+1

And if mcps would simply ditch benchmark and offer all students the enhanced reading instruction, I suspect everyone would do better.

In private school they teach reading through literature, and they also teach vocabulary and grammar. End result: well-equipped students.

Mcps demographics shifted dramatically and they pivoted to focus on test scores by dumbing down the curriculum. Big mistake.

If kids cannot read, enhanced reading instruction would't help. The entire curriculum needs to change with including spelling, vocabulary and grammar. They should do classroom groupings in ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The rich move to MOCO for the privates and country clubs. Publics are finished nationwide among the wealthy. Covid exposed the rot. The middle class with common sense will need PODs and homeschooling. Anybody in public school that’s not in a magnet is either negligent, overwhelmed or oblivious to their surroundings.

Damn

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good discussion going on the local sub reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MontgomeryCountyMD/comments/102jg8a/parents_of_mcps_students_do_you_guys_have_a/

MCPS sound like an absolute disaster. Zero accountability. Zero standards. Rapid decline of quality. How long until people with money stop moving to this county to flee all of the progressivism ruining the schools and county? The only reason property values maintained value in MoCo was always because of the schools. The discussion going on now with messages from insiders is truly shocking. MoCo looks like it is in rapid decline and once the schools go, what reason will there be to stay?

It isn't. It's the same or better at least in terms of opportunity. What's changed is the county's demographics. This has an impact on test averages but doesn't mean your kid will do any worse than they'd do if demographics had remained the as 1990.

This isn't true. Educational fads have not created more rigorous education, just the buzzwords that make parents think it is ("critical thinking," anyone?) It is absolutely not true that the average child is receiving the same or better education as they did in 1990. Just the changes in discipline alone would have precluded this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grow some goddman thick skin. YES, changing demographics absolutely have affected school quality for the worse. I'm sorry you cannot handle the truth. When you import thousands of students from 3rs world countries who cannot speak a lick of English, you will absolutely being down school quality when millions of dollars and inordinate amounts of time have to be spent on remdial classes and basic English work students should have mastered a decade later. It is a brutal fact of reality. All of STEM uses English as a standard. All rigorous course material in science and mathematics must use English. It doesn't matter if you're in Japan, China, France, or the US. If you want a rigorous education in science and math, it has to be in English. The fact that we have to still teach basic English in high school and middle school is a MASSIVE drag. Even the Chinese publish top research articles in English. We shouldn't be spending millions of dollars and inordinate amounts of time teaching English in a country that uses English as the primary language for everything.

Depends on how you define "school quality" doesn't it? I define "school quality" as "quality of education for the actual students who attend the school".

There's also the issue that students who were born here weren't "imported" from anywhere, they were born here.

There have been many years when we did, in fact "import" an entire high school's worth of students, many who were unaccompanied.

Yes. MCPS is a popular destination for ‘unaccompanied minors’.

September is always so fun with kids just walk in it registered and not knowing any language formally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whenever are people talking about how tracking would solve all of the school's problems I have to roll my eyes. I think people only like the idea of tracking as long as their kid is at the highest track if your kid got into a lower track they'd start complaining and suing

Those debates would happen at the margin. Overall, however, if you group kids, you decrease the range of skills in any one class, making it easier for teachers to target instruction where it's needed. Students in all of the groups benefit from targeted instruction.

You have parents threatening to Sue at the even smallest conversation around redistricting you think parents would just sit idly by if larlo and larla didn't get into the highest group?! Please.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whenever are people talking about how tracking would solve all of the school's problems I have to roll my eyes. I think people only like the idea of tracking as long as their kid is at the highest track if your kid got into a lower track they'd start complaining and suing

Those debates would happen at the margin. Overall, however, if you group kids, you decrease the range of skills in any one class, making it easier for teachers to target instruction where it's needed. Students in all of the groups benefit from targeted instruction.

+1

And if mcps would simply ditch benchmark and offer all students the enhanced reading instruction, I suspect everyone would do better.

In private school they teach reading through literature, and they also teach vocabulary and grammar. End result: well-equipped students.

Mcps demographics shifted dramatically and they pivoted to focus on test scores by dumbing down the curriculum. Big mistake.

My friend: you clearly are new here. MCPS’ decline happened long before majority minority. The in crowd would like you to blame black and brown but the poor management is more a cause of the crappiness than little Juan from Nicaragua. Read about the Curriculum 2.0 give-away to Pearson; then about the mysterious hack of all student information: then the final 500,000 report from Hopkins that hood old fat Jack ordered to get rid of it. (Really to cover the fact that the horrible contract, signed in 2021, probably was for 10 years). What a lesson in utter incompetence/malfeasance.

My friend, I am pushing 50. I’m not new here. I have a handful of kids spanning decades. One was a 2.0 Guinea pig.

You might want to read up on the shifting demographics in MoCo. It started before 2.0. (Perhaps read up on the history of El Salvador and the refugee resettlement ties to MoCo.)

Mcps has jumped from curriculum to curriculum rather than step back and remember what kids need to thrive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:*Sorry good old Jack Smith
*Signed in 2011.

When I am mad I type too fast. MCPS could still have been top had it not been for clear leadership failures - Weast, Starr, Smith and now McKnight

McKnight has been Super for 1 year(not even that). What is her leadership failure in this area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whenever are people talking about how tracking would solve all of the school's problems I have to roll my eyes. I think people only like the idea of tracking as long as their kid is at the highest track if your kid got into a lower track they'd start complaining and suing

Those debates would happen at the margin. Overall, however, if you group kids, you decrease the range of skills in any one class, making it easier for teachers to target instruction where it's needed. Students in all of the groups benefit from targeted instruction.

+1

And if mcps would simply ditch benchmark and offer all students the enhanced reading instruction, I suspect everyone would do better.

In private school they teach reading through literature, and they also teach vocabulary and grammar. End result: well-equipped students.

Mcps demographics shifted dramatically and they pivoted to focus on test scores by dumbing down the curriculum. Big mistake.

In SOME private schools they teach reading through literature. Private schools also require parents to get outside tutoring when their kid is not keeping up. Privates also have controlled class sizes and school sizes. Privates can also “counsel out” students that fail to meet their standards. Most privates don’t do ESOL. MCPS did not shift to focus on test scores alone. Politicians did and school districts were forced to follow along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The rich move to MOCO for the privates and country clubs. Publics are finished nationwide among the wealthy. Covid exposed the rot. The middle class with common sense will need PODs and homeschooling. Anybody in public school that’s not in a magnet is either negligent, overwhelmed or oblivious to their surroundings.

Yeah but the privates in this area are still eating MCPS dust. But if it makes you feel better about paying for an inferior product, go ahead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rich move to MOCO for the privates and country clubs. Publics are finished nationwide among the wealthy. Covid exposed the rot. The middle class with common sense will need PODs and homeschooling. Anybody in public school that’s not in a magnet is either negligent, overwhelmed or oblivious to their surroundings.

Yeah but the privates in this area are still eating MCPS dust. But if it makes you feel better about paying for an inferior product, go ahead.

Exactly. The most livid comments about private vs public are from private school parents who are spending $40,000 - $50,000/year/student on private and deep down know they are literally burning money but continue to do it to keep up with the jones' and justify their so called investment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is way, way too big. It should be broken down to the level where each high school is its own school district.

This is Maryland. It doesn't work that way. You can try working on amending the state constitution.

I am not a legal expert but surprised to hear this. Is there a section in MD state constitution, stating that public schools system in each county has to remain one, and cannot be divided into smaller units with separate funding?

[Anonymous]

At this point in time this tread is so dumb.

What do you all think is going to happen in VA with Youngkin and school choice?

People will be flocking to MCPS by 2024.

Buckle up people Republicans are about to ruin schools all over the country and pad their pockets for school choice. Youngkin already has his plan set in motion.

MCPS yeah perfectly good school system the problem is the parents. Grow up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good discussion going on the local sub reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MontgomeryCountyMD/comments/102jg8a/parents_of_mcps_students_do_you_guys_have_a/

MCPS sound like an absolute disaster. Zero accountability. Zero standards. Rapid decline of quality. How long until people with money stop moving to this county to flee all of the progressivism ruining the schools and county? The only reason property values maintained value in MoCo was always because of the schools. The discussion going on now with messages from insiders is truly shocking. MoCo looks like it is in rapid decline and once the schools go, what reason will there be to stay?

It isn't. It's the same or better at least in terms of opportunity. What's changed is the county's demographics. This has an impact on test averages but doesn't mean your kid will do any worse than they'd do if demographics had remained the as 1990.

Definitely can affect you kid’s school experience. Also affects how the school system spends money. More money on ESOL staff means less money for other things (not a judgement call, just the way things work).

In ES, it has most definitely affected my kid’s experience. I have had kids at our neighborhood ES for over a decade and have watched it change. With mixed ability classrooms, the teacher HAS to spend the most time getting the kids who need extra help up to speed. The higher performing reading and Math groups simple meet less.

So kids that need help are getting more help?

How horrifying. We should definitely put an end to that.

Questions like this does not help anything.

All kids need some type of "help" at school. The real question is how to distribute the resources fairly.

I do not see anything wrong if someone points out that resources have been shifted from a fraction of kids to another fraction.

[Anonymous]

we moved to bethesda for the schools (in advance of kids). Then we had a kid and realized the decline and chose the private/independent route.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we moved to bethesda for the schools (in advance of kids). Then we had a kid and realized the decline and chose the private/independent route.

how did you "realize the decline?"