Changes in MCPS in the last 15 years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parochial and seton schools in Los Angeles have dramatically succeeded as well with educating poor URM families well.

Private schools can kick out kids who misbehave.

a plus for the other 30 kids in a class . . .

Are you saying MCPS has extremely high % if misbehaving kids at every grade level? If that is one if a few fundamental issues, why isn’t anyone discussing that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
One change that parents may or may not be noticing is how MCPS is having so much difficulty retaining and recruiting good teachers. The culture from the central office is very anti-teacher. Principals and AP are chosen based on their willingness to support the central office not the students or teachers within the school. The amount of time that MCPS requires from teachers for data collection and other new ideas has grown substantially. Every new brainstorm idea coming out of the idiots in the central office is never funded and teachers are expected to make the magic happen. Teacher safety is a huge concern in many schools. Restorative justice is being implemented in ways that simply leave disruptive and often dangerous kids in the classroom. Kids who might have behaved if there were consequences are now becoming more and more disruptive. Since the principals and APs are so close to the central office, lost of toxic games of favoritism get played out within schools. Good teachers can be transferred or tormented.

As prices and traffic have grown over the past 15 years, many teachers live up in Frederick/Howard with terrible commutes. A bad working environment combined with an awful commute is making more and more teachers either leave the profession or get a job in Frederick or Howard.

there is a teacher shortage across the country. This is not unique to MCPS.

Sigh - MCPS is being ht doubly harder because of all the above factors. The overall shortage has been giving teachers who already live in Frederick and Howard more options so more are moving from MCPS. The ones that leave the profession all together are doing so because of the bad conditions. No one gets into teaching thinking it will be a money maker. It isn't the salary or the benefits. Its the environment.

Your post is EXACTLY what is wrong with MCPS. MCPS will look at their teacher shortage and say oh well there is some shortage across the country so not our fault! Yeah! We are not to blame and don't have to do anything about it!

I have a document that shows teacher transfer rates in MCPS. It also includes number of new teachers hired. But I can't find one that shows overall attrition. I'd love to see stats on mid-career (15 year) teachers who quit. I know one right now who's taking long-term mental health leave. doubt she'll return

One of my pals - 15 years in - quit in Feb.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/boe/meetings/memorandum/181107%201st%20Yr%20Tchr%20Data%20Tchr%20Turnover%20Data%20BD.pdf

This new report on attrition was recently posted:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/detail.aspx?id=1522

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It doesn’t sound like the GT population is a priority any longer for MCPS. And that’s okay. Sounds pretty selfish to demand GT education when plenty of kids don’t have enough to eat or a place to sleep.

Said no non-socialist country ever.

Let’s import some more unskilled poors from other countries and play that one out PP.

Well, it’s true. It seems very selfish to even ask for anything special for your own kid when so many are struggling.

Give, give, give PP. please give away all your things and money to all the billions of poor people and their babies. They are struggling, move them to MoCo where you can force everyone to pay for their sorry lives.

I think we’re being a little bit dramatic, aren’t we now? But maybe the DCUM parents who agonize over seats in the magnets might want to take a minute or two to reflect on the kids who have so little. Maslows Pyramid - if the very basic needs of children aren’t met (safety, sleep, food), they will never be able to achieve in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One change that parents may or may not be noticing is how MCPS is having so much difficulty retaining and recruiting good teachers. The culture from the central office is very anti-teacher. Principals and AP are chosen based on their willingness to support the central office not the students or teachers within the school. The amount of time that MCPS requires from teachers for data collection and other new ideas has grown substantially. Every new brainstorm idea coming out of the idiots in the central office is never funded and teachers are expected to make the magic happen. Teacher safety is a huge concern in many schools. Restorative justice is being implemented in ways that simply leave disruptive and often dangerous kids in the classroom. Kids who might have behaved if there were consequences are now becoming more and more disruptive. Since the principals and APs are so close to the central office, lost of toxic games of favoritism get played out within schools. Good teachers can be transferred or tormented.

As prices and traffic have grown over the past 15 years, many teachers live up in Frederick/Howard with terrible commutes. A bad working environment combined with an awful commute is making more and more teachers either leave the profession or get a job in Frederick or Howard.

Where do you get this information? It's not unreasonable but I'd like citations.

Do a general search on teachers shortages 2019. You'll see plenty of articles addressing the issue.

There have been plenty of articles addressing cost of living in MCPS - and how it determines where teachers live.

We moved to Frederick over a year ago - not b/c of COLA but b/c of academics. We didn't want our kids to be part of some other MCPS experiment. So while the commute is hell (both MCPS employees), it's worth it. My spouse is in it for the long haul, as he's not in a classroom position. I am examining my options b/c I can't tolerate the dysfunction for much longer.

You again.

[Anonymous]

MD is in the top 5 states in the US for public schools. MCPS is the highest rated district in the state. Sure, a lot of people complain about a lot of things but overall things are pretty good here. When some crackpot moves to Howard county to escape the madness it benefits everyone else. Our schools are overcapacity. It's a good thing to have fewer whiners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MD is in the top 5 states in the US for public schools. MCPS is the highest rated district in the state. Sure, a lot of people complain about a lot of things but overall things are pretty good here. When some crackpot moves to Howard county to escape the madness it benefits everyone else. Our schools are overcapacity. It's a good thing to have fewer whiners.

If that is the case why is the BOE playing musical chairs with students upcounty?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MD is in the top 5 states in the US for public schools. MCPS is the highest rated district in the state. Sure, a lot of people complain about a lot of things but overall things are pretty good here. When some crackpot moves to Howard county to escape the madness it benefits everyone else. Our schools are overcapacity. It's a good thing to have fewer whiners.

If that is the case why is the BOE playing musical chairs with students upcounty?

Musical chairs? MCPS reassigned two areas from an over-capacity high school to a brand-new school with excess capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MD is in the top 5 states in the US for public schools. MCPS is the highest rated district in the state. Sure, a lot of people complain about a lot of things but overall things are pretty good here. When some crackpot moves to Howard county to escape the madness it benefits everyone else. Our schools are overcapacity. It's a good thing to have fewer whiners.

If that is the case why is the BOE playing musical chairs with students upcounty?

Musical chairs? MCPS reassigned two areas from an over-capacity high school to a brand-new school with excess capacity.

You either haven't been paying attention or you're willfully ignorant. I have little use for either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MD is in the top 5 states in the US for public schools. MCPS is the highest rated district in the state. Sure, a lot of people complain about a lot of things but overall things are pretty good here. When some crackpot moves to Howard county to escape the madness it benefits everyone else. Our schools are overcapacity. It's a good thing to have fewer whiners.

If that is the case why is the BOE playing musical chairs with students upcounty?

Musical chairs? MCPS reassigned two areas from an over-capacity high school to a brand-new school with excess capacity.

You either haven't been paying attention or you're willfully ignorant. I have little use for either.

Nope. I've been paying attention. I live in one of the areas being reassigned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the textbooks!!! No textbooks? Are you kidding me? My kids come home with "worksheets" with no explanation and that's supposed to take the place of textbooks???? They don't know how to learn. They don't know how to review. They don't know how to study. They are going to FAIL when they get to college.

This all started 7 or 8 years ago with curriculum 2.0, when they decided that math was like a blossoming flower and needed to be imagined in kids' heads instead of memorized. This is the only generation on earth that will NEVER need to know math -- they will ALWAYS have a calculator on hand -- and yet MCPS has decided to teach them "concepts" of math, in their heads, from every angle instead of simply teaching them to memorize math tools like multiplication tables.

Insane. .MCPS is so so so so bad now. I'm also a product of MCPS and have older kids who went through it before they changed everything. My youngest is really being shafted. Very disappointed in MCPS now.

Are there online resources you found helpful? I guess memorizing 12x12 multiplication table can be done at home but I didn't want to try and show my sis new ways of doing stuff and confuse her. She's keeping up okay but I do want to make sure she get solid basic math foundation before all the fun stuff gets added on.

My parents' English isn't too great and they are pretty out of the loop on the nuances of public school so any pointers would be appreciated!

mathforum.com
art of problem solving on line if she is really advanced. They have a young version called beast math or something like that.

You're a good sibling!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parochial and seton schools in Los Angeles have dramatically succeeded as well with educating poor URM families well.

Private schools can kick out kids who misbehave.

a plus for the other 30 kids in a class . . .

First they discipline the student and call in the parents/caretakers several times. If parents and child don’t care and keep acting up or not doing their work, probation and then out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MD is in the top 5 states in the US for public schools. MCPS is the highest rated district in the state. Sure, a lot of people complain about a lot of things but overall things are pretty good here. When some crackpot moves to Howard county to escape the madness it benefits everyone else. Our schools are overcapacity. It's a good thing to have fewer whiners.

If that is the case why is the BOE playing musical chairs with students upcounty?

Musical chairs? MCPS reassigned two areas from an over-capacity high school to a brand-new school with excess capacity.

You either haven't been paying attention or you're willfully ignorant. I have little use for either.

Nope. I've been paying attention. I live in one of the areas being reassigned.

Good luck during your transition!
Lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parochial and seton schools in Los Angeles have dramatically succeeded as well with educating poor URM families well.

Private schools can kick out kids who misbehave.

a plus for the other 30 kids in a class . . .

Are you saying MCPS has extremely high % if misbehaving kids at every grade level? If that is one if a few fundamental issues, why isn’t anyone discussing that.

I had 15 in one class who were a mess. They traveled in a group. I had them toward the end of my day, which was bad for all involved. One plus? Many had time during the day to get into trouble - so they were with security.

Each grade level can have out-of-control kids. And sadly, if they enter in 9th (or 6th), they usually don't improve over the years.

You can thank restorative practices for pushing teachers out bc there is no such thing as discipline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
One change that parents may or may not be noticing is how MCPS is having so much difficulty retaining and recruiting good teachers. The culture from the central office is very anti-teacher. Principals and AP are chosen based on their willingness to support the central office not the students or teachers within the school. The amount of time that MCPS requires from teachers for data collection and other new ideas has grown substantially. Every new brainstorm idea coming out of the idiots in the central office is never funded and teachers are expected to make the magic happen. Teacher safety is a huge concern in many schools. Restorative justice is being implemented in ways that simply leave disruptive and often dangerous kids in the classroom. Kids who might have behaved if there were consequences are now becoming more and more disruptive. Since the principals and APs are so close to the central office, lost of toxic games of favoritism get played out within schools. Good teachers can be transferred or tormented.

As prices and traffic have grown over the past 15 years, many teachers live up in Frederick/Howard with terrible commutes. A bad working environment combined with an awful commute is making more and more teachers either leave the profession or get a job in Frederick or Howard.

there is a teacher shortage across the country. This is not unique to MCPS.

Sigh - MCPS is being ht doubly harder because of all the above factors. The overall shortage has been giving teachers who already live in Frederick and Howard more options so more are moving from MCPS. The ones that leave the profession all together are doing so because of the bad conditions. No one gets into teaching thinking it will be a money maker. It isn't the salary or the benefits. Its the environment.

Your post is EXACTLY what is wrong with MCPS. MCPS will look at their teacher shortage and say oh well there is some shortage across the country so not our fault! Yeah! We are not to blame and don't have to do anything about it!

I have a document that shows teacher transfer rates in MCPS. It also includes number of new teachers hired. But I can't find one that shows overall attrition. I'd love to see stats on mid-career (15 year) teachers who quit. I know one right now who's taking long-term mental health leave. doubt she'll return

One of my pals - 15 years in - quit in Feb.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/boe/meetings/memorandum/181107%201st%20Yr%20Tchr%20Data%20Tchr%20Turnover%20Data%20BD.pdf

If your job is causing you to need long-term mental health leave, wouldn’t it be a good idea to not return? No job should endanger your health and the ability to enjoy the rest of life. Your pal who quit made the right decision. Maybe she can convince many others who need to go to also do the right thing for everyone involved: themselves, their families, and the students. There’s no need or benefit in someone who is psychologically overwhelmed dragging themselves into a classroom everyday. Such teachers ceased being effective long before they realized they needed to stop or they were removed. There are many careers with related skills once they get better.

You're not a teacher, are you? bc you're missing the point

The system is making teachers sick. I suppose we can all wait until most teachers flee, hiring a revolving door of subs & new teachers.

But wouldn't you rather have a system that's proactive?

[Anonymous]

I taught in MCPS 10 years ago and am now shocked at the decline. My kid’s school has no standards and the teachers seem to substitute showing videos for teaching. I am very disappointed