interesting discussion regarding abysmal decline of MoCo schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What were they using before 2.0? What was wrong with it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?"

Not pp, but we also moved to Montgimery County for the schools. Our kids happened to be one before curriculum 2.0 (in college now) and one after (still in HS) and we could see the difference. We left kid #1 in public, and moved kid #2 to private, and although significantly poorer, we have been happy with the decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?"

Not pp, but we also moved to Montgimery County for the schools. Our kids happened to be one before curriculum 2.0 (in college now) and one after (still in HS) and we could see the difference. We left kid #1 in public, and moved kid #2 to private, and although significantly poorer, we have been happy with the decision.

NP, we moved here slightly before the transition. Our kid was in middle school when it changed to 2.0. We did not really notice any difference.

I am not saying things have always been good. There are things that we believe the curriculum was not good enough, there are also things that we feel fine with. But those did not change much from 1.0 to 2.0.

Maybe it is not the curriculum but the teachers ...?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1 Central Officials has a long history of reinventing the wheel. The end result is not making education better but just a means to justify Central Office bloat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?"

Not pp, but we also moved to Montgimery County for the schools. Our kids happened to be one before curriculum 2.0 (in college now) and one after (still in HS) and we could see the difference. We left kid #1 in public, and moved kid #2 to private, and although significantly poorer, we have been happy with the decision.

NP, we moved here slightly before the transition. Our kid was in middle school when it changed to 2.0. We did not really notice any difference.

I am not saying things have always been good. There are things that we believe the curriculum was not good enough, there are also things that we feel fine with. But those did not change much from 1.0 to 2.0.

Maybe it is not the curriculum but the teachers ...?

Like the previous PP I had children that spanned several decades in MCPS. The youngest was in elementary school during 2.0. We saw a huge decline especially with the math curriculum. I couldn’t believe that math facts, long multiplication, and long division had been dropped for “new math”. I bought math workbooks and began teaching my youngest basic math skills that were no longer in the curriculum. No surprise, he began out pacing his piers.

MCPS is in decline because of mismanagement by Central Office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?"

there were brown kids in their child's class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?"

Not pp, but we also moved to Montgimery County for the schools. Our kids happened to be one before curriculum 2.0 (in college now) and one after (still in HS) and we could see the difference. We left kid #1 in public, and moved kid #2 to private, and although significantly poorer, we have been happy with the decision.

NP, we moved here slightly before the transition. Our kid was in middle school when it changed to 2.0. We did not really notice any difference.

I am not saying things have always been good. There are things that we believe the curriculum was not good enough, there are also things that we feel fine with. But those did not change much from 1.0 to 2.0.

Maybe it is not the curriculum but the teachers ...?

Like the previous PP I had children that spanned several decades in MCPS. The youngest was in elementary school during 2.0. We saw a huge decline especially with the math curriculum. I couldn’t believe that math facts, long multiplication, and long division had been dropped for “new math”. I bought math workbooks and began teaching my youngest basic math skills that were no longer in the curriculum. No surprise, he began out pacing his piers.

MCPS is in decline because of mismanagement by Central Office.

My kids seem to be getting a much better education at our lowly DCC school than I got 30 years ago at Whitman. Wonder why your experience is so different?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What were they using before 2.0? What was wrong with it?

Common core standards were adopted in 2010ish by the department of education (or whoever). Montgomery Co didn't want to wait for textbook companies to write and test curriculums based on common core standards, so, we wrote our own because--MCPS is so fabulous (with a grant from Pearson textbooks basically selling our kids' testing data). I never understood what the hurry was. Curriculum 2.0 was horribly implemented with poor planning and little teacher training. One of my kids started with 2.0 in 3rd grade. One of her assignments was add 1+1 using 10 different methods. This was for a kid who had known her math facts since 1st grade. WTF. We were told that the curriculum was much "harder" than the previous curriculum.

The previous curriculum was not perfect (for example it really did not focus on memorizing math facts, you were just expected to do that at home), but at least the kids had science and social studies. The teachers I know think that 2.0 was especially horrible for ELA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?"

Not pp, but we also moved to Montgimery County for the schools. Our kids happened to be one before curriculum 2.0 (in college now) and one after (still in HS) and we could see the difference. We left kid #1 in public, and moved kid #2 to private, and although significantly poorer, we have been happy with the decision.

NP, we moved here slightly before the transition. Our kid was in middle school when it changed to 2.0. We did not really notice any difference.

I am not saying things have always been good. There are things that we believe the curriculum was not good enough, there are also things that we feel fine with. But those did not change much from 1.0 to 2.0.

Maybe it is not the curriculum but the teachers ...?

IF your kid was advanced in MS, they likely were not affected by the 2.0 rollout. I believe the only 2.0 classes implemented in middle school were Math 6, IM, and Algebra. My kid was in the guinea pig year, so every year the new 2.0 classes were rolled out. I specifically remember for IM and Algebra I her teachers had still not received the 2.0 curriculum materials a few weeks into the school year.

[Anonymous]

^^ I remember this! We have one a little older and one a little younger, but I have several good friends with children in the guinea pig year. Some got workbooks and taught their children math at home, and several pulled their children out of MCPS and put them in private. Children in this year are all freshmen in college now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ex-mcps teacher here. I taught here 15 yrs ago, coming from a top private school in Westchester County NY that served the kids of hedge fund managers. When I got here, hands down, everything we did blew away that expensive private school. Teachers were able to individualize and use creativity but we had high standards to meet. Now, with kids in the system, I’m desperate to get out. Haters, don’t tell me to enroll in private bc I can’t afford it. We are trapped in pathetic schools with no standard of excellence.

This is the best description I've read. (I added the bold). Teachers need to be paid more, too. Now many ppl who would have been teachers 20-30-40 years ago get better paying jobs. The pay is absolutely atrocious and cannot meet living costs (that have hugely escalated) here in MoCo.

I never thought I'd be desperate to get out of MCPS but had no choice it was that. bad. The level of incoompetence, unethical stuff, and pure burnout I saw was just beyond belief.

[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.

Yeah, sure, let's go with that.

[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.

Oh, boy! More backdoor private recruiting!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yeah, sure, let's go with that.

We can go with that every.single.year.
Everyone still eating MCPS dust

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ex-mcps teacher here. I taught here 15 yrs ago, coming from a top private school in Westchester County NY that served the kids of hedge fund managers. When I got here, hands down, everything we did blew away that expensive private school. Teachers were able to individualize and use creativity but we had high standards to meet. Now, with kids in the system, I’m desperate to get out. Haters, don’t tell me to enroll in private bc I can’t afford it. We are trapped in pathetic schools with no standard of excellence.

This is the best description I've read. (I added the bold). Teachers need to be paid more, too. Now many ppl who would have been teachers 20-30-40 years ago get better paying jobs. The pay is absolutely atrocious and cannot meet living costs (that have hugely escalated) here in MoCo.

I never thought I'd be desperate to get out of MCPS but had no choice it was that. bad. The level of incoompetence, unethical stuff, and pure burnout I saw was just beyond belief.

My mother quit MCPS when she felt she was too micromanaged to be creative and had the ability to individualize instruction for her students. She had decades of experience but her wisdom was no longer valued by administrators half her age and a fraction of her experience.

Teachers are not robots - at least the good ones anyway.