Teacher exposes the craptastic decline iof MCPS in Reddit rant

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are only 2-6 good high schools in MoCo and people pay a lot to live there.

The other people buy cheap houses zoned for bad schools

If you believe that the only good schools are ones in neighborhoods with over-priced real estate, what do you think we as a society owe to people who truly cannot afford to live in those neighborhoods?

Surely, you also believe that an adequate education is a human right and the key to breaking cycles of generational poverty. Are you okay with real estate prices being the tool that creates a permanent underclass?

The slide began with eliminating finals, but that policy was a symptom of decline, not the cause. What we are calling pandemic learning loss was like a heart attack after the patient had a Krispy Kreme donut following a decade of daily Big Macs.

It is time for a true overhaul. But one that must include parental accountability as well. And buying a $900k house zoned to a W feeder doesn’t discharge your responsibility. Affluent parents need to advocate for a grading policy that supports rather than diminishes students learning time management and accountability skills. Affluent parents need to have constructive conversations with their children about the feedback teachers provide and not just react to low grades with angry emails and vitriolic DCUM posts. Your child didn’t get an A on homework because they really understand the concept. They got an A because that category only allows 100%, 90% (if late), and 50% (if never submitted). The C they got on classwork shows their true achievement.

Wait, they don't take final exams in MCPS?

Absolutely pathetic. What are these kids going to do when they get to college? Fail so much our colleges will have to water down curricula?

This is insane. Where's the education in MCPS and why do they keep raising my taxes?

Finals, college, and success are aspects of whiteness. As an anti-racism school system, MCPS must eschew these things and work toward equity.

This. This has been the basis of staff training and ‘professional development’ in MCPS recently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great just what we need. More admin bloat at 250,000 a year. MCPS currently as more than 3 billion a year in funding. Almost 5 billion if you factor in operating budget. No more money for mediocrity.

That's a great point. How many central office employees are there? According the MCPS there are 11,000 staff (not counting the 12,900 teachers). I know that includes everyone from the superintendent to janitors, but that's 1 staff member for every 14 students. That seems high by a few hundred percent.

Central office staff are very, very smart. We need them to make smart decisions.
Here’s one. Don’t take any stinkin $$$$$ from the federal govt. No grants!

https://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2023/11/mcps-got-zero-grant-funding-for-168m.html?m=1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great just what we need. More admin bloat at 250,000 a year. MCPS currently as more than 3 billion a year in funding. Almost 5 billion if you factor in operating budget. No more money for mediocrity.

That's a great point. How many central office employees are there? According the MCPS there are 11,000 staff (not counting the 12,900 teachers). I know that includes everyone from the superintendent to janitors, but that's 1 staff member for every 14 students. That seems high by a few hundred percent.

Central office staff are very, very smart. We need them to make smart decisions.
Here’s one. Don’t take any stinkin $$$$$ from the federal govt. No grants!

https://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2023/11/mcps-got-zero-grant-funding-for-168m.html?m=1

I wouldn't take anything posted by the parent's coalition all that seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great just what we need. More admin bloat at 250,000 a year. MCPS currently as more than 3 billion a year in funding. Almost 5 billion if you factor in operating budget. No more money for mediocrity.

That's a great point. How many central office employees are there? According the MCPS there are 11,000 staff (not counting the 12,900 teachers). I know that includes everyone from the superintendent to janitors, but that's 1 staff member for every 14 students. That seems high by a few hundred percent.

Central office staff are very, very smart. We need them to make smart decisions.
Here’s one. Don’t take any stinkin $$$$$ from the federal govt. No grants!

https://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2023/11/mcps-got-zero-grant-funding-for-168m.html?m=1

I wouldn't take anything posted by the parent's coalition all that seriously.

Good idea. CO likes parents “barefoot and pregnant”. The dumber the better for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are only 2-6 good high schools in MoCo and people pay a lot to live there.

The other people buy cheap houses zoned for bad schools

If you believe that the only good schools are ones in neighborhoods with over-priced real estate, what do you think we as a society owe to people who truly cannot afford to live in those neighborhoods?

Surely, you also believe that an adequate education is a human right and the key to breaking cycles of generational poverty. Are you okay with real estate prices being the tool that creates a permanent underclass?

The slide began with eliminating finals, but that policy was a symptom of decline, not the cause. What we are calling pandemic learning loss was like a heart attack after the patient had a Krispy Kreme donut following a decade of daily Big Macs.

It is time for a true overhaul. But one that must include parental accountability as well. And buying a $900k house zoned to a W feeder doesn’t discharge your responsibility. Affluent parents need to advocate for a grading policy that supports rather than diminishes students learning time management and accountability skills. Affluent parents need to have constructive conversations with their children about the feedback teachers provide and not just react to low grades with angry emails and vitriolic DCUM posts. Your child didn’t get an A on homework because they really understand the concept. They got an A because that category only allows 100%, 90% (if late), and 50% (if never submitted). The C they got on classwork shows their true achievement.

I think you're mixing things up in your last paragraph.....

1) $900k won't get you anything to brag about in many W feeder areas. You can buy and find many $900k homes in the DCC area. You can definitely get a LARGER sized home for that $900k in the DCC zones compared to the Ws, but expensive housing is expensive throughout MoCo, with those prices decreasing on the fringes of the county. To get "cheap" housing, you really have to move outside of MoCo these days, which is why Frederick is booming.

2) You're talking about a group of wealthy parents who henpeck and screech if their child gets a B on an assignment and demands that their child be given a reassessment or insists the teacher wasn't fair or uses some other excuse to push for their kid to either get a higher grade or have a chance to boost their. To be sure, those parents are ANNOYING. But the shift in the grading was NOT because of this group of parents.

3) There's ANOTHER group of parents who usually are on the lower income side, who feel that every failure of their child's is the fault of the school. They don't look at their own chaotic home environment, nor do they possess an ounce of discipline and organization themselves, but they insist their child is doing poorly because the school system is wrong. Either the teacher is racist and that's why their kid is skipping class, or the teacher went too fast and didn't explain enough for the kid or they believe it's the teacher's job at the high school level to constantly remind their child to turn in assignments. These parents usually either push back whenever the school calls to intervene and always defends their child no matter how wrong the behavior. "Oh, I don't know what the issue is. He's a GOOD boy at home here. It must something y'all doing."

These parents, whose children continuously fail classes and fail to graduate, are the ones for whom the 50% rule on missing assignments and the 90/10 split of all tasks and practice prep were implemented for. It was done to lower the bar to make it easier to graduate. Because these parents don't actually care if their kids do WELL in school or class. But they do care if they get told their child cannot graduate high school. So this appeases them and makes them happy, and also helps the system look more "successful" since graduation rates go up when you lower the bar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are only 2-6 good high schools in MoCo and people pay a lot to live there.

The other people buy cheap houses zoned for bad schools

If you believe that the only good schools are ones in neighborhoods with over-priced real estate, what do you think we as a society owe to people who truly cannot afford to live in those neighborhoods?

Surely, you also believe that an adequate education is a human right and the key to breaking cycles of generational poverty. Are you okay with real estate prices being the tool that creates a permanent underclass?

The slide began with eliminating finals, but that policy was a symptom of decline, not the cause. What we are calling pandemic learning loss was like a heart attack after the patient had a Krispy Kreme donut following a decade of daily Big Macs.

It is time for a true overhaul. But one that must include parental accountability as well. And buying a $900k house zoned to a W feeder doesn’t discharge your responsibility. Affluent parents need to advocate for a grading policy that supports rather than diminishes students learning time management and accountability skills. Affluent parents need to have constructive conversations with their children about the feedback teachers provide and not just react to low grades with angry emails and vitriolic DCUM posts. Your child didn’t get an A on homework because they really understand the concept. They got an A because that category only allows 100%, 90% (if late), and 50% (if never submitted). The C they got on classwork shows their true achievement.

I think you're mixing things up in your last paragraph.....

1) $900k won't get you anything to brag about in many W feeder areas. You can buy and find many $900k homes in the DCC area. You can definitely get a LARGER sized home for that $900k in the DCC zones compared to the Ws, but expensive housing is expensive throughout MoCo, with those prices decreasing on the fringes of the county. To get "cheap" housing, you really have to move outside of MoCo these days, which is why Frederick is booming.

2) You're talking about a group of wealthy parents who henpeck and screech if their child gets a B on an assignment and demands that their child be given a reassessment or insists the teacher wasn't fair or uses some other excuse to push for their kid to either get a higher grade or have a chance to boost their. To be sure, those parents are ANNOYING. But the shift in the grading was NOT because of this group of parents.

3) There's ANOTHER group of parents who usually are on the lower income side, who feel that every failure of their child's is the fault of the school. They don't look at their own chaotic home environment, nor do they possess an ounce of discipline and organization themselves, but they insist their child is doing poorly because the school system is wrong. Either the teacher is racist and that's why their kid is skipping class, or the teacher went too fast and didn't explain enough for the kid or they believe it's the teacher's job at the high school level to constantly remind their child to turn in assignments. These parents usually either push back whenever the school calls to intervene and always defends their child no matter how wrong the behavior. "Oh, I don't know what the issue is. He's a GOOD boy at home here. It must something y'all doing."

These parents, whose children continuously fail classes and fail to graduate, are the ones for whom the 50% rule on missing assignments and the 90/10 split of all tasks and practice prep were implemented for. It was done to lower the bar to make it easier to graduate. Because these parents don't actually care if their kids do WELL in school or class. But they do care if they get told their child cannot graduate high school. So this appeases them and makes them happy, and also helps the system look more "successful" since graduation rates go up when you lower the bar.

The 50% rule was not done for parents. It was done for the County Council and legislature to make MCPS look worthy of constant budget increases. No cares about parents. It is all about the cash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great just what we need. More admin bloat at 250,000 a year. MCPS currently as more than 3 billion a year in funding. Almost 5 billion if you factor in operating budget. No more money for mediocrity.

That's a great point. How many central office employees are there? According the MCPS there are 11,000 staff (not counting the 12,900 teachers). I know that includes everyone from the superintendent to janitors, but that's 1 staff member for every 14 students. That seems high by a few hundred percent.

Central office staff are very, very smart. We need them to make smart decisions.
Here’s one. Don’t take any stinkin $$$$$ from the federal govt. No grants!

https://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2023/11/mcps-got-zero-grant-funding-for-168m.html?m=1

I wouldn't take anything posted by the parent's coalition all that seriously.

Good idea. CO likes parents “barefoot and pregnant”. The dumber the better for them.

And parent's coalition will twist facts to try and support their far-right agenda. They aren't a reliable source.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are only 2-6 good high schools in MoCo and people pay a lot to live there.

The other people buy cheap houses zoned for bad schools

If you believe that the only good schools are ones in neighborhoods with over-priced real estate, what do you think we as a society owe to people who truly cannot afford to live in those neighborhoods?

Surely, you also believe that an adequate education is a human right and the key to breaking cycles of generational poverty. Are you okay with real estate prices being the tool that creates a permanent underclass?

The slide began with eliminating finals, but that policy was a symptom of decline, not the cause. What we are calling pandemic learning loss was like a heart attack after the patient had a Krispy Kreme donut following a decade of daily Big Macs.

It is time for a true overhaul. But one that must include parental accountability as well. And buying a $900k house zoned to a W feeder doesn’t discharge your responsibility. Affluent parents need to advocate for a grading policy that supports rather than diminishes students learning time management and accountability skills. Affluent parents need to have constructive conversations with their children about the feedback teachers provide and not just react to low grades with angry emails and vitriolic DCUM posts. Your child didn’t get an A on homework because they really understand the concept. They got an A because that category only allows 100%, 90% (if late), and 50% (if never submitted). The C they got on classwork shows their true achievement.

Wait, they don't take final exams in MCPS?

Absolutely pathetic. What are these kids going to do when they get to college? Fail so much our colleges will have to water down curricula?

This is insane. Where's the education in MCPS and why do they keep raising my taxes?

Finals, college, and success are aspects of whiteness. As an anti-racism school system, MCPS must eschew these things and work toward equity.

This. This has been the basis of staff training and ‘professional development’ in MCPS recently.

And it's not just MCPS. If you look up "aspects of whiteness chart, nmaahc" you will see that this kind of insanity has crept into many aspects of society. Actual liberals need to start telling woke lunatics, "No!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are only 2-6 good high schools in MoCo and people pay a lot to live there.

The other people buy cheap houses zoned for bad schools

"Bad" schools - you mean those in lower income areas. That doesn't make them "bad."

My kids go to them. They’re bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great just what we need. More admin bloat at 250,000 a year. MCPS currently as more than 3 billion a year in funding. Almost 5 billion if you factor in operating budget. No more money for mediocrity.

That's a great point. How many central office employees are there? According the MCPS there are 11,000 staff (not counting the 12,900 teachers). I know that includes everyone from the superintendent to janitors, but that's 1 staff member for every 14 students. That seems high by a few hundred percent.

Central office staff are very, very smart. We need them to make smart decisions.
Here’s one. Don’t take any stinkin $$$$$ from the federal govt. No grants!

https://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2023/11/mcps-got-zero-grant-funding-for-168m.html?m=1

I wouldn't take anything posted by the parent's coalition all that seriously.

Good idea. CO likes parents “barefoot and pregnant”. The dumber the better for them.

And parent's coalition will twist facts to try and support their far-right agenda. They aren't a reliable source.

I don't really know them. What's far-right about them? The only issue I ever heard them talk about was how bad synthetic playing fields are for kids which doesn't sound far right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are only 2-6 good high schools in MoCo and people pay a lot to live there.

The other people buy cheap houses zoned for bad schools

If you believe that the only good schools are ones in neighborhoods with over-priced real estate, what do you think we as a society owe to people who truly cannot afford to live in those neighborhoods?

Surely, you also believe that an adequate education is a human right and the key to breaking cycles of generational poverty. Are you okay with real estate prices being the tool that creates a permanent underclass?

The slide began with eliminating finals, but that policy was a symptom of decline, not the cause. What we are calling pandemic learning loss was like a heart attack after the patient had a Krispy Kreme donut following a decade of daily Big Macs.

It is time for a true overhaul. But one that must include parental accountability as well. And buying a $900k house zoned to a W feeder doesn’t discharge your responsibility. Affluent parents need to advocate for a grading policy that supports rather than diminishes students learning time management and accountability skills. Affluent parents need to have constructive conversations with their children about the feedback teachers provide and not just react to low grades with angry emails and vitriolic DCUM posts. Your child didn’t get an A on homework because they really understand the concept. They got an A because that category only allows 100%, 90% (if late), and 50% (if never submitted). The C they got on classwork shows their true achievement.

Wait, they don't take final exams in MCPS?

Absolutely pathetic. What are these kids going to do when they get to college? Fail so much our colleges will have to water down curricula?

This is insane. Where's the education in MCPS and why do they keep raising my taxes?

Finals, college, and success are aspects of whiteness. As an anti-racism school system, MCPS must eschew these things and work toward equity.

This right here. This is why I vote Republican whenever I can, even though it’s a wasted vote in MoCo. The liberals have gone off the deep end with this bs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great just what we need. More admin bloat at 250,000 a year. MCPS currently as more than 3 billion a year in funding. Almost 5 billion if you factor in operating budget. No more money for mediocrity.

That's a great point. How many central office employees are there? According the MCPS there are 11,000 staff (not counting the 12,900 teachers). I know that includes everyone from the superintendent to janitors, but that's 1 staff member for every 14 students. That seems high by a few hundred percent.

Central office staff are very, very smart. We need them to make smart decisions.
Here’s one. Don’t take any stinkin $$$$$ from the federal govt. No grants!

https://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2023/11/mcps-got-zero-grant-funding-for-168m.html?m=1

I wouldn't take anything posted by the parent's coalition all that seriously.

Good idea. CO likes parents “barefoot and pregnant”. The dumber the better for them.

And parent's coalition will twist facts to try and support their far-right agenda. They aren't a reliable source.

When did democrats become far right? Who is the left then?

The link had an article about a school district getting a massive grant to buy electric buses. Are you having trouble reading words?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a pretty enlightening Reddit thread. If a student is not self-motivated and high-performing, they are completely failed by MCPS schools today. It's a race to the bottom for average kids. And it's entirely caused by central office bureaucrats. Monica McKnight cannot leave soon enough.

So in summary, to increase graduation rates, MCPS stopped requiring kids actually go to class and stopped teachers from giving zeros for not doing any assignments. That caused a drop in attendance rates, so they redefined absences as just very tardy. The result is that kids without parental oversight are hanging out in the hallways and graduating with no skills, knowledge, or self-discipline. However, the graduation and attendance rates are meeting metrics.

Lol, you all need to name schools for me to believe this. And even more, you need to name schools because all that was done in the name of equity, but if true, it's actually hurting the kids who need equity.

"

It's a tiny bit more complicated than that. I'm not arguing in favor of the 50% policy, but it's not exactly as described above.

The rule was meant to help kids who had one really bad assignment or one missed assignment not to just give up on the class. So, instead of getting a 0 and seeing that pull down your entire grade, you got a 50% up until the end of the semester, while the teacher was meant to help you get the assignment caught up. Yes, it is onerous on the part of the teacher and both students and parents should be paying better attention than this, but the actual origin of the policy was not nearly as cynical as PPs are making it out to be. It was meant to give kids some grace, and keep them from just giving up and thinking there was no way to even get close to a passing grade if everything they turn in afterward is being pulled down by the 0.

The child can absolutely still get a 0 if the work isn't caught up by the end of the semester, though.

I do think this policy is hurting kids, but it's not hurting the high achieving ones because we're still talking about kids who are getting Ds and Fs. They aren't "competing" with college-bound kids.

What I do think is hurting college-bound kids is the "honors for all" approach that has now pervaded every single grade level up to 11th grade. It means there is no differentiated option for most 9th and 10th graders in English, social studies, or science. Even math isn't differentiated because even the "advanced" kids are still in mixed-grade classes. So, "Honors Pre Calculus" is a mix of super advanced 9th grades, regular advanced 10th graders, grade level 11th graders, and below grade level seniors. That's absurd.

That’s always been the case. The advance as of the class has nothing to do with its content. Honors in the designation has nothing to do with when you take the course. You take the course when you are ready/prepared regardless of grade.

Up until a few years ago, there would have been an on-level Pre-Calculus class and an Honors Pre-Calculus class. Either would be open to kids who wanted the challenge, but the Honors class would have mostly been geared toward kids for whom this is not their terminal math course. When MCPS moved to "Honors for All," that ended.

False. That’s YOUR school. QO has both honors and regular pre-calculus. And honors and regular Chemistry.
It’s not Honors for all everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are only 2-6 good high schools in MoCo and people pay a lot to live there.

The other people buy cheap houses zoned for bad schools

If you believe that the only good schools are ones in neighborhoods with over-priced real estate, what do you think we as a society owe to people who truly cannot afford to live in those neighborhoods?

Surely, you also believe that an adequate education is a human right and the key to breaking cycles of generational poverty. Are you okay with real estate prices being the tool that creates a permanent underclass?

The slide began with eliminating finals, but that policy was a symptom of decline, not the cause. What we are calling pandemic learning loss was like a heart attack after the patient had a Krispy Kreme donut following a decade of daily Big Macs.

It is time for a true overhaul. But one that must include parental accountability as well. And buying a $900k house zoned to a W feeder doesn’t discharge your responsibility. Affluent parents need to advocate for a grading policy that supports rather than diminishes students learning time management and accountability skills. Affluent parents need to have constructive conversations with their children about the feedback teachers provide and not just react to low grades with angry emails and vitriolic DCUM posts. Your child didn’t get an A on homework because they really understand the concept. They got an A because that category only allows 100%, 90% (if late), and 50% (if never submitted). The C they got on classwork shows their true achievement.

Wait, they don't take final exams in MCPS?

Absolutely pathetic. What are these kids going to do when they get to college? Fail so much our colleges will have to water down curricula?

This is insane. Where's the education in MCPS and why do they keep raising my taxes?

Finals, college, and success are aspects of whiteness. As an anti-racism school system, MCPS must eschew these things and work toward equity.

This right here. This is why I vote Republican whenever I can, even though it’s a wasted vote in MoCo. The liberals have gone off the deep end with this bs.

No. Liberals aren't doing this. It's progressives who are now more like religious fundamentalists than liberals. We need a return to the moderate left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great just what we need. More admin bloat at 250,000 a year. MCPS currently as more than 3 billion a year in funding. Almost 5 billion if you factor in operating budget. No more money for mediocrity.

That's a great point. How many central office employees are there? According the MCPS there are 11,000 staff (not counting the 12,900 teachers). I know that includes everyone from the superintendent to janitors, but that's 1 staff member for every 14 students. That seems high by a few hundred percent.

Central office staff are very, very smart. We need them to make smart decisions.
Here’s one. Don’t take any stinkin $$$$$ from the federal govt. No grants!

https://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2023/11/mcps-got-zero-grant-funding-for-168m.html?m=1

I wouldn't take anything posted by the parent's coalition all that seriously.

Good idea. CO likes parents “barefoot and pregnant”. The dumber the better for them.

And parent's coalition will twist facts to try and support their far-right agenda. They aren't a reliable source.

When did democrats become far right? Who is the left then?

The link had an article about a school district getting a massive grant to buy electric buses. Are you having trouble reading words?

To many progressives, you're either woke or MAGA. They are why we can't have nice things in MoCo.