I don't understand the deal with MoCo class size

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The point with parochial schools (and many other Catholic privates), is that many of the teachers are there because they want to be...not because the benefits or the pay is good. Many of these teachers are committed to Catholic education, consider it to be more of a vocation vs a job, and have a passion for teaching our children. That is not to say public school teachers are not passionate, it is just a conviction that I see coming from them that I have not witnessed in a public school.

I assume that the teachers in MCPS are also there because they want to be there. Otherwise they wouldn't be there.

Also, I don't think that wanting to get paid for one's work is a sign of lesser commitment.

Clearly, you have missed my point. But I guess that is to be expected if you have never been involved in Catholic education.

I'd be surprised if all those Catholic educators thought they'd be teaching a class of lily white snowflakes. My involvement with Catholic education has included a deep and abiding commitment to bringing education to everyone, but especially the poor and underserved. However, with a handful of exceptions (St. Jerome, St. Francis) that doesn't seem to be the mission of parochial schools in this area.

At least in my aunt's case, she loved teaching in a Catholic school, but was naive about the lack of decent retirement benefits. She did not have any inheritance to count on (as some private school teachers may have.) So now she's living on a very modest income in her mid-70s. I think she regrets that she didn't go to a public school district, where she could now have a decent retirement.

But she loved teaching where she was. Only the money-hungry teachers stay in public and it isn't for the love of teaching. Who wants to teach kids who can't speak English, barely show up to class, do standardized testing half the year and strict curriculum you must follow? Never mind the 30+ kids in a room made for 20-25. I am happy with teachers in my Catholic school. They are fresh, like having a little more autonomy and confidence. Are eating away hours at mindless meetings. Maybe your aunt isn't rich but she led a happy lifetime in a teaching position she wanted to be in.

I doubt that the fact that she loved teaching means much to her as she cracks open a can of cat food for dinner now.

Teachers need to be paid for their work just as any other professionals do. That doesn't make them money hungry, it makes them workers.

Your description of a public school classroom bears no resemblancem to any I have seen.

Whoa, you haven't seen a public classroom with 30 kids, at least a handful that can't speak English, standardized testing and weeks of prepping for standardized testing, and 2.0 curriculum they must teach? You aren't from MCPS then.

I think the above line is the MCPS motto. No English, No Desk, No Independent Teaching - No problem!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much are the property taxes where you're from in Boston? I would bet they are higher than MCPS. I have lived in the Chicago suburbs and Pittsburgh suburbs and MoCo taxes are much less. I moved from an $800,000 house in MoCo where the taxes were just under $8,000. An $800,000 in my Pittsburgh suburb would have taxes well over $25,000. So I don't think MoCo homeowners pay a ton in taxes and even a slight increase could make a difference.

Agree with this. I'm formerly from and my taxes on a $900k house there were $30k. The worst part was that our schools were just as overcrowded as the ones here in MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It's this. We are higher population density b/c we build apartments and houses on smaller tracts of land. There's hardly any green space left. Look how Strathmore sold off it's lawn and NIH sold what is now the "Mews." People want to live closer to where they work.

The county's biggest development plan is at White Flint on Rockville Pike. They're not building on green space there. They're building on surface parking lots.

And are they building a new elementary school to accomodate these new families? Oh yeah -- it's proposed to be built in the now defunct but forever doomed to litigation White Flint Mall. Yeah, good luck with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I think the above line is the MCPS motto. No English, No Desk, No Independent Teaching - No problem!!

MCPS is legally required to teach English-language learners. So if it's not a problem in MCPS to teach English-language learners, that's actually a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It's this. We are higher population density b/c we build apartments and houses on smaller tracts of land. There's hardly any green space left. Look how Strathmore sold off it's lawn and NIH sold what is now the "Mews." People want to live closer to where they work.

The county's biggest development plan is at White Flint on Rockville Pike. They're not building on green space there. They're building on surface parking lots.

And are they building a new elementary school to accomodate these new families? Oh yeah -- it's proposed to be built in the now defunct but forever doomed to litigation White Flint Mall. Yeah, good luck with that.

Surely you're not blaming the county for Lord & Taylor's lawsuit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think the above line is the MCPS motto. No English, No Desk, No Independent Teaching - No problem!!

MCPS is legally required to teach English-language learners. So if it's not a problem in MCPS to teach English-language learners, that's actually a good thing.

+1

My fifth-grader's classroom has 24 students and a couple of English-language learners who go for ESL instruction outside the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Montgomery County and some VA counties in general are good places to live if you follow all those school rankings and livability rankings. Thus, we have a population increase. People moving in. Also, the federal government is a big employer so that means more people live around here.
If the counties were not ranked high on anything, you will not see such a high # of kids in the classrooms because the parents would not move here.

There are other factors of course such as less populated means less educational funding, and teachers get paid less and you have a lack of resources to teach the kids. And when the kids don't learn as much, the teachers are not as challenged and they get distracted by other things.

[Anonymous]

If you want to know why class sizes are so large check out the article about MCPS in the Metro section of the Post today. The school system is getting reamed by the county council for not spending enough money closing the achievement gap. As Larry Bowers is quoted saying, the only way to do that is to continue to take more money away from "low poverty" schools. Well, my low poverty school has definitely seen it's money go elsewhere. My kids classes in high school are huge with upwards of 39 kids in a Spanish or math class. The teachers are having difficulty being effective teachers with such large classes and my kids have insisted they need tutors because they can't learn in such large classes. If the county council thinks we are going to stick around and pay higher property taxes for less services they are wrong. Those supporting the lower end of the economic spectrum in MCPS are going to be leaving in droves. Then who will pay for it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want to know why class sizes are so large check out the article about MCPS in the Metro section of the Post today. The school system is getting reamed by the county council for not spending enough money closing the achievement gap. As Larry Bowers is quoted saying, the only way to do that is to continue to take more money away from "low poverty" schools. Well, my low poverty school has definitely seen it's money go elsewhere. My kids classes in high school are huge with upwards of 39 kids in a Spanish or math class. The teachers are having difficulty being effective teachers with such large classes and my kids have insisted they need tutors because they can't learn in such large classes. If the county council thinks we are going to stick around and pay higher property taxes for less services they are wrong. Those supporting the lower end of the economic spectrum in MCPS are going to be leaving in droves. Then who will pay for it?

And go where?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you look at the schools in the metro West suburbs of Boston where I'm from orginally, for example, it tends to be 16-18 kids in a class. Everywhere in MoCo that I'm aware of is at least 26-27 kids a class. Even in local catholic schools, it's still 26-27. I just don't get it. Is there a reason it is this way? We pay a ton in taxes and live in a tiny house and our kids are in a super crowded classroom.

I believe you can volunteer to send your kid to one of the Title 1 or FOCUS schools where you tend to see smaller classes. BTW, I'm not sure we really pay a "ton of taxes" here in MC. In NJ our house (price wise) would be 2-3x more taxes per year.

[Anonymous]

32 Chromebooks per cart. 1 cart per class. 33rd student in my 1st period enrolled the day we began our mid-marking period research project. Now we have to rotate who gets a computer each day. Please just cough up another $200 for one more cheapo laptop MCPS.