"Is MCPS losing its edge?"

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The reality is that 50% of children in the U.S. have a history of poverty.

This is due to the economic policies of the U.S. where we have 800+ billionaires who have more combined wealth than the combined wealth of 50% of the U.S. population.

Schools are not able address this. Band aides at most to keep giving kids a fighting chance at success in life.

No, it is not because we have billionaires. It is because most children are being born to poor immigrants and low income parents from "generational poverty." And the tide of new poor children keeps coming every year.

That's your opinion. Data show that wealth inequality is higher in the United States than in almost any other developed country and has risen for much of the past 60 years. We have billionaires who pay zero dollars in taxes and our national infrastructure and schools show it.

Except the US spends some of the most money per kid in school out of all industrialized nations. MoCo is well above national average. Yet performance continues to sink and the quality of the schools go down the sh!tter every year.

It doesn't matter how much money you spend when you import the entire 3rd world who can't even speak English. Or you have a bunch of ahole parents who impose zero discipline on their kids.

You'd see performance improve if they brought back the switch and whopped their asses in public whenever they wanted to disrupt the classroom. If the parents won't do it, schools should.

Interesting but I've heard RJ is a lot more effective than corporal punishment.

False dichotomy much? Let's just have real discipline with real consequences that students wish to avoid.

Seriously. Casting it as RJ be corporal punishment is a straw man.

Bring back detentions, Saturday school, failing kids, have them clean the school for vandalism, expel, suspend…..

Detention, expulsion and suspension are punitive disciplinary responses and MCPS and Maryland have turned away from them calling them racist and/or ineffective.

Nevermind that their so-called restorative practices have failed to prove effective either, but they are convinced the old ways were wrong and harmful.

Clearly they haven’t turned away from them as there are students who receive detention and are suspended each year.

Obviously there are kids not getting all A’s and B’s despite DCUM’s thought otherwise.

Expel and then what?

George B Thomas Saturday school already exist to help students. Further, if it was a regular day who is staffing that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality is that 50% of children in the U.S. have a history of poverty.

This is due to the economic policies of the U.S. where we have 800+ billionaires who have more combined wealth than the combined wealth of 50% of the U.S. population.

Schools are not able address this. Band aides at most to keep giving kids a fighting chance at success in life.

No, it is not because we have billionaires. It is because most children are being born to poor immigrants and low income parents from "generational poverty." And the tide of new poor children keeps coming every year.

That's your opinion. Data show that wealth inequality is higher in the United States than in almost any other developed country and has risen for much of the past 60 years. We have billionaires who pay zero dollars in taxes and our national infrastructure and schools show it.

Except the US spends some of the most money per kid in school out of all industrialized nations. MoCo is well above national average. Yet performance continues to sink and the quality of the schools go down the sh!tter every year.

It doesn't matter how much money you spend when you import the entire 3rd world who can't even speak English. Or you have a bunch of ahole parents who impose zero discipline on their kids.

You'd see performance improve if they brought back the switch and whopped their asses in public whenever they wanted to disrupt the classroom. If the parents won't do it, schools should.

Interesting but I've heard RJ is a lot more effective than corporal punishment.

False dichotomy much? Let's just have real discipline with real consequences that students wish to avoid.

Seriously. Casting it as RJ be corporal punishment is a straw man.

Bring back detentions, Saturday school, failing kids, have them clean the school for vandalism, expel, suspend…..

Detention, expulsion and suspension are punitive disciplinary responses and MCPS and Maryland have turned away from them calling them racist and/or ineffective.

Nevermind that their so-called restorative practices have failed to prove effective either, but they are convinced the old ways were wrong and harmful.

Clearly they haven’t turned away from them as there are students who receive detention and are suspended each year.

Obviously there are kids not getting all A’s and B’s despite DCUM’s thought otherwise.

Expel and then what?

George B Thomas Saturday school already exist to help students. Further, if it was a regular day who is staffing that?

You are not going to gaslight me today.

You know damn well that detention today is not what it was in the past. It's pretty much optional. Kids are told to go to detention and then it's up to kids if they show up for it or not. If they don't show up, there's no consequence. Back in the day, kids were walked down to detention and required to attend, and if they skipped or missed detention, there were escalating consequences for that including suspension and/or expulsion.

You are not going to lie and deny that MCPS and Maryland have vilified and turned away from traditional methods of discipline. They absolutely have. And I would actually be ok with that if they had an alternative to traditional discipline that was as or more effective as the traditional methods. But they don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality is that 50% of children in the U.S. have a history of poverty.

This is due to the economic policies of the U.S. where we have 800+ billionaires who have more combined wealth than the combined wealth of 50% of the U.S. population.

Schools are not able address this. Band aides at most to keep giving kids a fighting chance at success in life.

No, it is not because we have billionaires. It is because most children are being born to poor immigrants and low income parents from "generational poverty." And the tide of new poor children keeps coming every year.

That's your opinion. Data show that wealth inequality is higher in the United States than in almost any other developed country and has risen for much of the past 60 years. We have billionaires who pay zero dollars in taxes and our national infrastructure and schools show it.

Except the US spends some of the most money per kid in school out of all industrialized nations. MoCo is well above national average. Yet performance continues to sink and the quality of the schools go down the sh!tter every year.

It doesn't matter how much money you spend when you import the entire 3rd world who can't even speak English. Or you have a bunch of ahole parents who impose zero discipline on their kids.

You'd see performance improve if they brought back the switch and whopped their asses in public whenever they wanted to disrupt the classroom. If the parents won't do it, schools should.

Interesting but I've heard RJ is a lot more effective than corporal punishment.

False dichotomy much? Let's just have real discipline with real consequences that students wish to avoid.

Seriously. Casting it as RJ be corporal punishment is a straw man.

Bring back detentions, Saturday school, failing kids, have them clean the school for vandalism, expel, suspend…..

Detention, expulsion and suspension are punitive disciplinary responses and MCPS and Maryland have turned away from them calling them racist and/or ineffective.

Nevermind that their so-called restorative practices have failed to prove effective either, but they are convinced the old ways were wrong and harmful.

Clearly they haven’t turned away from them as there are students who receive detention and are suspended each year.

Obviously there are kids not getting all A’s and B’s despite DCUM’s thought otherwise.

Expel and then what?

George B Thomas Saturday school already exist to help students. Further, if it was a regular day who is staffing that?

Have you attended the Saturday school? My kid went last year and it’s basically a homeroom. The teachers are good but they cannot always help with the homework- esp if it’s a subject they don’t teach. It’s not going to help for kids who don’t care- they’ll simply surf the web the whole time if they’re not motivated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:It never had an edge. They need to get back to basics.

It did in the 60s and 70s.

Homogeneous population.

Yes. The article could have had more discussion of this context. The FARMS rates have risen dramatically over the years.

We definitely know that by now. Changing demographics in the county over the past decade have had a major effect on the school system.

The FARMS rate at Walt Whitman high school is less than 5%. The article describes absenteeism, tardies, grade inflation, and low standards there too. Same at Wootton. Demographics obviously are a part of the problem but it's bigger than just having a lot more poor kids who don't speak English at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It never had an edge. They need to get back to basics.

It did in the 60s and 70s.

Homogeneous population.

Yes. The article could have had more discussion of this context. The FARMS rates have risen dramatically over the years.

We definitely know that by now. Changing demographics in the county over the past decade have had a major effect on the school system.

The FARMS rate at Walt Whitman high school is less than 5%. The article describes absenteeism, tardies, grade inflation, and low standards there too. Same at Wootton. Demographics obviously are a part of the problem but it's bigger than just having a lot more poor kids who don't speak English at home.

Correct. And this is the point and the part that MCPS leaders REFUSE to engage with, as they spin up only the most sympathy-inducing narratives of struggling kids as the reason for the system's decline in academic performance.

This is particularly onerous with chronic absenteeism, where yes, there are a portion of students who are absent and missing school due to genuine financial and domestic hardships, but there is also a significant portion of students who skip because they can and there are no consequences. And they've admitted and said as much in public via student newspapers and to MCPS when surveyed and asked.

[Anonymous]

The answer is to get rid of all Magnet Schools and immersion programs and any program geared at the snowflake kids at HS level.

My old school district did this in another state and created a second HS for trouble makers, low performers, special need kids and pulled them from public school. That second high school had a way lower teacher to student ratio and really could give kids who struggle academically or special needs kids the help they need.

The regular HS once you offloaded the 5-10 percent bottom students shot up in ratings. They did not need a gifted program.

The gifted program money for top 10 percent was better spent helping bottom 10 percent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The answer is to get rid of all Magnet Schools and immersion programs and any program geared at the snowflake kids at HS level.

My old school district did this in another state and created a second HS for trouble makers, low performers, special need kids and pulled them from public school. That second high school had a way lower teacher to student ratio and really could give kids who struggle academically or special needs kids the help they need.

The regular HS once you offloaded the 5-10 percent bottom students shot up in ratings. They did not need a gifted program.

The gifted program money for top 10 percent was better spent helping bottom 10 percent

I definitely think we need the equivalent or improved version of what we had before with Mark Twain, which is precisely what you described sounds like.

[Anonymous]

Stop firing teacher who want to teach and start putting students who want to fight instead of learn. Also, fire principals who want to manipulate people and data for their advantage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop firing teacher who want to teach and start putting students who want to fight instead of learn. Also, fire principals who want to manipulate people and data for their advantage.

This would be a GAME CHANGER if MCPS had the guts to do that. It won't happen though because MCAAP is too powerful.

[Anonymous]

My kid's 3rd grade teacher was talking at open house last night about how the latest writing curriculum was dumbed down relative to what MCPS has in the past but that she and the school reading specialist were trying to figure out how to supplement it. It's sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality is that 50% of children in the U.S. have a history of poverty.

This is due to the economic policies of the U.S. where we have 800+ billionaires who have more combined wealth than the combined wealth of 50% of the U.S. population.

Schools are not able address this. Band aides at most to keep giving kids a fighting chance at success in life.

No, it is not because we have billionaires. It is because most children are being born to poor immigrants and low income parents from "generational poverty." And the tide of new poor children keeps coming every year.

That's your opinion. Data show that wealth inequality is higher in the United States than in almost any other developed country and has risen for much of the past 60 years. We have billionaires who pay zero dollars in taxes and our national infrastructure and schools show it.

Except the US spends some of the most money per kid in school out of all industrialized nations. MoCo is well above national average. Yet performance continues to sink and the quality of the schools go down the sh!tter every year.

It doesn't matter how much money you spend when you import the entire 3rd world who can't even speak English. Or you have a bunch of ahole parents who impose zero discipline on their kids.

You'd see performance improve if they brought back the switch and whopped their asses in public whenever they wanted to disrupt the classroom. If the parents won't do it, schools should.

Beating kids isn’t going to fix things but reopening up a school for kids with severe behavioral problems, fixing the curriculum, holding kids accountable with consequences are all good starts.

What a bunch of BS. The problem with behavioral, educational, and psych studies is that those soft fields are completely dominated by liberal researchers. I guarantee you corporal punishment works. Go whack an out of control kid on the bottom of the feet and see how many times they do the same crap again. They learn reaaaaaal quick not to pull the same stunts again. Contrast that to all of the hands off, kumbaya, pooping rainbows discipline ideas liberal educators and psychologists have pushed onto schools systems for the last 30 years. Kids act up, fight, and assault teachers and are treated with pansy gloves. They learn zero repercussions and still act like aholes and disrupt learning for everyone. Whoop their asses. They need to learn real lessons in discipline.

There are just a large number of people out there who simply cannot understand how there are so many humans out there with behavior instincts like animals, and the only way they ever learn is by the stick whacking their asses, and not from the carrot dangling at the end of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid's 3rd grade teacher was talking at open house last night about how the latest writing curriculum was dumbed down relative to what MCPS has in the past but that she and the school reading specialist were trying to figure out how to supplement it. It's sad.

The new curriculum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid's 3rd grade teacher was talking at open house last night about how the latest writing curriculum was dumbed down relative to what MCPS has in the past but that she and the school reading specialist were trying to figure out how to supplement it. It's sad.

The new curriculum?

The new ES ELA curriculum is so much better than what they had before. -NP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid's 3rd grade teacher was talking at open house last night about how the latest writing curriculum was dumbed down relative to what MCPS has in the past but that she and the school reading specialist were trying to figure out how to supplement it. It's sad.

The new curriculum?

The new ES ELA curriculum is so much better than what they had before. -NP

My kid's teacher (who has 20 plus years at MCPS) sounds like she disagrees--at least for how it teaches writing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid's 3rd grade teacher was talking at open house last night about how the latest writing curriculum was dumbed down relative to what MCPS has in the past but that she and the school reading specialist were trying to figure out how to supplement it. It's sad.

The new curriculum?

The new ES ELA curriculum is so much better than what they had before. -NP

My kid's teacher (who has 20 plus years at MCPS) sounds like she disagrees--at least for how it teaches writing.

The new curriculum is aligned to standards and is rigorous. Teachers who have been teaching for decades may not like it for that very reason, as neither was true of prior curricula. It is going to be a tough transition, both for teachers and students.