MCPS to end areawide Blair Magnet and countywide Richard Montgomery's IB program

[Anonymous]

Re: hiring good STEM teachers, I think aside from the pay, there needs to be a way to get STEM skilled folks trained to teach without making them get an Education degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re: hiring good STEM teachers, I think aside from the pay, there needs to be a way to get STEM skilled folks trained to teach without making them get an Education degree.

In fact, there is:

https://www.montgomerycollege.edu/academics/liberal-arts-and-education/school-of-education/alternative-certification-effective-teachers.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re: hiring good STEM teachers, I think aside from the pay, there needs to be a way to get STEM skilled folks trained to teach without making them get an Education degree.

If you happen to be at last Tuesday’s MCCPTA meeting, you’ll see Dr Taylor insists on no possibility of hiring of new teachers because of budget limit, and he doesn’t believe training is needed either. He claimed that many teachers had been having multiple certificates and “they are significantly under-utilized”.

[Anonymous]

Oh that’s good! But yeah, still tough to find enough skilled people for these positions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: hiring good STEM teachers, I think aside from the pay, there needs to be a way to get STEM skilled folks trained to teach without making them get an Education degree.

If you happen to be at last Tuesday’s MCCPTA meeting, you’ll see Dr Taylor insists on no possibility of hiring of new teachers because of budget limit, and he doesn’t believe training is needed either. He claimed that many teachers had been having multiple certificates and “they are significantly under-utilized”.

Well that’s delusional. You can’t teach what you haven’t learned yourself, and a lot of these subjects are specialized. Which existing teachers are going to teach the “health care and medicine” courses? (Honestly I’m not sure what that’s supposed to be at a HS level other than bio and chem.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: hiring good STEM teachers, I think aside from the pay, there needs to be a way to get STEM skilled folks trained to teach without making them get an Education degree.

If you happen to be at last Tuesday’s MCCPTA meeting, you’ll see Dr Taylor insists on no possibility of hiring of new teachers because of budget limit, and he doesn’t believe training is needed either. He claimed that many teachers had been having multiple certificates and “they are significantly under-utilized”.

Well that’s delusional. You can’t teach what you haven’t learned yourself, and a lot of these subjects are specialized. Which existing teachers are going to teach the “health care and medicine” courses? (Honestly I’m not sure what that’s supposed to be at a HS level other than bio and chem.)

Well the most beloved math teacher in Blair smacs has a master degree in math major. The bio teacher was a postdoc at NIH before. The beloved cs teacher used work at a big tech company (Google, Microsoft or similar) before he joined Blair simply because of his enthusiasm of teaching. I can’t imagine a few training classes can bring enough teachers in other HSs to their level of expertise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can imagine a scenario where a rigorous SMCS program on the level of Blair's evolves at Wooton. Blair's SMCS will become honors-for-all, and eventually fall from there. Blair's magnet was started to bring excellence to the lowest performing high school in the county.

Taylor's plan is problematic for Blair.

SMCS in either Churchill or Wootton will rise. This regional thing will bring down Blair. It's a shame to lose its fame.

Why it is a shame? It's a shame the Blair was riding on SMCS's reputation instead of earning its own.

Blair envy is strong with this ignoramus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is bonkers. The regional program seems responsive to the concerns parents raise here all the time that high performing kids are shut out of the very few high performing programs. Now, a larger group of high performing kids will be able to learn with their high performing peers, with the speciality focus area piece available to try to equal out the number of high performing kids at each school. Seems like a good approach to me. As for the rarefied Blair offerings, kids can get those in college.

Exactly. HS is about exposure not specialization.

So why kill the existing program that gives kids the most exposure?

What exactly is the problem with keeping our outstanding cross-county programs AND reorganizing the school district into regions?

I would have thought this was a good solution too, but apparently it has already been tried and failed with IB programs.

How?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: hiring good STEM teachers, I think aside from the pay, there needs to be a way to get STEM skilled folks trained to teach without making them get an Education degree.

If you happen to be at last Tuesday’s MCCPTA meeting, you’ll see Dr Taylor insists on no possibility of hiring of new teachers because of budget limit, and he doesn’t believe training is needed either. He claimed that many teachers had been having multiple certificates and “they are significantly under-utilized”.

What Dr Taylor said is really sad, it's a ticket to the future failure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is bonkers. The regional program seems responsive to the concerns parents raise here all the time that high performing kids are shut out of the very few high performing programs. Now, a larger group of high performing kids will be able to learn with their high performing peers, with the speciality focus area piece available to try to equal out the number of high performing kids at each school. Seems like a good approach to me. As for the rarefied Blair offerings, kids can get those in college.

Exactly. HS is about exposure not specialization.

So why kill the existing program that gives kids the most exposure?

What exactly is the problem with keeping our outstanding cross-county programs AND reorganizing the school district into regions?

I would have thought this was a good solution too, but apparently it has already been tried and failed with IB programs.

How?

I don't know the details but apparently people think RMIB is way better than the regional IBs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is bonkers. The regional program seems responsive to the concerns parents raise here all the time that high performing kids are shut out of the very few high performing programs. Now, a larger group of high performing kids will be able to learn with their high performing peers, with the speciality focus area piece available to try to equal out the number of high performing kids at each school. Seems like a good approach to me. As for the rarefied Blair offerings, kids can get those in college.

Exactly. HS is about exposure not specialization.

So why kill the existing program that gives kids the most exposure?

What exactly is the problem with keeping our outstanding cross-county programs AND reorganizing the school district into regions?

I would have thought this was a good solution too, but apparently it has already been tried and failed with IB programs.

How?

I don't know the details but apparently people think RMIB is way better than the regional IBs?

Even if RMIB is better than the regionals (that's to be expected), doesn't prove that the regionals have failed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is bonkers. The regional program seems responsive to the concerns parents raise here all the time that high performing kids are shut out of the very few high performing programs. Now, a larger group of high performing kids will be able to learn with their high performing peers, with the speciality focus area piece available to try to equal out the number of high performing kids at each school. Seems like a good approach to me. As for the rarefied Blair offerings, kids can get those in college.

Exactly. HS is about exposure not specialization.

So why kill the existing program that gives kids the most exposure?

What exactly is the problem with keeping our outstanding cross-county programs AND reorganizing the school district into regions?

I would have thought this was a good solution too, but apparently it has already been tried and failed with IB programs.

How?

I don't know the details but apparently people think RMIB is way better than the regional IBs?

Even if RMIB is better than the regionals (that's to be expected), doesn't prove that the regionals have failed.

I guess the theory is that the regionals would do better if the top students weren’t all flocking to RMIB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What can be done to better support MCPS teachers and teaching in all schools???

Cut the bloat in admin, cut the central micromanagement, give teachers more autonomy, pay them more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: hiring good STEM teachers, I think aside from the pay, there needs to be a way to get STEM skilled folks trained to teach without making them get an Education degree.

If you happen to be at last Tuesday’s MCCPTA meeting, you’ll see Dr Taylor insists on no possibility of hiring of new teachers because of budget limit, and he doesn’t believe training is needed either. He claimed that many teachers had been having multiple certificates and “they are significantly under-utilized”.

A certificate is meaningless. I am certified in software. It means nothing.

There are very few teachers who can teach advanced STEM, and teach it well.

Who creates the math curriculum in the advanced math classes at Blair? Is it central office, or do the magnet teachers have more autonomy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is bonkers. The regional program seems responsive to the concerns parents raise here all the time that high performing kids are shut out of the very few high performing programs. Now, a larger group of high performing kids will be able to learn with their high performing peers, with the speciality focus area piece available to try to equal out the number of high performing kids at each school. Seems like a good approach to me. As for the rarefied Blair offerings, kids can get those in college.

Exactly. HS is about exposure not specialization.

So why kill the existing program that gives kids the most exposure?

What exactly is the problem with keeping our outstanding cross-county programs AND reorganizing the school district into regions?

I would have thought this was a good solution too, but apparently it has already been tried and failed with IB programs.

How?

I don't know the details but apparently people think RMIB is way better than the regional IBs?

one only needs to look at the IBDP rate and the IB classes offered at the regional IBs compared to RMIB.