Root cause of issues at MOCO schools?

[Anonymous]

Town run schools—that’s one difference. Less diffuse. Parents feel more in control.

[Anonymous]

But it challenges the notion that DCPS is so awesome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Town run schools—that’s one difference. Less diffuse. Parents feel more in control.

Local is always better. Lots of child specific and neighborhood specific issues that have nothing to do with each other across totally different neighborhoods one hour drive away in traffic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Town run schools—that’s one difference. Less diffuse. Parents feel more in control.

Local is always better. Lots of child specific and neighborhood specific issues that have nothing to do with each other across totally different neighborhoods one hour drive away in traffic.

No, it's not. Sometimes it's better. Sometimes it's worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Neither MCPS nor DCPS provide high quality education for K-12, unless you can access a small number of schools/programs for at least some of those grades:

MCPS: K-8 is a problem unless you’re in a CES or magnet. High school is generally better.

DCPS: A few good elementary schools exist, but then you’re up a creek unless you’re going to Deal or SWW.

I don’t see how the two systems are so different, when you look at K-12 education as a whole. They both have some pluses and a ton of minuses.

MPCS Does
DCPS doesn't.
It is as simple as that.

One is great not perfect (MCPS )
The other sucks in general (DCPS )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Town run schools—that’s one difference. Less diffuse. Parents feel more in control.

Local is always better. Lots of child specific and neighborhood specific issues that have nothing to do with each other across totally different neighborhoods one hour drive away in traffic.

No, it's not. Sometimes it's better. Sometimes it's worse.

Right. I grew up in Chappaqua. The schools are good, but my sibling and I still went to private high schools because the public schools just weren’t challenging enough. The high schools send kids to about the same colleges as the good MCPS ones do. Of course this was in the 90s and early 2000s, so things might have changed, but our experience definitely was just so so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to here from a non-CES/HGC or non-Magnet school. We don't live near any and the logistics are not feasible for our family or most of our school pyramid's families.

Doesn't that tell you something if the only families satisfied are the handful that go to CES and magnet programs in 500 sq mile county district?

My older daughter is starting CES in the fall, but I have overall been happy with my two kids' MCPS experience at our home school. Do I think it's perfect? No, but I definitely think it is good. They are happy to go to school; they are engaged and excited about what they're learning. My kindergartener (who did not enter kindergarten reading) progressed immensely and is able to read picture books and easy "chapter" books like Bad Kitty now at the end of the year (and I don't think this is a unique experience at our school). We are not thrilled with the pace and structure of the math curriculum, but I have no doubt they will be ready for Algebra in 7th or 8th grade and prepared to take college math if they choose to. Their teachers work hard to meet the needs of large classes with students of varying skills and abilities. I think our school has worked creatively to provide the support for teachers to be able to do that with the class sizes they have - strong grade level teams that jointly plan projects and assignments and send letters or info home to parents as a team, encouraging experienced teachers to be preceptors for UMD student teachers (my kids LOVE the student teachers and it gets an extra adults into the classrooms).

I don't expect public school to be perfect. Honestly, I wouldn't expect any school to be perfect, but if you do choose private school then you get a lot more say in the overall philosophy because there are a variety out there and you get to choose the best fit for your kid and your family. Public school is inherently less personalized. But I don't think any other local public system is way better than MCPS. DCUM is not a representative sample of anything. And if you go on the "Virginia Public Schools" forum, you will see just as much griping and complaining as you do here (I personally have only checked out the VA one and not the DC forum). There are lots of parents in MCPS who are happy with their kids' experience. And there are lots of parents who are generally happy but come here to complain about the couple things they are unhappy about. I don't think it says much about the system as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes the problem is created by MCPS.

The rezoning of the new RM ES#5 was such an example. MCPS threw in two options for the rezoning that were non-starters to begin with, but it forced the parents in the effected areas to rally against those options. A lot of speaking time for the community was taken up by these parent, when that time could've been used for the community to actually debate and discuss the viable options. It was a waste of time for everyone to have to address these non-starter options that should never have been put on the table to begin with.

That was all on MCPS, and I was hugely disappointed with how they handled the whole thing.

This it the MO for most school districts. Decide what you actually want, then throw in a few completely hot-button, outrageous options for people to go crazy over, so in the end you get the only one left, which was the one you wanted, while making the people feel they were "heard" and dodged a bullet. DCPS does it all the time too. It is pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Neither MCPS nor DCPS provide high quality education for K-12, unless you can access a small number of schools/programs for at least some of those grades:

MCPS: K-8 is a problem unless you’re in a CES or magnet. High school is generally better.

DCPS: A few good elementary schools exist, but then you’re up a creek unless you’re going to Deal or SWW.

I don’t see how the two systems are so different, when you look at K-12 education as a whole. They both have some pluses and a ton of minuses.

MPCS Does
DCPS doesn't.
It is as simple as that.

One is great not perfect (MCPS )
The other sucks in general (DCPS )

I'm not sure how this became a DC v. MoCo schools discussion, but I've lived in the area for decades and have not ever heard a friend say that they want to move into DC for the schools, whereas I've had many, many friends worry about what to do once their child is finished with the local DC public elementary school (which, at least in far NW DC, can be quite good).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Neither MCPS nor DCPS provide high quality education for K-12, unless you can access a small number of schools/programs for at least some of those grades:

MCPS: K-8 is a problem unless you’re in a CES or magnet. High school is generally better.

DCPS: A few good elementary schools exist, but then you’re up a creek unless you’re going to Deal or SWW.

I don’t see how the two systems are so different, when you look at K-12 education as a whole. They both have some pluses and a ton of minuses.

MPCS Does
DCPS doesn't.
It is as simple as that.

One is great not perfect (MCPS )
The other sucks in general (DCPS )

I'm not sure how this became a DC v. MoCo schools discussion, but I've lived in the area for decades and have not ever heard a friend say that they want to move into DC for the schools, whereas I've had many, many friends worry about what to do once their child is finished with the local DC public elementary school (which, at least in far NW DC, can be quite good).

Yup, this is why we didn’t stay in DC when we had our daughter. Even if we stretched our budget to buy in district for the good elementary schools, we would have had few choices come middle school (especially with the boundary changes for Deal, there are no guarantees) and high school was a big question mark. VA is awful for our commutes, so MoCo it was.

[Anonymous]

My oldest and youngest is almost a decade apart in age. I will say MCPS has seriously slid downhill from where it was 10 years ago. My oldest received a decent education at a W school. We are now considering private for my youngest. The privates as far as class options, class size, and positivity in the school climate just seemed like a happier place to go to school when we toured them. Curriculum has a higher standard and they focus more on developing basic foundations with proven curriculums vs. the nightmare 2.0 debacle. There is also no need for wasted school days on PARCC instruction and assessments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My oldest and youngest is almost a decade apart in age. I will say MCPS has seriously slid downhill from where it was 10 years ago. My oldest received a decent education at a W school. We are now considering private for my youngest. The privates as far as class options, class size, and positivity in the school climate just seemed like a happier place to go to school when we toured them. Curriculum has a higher standard and they focus more on developing basic foundations with proven curriculums vs. the nightmare 2.0 debacle. There is also no need for wasted school days on PARCC instruction and assessments.

How much time did your oldest spend on MSA instruction and assessments?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:His phone number is 240 740 3215 — pressed submit too soon.

Tried calling the Compliance Unit but can only get a voicemail with a garbled message. I guess the office is on summer break?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest and youngest is almost a decade apart in age. I will say MCPS has seriously slid downhill from where it was 10 years ago. My oldest received a decent education at a W school. We are now considering private for my youngest. The privates as far as class options, class size, and positivity in the school climate just seemed like a happier place to go to school when we toured them. Curriculum has a higher standard and they focus more on developing basic foundations with proven curriculums vs. the nightmare 2.0 debacle. There is also no need for wasted school days on PARCC instruction and assessments.

How much time did your oldest spend on MSA instruction and assessments?

Not as much as PARCC and the MSA was paper and pencil. With PARCC, the computers sometimes crash and loose the child's answers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest and youngest is almost a decade apart in age. I will say MCPS has seriously slid downhill from where it was 10 years ago. My oldest received a decent education at a W school. We are now considering private for my youngest. The privates as far as class options, class size, and positivity in the school climate just seemed like a happier place to go to school when we toured them. Curriculum has a higher standard and they focus more on developing basic foundations with proven curriculums vs. the nightmare 2.0 debacle. There is also no need for wasted school days on PARCC instruction and assessments.

How much time did your oldest spend on MSA instruction and assessments?

Not as much as PARCC and the MSA was paper and pencil. With PARCC, the computers sometimes crash and loose the child's answers.

Really? My kid spent way more time on the MSAs than my younger kid spent on the PARCCs. Especially MSA prep.