Who leaked the MCPS attendance documents to the Washington Post?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Behavior is often better when attendance is more lax. Students who resent being in a particular classroom or school altogether can make it a miserable experience for all involved. I once encountered a student in 7-11 about 20 min after school started. I had run out during my planning period to get some ibuprofen. I encouraged him to get to school. He told me that he was waiting until second period because he didn’t want to get in trouble. He had a lot of conflict with that teacher. He hadn’t done his homework due to an issue at home and felt she would yell at him or say something that made him feel stupid. Because he also hadn’t slept well over the home issue, he felt irritable and decided to just wait out her class rather than go and risk ending up in the office for nothing off. Sounded totally logical to me.

I have to say, only half joking, that I’m looking forward to my 8th grader going to high school because some of the most difficult and disruptive kids are going to skip most of their classes or drop out, so he can learn in peace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Behavior is often better when attendance is more lax. Students who resent being in a particular classroom or school altogether can make it a miserable experience for all involved. I once encountered a student in 7-11 about 20 min after school started. I had run out during my planning period to get some ibuprofen. I encouraged him to get to school. He told me that he was waiting until second period because he didn’t want to get in trouble. He had a lot of conflict with that teacher. He hadn’t done his homework due to an issue at home and felt she would yell at him or say something that made him feel stupid. Because he also hadn’t slept well over the home issue, he felt irritable and decided to just wait out her class rather than go and risk ending up in the office for nothing off. Sounded totally logical to me.

I have to say, only half joking, that I’m looking forward to my 8th grader going to high school because some of the most difficult and disruptive kids are going to skip most of their classes or drop out, so he can learn in peace.

Except for the dealers who come for the customers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am sure there is an issue but I also know that my kids often have unexcused absences that were entered wrong that no one bothers to correct. Sometimes we do not even know till we get the report card. Or we get an email and it is a field trip or sports.

47 times? The article isn't about mistakes in recording. It is about massive unexcused absences that show that students don't actually have to attend MCPS to graduate. The article devalues MCPS diplomas for all students.

Why kids would need to attend to graduate? If a kid is strong academically and has good grades why there is the necessity of a kid sitting at school for a whole day?

Or has the curriculum been watered down to the point students don't need to attend class to pass? I think MCPS is going down the same path as PG County Public Schools.

I think you are just spewing nonsense.

I am a parent with my oldest and youngest 10 years apart. I don't think one was smarter than the other one. However, my oldest consistently had more homework. There were also semester exams that carried weight towards the semester grade. The culmination of learning that was required a decade ago meant a gap in information didn’t just affect you on one test. The gap would affect a student's performance on the semester exam. I don't think a decade ago students could miss over 20% of instruction and be successful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am sure there is an issue but I also know that my kids often have unexcused absences that were entered wrong that no one bothers to correct. Sometimes we do not even know till we get the report card. Or we get an email and it is a field trip or sports.

47 times? The article isn't about mistakes in recording. It is about massive unexcused absences that show that students don't actually have to attend MCPS to graduate. The article devalues MCPS diplomas for all students.

Why kids would need to attend to graduate? If a kid is strong academically and has good grades why there is the necessity of a kid sitting at school for a whole day?

Or has the curriculum been watered down to the point students don't need to attend class to pass? I think MCPS is going down the same path as PG County Public Schools.

I think you are just spewing nonsense.

I am a parent with my oldest and youngest 10 years apart. I don't think one was smarter than the other one. However, my oldest consistently had more homework. There were also semester exams that carried weight towards the semester grade. The culmination of learning that was required a decade ago meant a gap in information didn’t just affect you on one test. The gap would affect a student's performance on the semester exam. I don't think a decade ago students could miss over 20% of instruction and be successful.

My kids are the same span apart and I’m a teacher. The younger one definitely has less homework although she’s a year ahead in math. I do think technology is part of the homework issue. A decade ago, if I assigned homework, the student had to spend sometime actually engaged with the textbook, even if only skimming. Now they can Google the question. And the fact that homework can be only 10% of the overall grade is a deterrent to always making it complex enough to be unGoogleable.