New curriculum selection process delayed— new RFP must be issues now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the times that I wish DCUM had regular user logins is times like this, where I want everyone to know that I'm a regular MCPS defender and all around pretty rational about the quality of education my kids are receiving.

So, just trust me that I'm not a complainer, and am generally happy with the schools.

Now, onward: This is a boondoggle. There are proven and effective curricula out there. How hard would it be to CHOOSE ONE OF THOSE???

Stop with the experimentation, and with trying to be cutting edge and pick the "up and coming" vendor.

Go back to the basics and pick something known to work. It is the only way we might start to patch the holes left by 2.0. Unless Smith is ready to lose an entire "generation" of MCPS kids, they need to pick something - with urgency - that can begin to remediate the massive problems with the old curriculum.

Our kids do not have time to wait, and they don't have time for more tinkering around the edges.

+1000 My thoughts exactly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jack Smith is going to get a long and unhappy email from me this week (my first as an MCPS parent). I encourage others to do the same. We deserve to understand why two incompetent MCPS staff can derail a critical RFP process with no penalty, and why Maria Navarro went out of her way to excuse Discovery Ed from wrongdoing when there's no way they couldn't have known that their new hires were in charge of the same process they were bidding on.
Jack_Smith at mcpsmd.org

So the same Marty Creel person who worked with Erick Lang on the disasterous C2.0 in 2010-2012 jumped to newbie Discovery Ed and now recruited Erick Lang once C2.0 was deemed a total failure more formally than everyone was already deeming it for years.

And these A-holes are now costing the county MORE time and money in delays fixing their shoddy C2.0 product?

Jack Smith needs a real selection process that cuts through this nepotism and incompetency. I hate this awarding of gov't contracts since of the kickbacks but come on.

Yes!@

[Anonymous]

The BOE needs to hold public meetings on this crap. MCPS can't be allowed to sneak in their pals crappy curriculum at our kids expense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the times that I wish DCUM had regular user logins is times like this, where I want everyone to know that I'm a regular MCPS defender and all around pretty rational about the quality of education my kids are receiving.

So, just trust me that I'm not a complainer, and am generally happy with the schools.

Now, onward: This is a boondoggle. There are proven and effective curricula out there. How hard would it be to CHOOSE ONE OF THOSE???

Stop with the experimentation, and with trying to be cutting edge and pick the "up and coming" vendor.

Go back to the basics and pick something known to work. It is the only way we might start to patch the holes left by 2.0. Unless Smith is ready to lose an entire "generation" of MCPS kids, they need to pick something - with urgency - that can begin to remediate the massive problems with the old curriculum.

Our kids do not have time to wait, and they don't have time for more tinkering around the edges.

Smith must be aware by now that the Wooton, Churchill, Whitman, BCC, etc. cluster families supplement and home-teach their children a ton, weekly. To make up for MCPS deficiencies.
Magnet programs no need - those teachers, pacing, curriculum, clubs/contests, and materials are comparable with college prep schools. K-5 far from it, 6-8 far from it, 9-12 not close either.

Week one of 1st grade, our teacher suggested daily math and daily reading homework of the kid/parent's choosing. WHAT IS THIS?
A MCPS ES teacher telling parents to teach their kids themselves daily and giving zero details. So what did all the SAHMs and SAHDs and flex-job parents do? They went out and bought math workbooks, and phonics games, and top children's books. ANd taught their children what MCPS is supposed to be doing. And what did all the dual income parents do? They got tutors to come in from 5-6pm or signed up for Kumon or ran 6 kid classes in their house from 8am-9am.

DO YOUR JOB MCPS. We're sick of doing it for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The BOE needs to hold public meetings on this crap. MCPS can't be allowed to sneak in their pals crappy curriculum at our kids expense.

I would love to attend this town hall. I bet it would last 6 hours+ and I'd be damn sure to have Associated Press there. I'll bring my handouts, on bright yellow paper. Short and sweet. We can go through the 5-6 main recent MCPS failures in any order.

[Anonymous]

Wait a minute, so Discovery Ed is so bad that Discovery Comm just sold over 50%+ to some private tech buyer? Ugh.

If it was so great, why sell. Need some help around the table selling garbage to educate children around the world. As if any other country would buy an American education product, ha!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Discovery Ed is just another high margin, bad content experiment in computer digital teaching for K-5. Moves farther and farther away from "learning by doing" or practicing anything or from hand/memory learning and consists of CONSTANT group and individual SCREENTIME.

It's practically online teaching. terrible for children.

Sounds we're at very real risk of having this shoved down our throats. At the BOE meeting where the JHU report was presented there was still chatter about digital divide and getting low income kids devices. This is the opposite of what I'm looking for as a parent.

I'm not a complete luddite, I know videos can be compelling to kids. But a video is not reference material. How do you get back to that one point you realize you didn't catch without re-watching an entire video. Or worse watching several to find the one that had the point. By using a physical book, there's a memory of where key points are, and past lessons aren't necessarily disposed of. (With the math packets, they are literally disposed of, DC's teacher collects them for recycling when handing out the next one. So no one is under the illusion that they'll need that knowledge again.)

Online adaptive lessons have their place, too. But MCPS doesn't need to buy that with the curriculum, or at the very least they shouldn't buy a curriculum solely for digital content. And, I think they have their limitations, because they take ownership away from the student. As soon as answers are correct the material gets more difficult, so the student isn't as aware of individual concepts in isolation. There's also the push to call a problem "rich" simply because it asks a student to do three things at once. Yes, that makes a question more difficult, but is it better? For me at least, math is about cutting through the noise and extracting a key concept even if that's something simple.

For example, there will be a questions like, "what is the sum of the divisors of 14?" Which is more difficult than, "find a divisor of 14." Or even, "find all the divisors of 14." But is it a better question? It's an easier question to program, because there are no formatting issues, and there is a single integer answer. But if the lesson is divisors, summing them is just busy work and a distraction, unless this is leading to a discussion of the significance of such a sum. Maybe on this point, I am a luddite, but I can't help but notice how often questions are chosen to suit the technology, and not vice versa.

[Anonymous]

Smith must be aware by now that the Wooton, Churchill, Whitman, BCC, etc. cluster families supplement and home-teach their children a ton, weekly. To make up for MCPS deficiencies.
Magnet programs no need - those teachers, pacing, curriculum, clubs/contests, and materials are comparable with college prep schools. K-5 far from it, 6-8 far from it, 9-12 not close either.

Week one of 1st grade, our teacher suggested daily math and daily reading homework of the kid/parent's choosing. WHAT IS THIS?
A MCPS ES teacher telling parents to teach their kids themselves daily and giving zero details. So what did all the SAHMs and SAHDs and flex-job parents do? They went out and bought math workbooks, and phonics games, and top children's books. ANd taught their children what MCPS is supposed to be doing. And what did all the dual income parents do? They got tutors to come in from 5-6pm or signed up for Kumon or ran 6 kid classes in their house from 8am-9am.

DO YOUR JOB MCPS. We're sick of doing it for you.

All of this is true, but please don't fall into the DCUM trap of believing that only W school families are supplementing. It is dangerously close to the conventional wisdom that only upper middle class families care about education.

I'm a DCC parent that has sent two kids to magnets where they've had high performing classmates that are the children of asylum seekers, who are first-generation American, who receive free meals, etc.

Those parents are ALSO supplementing. You may not see them at A+ Academy or whatever, but they are dragging out old textbooks, signing up for Saturday School at George B. Thomas, and getting help from neighbors who were doctors or scientists "back home" but who are driving Uber here.

It's important to point all of this out for racial and economic justice reasons, to not let lazy stereotypes about the east county go unchallenged, but also because MCPS should know that UMC strivers are not the only ones forced to scrape and supplement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Smith must be aware by now that the Wooton, Churchill, Whitman, BCC, etc. cluster families supplement and home-teach their children a ton, weekly. To make up for MCPS deficiencies.
Magnet programs no need - those teachers, pacing, curriculum, clubs/contests, and materials are comparable with college prep schools. K-5 far from it, 6-8 far from it, 9-12 not close either.

Week one of 1st grade, our teacher suggested daily math and daily reading homework of the kid/parent's choosing. WHAT IS THIS?
A MCPS ES teacher telling parents to teach their kids themselves daily and giving zero details. So what did all the SAHMs and SAHDs and flex-job parents do? They went out and bought math workbooks, and phonics games, and top children's books. ANd taught their children what MCPS is supposed to be doing. And what did all the dual income parents do? They got tutors to come in from 5-6pm or signed up for Kumon or ran 6 kid classes in their house from 8am-9am.

DO YOUR JOB MCPS. We're sick of doing it for you.

All of this is true, but please don't fall into the DCUM trap of believing that only W school families are supplementing. It is dangerously close to the conventional wisdom that only upper middle class families care about education.

I'm a DCC parent that has sent two kids to magnets where they've had high performing classmates that are the children of asylum seekers, who are first-generation American, who receive free meals, etc.

Those parents are ALSO supplementing. You may not see them at A+ Academy or whatever, but they are dragging out old textbooks, signing up for Saturday School at George B. Thomas, and getting help from neighbors who were doctors or scientists "back home" but who are driving Uber here.

It's important to point all of this out for racial and economic justice reasons, to not let lazy stereotypes about the east county go unchallenged, but also because MCPS should know that UMC strivers are not the only ones forced to scrape and supplement.

I don't, I put the etc. in . But other fact of the matter is that those schools' scores are masking some real educational problems here at MCPS. Strong individual kids' scores with good parenting are masking the same issues but at less weight.

My real point was this: My family was shocked and disappointed to be TOLD by a MCPS first grade teacher that she suggested 30-45 minutes of daily homework with parents, and the parents should pick the math and reading homework. Shocked.

If the county is TELLING parents to teach the children core subject matter themselves, "if they want to do what's suggested," what does that say about MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't, I put the etc. in . But other fact of the matter is that those schools' scores are masking some real educational problems here at MCPS. Strong individual kids' scores with good parenting are masking the same issues but at less weight.

My real point was this: My family was shocked and disappointed to be TOLD by a MCPS first grade teacher that she suggested 30-45 minutes of daily homework with parents, and the parents should pick the math and reading homework. Shocked.

If the county is TELLING parents to teach the children core subject matter themselves, "if they want to do what's suggested," what does that say about MCPS?

I'm shocked too. There shouldn't be any homework in first grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Discovery Ed is just another high margin, bad content experiment in computer digital teaching for K-5. Moves farther and farther away from "learning by doing" or practicing anything or from hand/memory learning and consists of CONSTANT group and individual SCREENTIME.

It's practically online teaching. terrible for children.

Sounds we're at very real risk of having this shoved down our throats. At the BOE meeting where the JHU report was presented there was still chatter about digital divide and getting low income kids devices. This is the opposite of what I'm looking for as a parent.

I'm not a complete luddite, I know videos can be compelling to kids. But a video is not reference material. How do you get back to that one point you realize you didn't catch without re-watching an entire video. Or worse watching several to find the one that had the point. By using a physical book, there's a memory of where key points are, and past lessons aren't necessarily disposed of. (With the math packets, they are literally disposed of, DC's teacher collects them for recycling when handing out the next one. So no one is under the illusion that they'll need that knowledge again.)

Online adaptive lessons have their place, too. But MCPS doesn't need to buy that with the curriculum, or at the very least they shouldn't buy a curriculum solely for digital content. And, I think they have their limitations, because they take ownership away from the student. As soon as answers are correct the material gets more difficult, so the student isn't as aware of individual concepts in isolation. There's also the push to call a problem "rich" simply because it asks a student to do three things at once. Yes, that makes a question more difficult, but is it better? For me at least, math is about cutting through the noise and extracting a key concept even if that's something simple.

For example, there will be a questions like, "what is the sum of the divisors of 14?" Which is more difficult than, "find a divisor of 14." Or even, "find all the divisors of 14." But is it a better question? It's an easier question to program, because there are no formatting issues, and there is a single integer answer. But if the lesson is divisors, summing them is just busy work and a distraction, unless this is leading to a discussion of the significance of such a sum. Maybe on this point, I am a luddite, but I can't help but notice how often questions are chosen to suit the technology, and not vice versa.

Opposite of what we want as well. Opposite of what top privates do and other (truly) top public school districts. Overuse of tech/screens + underuse of real teaching will be a deal-breaker for us. I don't like that it is 20 minutes * 3 times in K-2 already. And such low quality games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the times that I wish DCUM had regular user logins is times like this, where I want everyone to know that I'm a regular MCPS defender and all around pretty rational about the quality of education my kids are receiving.

So, just trust me that I'm not a complainer, and am generally happy with the schools.

Now, onward: This is a boondoggle. There are proven and effective curricula out there. How hard would it be to CHOOSE ONE OF THOSE???

Stop with the experimentation, and with trying to be cutting edge and pick the "up and coming" vendor.

Go back to the basics and pick something known to work. It is the only way we might start to patch the holes left by 2.0. Unless Smith is ready to lose an entire "generation" of MCPS kids, they need to pick something - with urgency - that can begin to remediate the massive problems with the old curriculum.

Our kids do not have time to wait, and they don't have time for more tinkering around the edges.

+1000 My thoughts exactly!

Yes! How hard can this be? Jesus Christ. What should we as parents do? Write emails to the BOE? Who else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the times that I wish DCUM had regular user logins is times like this, where I want everyone to know that I'm a regular MCPS defender and all around pretty rational about the quality of education my kids are receiving.

So, just trust me that I'm not a complainer, and am generally happy with the schools.

Now, onward: This is a boondoggle. There are proven and effective curricula out there. How hard would it be to CHOOSE ONE OF THOSE???

Stop with the experimentation, and with trying to be cutting edge and pick the "up and coming" vendor.

Go back to the basics and pick something known to work. It is the only way we might start to patch the holes left by 2.0. Unless Smith is ready to lose an entire "generation" of MCPS kids, they need to pick something - with urgency - that can begin to remediate the massive problems with the old curriculum.

Our kids do not have time to wait, and they don't have time for more tinkering around the edges.

+1000 My thoughts exactly!

Yes! How hard can this be? Jesus Christ. What should we as parents do? Write emails to the BOE? Who else?

There was a parent survey, which I think is now closed. Yes, write letters to the BOE and to Smith. My impression of Smith is that he's a decent guy doing a hard job and forced to triage the most pressing needs. But this needs to be top of the list for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Smith must be aware by now that the Wooton, Churchill, Whitman, BCC, etc. cluster families supplement and home-teach their children a ton, weekly. To make up for MCPS deficiencies.
Magnet programs no need - those teachers, pacing, curriculum, clubs/contests, and materials are comparable with college prep schools. K-5 far from it, 6-8 far from it, 9-12 not close either.

Week one of 1st grade, our teacher suggested daily math and daily reading homework of the kid/parent's choosing. WHAT IS THIS?
A MCPS ES teacher telling parents to teach their kids themselves daily and giving zero details. So what did all the SAHMs and SAHDs and flex-job parents do? They went out and bought math workbooks, and phonics games, and top children's books. ANd taught their children what MCPS is supposed to be doing. And what did all the dual income parents do? They got tutors to come in from 5-6pm or signed up for Kumon or ran 6 kid classes in their house from 8am-9am.

DO YOUR JOB MCPS. We're sick of doing it for you.

All of this is true, but please don't fall into the DCUM trap of believing that only W school families are supplementing. It is dangerously close to the conventional wisdom that only upper middle class families care about education.

I'm a DCC parent that has sent two kids to magnets where they've had high performing classmates that are the children of asylum seekers, who are first-generation American, who receive free meals, etc.

Those parents are ALSO supplementing. You may not see them at A+ Academy or whatever, but they are dragging out old textbooks, signing up for Saturday School at George B. Thomas, and getting help from neighbors who were doctors or scientists "back home" but who are driving Uber here.

It's important to point all of this out for racial and economic justice reasons, to not let lazy stereotypes about the east county go unchallenged, but also because MCPS should know that UMC strivers are not the only ones forced to scrape and supplement.

I don't, I put the etc. in . But other fact of the matter is that those schools' scores are masking some real educational problems here at MCPS. Strong individual kids' scores with good parenting are masking the same issues but at less weight.

My real point was this: My family was shocked and disappointed to be TOLD by a MCPS first grade teacher that she suggested 30-45 minutes of daily homework with parents, and the parents should pick the math and reading homework. Shocked.

If the county is TELLING parents to teach the children core subject matter themselves, "if they want to do what's suggested," what does that say about MCPS?

Tell us they don't do their jobs, they want others to do it, and the involved parents will probably be stressed out but do it.

[Anonymous]

We need to put pressure on the BOE to ensure they don't foist another crap curriculum on MCPS. They NEED to pick one that has a proven track record and that doesn't involve more screen time.