Ethics of MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ but does a better job than MOST public school systems in the nation. It's just disappointing when the best system can't quite get it together...

False. What ethically system pays 11 million in outside counsel to fight the families of children who just want their IEP implemented. (2017 figures from MCPS) We were in four systems for my dyslexic — 3 public and one private). MCPS was by a long mile the least ethical and the most scammy.

Comes down to culture I think.

Start with the Resolution and Compliance Unit. The focus is not to help MCPS schools be compliant. It has long been an office design to deny student services and limit compensatory services when MCPS is found to be non-compliant. There’s no proactive function of the office to improve the education of students with disabilities in MCPS.

Nah - we just bailed for a better system. So much easier than fighting a system that is corrupted. Only have one kid and we got the MCPS t-shirt! Life for my kid got so much better the moment we moved.

And yet here you are, posting on MCPS forum.

Yep. I will post about this dreadful system and what they did to my kid until my last breath

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ but does a better job than MOST public school systems in the nation. It's just disappointing when the best system can't quite get it together...

False. What ethically system pays 11 million in outside counsel to fight the families of children who just want their IEP implemented. (2017 figures from MCPS) We were in four systems for my dyslexic — 3 public and one private). MCPS was by a long mile the least ethical and the most scammy.

Comes down to culture I think.

A place where wealthy families also spend millions on private diagnoses for imaginary ailments?

Count your blessings. So glad to have left your cynicism

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ but does a better job than MOST public school systems in the nation. It's just disappointing when the best system can't quite get it together...

False. What ethically system pays 11 million in outside counsel to fight the families of children who just want their IEP implemented. (2017 figures from MCPS) We were in four systems for my dyslexic — 3 public and one private). MCPS was by a long mile the least ethical and the most scammy.

Comes down to culture I think.

A place where wealthy families also spend millions on private diagnoses for imaginary ailments?

Count your blessings. So glad to have left your cynicism

when 80% of my kid's class has a diagnosis it's not cynicism

[Anonymous]

Or progress…read some cognitive research

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet program lottery shows how MCPS manipulates with a lack of transparency. All students deserve access to enriching and challenging curriculum. It shouldn’t be a quota or luck to have the opportunity.

So if a challenging kindergarten curriculum for your kindergarten kid assumes kids have been reading for at least a year means that my kid, who does not know his letters, must struggle and not learn? My kid needs the opportunity to learn at the appropriate level just as the high performers do.

both these kids in your example should be taught at their own level in their home school.

But they need different instruction. PP wanted everyone to get magnet level classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet program lottery shows how MCPS manipulates with a lack of transparency. All students deserve access to enriching and challenging curriculum. It shouldn’t be a quota or luck to have the opportunity.

I don't see how a lottery of the students testing in the upper percentile is unethical. There are limited seats in criteria-based magnet programs. The complaint seems to be why MCPS isn't admitting only the students in the 98 or 99 percentile. Widening the percentile range a little bit incorporates more diverse groups - I don't see anything wrong with that. Those groups don't necessarily have the funds, time, or knowledge to help their DCs reach the top 1 or 2 percent. To only admit the top 1 or 2% actually seems more unethical to me because it would guarantee the exclusion of the less represented groups.

Yes except it is actually illegal to use race to determine access to gifted programming. So while it is a noble goal to incorporate more diverse groups as you say, it is unlawful to actually use that info as criteria. Also it doesn’t necessarily take any funds, time or knowledge outside of school for a child to meet the thresholds to be in the pool or even to be in the top 1 percent. This is not to say there aren’t barriers for many students, but innate giftedness is actually a thing and the children who are profoundly gifted aren’t spending inordinate amounts of time and money to prep. Just as gifted musicians or athletes are innately better suited to their careers compared to those of us who don’t have those natural gifts.

[Anonymous]

The current board of education has signed off on so many bad decisions, I've lost count. The superintendent's sign off on the ESSER III covid funding says it all. That document is chock full of so many goodies, Christmas came early for a lot of people. It's shocking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ but does a better job than MOST public school systems in the nation. It's just disappointing when the best system can't quite get it together...

False. What ethically system pays 11 million in outside counsel to fight the families of children who just want their IEP implemented. (2017 figures from MCPS) We were in four systems for my dyslexic — 3 public and one private). MCPS was by a long mile the least ethical and the most scammy.

Comes down to culture I think.

A place where wealthy families also spend millions on private diagnoses for imaginary ailments?

Count your blessings. So glad to have left your cynicism

when 80% of my kid's class has a diagnosis it's not cynicism

It would be a breach in confidentiality for you to know who had a diagnosed disability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The magnet program lottery shows how MCPS manipulates with a lack of transparency. All students deserve access to enriching and challenging curriculum. It shouldn’t be a quota or luck to have the opportunity.

I don't see how a lottery of the students testing in the upper percentile is unethical. There are limited seats in criteria-based magnet programs. The complaint seems to be why MCPS isn't admitting only the students in the 98 or 99 percentile. Widening the percentile range a little bit incorporates more diverse groups - I don't see anything wrong with that. Those groups don't necessarily have the funds, time, or knowledge to help their DCs reach the top 1 or 2 percent. To only admit the top 1 or 2% actually seems more unethical to me because it would guarantee the exclusion of the less represented groups.

Yes except it is actually illegal to use race to determine access to gifted programming. So while it is a noble goal to incorporate more diverse groups as you say, it is unlawful to actually use that info as criteria. Also it doesn’t necessarily take any funds, time or knowledge outside of school for a child to meet the thresholds to be in the pool or even to be in the top 1 percent. This is not to say there aren’t barriers for many students, but innate giftedness is actually a thing and the children who are profoundly gifted aren’t spending inordinate amounts of time and money to prep. Just as gifted musicians or athletes are innately better suited to their careers compared to those of us who don’t have those natural gifts.

Every professional athlete can tell you about the kid they grew up with that should have "made it" into the profession but did not due to poor effort.

Innate ability is NOT rare or special. What IS rare is the sustained level of effort it takes to "make it"

And that means working even when nobody is putting little gold stickers on your school work and telling you how special you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The current board of education has signed off on so many bad decisions, I've lost count. The superintendent's sign off on the ESSER III covid funding says it all. That document is chock full of so many goodies, Christmas came early for a lot of people. It's shocking.

Is there a link for the document?

[Anonymous]

Worse thing schools ever did is get rid of tracking.

4 generations of teachers in my family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ but does a better job than MOST public school systems in the nation. It's just disappointing when the best system can't quite get it together...

False. What ethically system pays 11 million in outside counsel to fight the families of children who just want their IEP implemented. (2017 figures from MCPS) We were in four systems for my dyslexic — 3 public and one private). MCPS was by a long mile the least ethical and the most scammy.

Comes down to culture I think.

Start with the Resolution and Compliance Unit. The focus is not to help MCPS schools be compliant. It has long been an office design to deny student services and limit compensatory services when MCPS is found to be non-compliant. There’s no proactive function of the office to improve the education of students with disabilities in MCPS.

Nah - we just bailed for a better system. So much easier than fighting a system that is corrupted. Only have one kid and we got the MCPS t-shirt! Life for my kid got so much better the moment we moved.

And yet here you are, posting on MCPS forum.

Everyone has the right to comment on public services, including people who left because they were subpar.

[Anonymous]

I find that most of MCPS is essentially dishonest, side-stepping responsibility and making noises to please parents temporarily rather than actually admitting errors and fixing problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ but does a better job than MOST public school systems in the nation. It's just disappointing when the best system can't quite get it together...

False. What ethically system pays 11 million in outside counsel to fight the families of children who just want their IEP implemented. (2017 figures from MCPS) We were in four systems for my dyslexic — 3 public and one private). MCPS was by a long mile the least ethical and the most scammy.

Comes down to culture I think.

A place where wealthy families also spend millions on private diagnoses for imaginary ailments?

Count your blessings. So glad to have left your cynicism

when 80% of my kid's class has a diagnosis it's not cynicism

It would be a breach in confidentiality for you to know who had a diagnosed disability.

Some elementary schools dump all the kids with ieps into one class and then fill it with other kids. That class was a nightmare for my child and we had to fight to get out of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The current board of education has signed off on so many bad decisions, I've lost count. The superintendent's sign off on the ESSER III covid funding says it all. That document is chock full of so many goodies, Christmas came early for a lot of people. It's shocking.

Is there a link for the document?

This is the one describing what was in the ESSER III application (ex. discrimination training, Kid Museum, bocce ball, etc.).

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/Coronavirus/ESSER/MCPS%20MSDE%20ESSER%20III%20Grant%20Application%20final.pdf

Maryland State DoE Grant Budget C-1-25 has the signature block where McKnight signed off on 252,242,245.00 on 8/16/2021.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/Coronavirus/ESSER/MCPS%20ESSER%20III%20C-125%20Signed.pdf