MCPS Announces New Attendance Plan and Policy on 8/22

[Anonymous]

So the press conference started but no livestream.

I guess it's because Monifa is pissed off? But then why have the press conference at all?

[Anonymous]

Karla Silvestre addressed Beidleman as well:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So the press conference started but no livestream.

I guess it's because Monifa is pissed off? But then why have the press conference at all?

Kate Ryan
@KateRyanWTOP
·
11m
At @
@mcps
for presser on absenteeism—but first addresses accusations against Farquhar MS principal Joel Beidleman

[Anonymous]

Even compared to pre-pandemic, absenteeism numbers are way up:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So the press conference started but no livestream.

I guess it's because Monifa is pissed off? But then why have the press conference at all?

https://twitter.com/KateRyanWTOP/status/1694002111976247599

They won't livestream because they don't want people to watch the reporters asking about sexual harassment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even compared to pre-pandemic, absenteeism numbers are way up:

Will they break down the absenteeism numbers by race?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the press conference started but no livestream.

I guess it's because Monifa is pissed off? But then why have the press conference at all?

https://twitter.com/KateRyanWTOP/status/1694002111976247599

They won't livestream because they don't want people to watch the reporters asking about sexual harassment?

I don't get MCPS's strategy here at all. Why limit the Livestream from YouTube but have the press conference anyway? The press are going to report about it regardless so it's not like limiting the livestream means the information isn't coming out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even compared to pre-pandemic, absenteeism numbers are way up:

Will they break down the absenteeism numbers by race?

Or by school. I bet there's a pocket of consistent, serious offenders that need to be prioritized and dealt with most urgently.

And some of the absenteeism numbers have to do with failed admin leadership in those schools.

[Anonymous]

Have they reported absenteeism numbers themselves or just the change?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have they reported absenteeism numbers themselves or just the change?

We're only getting the bits and fragments from reporters who are tweeting it out since MCPS cut the livestream that was originally on their YouTube channel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even compared to pre-pandemic, absenteeism numbers are way up:

Will they break down the absenteeism numbers by race?

Or by school. I bet there's a pocket of consistent, serious offenders that need to be prioritized and dealt with most urgently.

And some of the absenteeism numbers have to do with failed admin leadership in those schools.

I don't think that's true. This is a really really hard problem to manage. Our DC's school has staff visiting homes and making repeated calls to parents but there's only so much they can do. If a child is skipping school in HS sometimes things have wrong in earlier years - could be a bad teacher, awful curriculum they don't care about, an undiagnosed learning issue, bullying. My child had a terrible teacher experience one year where the teacher was the bully and it traumatized her. If she skips classes it's not the fault of the current admin. She's not skipping but I could see how if we didn't provide a middle class home, drilled in her the value of education and put her through years of expensive counseling she might have gotten to that point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even compared to pre-pandemic, absenteeism numbers are way up:

Will they break down the absenteeism numbers by race?

Or by school. I bet there's a pocket of consistent, serious offenders that need to be prioritized and dealt with most urgently.

And some of the absenteeism numbers have to do with failed admin leadership in those schools.

I don't think that's true. This is a really really hard problem to manage. Our DC's school has staff visiting homes and making repeated calls to parents but there's only so much they can do. If a child is skipping school in HS sometimes things have wrong in earlier years - could be a bad teacher, awful curriculum they don't care about, an undiagnosed learning issue, bullying. My child had a terrible teacher experience one year where the teacher was the bully and it traumatized her. If she skips classes it's not the fault of the current admin. She's not skipping but I could see how if we didn't provide a middle class home, drilled in her the value of education and put her through years of expensive counseling she might have gotten to that point.

I said some of the problem is due to failed leadership. I say this specifically from the vantage point of an absent, lax, uncaring DCC high school principal who turned a blind eye to kids skipping.

I'm not discounting your experience nor am I saying it's all on admin, but there are definitely some admin who aren't doing their part to enforce attendance and security policies, allowing kids to leave the building and roam the hallways during class with little or no consequence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they want better attendance, how about keep kids safe from viral infections like COVID? Especially mine who is medically vulnerable

What exactly do you want them to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even compared to pre-pandemic, absenteeism numbers are way up:

Will they break down the absenteeism numbers by race?

Or by school. I bet there's a pocket of consistent, serious offenders that need to be prioritized and dealt with most urgently.

And some of the absenteeism numbers have to do with failed admin leadership in those schools.

Maryland numbers from 2020-1:

https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/stateboard/Documents/2022/0125/EnrollmnetAndAttendanceRev1282022.pdf

Where can we find the newest numbers for chronic absenteeism?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even compared to pre-pandemic, absenteeism numbers are way up:

Will they break down the absenteeism numbers by race?

Or by school. I bet there's a pocket of consistent, serious offenders that need to be prioritized and dealt with most urgently.

And some of the absenteeism numbers have to do with failed admin leadership in those schools.

I doubt they will. Because it will mostly be a certain demographic in certain pockets, and the optics are not good.