"Is MCPS losing its edge?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of these problems seem to always be blamed and directed toward the teachers for retaliation. Violent students- the blame the teacher for no control, kids won't get off cell phones- write a bad review of the teacher to lose their job and measly income, teacher reports crime and violence in the classroom- admin ignore and continues to bash the teachers. I don't recommend this profession.

I kind of feel sorry for teachers, but not really, they all sold out and played petty political games a long time ago. Didn't like who was scoring well on standardized tests, so they got rid of the standardized tests.

I mean, I quite clearly remember graduating 3rd in my class right behind the counselor's son who happened to take that one extra AP class that was only offered semester. Which teacher spoke up about that? Now they whine... Teachers just don't understand why there is no respect for academics.

[Anonymous]

Eliminate phones at school. Period.
Bring back textbooks- they can’t learn well from this mosh mosh of canvas slidedecks.
Parents must be involved in kids education- can’t rely 100% on schools- that is just common sense.
Don’t assume all kids doing well have private tutors. Maybe it’s parental and family values.
And the writing education is atrocious- no structure, no framework.

[Anonymous]

MCPS - Moran’s Corrupt Political Scam. Everyone in OSSWB knows it and talks about it openly.

[Anonymous]

Parents and students have also lost their edge over the two decades I’ve taught in this system. At some point, grades took precedence over actually learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of these problems seem to always be blamed and directed toward the teachers for retaliation. Violent students- the blame the teacher for no control, kids won't get off cell phones- write a bad review of the teacher to lose their job and measly income, teacher reports crime and violence in the classroom- admin ignore and continues to bash the teachers. I don't recommend this profession.

I kind of feel sorry for teachers, but not really, they all sold out and played petty political games a long time ago. Didn't like who was scoring well on standardized tests, so they got rid of the standardized tests.

I mean, I quite clearly remember graduating 3rd in my class right behind the counselor's son who happened to take that one extra AP class that was only offered semester. Which teacher spoke up about that? Now they whine... Teachers just don't understand why there is no respect for academics.

Why on earth would a teacher speak up about that? The math did indeed math on that: AP courses are weighted more.

Why didn’t you also take the AP course if graduating second in your class was that important to you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents and students have also lost their edge over the two decades I’ve taught in this system. At some point, grades took precedence over actually learning.

The Moran method. Blame parents and students. Classy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents and students have also lost their edge over the two decades I’ve taught in this system. At some point, grades took precedence over actually learning.

The Moran method. Blame parents and students. Classy.

Clearly the Moran hater is in the forum

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS - Moran’s Corrupt Political Scam. Everyone in OSSWB knows it and talks about it openly.

You must be one of the flop, corrupt directors or associate superintendents who have failed us for years. Y’all hate accountability.

[Anonymous]

County-based publics like MCPS can never compete with the small districts that comparable areas outside of NYC and Boston—and even Philly—have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:County-based publics like MCPS can never compete with the small districts that comparable areas outside of NYC and Boston—and even Philly—have.

You mean small wealthy districts. The ones that are not wealthy are doing very poorly.

I know it’s hard to accept, but if MCPS was broken into multiple small districts, most middle class neighborhoods will be grouped in with high poverty ones rather than the wealthy. If that’s your house now zoned for “Mid-County District”, you won’t like the results for your child’s education or your home’s value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents and students have also lost their edge over the two decades I’ve taught in this system. At some point, grades took precedence over actually learning.

The Moran method. Blame parents and students. Classy.

Clearly the Moran hater is in the forum

like a broken record 🥱

[Anonymous]

Yep MCOS is the problem not the parents at all
Not the shit religious right coming to make us Alabama or Arkansas or MO those are fabulous educational institutions!,

Marry those daughters off they don’t need crap MCPS do they?

Shut up already you fools start working together with brain cells MCPS sends how many kids to college ?..
and they succeed there and if they don’t that’s on you sucky parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To answer the title question: yes.
However,
if you talk to MCPS students who have met and talked to students from other parts of the country, let's say at camp, youth group, cousins etc.. they will tell you they are doing well and better off in the Montgomery County school system. As Board of Education member Harris said something along the lines of - people don't know how good they have it until they go elsewhere - could be true. (And no this is not someone from the Harris campaign nor is it Harris herself).

This is true.

My kids are thriving compared to similarly situated peers in neighboring states.

Sure.

But they aren’t thriving when compared to kids at dc metro area privates.

^^^
And that’s the problem imho.

As a parent with a handful of kids—including mcps graduates all the way down to current elementary students (and everything in between)—I can report things have gotten worse.

I can also report a dramatic increase in mcps families trying to get their kids into area private schools. Sadly, there are a very limited number of seats so most will be left in mcps.

I’m sick of it.

Raise the standards, focus on core subjects, use well established methods rather than chasing after the silver bullet that simply doesn’t exist, etc.

Since when are DC-area private schools a reasonable comparison for MCPS? There are so many differences between those students before they even enter school that it's a laughable comparison. Your "reports" are your personal observations, nothing more. They're not relevant, particularly not when you think DC-area private schools are the standard against which MCPS should be compared.

Why?

Parochial schools have a long history of taking everyone and successfully operating in very low income areas.

The difference largely stems from expectations. And what I’ve observed as a lifetime resident of MoCo and a longtime mcps parent (my oldest is wrapping up college and my youngest is in elementary school; I also have kids in MS and HS) is a dumbing down of the curriculum and setting the bar lower in terms of expectations and personal responsibility. Public schools in other communities actually set expectations high and enforce discipline. ICYMI: mcps does not.

Having attended multiple open houses at area privates this year, I’m seeing lots of disgruntled mcps parents who feel the same way.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

The only reason those schools can “set the bar higher” and enforce discipline is that they can kick students out. We have students at our school who have hurt others, brought weapons, threatened students and teachers… and I work at an elementary. According to our administration, there is nothing to be done other than brief in-school suspensions (sitting in the office or the counselor’s office for a day). There can be do discipline if there are no possible consequences the students care about.

This is my biggest issue in ES right now. We have violent students that repeatedly have incidents and come back to school. And nothing can be done. Evacuating a class of 25 kids for misbehavior of one is insane and takes away from the education of the rest. This on top of a sliding curriculum rigor.

Your premise is wrong. Nothing can be done BY YOU because your administration and School Board have chosen that. Biden and Obama's education appointees are gone, the experiment with no discipline has failed and schools can bring back punishments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep MCOS is the problem not the parents at all
Not the shit religious right coming to make us Alabama or Arkansas or MO those are fabulous educational institutions!,

Marry those daughters off they don’t need crap MCPS do they?

Shut up already you fools start working together with brain cells MCPS sends how many kids to college ?..
and they succeed there and if they don’t that’s on you sucky parents

I think you should focus on your own education before you worry about other people's children.

[Anonymous]

The county is the same, it’s the students that are declining and most of the schools in the county have hugh populations of kids that don’t care, don’t try or aren’t supported to be successful. The parents blame everyone but them selves expecting the schools to build young men and women instead of simply educating them. The schools spin into tizzies trying to handle the lowest common denominators and the kids with hope get neglected. The schools without a critical mass of these kids are doing fine and many others have little schools within schools to shelter the good kids leaving the middle class fight feverishly to get into the limited spots. All in the hope of graduating from a public school with distinction and not being hopelessly behind the rich kids who got pushed through the important privates.

This is the net results of the suburbanization of poor people and the over emphasis on white collar university tract with the false promises everybody can be a skill-less middle manager paper pusher and produce almost nothing. While there are professions cultured in colleges the vast majority of student have learned nothing except how to navigate a bureaucratic checks and balance system and stay off the radar. And will have to work decades for the privilege. Enterprise car rental is huge/major employer of recent college grads, let that sink in.

The majority of people trying the feed their avg kids though a stacked system while thinking it’s everybody else’s fault when they get avg results is the problem coupled to a nation that doesn’t reward labor enough that most parents would even consider letting their kids work toward it unless they hit rock bottom.