Time for a mutiny yet? MCPS = crummy math, no grammar, poor writing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think my child is getting a 'crappy education' (while we're at it, I'm wondering if GDS, Sidwell, Holton, etc students are getting 42K a year worth of education. Do they, really?), my child at her ES is getting an okay education. Our school is excellent, the principal is stellar and the PTA and parents are involved; the peer group is of a high caliber, also. Yes, I'm not crazy about the curriculum, since my child is academically advanced, yes, I think she would benefit from more challenge. That's why we supplement. Do I wish MCPS cater more to its brightest? Yes, of course.

In MS and HS we would reevaluate, but, for now, MCPS it is. And yes, it is superior to Howard and PG (don't know much about Fairfax, but I believe it's comparable).

So you agree with me then. You say your kid is getting an "okay" education, which means mediocre vs. excellent. You have to supplement. Nice that you are surrounded by excellent administration and parents, but they can only do so much with a curriculum which is lacking. AND it's not just the brightest that are suffering...it's all the kids who never really learn basic skills that young children are learning in some of the wonderful private schools in the area. My 4th grade DC is not in a $40K school. We are in a Catholic parochial and paying less than $10K. And she is getting formal instruction in things like grammar, spelling, vocabulary, cursive, science, social studies, and Spanish in a class of 21 kids. Religion is an added bonus. Her text books, work books, field trips, and all school supplies included with tuition. Not bad for less than $10K a year. How much do you spend on supplementing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So you agree with me then. You say your kid is getting an "okay" education, which means mediocre vs. excellent. You have to supplement. Nice that you are surrounded by excellent administration and parents, but they can only do so much with a curriculum which is lacking. AND it's not just the brightest that are suffering...it's all the kids who never really learn basic skills that young children are learning in some of the wonderful private schools in the area. My 4th grade DC is not in a $40K school. We are in a Catholic parochial and paying less than $10K. And she is getting formal instruction in things like grammar, spelling, vocabulary, cursive, science, social studies, and Spanish in a class of 21 kids. Religion is an added bonus. Her text books, work books, field trips, and all school supplies included with tuition. Not bad for less than $10K a year. How much do you spend on supplementing?

That's nice for you, PP. Yay! You're happy! So why are you posting on the Maryland Public Schools forum to tell me that my child's education is inferior to your child's? I don't post on the Private Schools forum to tell parents who send their children to parochial schools that their children are getting a crappy education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think my child is getting a 'crappy education' (while we're at it, I'm wondering if GDS, Sidwell, Holton, etc students are getting 42K a year worth of education. Do they, really?), my child at her ES is getting an okay education. Our school is excellent, the principal is stellar and the PTA and parents are involved; the peer group is of a high caliber, also. Yes, I'm not crazy about the curriculum, since my child is academically advanced, yes, I think she would benefit from more challenge. That's why we supplement. Do I wish MCPS cater more to its brightest? Yes, of course.

In MS and HS we would reevaluate, but, for now, MCPS it is. And yes, it is superior to Howard and PG (don't know much about Fairfax, but I believe it's comparable).

So you agree with me then. You say your kid is getting an "okay" education, which means mediocre vs. excellent. You have to supplement. Nice that you are surrounded by excellent administration and parents, but they can only do so much with a curriculum which is lacking. AND it's not just the brightest that are suffering...it's all the kids who never really learn basic skills that young children are learning in some of the wonderful private schools in the area. My 4th grade DC is not in a $40K school. We are in a Catholic parochial and paying less than $10K. And she is getting formal instruction in things like grammar, spelling, vocabulary, cursive, science, social studies, and Spanish in a class of 21 kids. Religion is an added bonus. Her text books, work books, field trips, and all school supplies included with tuition. Not bad for less than $10K a year. How much do you spend on supplementing?

Private school parents are always justifying their decision to go private You do you, as I tell my kids. I agree that privates are giving a superior education compared to public, but I do not agree that it is worth 30K. And I will never send my kid to a religious school, so you have a win-win based on your circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think my child is getting a 'crappy education' (while we're at it, I'm wondering if GDS, Sidwell, Holton, etc students are getting 42K a year worth of education. Do they, really?), my child at her ES is getting an okay education. Our school is excellent, the principal is stellar and the PTA and parents are involved; the peer group is of a high caliber, also. Yes, I'm not crazy about the curriculum, since my child is academically advanced, yes, I think she would benefit from more challenge. That's why we supplement. Do I wish MCPS cater more to its brightest? Yes, of course.

In MS and HS we would reevaluate, but, for now, MCPS it is. And yes, it is superior to Howard and PG (don't know much about Fairfax, but I believe it's comparable).

So you agree with me then. You say your kid is getting an "okay" education, which means mediocre vs. excellent. You have to supplement. Nice that you are surrounded by excellent administration and parents, but they can only do so much with a curriculum which is lacking. AND it's not just the brightest that are suffering...it's all the kids who never really learn basic skills that young children are learning in some of the wonderful private schools in the area. My 4th grade DC is not in a $40K school. We are in a Catholic parochial and paying less than $10K. And she is getting formal instruction in things like grammar, spelling, vocabulary, cursive, science, social studies, and Spanish in a class of 21 kids. Religion is an added bonus. Her text books, work books, field trips, and all school supplies included with tuition. Not bad for less than $10K a year. How much do you spend on supplementing?

Private school parents are always justifying their decision to go private You do you, as I tell my kids. I agree that privates are giving a superior education compared to public, but I do not agree that it is worth 30K. And I will never send my kid to a religious school, so you have a win-win based on your circumstances.

I don't think she is justifying it. Some want to pay for a better education with families that care about education. I wish I could afford that type of learning atmosphere. I feel like my school is a giant daycare to most of the families in our school. There are always discipline issues, disruptions, and so many kids that need basic preschool learning that my child does not get a decent education unless I offer a lot of other things at home.

[Anonymous]

Reading through these comments, you'd think MCPS was a hellhole. I can't possibly imagine it's as bad as you're all making it out to be.

Our kid will be starting K in 2022 in MCPS. Am I to assume she's screwed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't think she is justifying it. Some want to pay for a better education with families that care about education. I wish I could afford that type of learning atmosphere. I feel like my school is a giant daycare to most of the families in our school. There are always discipline issues, disruptions, and so many kids that need basic preschool learning that my child does not get a decent education unless I offer a lot of other things at home.

I really, really wish that people would stop with the belief that families doing their best to function under difficult economic and social conditions are families that don't care about education. Most parents love and want good for their children. This is true for most middle-class, more-educated parents, and it's also true for most low-income, less-educated parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reading through these comments, you'd think MCPS was a hellhole. I can't possibly imagine it's as bad as you're all making it out to be.

Our kid will be starting K in 2022 in MCPS. Am I to assume she's screwed?

Doomed, PP. D-O-O-M-E-D doomed!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!1

Or, alternatively, MCPS isn't perfect, but overall lots of people are satisfied and therefore aren't complaining on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reading through these comments, you'd think MCPS was a hellhole. I can't possibly imagine it's as bad as you're all making it out to be.

Our kid will be starting K in 2022 in MCPS. Am I to assume she's screwed?

Doomed, PP. D-O-O-M-E-D doomed!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!1

Or, alternatively, MCPS isn't perfect, but overall lots of people are satisfied and therefore aren't complaining on DCUM.

No kidding. I get that the school system isn't perfect. Hell, we're moving if the county can't deal with the overcrowding at our ES (we're districted to Rachel Carson). But the fact is that most of the schools in MCPS remain among the top in the country. The complaining on here is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think my child is getting a 'crappy education' (while we're at it, I'm wondering if GDS, Sidwell, Holton, etc students are getting 42K a year worth of education. Do they, really?), my child at her ES is getting an okay education. Our school is excellent, the principal is stellar and the PTA and parents are involved; the peer group is of a high caliber, also. Yes, I'm not crazy about the curriculum, since my child is academically advanced, yes, I think she would benefit from more challenge. That's why we supplement. Do I wish MCPS cater more to its brightest? Yes, of course.

In MS and HS we would reevaluate, but, for now, MCPS it is. And yes, it is superior to Howard and PG (don't know much about Fairfax, but I believe it's comparable).

So you agree with me then. You say your kid is getting an "okay" education, which means mediocre vs. excellent. You have to supplement. Nice that you are surrounded by excellent administration and parents, but they can only do so much with a curriculum which is lacking. AND it's not just the brightest that are suffering...it's all the kids who never really learn basic skills that young children are learning in some of the wonderful private schools in the area. My 4th grade DC is not in a $40K school. We are in a Catholic parochial and paying less than $10K. And she is getting formal instruction in things like grammar, spelling, vocabulary, cursive, science, social studies, and Spanish in a class of 21 kids. Religion is an added bonus. Her text books, work books, field trips, and all school supplies included with tuition. Not bad for less than $10K a year. How much do you spend on supplementing?

Private school parents are always justifying their decision to go private You do you, as I tell my kids. I agree that privates are giving a superior education compared to public, but I do not agree that it is worth 30K. And I will never send my kid to a religious school, so you have a win-win based on your circumstances.

I don't think she is justifying it. Some want to pay for a better education with families that care about education. I wish I could afford that type of learning atmosphere. I feel like my school is a giant daycare to most of the families in our school. There are always discipline issues, disruptions, and so many kids that need basic preschool learning that my child does not get a decent education unless I offer a lot of other things at home.

This is so offensive. You know what, the reason some parents put their kids in private is because they don't have the ability and interest to work with their kids at home. So you meet all kinds in private and public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

No kidding. I get that the school system isn't perfect. Hell, we're moving if the county can't deal with the overcrowding at our ES (we're districted to Rachel Carson). But the fact is that most of the schools in MCPS remain among the top in the country. The complaining on here is ridiculous.

The plan is to expand DuFief ES and then rezone some of the Rachel Carson ES kids to DuFief.

Rachel Carson Elementary School
Planning Issue: Projections indicate that enrollment at
Rachel Carson Elementary School will exceed capacity by
over 300 seats throughout the six-year planning
period. To address the high enrollment at Rachel
Carson Elementary School, the Board of Education
approved the expansion of DuFief Elementary
School to accommodate the overutilization of
Rachel Carson Elementary School. The Board
of Education action can be found at the following
link: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/
CIP17_AdoptedRachelCarsonESOverutilization.pdf
Capital Project: Expenditures are recommended
to provide capacity and facility upgrades at DuFief
Elementary School. An FY  2019 appropriation
for planning funds is recommended to begin
the architectural design for this project with a
scheduled completion of September 2021. Relocatable
classrooms will be utilized until additional
capacity can be added. In order for this project to
be completed on this schedule, county and state
funding must be provided at the levels recommended
in this CIP.

[Anonymous]

NP here. We can afford private schools and we looked into it extensively. Unfortunately, they are not the best place for highly gifted children. MCPS magnet programs are what best suited our children and they were able to go there. However, they were prepared to go to the magnet programs, by the education they got in MCPS ES. Now they are in MCPS magnet HS.

We have revisited private schools each and every time time we were apprehensive about if they would be accepted or not into the program. In other words, we looked at private schools when it came time to apply to MS and HS magnets. Each time, the private schools were far inferior in terms of rigor, EC activities and peer group. And I have two kids in magnet HS now.

Another thing I noticed that private schools had more kids who had learning or behavior issues who are in the regular classes. I did not want disruptions in the classroom regardless of if the parent of the disruptive child was donating megabucks. YMMV.

For now, MCPS is better than what is being offered by any school in this region. I do admit that it is not high praise for the school system in US as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

No kidding. I get that the school system isn't perfect. Hell, we're moving if the county can't deal with the overcrowding at our ES (we're districted to Rachel Carson). But the fact is that most of the schools in MCPS remain among the top in the country. The complaining on here is ridiculous.

The plan is to expand DuFief ES and then rezone some of the Rachel Carson ES kids to DuFief.

Rachel Carson Elementary School
Planning Issue: Projections indicate that enrollment at
Rachel Carson Elementary School will exceed capacity by
over 300 seats throughout the six-year planning
period. To address the high enrollment at Rachel
Carson Elementary School, the Board of Education
approved the expansion of DuFief Elementary
School to accommodate the overutilization of
Rachel Carson Elementary School. The Board
of Education action can be found at the following
link: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/
CIP17_AdoptedRachelCarsonESOverutilization.pdf
Capital Project: Expenditures are recommended
to provide capacity and facility upgrades at DuFief
Elementary School. An FY  2019 appropriation
for planning funds is recommended to begin
the architectural design for this project with a
scheduled completion of September 2021. Relocatable
classrooms will be utilized until additional
capacity can be added. In order for this project to
be completed on this schedule, county and state
funding must be provided at the levels recommended
in this CIP.

Thanks! I knew about this plan, but had also heard from some that it might not happen. There have also been rumors of an elementary school study happening in Gaithersburg that could mean building a new ES next to Lakelands Park MS.

Also, if the Dufief plan happens, we don't know which kids will be rezoned, and whether it would involve them going to Frost MS and Wootton HS (Dufief's current cluster).

In other words, there are a ton of unknowns, so we're looking at what happens very closely. I think RCES has done an admirable job keeping the quality up with 1,000 kids, but if the situation doesn't improve, I'm not comfortable sending my kid to what would be an even bigger school 4 years from now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't think she is justifying it. Some want to pay for a better education with families that care about education. I wish I could afford that type of learning atmosphere. I feel like my school is a giant daycare to most of the families in our school. There are always discipline issues, disruptions, and so many kids that need basic preschool learning that my child does not get a decent education unless I offer a lot of other things at home.

I really, really wish that people would stop with the belief that families doing their best to function under difficult economic and social conditions are families that don't care about education. Most parents love and want good for their children. This is true for most middle-class, more-educated parents, and it's also true for most low-income, less-educated parents.

YES! JESUS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. We can afford private schools and we looked into it extensively. Unfortunately, they are not the best place for highly gifted children. MCPS magnet programs are what best suited our children and they were able to go there. However, they were prepared to go to the magnet programs, by the education they got in MCPS ES. Now they are in MCPS magnet HS.

We have revisited private schools each and every time time we were apprehensive about if they would be accepted or not into the program. In other words, we looked at private schools when it came time to apply to MS and HS magnets. Each time, the private schools were far inferior in terms of rigor, EC activities and peer group. And I have two kids in magnet HS now.

Another thing I noticed that private schools had more kids who had learning or behavior issues who are in the regular classes. I did not want disruptions in the classroom regardless of if the parent of the disruptive child was donating megabucks. YMMV.

For now, MCPS is better than what is being offered by any school in this region. I do admit that it is not high praise for the school system in US as a whole.

For clarity, are you talking about Blair SMAC and Takoma Park, or RMIB? Also, when you looked at privates, are you including DC privates or the ones in MoCo?

[Anonymous]

I think all parents, from all walks of life, want the best for their kids. Just like all human beings want to have a fit, healthy, strong and athletic body.

However, not all parents put in the time. effort and money towards their children education for a variety of reasons, just like not everyone puts in the effort towards the fit, healthy, strong and athletic body. In other words, wanting something is not the same as doing something. Parents can want the best education for their children but for that they need to make that a priority over anything else in their lives. It needs a priority over their leisurely weekend, it needs to be a priority over summer vacations, it needs to be a priority over a whole lot of non-essentials.