The state of MCPS is atrocious

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This poster is 100 percent on-target. I'm the mcps educator who is supplementing with my daughter an hour a day this summer. I have supplemented with her since kindergarten. My difficulties are compounded because my daughter has some attention and mild learning differences in addition to the substandard education she is receiving. She is too high functioning to receive services (not that they would be good or sufficient). I can't even imagine how deficient her skills would be without my constant intervention.


quote=Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the parents in this county. That’s it. If you’re offended by this, you’re probably part of the problem.

Well, some of the parents may not prioritize education and/or enforce behavior standards. That’s definitely A problem, and probably the one you had in mind.

But there’s another problem where well-educated parents see gaps in their children’s education and make up the shortfall by hiring a private tutor/tutoring center, or “afterschooling”. This means that while the education provided in the schools tends to be awful, they are still able to boast about having “one of the best school systems in the country”. I grew up in school systems that made no such claims. They may not have had as many special programs, but the basic curriculum was stronger, and a booming tutoring industry wasn’t required to get an education. So to the extent that parents are able to identify and fulfill the need of educating their kids outside of school, it masks the lack of education in our public education. Ultimately this may be the bigger problem, because as long as the problem remains hidden, it’s unlikely to be addressed.

I guess I’m part of the problem because I taught my kids how to read, that they didn’t need a calculator in elementary, how to hold their pencil, form print letters, write in cursive, use a dictionary, understand negative numbers, understand long division, understand that a sentence needs both a subject and a verb, understand when they FINALLY got a textbook that it actually had explanations and other useful features, etc. However, I also joined a curriculum committee, attended PTA meetings, attended school board candidate forums (where I had to ask the individual candidates about curriculum because the moderators never asked the questions I duly submitted on index cards), attended MCPS community forums (which were specifically designed to discourage actual discussion), not to mention posting on DCUM. The concerns I raise are usually dismissed by yet another claim that “Montgomery County has one of the best school systems in the nation” citing as evidence the achievements of my kids and their friends.

“Finally got a textbook” showing that you’re super out of touch. Textbooks are a relic of the past and they aren’t coming back. Might want to brush up on evolution.

NP — sure, let’s just teach kids with crap Chromebooks.

Nope. Not on Chromebooks. Regular good old fashioned teaching- you just don’t need textbooks to do it. It’s not 1988.

When you say "regular good old fashioned teaching," what specifically do you mean?

Dp why does teacher owe you anything? You’re the problem. I say this as informed parent. Do you your own research. No one wonder no one wants to be a teacher.0

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This poster is 100 percent on-target. I'm the mcps educator who is supplementing with my daughter an hour a day this summer. I have supplemented with her since kindergarten. My difficulties are compounded because my daughter has some attention and mild learning differences in addition to the substandard education she is receiving. She is too high functioning to receive services (not that they would be good or sufficient). I can't even imagine how deficient her skills would be without my constant intervention.


quote=Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the parents in this county. That’s it. If you’re offended by this, you’re probably part of the problem.

Well, some of the parents may not prioritize education and/or enforce behavior standards. That’s definitely A problem, and probably the one you had in mind.

But there’s another problem where well-educated parents see gaps in their children’s education and make up the shortfall by hiring a private tutor/tutoring center, or “afterschooling”. This means that while the education provided in the schools tends to be awful, they are still able to boast about having “one of the best school systems in the country”. I grew up in school systems that made no such claims. They may not have had as many special programs, but the basic curriculum was stronger, and a booming tutoring industry wasn’t required to get an education. So to the extent that parents are able to identify and fulfill the need of educating their kids outside of school, it masks the lack of education in our public education. Ultimately this may be the bigger problem, because as long as the problem remains hidden, it’s unlikely to be addressed.

I guess I’m part of the problem because I taught my kids how to read, that they didn’t need a calculator in elementary, how to hold their pencil, form print letters, write in cursive, use a dictionary, understand negative numbers, understand long division, understand that a sentence needs both a subject and a verb, understand when they FINALLY got a textbook that it actually had explanations and other useful features, etc. However, I also joined a curriculum committee, attended PTA meetings, attended school board candidate forums (where I had to ask the individual candidates about curriculum because the moderators never asked the questions I duly submitted on index cards), attended MCPS community forums (which were specifically designed to discourage actual discussion), not to mention posting on DCUM. The concerns I raise are usually dismissed by yet another claim that “Montgomery County has one of the best school systems in the nation” citing as evidence the achievements of my kids and their friends.

“Finally got a textbook” showing that you’re super out of touch. Textbooks are a relic of the past and they aren’t coming back. Might want to brush up on evolution.

NP — sure, let’s just teach kids with crap Chromebooks.

Nope. Not on Chromebooks. Regular good old fashioned teaching- you just don’t need textbooks to do it. It’s not 1988.

When you say "regular good old fashioned teaching," what specifically do you mean?

Dp why does teacher owe you anything? You’re the problem. I say this as informed parent. Do you your own research. No one wonder no one wants to be a teacher.0

Lol what? Someone asks you a reasonable question and that’s your answer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This poster is 100 percent on-target. I'm the mcps educator who is supplementing with my daughter an hour a day this summer. I have supplemented with her since kindergarten. My difficulties are compounded because my daughter has some attention and mild learning differences in addition to the substandard education she is receiving. She is too high functioning to receive services (not that they would be good or sufficient). I can't even imagine how deficient her skills would be without my constant intervention.


quote=Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the parents in this county. That’s it. If you’re offended by this, you’re probably part of the problem.

Well, some of the parents may not prioritize education and/or enforce behavior standards. That’s definitely A problem, and probably the one you had in mind.

But there’s another problem where well-educated parents see gaps in their children’s education and make up the shortfall by hiring a private tutor/tutoring center, or “afterschooling”. This means that while the education provided in the schools tends to be awful, they are still able to boast about having “one of the best school systems in the country”. I grew up in school systems that made no such claims. They may not have had as many special programs, but the basic curriculum was stronger, and a booming tutoring industry wasn’t required to get an education. So to the extent that parents are able to identify and fulfill the need of educating their kids outside of school, it masks the lack of education in our public education. Ultimately this may be the bigger problem, because as long as the problem remains hidden, it’s unlikely to be addressed.

I guess I’m part of the problem because I taught my kids how to read, that they didn’t need a calculator in elementary, how to hold their pencil, form print letters, write in cursive, use a dictionary, understand negative numbers, understand long division, understand that a sentence needs both a subject and a verb, understand when they FINALLY got a textbook that it actually had explanations and other useful features, etc. However, I also joined a curriculum committee, attended PTA meetings, attended school board candidate forums (where I had to ask the individual candidates about curriculum because the moderators never asked the questions I duly submitted on index cards), attended MCPS community forums (which were specifically designed to discourage actual discussion), not to mention posting on DCUM. The concerns I raise are usually dismissed by yet another claim that “Montgomery County has one of the best school systems in the nation” citing as evidence the achievements of my kids and their friends.

“Finally got a textbook” showing that you’re super out of touch. Textbooks are a relic of the past and they aren’t coming back. Might want to brush up on evolution.

NP — sure, let’s just teach kids with crap Chromebooks.

Nope. Not on Chromebooks. Regular good old fashioned teaching- you just don’t need textbooks to do it. It’s not 1988.

Lol people are still complaining about textbooks? I graduated in 2002 and we didn’t have textbooks then. No, we weren’t on computers all day either. Try and keep up with the times, Jesus.

What did your teachers use? Random worksheets? Specify the teaching materials.

There is still curriculum and teachers manuals they just don’t give every kid a physical textbook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This poster is 100 percent on-target. I'm the mcps educator who is supplementing with my daughter an hour a day this summer. I have supplemented with her since kindergarten. My difficulties are compounded because my daughter has some attention and mild learning differences in addition to the substandard education she is receiving. She is too high functioning to receive services (not that they would be good or sufficient). I can't even imagine how deficient her skills would be without my constant intervention.


quote=Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the parents in this county. That’s it. If you’re offended by this, you’re probably part of the problem.

Well, some of the parents may not prioritize education and/or enforce behavior standards. That’s definitely A problem, and probably the one you had in mind.

But there’s another problem where well-educated parents see gaps in their children’s education and make up the shortfall by hiring a private tutor/tutoring center, or “afterschooling”. This means that while the education provided in the schools tends to be awful, they are still able to boast about having “one of the best school systems in the country”. I grew up in school systems that made no such claims. They may not have had as many special programs, but the basic curriculum was stronger, and a booming tutoring industry wasn’t required to get an education. So to the extent that parents are able to identify and fulfill the need of educating their kids outside of school, it masks the lack of education in our public education. Ultimately this may be the bigger problem, because as long as the problem remains hidden, it’s unlikely to be addressed.

I guess I’m part of the problem because I taught my kids how to read, that they didn’t need a calculator in elementary, how to hold their pencil, form print letters, write in cursive, use a dictionary, understand negative numbers, understand long division, understand that a sentence needs both a subject and a verb, understand when they FINALLY got a textbook that it actually had explanations and other useful features, etc. However, I also joined a curriculum committee, attended PTA meetings, attended school board candidate forums (where I had to ask the individual candidates about curriculum because the moderators never asked the questions I duly submitted on index cards), attended MCPS community forums (which were specifically designed to discourage actual discussion), not to mention posting on DCUM. The concerns I raise are usually dismissed by yet another claim that “Montgomery County has one of the best school systems in the nation” citing as evidence the achievements of my kids and their friends.

“Finally got a textbook” showing that you’re super out of touch. Textbooks are a relic of the past and they aren’t coming back. Might want to brush up on evolution.

NP — sure, let’s just teach kids with crap Chromebooks.

Nope. Not on Chromebooks. Regular good old fashioned teaching- you just don’t need textbooks to do it. It’s not 1988.

Lol people are still complaining about textbooks? I graduated in 2002 and we didn’t have textbooks then. No, we weren’t on computers all day either. Try and keep up with the times, Jesus.

What did your teachers use? Random worksheets? Specify the teaching materials.

There is still curriculum and teachers manuals they just don’t give every kid a physical textbook.

You just answered your own question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This poster is 100 percent on-target. I'm the mcps educator who is supplementing with my daughter an hour a day this summer. I have supplemented with her since kindergarten. My difficulties are compounded because my daughter has some attention and mild learning differences in addition to the substandard education she is receiving. She is too high functioning to receive services (not that they would be good or sufficient). I can't even imagine how deficient her skills would be without my constant intervention.


quote=Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the parents in this county. That’s it. If you’re offended by this, you’re probably part of the problem.

Well, some of the parents may not prioritize education and/or enforce behavior standards. That’s definitely A problem, and probably the one you had in mind.

But there’s another problem where well-educated parents see gaps in their children’s education and make up the shortfall by hiring a private tutor/tutoring center, or “afterschooling”. This means that while the education provided in the schools tends to be awful, they are still able to boast about having “one of the best school systems in the country”. I grew up in school systems that made no such claims. They may not have had as many special programs, but the basic curriculum was stronger, and a booming tutoring industry wasn’t required to get an education. So to the extent that parents are able to identify and fulfill the need of educating their kids outside of school, it masks the lack of education in our public education. Ultimately this may be the bigger problem, because as long as the problem remains hidden, it’s unlikely to be addressed.

I guess I’m part of the problem because I taught my kids how to read, that they didn’t need a calculator in elementary, how to hold their pencil, form print letters, write in cursive, use a dictionary, understand negative numbers, understand long division, understand that a sentence needs both a subject and a verb, understand when they FINALLY got a textbook that it actually had explanations and other useful features, etc. However, I also joined a curriculum committee, attended PTA meetings, attended school board candidate forums (where I had to ask the individual candidates about curriculum because the moderators never asked the questions I duly submitted on index cards), attended MCPS community forums (which were specifically designed to discourage actual discussion), not to mention posting on DCUM. The concerns I raise are usually dismissed by yet another claim that “Montgomery County has one of the best school systems in the nation” citing as evidence the achievements of my kids and their friends.

“Finally got a textbook” showing that you’re super out of touch. Textbooks are a relic of the past and they aren’t coming back. Might want to brush up on evolution.

NP — sure, let’s just teach kids with crap Chromebooks.

Nope. Not on Chromebooks. Regular good old fashioned teaching- you just don’t need textbooks to do it. It’s not 1988.

Lol people are still complaining about textbooks? I graduated in 2002 and we didn’t have textbooks then. No, we weren’t on computers all day either. Try and keep up with the times, Jesus.

What did your teachers use? Random worksheets? Specify the teaching materials.

There is still curriculum and teachers manuals they just don’t give every kid a physical textbook.

Mcps had textbooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is a shell of its past. First no SRO's, now more protection for the principals? WTF

I find it interesting that MCPS is getting the blame here not the quoted problem:

And that aggressive behavior isn’t from students — it’s “parents and community members.

+1. The thread should be "The state of MCPS parents is atrocious"

+1. Schools are microcosm of society. So until we begin to fix those problems in earnest schools will continue to deteriorate. The funny thing is that studying other education systems in the world pointed to the fact that the problem that exist in the US education system actual are cultural in nature and larger than one school district.

Don’t believe this, let’s look at Finland

Sure. Let’s look at the demographics of Finland. Are you prepared to fight for similar demographics here in Montgomery County?

Interestingly enough when you compare the 2018 PISA scores across countries and break down US scores across racial lines, education in the US looks pretty good. US Asians outscore every Asian country except Singapore. US Whites outscore every European country except Estonia. They outscore Japan and Korea. US Hispanics outscore every Latin-American country out there. They just slightly worse than countries like Italy and are significantly better than Greece. There aren’t a lot of African countries that collect PISA data but I would assume that US Blacks would compare favorably as well. They outperform places like Mexico, Romania and Thailand.

But Asian Americans are Americans, as are African Americans, and Hispanic Americans, and even white Americans. Why are you comparing them by race? What are you trying to say here?

I don't doubt that the difference in test scores is largely down to SES and English language learners. Most countries don't have a large population of non native speakers like the US has.

But I don't think comparing by race or ethnicity is accurate. It's not about race. It's about the culture and how society perceives and treats education. The US, for all its richness, does not support K-12 education as much as other countries. However, one's future in the US also does not hinge on one exam score or a path set by the education system at the age of 14 or 16, unlike many other countries. College admissions in a lot of countries is purely based on test scores and marks, so students in K-12 will put a lot more effort into academics because they live and die by those marks.

Having stated that, I do agree that the education system in this entire country, not just MCPS, is atrocious. We are dumbing down everything in the name of equity. It's awful. We have 3 more years in MCPS. I can't wait till we are done.

Be careful about 2018 PISA. The only state to release results was Massachusetts and they are a major outlier to the upside. Ever since they did their 1993 reforms they were near top internationally- but even they did not escape the ‘no child’ so called reforms. They have not repeated their 2018 success. Interestingly if I’m not mistaken some Maryland students - likely MCPS high schoolers - sat that very exam but Starr or Smith took one look at the results and sealed them. Lo and behold we have our own attempt at Mass reform - the Blueprint for MD. But it will be 10 billion more down the drain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This poster is 100 percent on-target. I'm the mcps educator who is supplementing with my daughter an hour a day this summer. I have supplemented with her since kindergarten. My difficulties are compounded because my daughter has some attention and mild learning differences in addition to the substandard education she is receiving. She is too high functioning to receive services (not that they would be good or sufficient). I can't even imagine how deficient her skills would be without my constant intervention.


quote=Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the parents in this county. That’s it. If you’re offended by this, you’re probably part of the problem.

Well, some of the parents may not prioritize education and/or enforce behavior standards. That’s definitely A problem, and probably the one you had in mind.

But there’s another problem where well-educated parents see gaps in their children’s education and make up the shortfall by hiring a private tutor/tutoring center, or “afterschooling”. This means that while the education provided in the schools tends to be awful, they are still able to boast about having “one of the best school systems in the country”. I grew up in school systems that made no such claims. They may not have had as many special programs, but the basic curriculum was stronger, and a booming tutoring industry wasn’t required to get an education. So to the extent that parents are able to identify and fulfill the need of educating their kids outside of school, it masks the lack of education in our public education. Ultimately this may be the bigger problem, because as long as the problem remains hidden, it’s unlikely to be addressed.

I guess I’m part of the problem because I taught my kids how to read, that they didn’t need a calculator in elementary, how to hold their pencil, form print letters, write in cursive, use a dictionary, understand negative numbers, understand long division, understand that a sentence needs both a subject and a verb, understand when they FINALLY got a textbook that it actually had explanations and other useful features, etc. However, I also joined a curriculum committee, attended PTA meetings, attended school board candidate forums (where I had to ask the individual candidates about curriculum because the moderators never asked the questions I duly submitted on index cards), attended MCPS community forums (which were specifically designed to discourage actual discussion), not to mention posting on DCUM. The concerns I raise are usually dismissed by yet another claim that “Montgomery County has one of the best school systems in the nation” citing as evidence the achievements of my kids and their friends.

“Finally got a textbook” showing that you’re super out of touch. Textbooks are a relic of the past and they aren’t coming back. Might want to brush up on evolution.

NP — sure, let’s just teach kids with crap Chromebooks.

Nope. Not on Chromebooks. Regular good old fashioned teaching- you just don’t need textbooks to do it. It’s not 1988.

Lol people are still complaining about textbooks? I graduated in 2002 and we didn’t have textbooks then. No, we weren’t on computers all day either. Try and keep up with the times, Jesus.

What did your teachers use? Random worksheets? Specify the teaching materials.

There is still curriculum and teachers manuals they just don’t give every kid a physical textbook.

Mcps had textbooks.

Dp can confirm they def didn’t in 2004. What a strange hill to die on. Textbooks don’t matter. I got a 5 on the ap physics test without one. Focus on things that do matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is a shell of its past. First no SRO's, now more protection for the principals? WTF

I find it interesting that MCPS is getting the blame here not the quoted problem:

And that aggressive behavior isn’t from students — it’s “parents and community members.

+1. The thread should be "The state of MCPS parents is atrocious"

+1. Schools are microcosm of society. So until we begin to fix those problems in earnest schools will continue to deteriorate. The funny thing is that studying other education systems in the world pointed to the fact that the problem that exist in the US education system actual are cultural in nature and larger than one school district.

Don’t believe this, let’s look at Finland

Sure. Let’s look at the demographics of Finland. Are you prepared to fight for similar demographics here in Montgomery County?

Interestingly enough when you compare the 2018 PISA scores across countries and break down US scores across racial lines, education in the US looks pretty good. US Asians outscore every Asian country except Singapore. US Whites outscore every European country except Estonia. They outscore Japan and Korea. US Hispanics outscore every Latin-American country out there. They just slightly worse than countries like Italy and are significantly better than Greece. There aren’t a lot of African countries that collect PISA data but I would assume that US Blacks would compare favorably as well. They outperform places like Mexico, Romania and Thailand.

But Asian Americans are Americans, as are African Americans, and Hispanic Americans, and even white Americans. Why are you comparing them by race? What are you trying to say here?

I don't doubt that the difference in test scores is largely down to SES and English language learners. Most countries don't have a large population of non native speakers like the US has.

But I don't think comparing by race or ethnicity is accurate. It's not about race. It's about the culture and how society perceives and treats education. The US, for all its richness, does not support K-12 education as much as other countries. However, one's future in the US also does not hinge on one exam score or a path set by the education system at the age of 14 or 16, unlike many other countries. College admissions in a lot of countries is purely based on test scores and marks, so students in K-12 will put a lot more effort into academics because they live and die by those marks.

Having stated that, I do agree that the education system in this entire country, not just MCPS, is atrocious. We are dumbing down everything in the name of equity. It's awful. We have 3 more years in MCPS. I can't wait till we are done.

“ We are dumbing down everything in the name of equity.”
That is true. I was told by a teacher in my child’s school that we were scoring too high and we needed as a school to be challenged with these topics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This poster is 100 percent on-target. I'm the mcps educator who is supplementing with my daughter an hour a day this summer. I have supplemented with her since kindergarten. My difficulties are compounded because my daughter has some attention and mild learning differences in addition to the substandard education she is receiving. She is too high functioning to receive services (not that they would be good or sufficient). I can't even imagine how deficient her skills would be without my constant intervention.


quote=Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the parents in this county. That’s it. If you’re offended by this, you’re probably part of the problem.

Well, some of the parents may not prioritize education and/or enforce behavior standards. That’s definitely A problem, and probably the one you had in mind.

But there’s another problem where well-educated parents see gaps in their children’s education and make up the shortfall by hiring a private tutor/tutoring center, or “afterschooling”. This means that while the education provided in the schools tends to be awful, they are still able to boast about having “one of the best school systems in the country”. I grew up in school systems that made no such claims. They may not have had as many special programs, but the basic curriculum was stronger, and a booming tutoring industry wasn’t required to get an education. So to the extent that parents are able to identify and fulfill the need of educating their kids outside of school, it masks the lack of education in our public education. Ultimately this may be the bigger problem, because as long as the problem remains hidden, it’s unlikely to be addressed.

I guess I’m part of the problem because I taught my kids how to read, that they didn’t need a calculator in elementary, how to hold their pencil, form print letters, write in cursive, use a dictionary, understand negative numbers, understand long division, understand that a sentence needs both a subject and a verb, understand when they FINALLY got a textbook that it actually had explanations and other useful features, etc. However, I also joined a curriculum committee, attended PTA meetings, attended school board candidate forums (where I had to ask the individual candidates about curriculum because the moderators never asked the questions I duly submitted on index cards), attended MCPS community forums (which were specifically designed to discourage actual discussion), not to mention posting on DCUM. The concerns I raise are usually dismissed by yet another claim that “Montgomery County has one of the best school systems in the nation” citing as evidence the achievements of my kids and their friends.

“Finally got a textbook” showing that you’re super out of touch. Textbooks are a relic of the past and they aren’t coming back. Might want to brush up on evolution.

NP — sure, let’s just teach kids with crap Chromebooks.

Nope. Not on Chromebooks. Regular good old fashioned teaching- you just don’t need textbooks to do it. It’s not 1988.

When you say "regular good old fashioned teaching," what specifically do you mean?

Dp why does teacher owe you anything? You’re the problem. I say this as informed parent. Do you your own research. No one wonder no one wants to be a teacher.0

Umm, because that’s the teachers job and they are getting paid to do it.

[Anonymous]

So to the people who complain about MCPS: what are you doing about it for your kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So to the people who complain about MCPS: what are you doing about it for your kid?

well, I'm not shelling out $50K/year for private school, so I bought some workbooks for my kid when they were younger. I have never sent them to a tutoring place.

I also read through their essays and made them re-write portions of it that were awful, but the teacher didn't bother marking up or providing feedback - grammatical mistakes, punctuation issues, disorganized sentences and paragraphs. I did this when the kids were in ES. They hated it at the time, but now that they are teens, they have admitted to me that this helped them become better writers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is a shell of its past. First no SRO's, now more protection for the principals? WTF

I find it interesting that MCPS is getting the blame here not the quoted problem:

And that aggressive behavior isn’t from students — it’s “parents and community members.

+1. The thread should be "The state of MCPS parents is atrocious"

+1. Schools are microcosm of society. So until we begin to fix those problems in earnest schools will continue to deteriorate. The funny thing is that studying other education systems in the world pointed to the fact that the problem that exist in the US education system actual are cultural in nature and larger than one school district.

Don’t believe this, let’s look at Finland

Sure. Let’s look at the demographics of Finland. Are you prepared to fight for similar demographics here in Montgomery County?

Interestingly enough when you compare the 2018 PISA scores across countries and break down US scores across racial lines, education in the US looks pretty good. US Asians outscore every Asian country except Singapore. US Whites outscore every European country except Estonia. They outscore Japan and Korea. US Hispanics outscore every Latin-American country out there. They just slightly worse than countries like Italy and are significantly better than Greece. There aren’t a lot of African countries that collect PISA data but I would assume that US Blacks would compare favorably as well. They outperform places like Mexico, Romania and Thailand.

But Asian Americans are Americans, as are African Americans, and Hispanic Americans, and even white Americans. Why are you comparing them by race? What are you trying to say here?

I don't doubt that the difference in test scores is largely down to SES and English language learners. Most countries don't have a large population of non native speakers like the US has.

But I don't think comparing by race or ethnicity is accurate. It's not about race. It's about the culture and how society perceives and treats education. The US, for all its richness, does not support K-12 education as much as other countries. However, one's future in the US also does not hinge on one exam score or a path set by the education system at the age of 14 or 16, unlike many other countries. College admissions in a lot of countries is purely based on test scores and marks, so students in K-12 will put a lot more effort into academics because they live and die by those marks.

Having stated that, I do agree that the education system in this entire country, not just MCPS, is atrocious. We are dumbing down everything in the name of equity. It's awful. We have 3 more years in MCPS. I can't wait till we are done.

Be careful about 2018 PISA. The only state to release results was Massachusetts and they are a major outlier to the upside. Ever since they did their 1993 reforms they were near top internationally- but even they did not escape the ‘no child’ so called reforms. They have not repeated their 2018 success. Interestingly if I’m not mistaken some Maryland students - likely MCPS high schoolers - sat that very exam but Starr or Smith took one look at the results and sealed them. Lo and behold we have our own attempt at Mass reform - the Blueprint for MD. But it will be 10 billion more down the drain.

So frustrating. The amount of money wasted.

We need smaller class sizes, better enforcement of discipline and a solid curriculum. The rest is nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So to the people who complain about MCPS: what are you doing about it for your kid?

well, I'm not shelling out $50K/year for private school, so I bought some workbooks for my kid when they were younger. I have never sent them to a tutoring place.

I also read through their essays and made them re-write portions of it that were awful, but the teacher didn't bother marking up or providing feedback - grammatical mistakes, punctuation issues, disorganized sentences and paragraphs. I did this when the kids were in ES. They hated it at the time, but now that they are teens, they have admitted to me that this helped them become better writers.

Did the same with my two kids. And supplemented at home with math using Beast Academy.

It’s been fine for my kids, but this clearly just makes the Achievement Gap worse. (Not my concern)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So to the people who complain about MCPS: what are you doing about it for your kid?

well, I'm not shelling out $50K/year for private school, so I bought some workbooks for my kid when they were younger. I have never sent them to a tutoring place.

I also read through their essays and made them re-write portions of it that were awful, but the teacher didn't bother marking up or providing feedback - grammatical mistakes, punctuation issues, disorganized sentences and paragraphs. I did this when the kids were in ES. They hated it at the time, but now that they are teens, they have admitted to me that this helped them become better writers.

Are you confident that you can supplement to that extent? That’s always been my concern. I help reinforce what my daughter is learning, but don’t feel confident in my ability to make up for lack of foundational skills.

[Anonymous]

Students often need a resource to review and fill in gaps that random worksheets (that can be out of order or lost) don’t provide. A hard textbook or a digital textbook is a great resource especially for subjects such as math or social studies that are taught in a sequential order. Textbooks are also a great resource for parents who are helping their children at home so they are following the same curriculum as the teacher.

There’s a funding issue with textbooks that MCPS is trying to avoid. However there’s also a cost with printing worksheets including the human resource time to print them in addition to toner and paper expenses. MCPS should prioritize good quality tools for learning including resources for students to study from. The argument that textbooks become quickly outdated doesn’t hold up for all subjects and definitely doesn’t hold true for digital formats.