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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

No they're really not. They have a lot of smart kids that score well, but the schools aren't great. Massachusetts has good schools.

So you'd rather send your kids to Lawrence Public Schools than Montgomery County Public Schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that the Sherwood counselor who’s been arrested as a drug dealer apparently gets to go to work as though she wasn’t just arrested...

That is really awful. Not just using drugs but selling them?? As a counselor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5) math acceleration at all costs - pushed too much too soon

This isn't really something being pushed by MCPS; it's MCPS responding to all the tiger parents out there who insist on their kid taking calculus in 11th because they mistakenly think it's going to help with college placement or be necessary to enter a STEM field (which it isn't).

I disagree. I think if MCPS offered true honors/advanced tracking in math in ES and MS most parents would be perfectly happy keeping their kids "on level". If you have a kid who has advanced abilities in math, MCPS's answer is to immediately move them up a grade level (in the old curriculum you were moved up two grade levels). Why not offer grade level work with acceleration for those who can handle it? Instead of your 5th grader taking 6th grade level math, they'd be delving deeper into 5th grade math concepts/maybe doing more project-based work, having deeper discussions in class with other 5th graders who want to be challenged at math.

They do that. And DCUM complains about it.

This. Of course MCPS curriculum isn't perfect -- far from it -- but the fact is that most MCPS schools (and certainly the top performing ones) are among the best public schools in the country. We're talking within the top 5%. If you're not happy with the education your kid is getting, fight for improvements and supplement at home, but the idea that MCPS is some shit-hole is patently ridiculous.

No they're really not. They have a lot of smart kids that score well, but the schools aren't great. Massachusetts has good schools.

MCPS is in the top 5% of school districts in the country. yes, Massachusetts has districts that are stronger, but they also have districts that are weaker than MCPS.

it's also important to point out that MCPS is huge and diverse. it's not reasonable to compare it to, say, Wellesley public schools (one of the best districts in MA), which has about 5,000 students and is at 6% free or reduced lunch. MCPS is the 16th largest school district in the country and has 35% of its students on free or reduced lunch.

I'm not arguing MCPS doesn't have problems -- it absolutely does. I'm arguing that things could be a hell of a lot worse.

here's another point, which is important to remember when we're trying to make comparisons, especially on a national level: MCPS is a county-level school district. many places don't organize their school districts by county. they're often done by town, especially in the NE. that means it's very difficult to compare outcomes. to standardize your unit of analysis, you'd have to aggregate the results from town-based districts to come up with county-level data. if you did that, things would likely look very different.

take Westchester County in New York, for example. if you look just at the best school districts, it looks great, but the districts are tiny and town-based. if you aggregated results across the county, however, you'd end up with everything from the rich, yuppie towns like Chappaqua and Bedford, to the more working class areas like yonkers and new Rochelle. the county-level outcomes would be very different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that the Sherwood counselor who’s been arrested as a drug dealer apparently gets to go to work as though she wasn’t just arrested...

That is really awful. Not just using drugs but selling them?? As a counselor?

Nobody said anything about using drugs. She's charged with selling pot (specifically, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance) -- as a vendor, at a vendor table, at a bar in DC. And she's on administrative leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5) math acceleration at all costs - pushed too much too soon

This isn't really something being pushed by MCPS; it's MCPS responding to all the tiger parents out there who insist on their kid taking calculus in 11th because they mistakenly think it's going to help with college placement or be necessary to enter a STEM field (which it isn't).

I disagree. I think if MCPS offered true honors/advanced tracking in math in ES and MS most parents would be perfectly happy keeping their kids "on level". If you have a kid who has advanced abilities in math, MCPS's answer is to immediately move them up a grade level (in the old curriculum you were moved up two grade levels). Why not offer grade level work with acceleration for those who can handle it? Instead of your 5th grader taking 6th grade level math, they'd be delving deeper into 5th grade math concepts/maybe doing more project-based work, having deeper discussions in class with other 5th graders who want to be challenged at math.

They do that. And DCUM complains about it.

This. Of course MCPS curriculum isn't perfect -- far from it -- but the fact is that most MCPS schools (and certainly the top performing ones) are among the best public schools in the country. We're talking within the top 5%. If you're not happy with the education your kid is getting, fight for improvements and supplement at home, but the idea that MCPS is some shit-hole is patently ridiculous.

No they're really not. They have a lot of smart kids that score well, but the schools aren't great. Massachusetts has good schools.

MCPS is in the top 5% of school districts in the country. yes, Massachusetts has districts that are stronger, but they also have districts that are weaker than MCPS.

it's also important to point out that MCPS is huge and diverse. it's not reasonable to compare it to, say, Wellesley public schools (one of the best districts in MA), which has about 5,000 students and is at 6% free or reduced lunch. MCPS is the 16th largest school district in the country and has 35% of its students on free or reduced lunch.

I'm not arguing MCPS doesn't have problems -- it absolutely does. I'm arguing that things could be a hell of a lot worse.

Considering the funding it gets it’s not acceptable. Other states put no money towards their public schools so it makes sense that they are awful, but considering the funding amount it’s not going well.

[Anonymous]

What isn’t going well for you PP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that the Sherwood counselor who’s been arrested as a drug dealer apparently gets to go to work as though she wasn’t just arrested...

That is really awful. Not just using drugs but selling them?? As a counselor?

Nobody said anything about using drugs. She's charged with selling pot (specifically, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance) -- as a vendor, at a vendor table, at a bar in DC. And she's on administrative leave.

For a high school counselor that is not showing great judgement

http://wjla.com/news/crime/montgomery-county-hs-counselor-arrested-charged-with-intent-to-deal-drugs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5) math acceleration at all costs - pushed too much too soon

This isn't really something being pushed by MCPS; it's MCPS responding to all the tiger parents out there who insist on their kid taking calculus in 11th because they mistakenly think it's going to help with college placement or be necessary to enter a STEM field (which it isn't).

I disagree. I think if MCPS offered true honors/advanced tracking in math in ES and MS most parents would be perfectly happy keeping their kids "on level". If you have a kid who has advanced abilities in math, MCPS's answer is to immediately move them up a grade level (in the old curriculum you were moved up two grade levels). Why not offer grade level work with acceleration for those who can handle it? Instead of your 5th grader taking 6th grade level math, they'd be delving deeper into 5th grade math concepts/maybe doing more project-based work, having deeper discussions in class with other 5th graders who want to be challenged at math.

They do that. And DCUM complains about it.

This. Of course MCPS curriculum isn't perfect -- far from it -- but the fact is that most MCPS schools (and certainly the top performing ones) are among the best public schools in the country. We're talking within the top 5%. If you're not happy with the education your kid is getting, fight for improvements and supplement at home, but the idea that MCPS is some shit-hole is patently ridiculous.

Since they cannot compete academically with MCPS, their only recourse is to bash and demonize MCPS.
Here is their game plan: bash, smear the big dog in the area so they can justify, feel better about paying for their inferior product.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The poster who said that it was mostly private parents bashing MCPS on this thread was actually right.

While there are some private parents on this thread, as evidenced by the whole It's Academic debate, I think the early bashers were mostly MCPS parents.

Personally, my kids attended MCPS K-12. I'm a basher because I think the basic curriculum is terrible, especially in elementary. (It does get better in higher grades with AP/IB classes. Textbooks help a lot.) I do think the magnet classes are great.

It sounds like your kids have graduated high school. How do you know what elementary students are doing? Are you a teacher in mcps?

I was poster 02/10/2018 04:27 on page 17.

My kids went through elementary school here. I served on a curriculum committee and have talked to teachers through the years. The curriculum has changed some, so I included an MCPS link detailing the changes to curriculum in my original post.

The biggest problem with the curricum department is their tendency to devalue content. While I agree that students should practice the higher order thinking skills that MCPS prioritzes, I feel that systematic content instruction is vital as well.

Further, I feel that producing and selling our curriculum is a huge conflict of interest. Rather than having subject matter experts produce a textbook, which is professionally edited and reviewed by other experts, before being released, we have a generalized curriculum department which I believe is augmented by MCPS teachers. Rather than buying a textbook that has proven effective elsewhere, our kids are the guinea pigs for whatever is produced. Moreover, in the past, the curriculum which was developed on a rolling basis was sometimes provided to teachers only a few days before they had to start using it. Hopefully the delivery schedule has improved. Finally, with a commercial textbook, students have a resource they can use, with all the extra features of a textbook (index, glossary, sample questions, etc.) Our students have assorted hand-outs and notes from class which is not only a less effective resource for them, but also makes it difficult for parents to review the quality of the curriculum.

agree. we supplement a ton with former textbooks and my ES and MS greatly benefit from the textbooks as a reference, as a better and visible sequencing of a topic presented (better than clicking around PDFs posted online and never printing them out), and no holes or leaps in information.

We also don't like that 100% of their books are not read on the chromebook. We were even told this year that the library will be going away and this year is only for "stopping by" if you need something, anytime (because the teacher does group work and circulates around for each 90 minute block so you can walk out anytime).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5) math acceleration at all costs - pushed too much too soon

This isn't really something being pushed by MCPS; it's MCPS responding to all the tiger parents out there who insist on their kid taking calculus in 11th because they mistakenly think it's going to help with college placement or be necessary to enter a STEM field (which it isn't).

I disagree. I think if MCPS offered true honors/advanced tracking in math in ES and MS most parents would be perfectly happy keeping their kids "on level". If you have a kid who has advanced abilities in math, MCPS's answer is to immediately move them up a grade level (in the old curriculum you were moved up two grade levels). Why not offer grade level work with acceleration for those who can handle it? Instead of your 5th grader taking 6th grade level math, they'd be delving deeper into 5th grade math concepts/maybe doing more project-based work, having deeper discussions in class with other 5th graders who want to be challenged at math.

They do that. And DCUM complains about it.

This. Of course MCPS curriculum isn't perfect -- far from it -- but the fact is that most MCPS schools (and certainly the top performing ones) are among the best public schools in the country. We're talking within the top 5%. If you're not happy with the education your kid is getting, fight for improvements and supplement at home, but the idea that MCPS is some shit-hole is patently ridiculous.

No they're really not. They have a lot of smart kids that score well, but the schools aren't great. Massachusetts has good schools.

1. Massachusetts is a state, not a county or jurisdiction.
2. Maryland has good schools, that's why they are number 1
3. If you are a product of Massachusetts schools, I question their schools.

[Anonymous]

She was arrested two weeks ago—she wasn’t put on administrative leave until the media broke the story!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5) math acceleration at all costs - pushed too much too soon

This isn't really something being pushed by MCPS; it's MCPS responding to all the tiger parents out there who insist on their kid taking calculus in 11th because they mistakenly think it's going to help with college placement or be necessary to enter a STEM field (which it isn't).

I disagree. I think if MCPS offered true honors/advanced tracking in math in ES and MS most parents would be perfectly happy keeping their kids "on level". If you have a kid who has advanced abilities in math, MCPS's answer is to immediately move them up a grade level (in the old curriculum you were moved up two grade levels). Why not offer grade level work with acceleration for those who can handle it? Instead of your 5th grader taking 6th grade level math, they'd be delving deeper into 5th grade math concepts/maybe doing more project-based work, having deeper discussions in class with other 5th graders who want to be challenged at math.

They do that. And DCUM complains about it.

This. Of course MCPS curriculum isn't perfect -- far from it -- but the fact is that most MCPS schools (and certainly the top performing ones) are among the best public schools in the country. We're talking within the top 5%. If you're not happy with the education your kid is getting, fight for improvements and supplement at home, but the idea that MCPS is some shit-hole is patently ridiculous.

No they're really not. They have a lot of smart kids that score well, but the schools aren't great. Massachusetts has good schools.

Who is spreading all this false information. MCPS is not top 5%. Maryland is not no.1. Actually the governor was just told by a study group that Maryland's education is very mediocre. MCPS is resting on a 20 year old reputation. Montgomery Blair's magnet program was and is still awesome. But I am not sure whether that won't watered down the way everything else is being watered down.





1. Massachusetts is a state, not a county or jurisdiction.
2. Maryland has good schools, that's why they are number 1
3. If you are a product of Massachusetts schools, I question their schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5) math acceleration at all costs - pushed too much too soon

This isn't really something being pushed by MCPS; it's MCPS responding to all the tiger parents out there who insist on their kid taking calculus in 11th because they mistakenly think it's going to help with college placement or be necessary to enter a STEM field (which it isn't).

I disagree. I think if MCPS offered true honors/advanced tracking in math in ES and MS most parents would be perfectly happy keeping their kids "on level". If you have a kid who has advanced abilities in math, MCPS's answer is to immediately move them up a grade level (in the old curriculum you were moved up two grade levels). Why not offer grade level work with acceleration for those who can handle it? Instead of your 5th grader taking 6th grade level math, they'd be delving deeper into 5th grade math concepts/maybe doing more project-based work, having deeper discussions in class with other 5th graders who want to be challenged at math.

They do that. And DCUM complains about it.

This. Of course MCPS curriculum isn't perfect -- far from it -- but the fact is that most MCPS schools (and certainly the top performing ones) are among the best public schools in the country. We're talking within the top 5%. If you're not happy with the education your kid is getting, fight for improvements and supplement at home, but the idea that MCPS is some shit-hole is patently ridiculous.

No they're really not. They have a lot of smart kids that score well, but the schools aren't great. Massachusetts has good schools.

1. Massachusetts is a state, not a county or jurisdiction.
2. Maryland has good schools, that's why they are number 1
3. If you are a product of Massachusetts schools, I question their schools.

Who is spreading all this false information. MCPS is not top 5%. Maryland is not no.1. Actually the governor was just told by a study group that Maryland's education is very mediocre. MCPS is resting on a 20 year old reputation. Montgomery Blair's magnet program was and is still awesome. But I am not sure whether that won't watered down the way everything else is being watered down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5) math acceleration at all costs - pushed too much too soon

This isn't really something being pushed by MCPS; it's MCPS responding to all the tiger parents out there who insist on their kid taking calculus in 11th because they mistakenly think it's going to help with college placement or be necessary to enter a STEM field (which it isn't).

I disagree. I think if MCPS offered true honors/advanced tracking in math in ES and MS most parents would be perfectly happy keeping their kids "on level". If you have a kid who has advanced abilities in math, MCPS's answer is to immediately move them up a grade level (in the old curriculum you were moved up two grade levels). Why not offer grade level work with acceleration for those who can handle it? Instead of your 5th grader taking 6th grade level math, they'd be delving deeper into 5th grade math concepts/maybe doing more project-based work, having deeper discussions in class with other 5th graders who want to be challenged at math.

They do that. And DCUM complains about it.

This. Of course MCPS curriculum isn't perfect -- far from it -- but the fact is that most MCPS schools (and certainly the top performing ones) are among the best public schools in the country. We're talking within the top 5%. If you're not happy with the education your kid is getting, fight for improvements and supplement at home, but the idea that MCPS is some shit-hole is patently ridiculous.

No they're really not. They have a lot of smart kids that score well, but the schools aren't great. Massachusetts has good schools.

Who is spreading all this false information. MCPS is not top 5%. Maryland is not no.1. Actually the governor was just told by a study group that Maryland's education is very mediocre. MCPS is resting on a 20 year old reputation. Montgomery Blair's magnet program was and is still awesome. But I am not sure whether that won't watered down the way everything else is being watered down.





1. Massachusetts is a state, not a county or jurisdiction.
2. Maryland has good schools, that's why they are number 1
3. If you are a product of Massachusetts schools, I question their schools.

source for this statement, please?

[Anonymous]

while I'm waiting for the study that blasts MCPS, here are a few sources suggesting Maryland is not a shit-hole:

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/maryland/districts/montgomery-county-public-schools-104047

http://www.baltimoresun.com/bs-md-maryland-school-ranking-2-20170103-story.html <-- this article suggests the decline in MD public schools (from #1 to #5 in the nation) is driven primarily by the state's inability to service its increasing population of low-income students. however, despite that fall, it still ranks among the best.