MCCPTA Gifted Education Committee's Complaint about Systemic Failures by MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also appreciate the MCCPTA GEC advocacy. I agree with those who would like to take all of the eggs out of the magnet basket and upgrade home school curriculum. The state of Middle School curriculum is troubling for advanced learners. The two enriched classes (AIM HIGH) are better than nothing, but the level of instruction for English and Science should be upgraded. Too much filling in work sheets and busy work.

High School has lots of opportunities for kids to challenge themselves.

High school is not as rigorous as it used to be. No exams. Very little homework. For English, your child is lucky if more than two books are read in a semester (and this includes AP Literature). No penalty if a child turns in assignments late. At least half of my child’s teachers do not take attendance. When he is sick, he is still marked present.

I worry about what MCPS thinks they are preparing students for beyond high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back in the "old days" we got sent to the library when we were too far ahead of the rest of the class.

And in the library you saw exactly who was motivated to learn and work independent of direction - and who just wasted their time.

OMG—fond memories of being sent to the library!!! Loved those teachers. But now with a chrome book Id probably just watch videos!

That's what GoGuardian is for!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also appreciate the MCCPTA GEC advocacy. I agree with those who would like to take all of the eggs out of the magnet basket and upgrade home school curriculum. The state of Middle School curriculum is troubling for advanced learners. The two enriched classes (AIM HIGH) are better than nothing, but the level of instruction for English and Science should be upgraded. Too much filling in work sheets and busy work.

High School has lots of opportunities for kids to challenge themselves.

High school is not as rigorous as it used to be. No exams. Very little homework. For English, your child is lucky if more than two books are read in a semester (and this includes AP Literature). No penalty if a child turns in assignments late. At least half of my child’s teachers do not take attendance. When he is sick, he is still marked present.

I worry about what MCPS thinks they are preparing students for beyond high school.

Nice try: they read almost a dozen books in AP Lit. They take tons of AP exams. If a kid wants rigor it's there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back in the "old days" we got sent to the library when we were too far ahead of the rest of the class.

And in the library you saw exactly who was motivated to learn and work independent of direction - and who just wasted their time.

OMG—fond memories of being sent to the library!!! Loved those teachers. But now with a chrome book Id probably just watch videos!

That's what GoGuardian is for!

If there is a way to freeze out the "How To Minecraft" videos and only allow educational YouTube, Khan Academy, etc that would be great.

And +1 on just getting sent to the library. But maybe I was lucky in having a real librarian at school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also appreciate the MCCPTA GEC advocacy. I agree with those who would like to take all of the eggs out of the magnet basket and upgrade home school curriculum. The state of Middle School curriculum is troubling for advanced learners. The two enriched classes (AIM HIGH) are better than nothing, but the level of instruction for English and Science should be upgraded. Too much filling in work sheets and busy work.

High School has lots of opportunities for kids to challenge themselves.

High school is not as rigorous as it used to be. No exams. Very little homework. For English, your child is lucky if more than two books are read in a semester (and this includes AP Literature). No penalty if a child turns in assignments late. At least half of my child’s teachers do not take attendance. When he is sick, he is still marked present.

I worry about what MCPS thinks they are preparing students for beyond high school.

Which school does you student attend?!?!?!?!?!?!? We have exams. We have homework. We have late penalties. We get notices if the kid is 3 minutes late to a class.

Is your student telling you this stuff?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also appreciate the MCCPTA GEC advocacy. I agree with those who would like to take all of the eggs out of the magnet basket and upgrade home school curriculum. The state of Middle School curriculum is troubling for advanced learners. The two enriched classes (AIM HIGH) are better than nothing, but the level of instruction for English and Science should be upgraded. Too much filling in work sheets and busy work.

High School has lots of opportunities for kids to challenge themselves.

High school is not as rigorous as it used to be. No exams. Very little homework. For English, your child is lucky if more than two books are read in a semester (and this includes AP Literature). No penalty if a child turns in assignments late. At least half of my child’s teachers do not take attendance. When he is sick, he is still marked present.

I worry about what MCPS thinks they are preparing students for beyond high school.

Which school does you student attend?!?!?!?!?!?!? We have exams. We have homework. We have late penalties. We get notices if the kid is 3 minutes late to a class.

Is your student telling you this stuff?

I'm guessing it's just fiction because we are at a DCC high school and none of what they're saying is true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also appreciate the MCCPTA GEC advocacy. I agree with those who would like to take all of the eggs out of the magnet basket and upgrade home school curriculum. The state of Middle School curriculum is troubling for advanced learners. The two enriched classes (AIM HIGH) are better than nothing, but the level of instruction for English and Science should be upgraded. Too much filling in work sheets and busy work.

High School has lots of opportunities for kids to challenge themselves.

High school is not as rigorous as it used to be. No exams. Very little homework. For English, your child is lucky if more than two books are read in a semester (and this includes AP Literature). No penalty if a child turns in assignments late. At least half of my child’s teachers do not take attendance. When he is sick, he is still marked present.

I worry about what MCPS thinks they are preparing students for beyond high school.

Which school does you student attend?!?!?!?!?!?!? We have exams. We have homework. We have late penalties. We get notices if the kid is 3 minutes late to a class.

Is your student telling you this stuff?

I'm guessing it's just fiction because we are at a DCC high school and none of what they're saying is true.

My child attends Churchill.

Parentvue tells me my child was recorded as present for most periods when my child was home sick. Parentvue also reflects full credit for assignments turned in late. Two books assigned for AP English each semester this year, about the same as previous years in the cluster. The rigor has been non-existent for current students at the school.

Perhaps the problem in MCPS is that some schools offer more opportunities than others. Just because a school labels a class as an AP class doesn’t mean necessarily that it’s a rigorous course and that students have to meet high standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also appreciate the MCCPTA GEC advocacy. I agree with those who would like to take all of the eggs out of the magnet basket and upgrade home school curriculum. The state of Middle School curriculum is troubling for advanced learners. The two enriched classes (AIM HIGH) are better than nothing, but the level of instruction for English and Science should be upgraded. Too much filling in work sheets and busy work.

High School has lots of opportunities for kids to challenge themselves.

High school is not as rigorous as it used to be. No exams. Very little homework. For English, your child is lucky if more than two books are read in a semester (and this includes AP Literature). No penalty if a child turns in assignments late. At least half of my child’s teachers do not take attendance. When he is sick, he is still marked present.

I worry about what MCPS thinks they are preparing students for beyond high school.

Which school does you student attend?!?!?!?!?!?!? We have exams. We have homework. We have late penalties. We get notices if the kid is 3 minutes late to a class.

Is your student telling you this stuff?

I'm guessing it's just fiction because we are at a DCC high school and none of what they're saying is true.

I’m guessing MCPS PR is trying to deflect problems instead of MCPS addressing problems in the MCCPTA complaint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also appreciate the MCCPTA GEC advocacy. I agree with those who would like to take all of the eggs out of the magnet basket and upgrade home school curriculum. The state of Middle School curriculum is troubling for advanced learners. The two enriched classes (AIM HIGH) are better than nothing, but the level of instruction for English and Science should be upgraded. Too much filling in work sheets and busy work.

High School has lots of opportunities for kids to challenge themselves.

High school is not as rigorous as it used to be. No exams. Very little homework. For English, your child is lucky if more than two books are read in a semester (and this includes AP Literature). No penalty if a child turns in assignments late. At least half of my child’s teachers do not take attendance. When he is sick, he is still marked present.

I worry about what MCPS thinks they are preparing students for beyond high school.

Which school does you student attend?!?!?!?!?!?!? We have exams. We have homework. We have late penalties. We get notices if the kid is 3 minutes late to a class.

Is your student telling you this stuff?

I'm guessing it's just fiction because we are at a DCC high school and none of what they're saying is true.

My child attends Churchill.

Parentvue tells me my child was recorded as present for most periods when my child was home sick. Parentvue also reflects full credit for assignments turned in late. Two books assigned for AP English each semester this year, about the same as previous years in the cluster. The rigor has been non-existent for current students at the school.

Perhaps the problem in MCPS is that some schools offer more opportunities than others. Just because a school labels a class as an AP class doesn’t mean necessarily that it’s a rigorous course and that students have to meet high standards.

So what you are saying is that students at Churchill get a free pass on late assignments and poor attendance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also appreciate the MCCPTA GEC advocacy. I agree with those who would like to take all of the eggs out of the magnet basket and upgrade home school curriculum. The state of Middle School curriculum is troubling for advanced learners. The two enriched classes (AIM HIGH) are better than nothing, but the level of instruction for English and Science should be upgraded. Too much filling in work sheets and busy work.

High School has lots of opportunities for kids to challenge themselves.

High school is not as rigorous as it used to be. No exams. Very little homework. For English, your child is lucky if more than two books are read in a semester (and this includes AP Literature). No penalty if a child turns in assignments late. At least half of my child’s teachers do not take attendance. When he is sick, he is still marked present.

I worry about what MCPS thinks they are preparing students for beyond high school.

I think the HS programs are very rigorous. I'm not always sure that it's the right kind of rigor, but it's definitely not easy. These teens taking the advanced classes are working their assess off. I wish there was more attention paid to thoughtful reading and writing, but I know from my teacher/professor friends how hard it is to do meaningful writing assignments with meaningful feedback if you have more than 20 kids to teach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back in the "old days" we got sent to the library when we were too far ahead of the rest of the class.

And in the library you saw exactly who was motivated to learn and work independent of direction - and who just wasted their time.

OMG—fond memories of being sent to the library!!! Loved those teachers. But now with a chrome book Id probably just watch videos!

That's what GoGuardian is for!

If there is a way to freeze out the "How To Minecraft" videos and only allow educational YouTube, Khan Academy, etc that would be great.

And +1 on just getting sent to the library. But maybe I was lucky in having a real librarian at school?

Any gifted kid definitely knows how to get around GoGuardan and the other MCPS blocks! I wish they could just take Chrome off the chromebooks and use the chromebooks only to access specific materials shared by the teachers, and as a typewriter/notepad. If they needed to do broader research, they could go to the libary or -- gasp -- read books! I guess google wouldn't give them cheap chromebooks, though, withtout the ability to hook the kids on google.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also appreciate the MCCPTA GEC advocacy. I agree with those who would like to take all of the eggs out of the magnet basket and upgrade home school curriculum. The state of Middle School curriculum is troubling for advanced learners. The two enriched classes (AIM HIGH) are better than nothing, but the level of instruction for English and Science should be upgraded. Too much filling in work sheets and busy work.

High School has lots of opportunities for kids to challenge themselves.

High school is not as rigorous as it used to be. No exams. Very little homework. For English, your child is lucky if more than two books are read in a semester (and this includes AP Literature). No penalty if a child turns in assignments late. At least half of my child’s teachers do not take attendance. When he is sick, he is still marked present.

I worry about what MCPS thinks they are preparing students for beyond high school.

Which school does you student attend?!?!?!?!?!?!? We have exams. We have homework. We have late penalties. We get notices if the kid is 3 minutes late to a class.

Is your student telling you this stuff?

I'm guessing it's just fiction because we are at a DCC high school and none of what they're saying is true.

My child attends Churchill.

Parentvue tells me my child was recorded as present for most periods when my child was home sick. Parentvue also reflects full credit for assignments turned in late. Two books assigned for AP English each semester this year, about the same as previous years in the cluster. The rigor has been non-existent for current students at the school.

Perhaps the problem in MCPS is that some schools offer more opportunities than others. Just because a school labels a class as an AP class doesn’t mean necessarily that it’s a rigorous course and that students have to meet high standards.

Evidently Churchill is poorly run then. I always suspected it was overrated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back in the "old days" we got sent to the library when we were too far ahead of the rest of the class.

And in the library you saw exactly who was motivated to learn and work independent of direction - and who just wasted their time.

OMG—fond memories of being sent to the library!!! Loved those teachers. But now with a chrome book Id probably just watch videos!

That's what GoGuardian is for!

If there is a way to freeze out the "How To Minecraft" videos and only allow educational YouTube, Khan Academy, etc that would be great.

And +1 on just getting sent to the library. But maybe I was lucky in having a real librarian at school?

Any gifted kid definitely knows how to get around GoGuardan and the other MCPS blocks! I wish they could just take Chrome off the chromebooks and use the chromebooks only to access specific materials shared by the teachers, and as a typewriter/notepad. If they needed to do broader research, they could go to the libary or -- gasp -- read books! I guess google wouldn't give them cheap chromebooks, though, withtout the ability to hook the kids on google.

or simply reverse the filtering scheme and only allow a small set of approved sites related to classwork

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also appreciate the MCCPTA GEC advocacy. I agree with those who would like to take all of the eggs out of the magnet basket and upgrade home school curriculum. The state of Middle School curriculum is troubling for advanced learners. The two enriched classes (AIM HIGH) are better than nothing, but the level of instruction for English and Science should be upgraded. Too much filling in work sheets and busy work.

High School has lots of opportunities for kids to challenge themselves.

High school is not as rigorous as it used to be. No exams. Very little homework. For English, your child is lucky if more than two books are read in a semester (and this includes AP Literature). No penalty if a child turns in assignments late. At least half of my child’s teachers do not take attendance. When he is sick, he is still marked present.

I worry about what MCPS thinks they are preparing students for beyond high school.

Which school does you student attend?!?!?!?!?!?!? We have exams. We have homework. We have late penalties. We get notices if the kid is 3 minutes late to a class.

Is your student telling you this stuff?

We've never had any of that stuff. You are at MCPS? We don't have any accelerated classes in MS either, including HIGH. My child has read two books this year in English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GT programs should be based upon CogAT, not MAP. CogAT is race-neutral and nationally administered. MAP is basically whoever can afford tutors, imho.

Unfortunately, I don't think anything will change as long as the current board of education, superintendent and AEI team is in office. That will take years to flush out.

The handwriting was on the wall many years ago when Kurshanna Dean first took over, and now that staff is continuing the downward spiral. Kurshanna Dean moved on to an Asst P slot at Page ES, was it last year?

The history behind the lottery is shady. MCPS has never released how the "local" portion is done and is very secretive about how the lottery overall is performed (do they have lotto balls? dice? throw darts?)

It started back in 2018, when MCPS was caught discriminating against asians for lottery admissions.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/06/asian-students-are-victims-montgomery-countys-achievement-gap/

There was a complaint (I think around 2019?) that provided evidence that it wasn't possible for MCPS to have calculated the MCPS Percentile using the criteria they published and MCPS didn't deny it. That was the exact same year the Magnet program went lottery, btw.

The Cogat isn't a great test for everything and everyone. MAP is more reflective of where they are at and knowledge.