Cardozo: XQ is it Working?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like the soft bigotry of low expectations.

Perfectly stated.

[Anonymous]

DCPS just gets worse and worse. You could not make this stuff up. MCPS has some high schools in Silver Spring, Germantown, Gaithersburg, Wheaton that are majority Hispanic with a ton of new immigrants. These schools have all their announcements in Spanish as well as English. And while academics are not as strong as at the fancy Bethesda high schools, they are still pretty decent and the schools function well. Maybe Ferebee and Mola should go visit some of these schools to get some training on how to actually run poor and diverse high schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS just gets worse and worse. You could not make this stuff up. MCPS has some high schools in Silver Spring, Germantown, Gaithersburg, Wheaton that are majority Hispanic with a ton of new immigrants. These schools have all their announcements in Spanish as well as English. And while academics are not as strong as at the fancy Bethesda high schools, they are still pretty decent and the schools function well. Maybe Ferebee and Mola should go visit some of these schools to get some training on how to actually run poor and diverse high schools

They aren’t visiting more successful schools, they’re going to places like Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Atlanta on the taxpayer’s dime on a fact-finding mission to see what they can implement from other programs.

Sadly, none of that comes back to Cardozo except a tanner principal and a hungover Blake.

[Anonymous]

Right. Dr. Blake barely shows up for work and when he does he isn’t “all there”.

[Anonymous]

this post has definitely had the most DCPS staff on it I have ever seen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the XQ programs are going to fail, and it seems obvious to me. When you have high schools filled with students who can’t read, are performing several years below grade level, have food insecurity, experience violence in their community, live with family members who are abusive, etc, there is no gimmick that will help them. High school is TOO LATE. DC needs to realize they have a societal and community problem, not a school problem. The schools alone will never be able to fix this, and having XQ programs like afrofuturism are certainly not going to suddenly make teenagers literate.

I agree and disagree. High school is very late, but it doesn't have to be "too late." I worked in a very small high school for at-risk students in NY (we had less than 75 students). We had kids who had been in gangs, in juvenile jail, kids who were unhoused, etc. And many kids needed a lot of academic help, too. And those kids did great in our program. We also had onsite counselors and loads of other resources available. I only remember one kid being asked to leave the school. But, like I said, it was a very small school. I know people don't like to talk about class/school size, but it does matter and can make a big difference. Of course, D.C. is not going to invest in building what would amount to a bunch of small private schools with loads of at-risk resources, but my experience suggests that route could be better than the kinds of approaches being discussed here. Also, the schools obviously aren't the only factor--of course, the kids with the worst truancy and academic ability usually also have other systemic factors involved. Everything needs to be addressed--those systemic factors AND the schools. I can't say how to address those other factors--that's not my wheel house, but education is, and I can only speak from my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the XQ programs are going to fail, and it seems obvious to me. When you have high schools filled with students who can’t read, are performing several years below grade level, have food insecurity, experience violence in their community, live with family members who are abusive, etc, there is no gimmick that will help them. High school is TOO LATE. DC needs to realize they have a societal and community problem, not a school problem. The schools alone will never be able to fix this, and having XQ programs like afrofuturism are certainly not going to suddenly make teenagers literate.

I agree and disagree. High school is very late, but it doesn't have to be "too late." I worked in a very small high school for at-risk students in NY (we had less than 75 students). We had kids who had been in gangs, in juvenile jail, kids who were unhoused, etc. And many kids needed a lot of academic help, too. And those kids did great in our program. We also had onsite counselors and loads of other resources available. I only remember one kid being asked to leave the school. But, like I said, it was a very small school. I know people don't like to talk about class/school size, but it does matter and can make a big difference. Of course, D.C. is not going to invest in building what would amount to a bunch of small private schools with loads of at-risk resources, but my experience suggests that route could be better than the kinds of approaches being discussed here. Also, the schools obviously aren't the only factor--of course, the kids with the worst truancy and academic ability usually also have other systemic factors involved. Everything needs to be addressed--those systemic factors AND the schools. I can't say how to address those other factors--that's not my wheel house, but education is, and I can only speak from my experience.

Please share the name of the NY school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this post has definitely had the most DCPS staff on it I have ever seen

Lol. Right. And their responses are a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this post has definitely had the most DCPS staff on it I have ever seen

Lol. Right. And their responses are a joke.

You’re a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this post has definitely had the most DCPS staff on it I have ever seen

Lol. Right. And their responses are a joke.

How is it a joke when those are firsthand experiences? Find something better to do or maybe post about something you actually know about.. clearly education isn’t one of those topics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this post has definitely had the most DCPS staff on it I have ever seen

At least they’re invested in trying to get the word out. Their principal clearly isn’t listening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this post has definitely had the most DCPS staff on it I have ever seen

Lol. Right. And their responses are a joke.

How is it a joke when those are firsthand experiences? Find something better to do or maybe post about something you actually know about.. clearly education isn’t one of those topics.

Yeah, agreed. Regardless of whether they’re teachers or not, they’re talking about how they want their school to improve, their students to have an opportunity to do better, and their Administration to get off of their collective ego trips and do what’s right for their kids and not only their wallets.

The better question is, “Why does it sound like you’re defending the people who are doing the most harm?”

[Anonymous]

I have been at Cardozo for a while and truthfully I’ve stayed because of the kids and many of my colleagues. Unfortunately, I have seen it decline. People gave our principal the benefit of the doubt for a while because he started at Cardozo in 2019 right before COVID. However, it’s now 2024, and the school continues to deteriorate. Proficiency in math and reading has tanked and attendance rates are atrocious.

When the possibility to become an XQ school arose, Mr. Mola drank the kool-aid. Unfortunately, XQ has only made it worse. I don’t even know where the money is going at this point, but our school doesn’t even have enough devices for students to use. How are we preparing students to be business owners if they cannot even access basic technology?

Instead of Cardozo Education Campus, it should be renamed Cardozo Enabling Campus. Students are not rarely held accountable which is a major problem. Systems that we once had no longer exist and it is negatively impacting children and not preparing them for how things actually work in the real world. Many students continue to roam the hallways all throughout the day, day after day, and the behavior is tolerated. If this isn’t considered low expectations, then I don’t know what is.

We should be holding our students to high standards and providing supports along the way. This includes accountability. Instead, the principal seems to want to be buddy-buddy with the students and is non-confrontational when students break rules. It gets really tiring for teachers especially as students rarely receive consequences and students know that they can get away with things. Cardozo lacks structure and XQ is not going to solve the issues.

Don’t even get me started on Dr. Blake. He has been truly detrimental to the school. He is only words, little action. It feels like he has his own agenda— which is to build up his resume, as previous posters have stated.

We need to get back to the basics, which is providing an environment where teaching and learning can happen without all these distractions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been at Cardozo for a while and truthfully I’ve stayed because of the kids and many of my colleagues. Unfortunately, I have seen it decline. People gave our principal the benefit of the doubt for a while because he started at Cardozo in 2019 right before COVID. However, it’s now 2024, and the school continues to deteriorate. Proficiency in math and reading has tanked and attendance rates are atrocious.

When the possibility to become an XQ school arose, Mr. Mola drank the kool-aid. Unfortunately, XQ has only made it worse. I don’t even know where the money is going at this point, but our school doesn’t even have enough devices for students to use. How are we preparing students to be business owners if they cannot even access basic technology?

Instead of Cardozo Education Campus, it should be renamed Cardozo Enabling Campus. Students are not rarely held accountable which is a major problem. Systems that we once had no longer exist and it is negatively impacting children and not preparing them for how things actually work in the real world. Many students continue to roam the hallways all throughout the day, day after day, and the behavior is tolerated. If this isn’t considered low expectations, then I don’t know what is.

We should be holding our students to high standards and providing supports along the way. This includes accountability. Instead, the principal seems to want to be buddy-buddy with the students and is non-confrontational when students break rules. It gets really tiring for teachers especially as students rarely receive consequences and students know that they can get away with things. Cardozo lacks structure and XQ is not going to solve the issues.

Don’t even get me started on Dr. Blake. He has been truly detrimental to the school. He is only words, little action. It feels like he has his own agenda— which is to build up his resume, as previous posters have stated.

We need to get back to the basics, which is providing an environment where teaching and learning can happen without all these distractions.

No accountability for students and parents seems to be the latest trend in progressive education these days. DCPS would love to hand every kid a diploma whether they ever show up to school or not or whether they even acquired any basic skills. What happens to these students after they graduate is someone else’s problem, not DCPS

[Anonymous]

I find it interesting that Cardozo has an Engineering academy but no physics (not even on-level) and no AP Calculus BC.