Thank god freshman year of HS is done!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tough year for my ninth grader too. What was challenging for us was the many different rules teachers had, many of which seemed totally inconsistent with the McPS reputation of “oh, stuff is rretakable, etc.”. Examples:

Child was sick for an entire week. Came back and trying to make up tests from 7 classes at lunch, while still recovering. One teacher had a sjngle day for test makeup. Kid missed it and was given a zero on the test, no retake.

Lots of teachers with No ippprtunity for late turn in of Hw, even with a 504. If you forget to turn it in at start of class, it’s a zero.

A couple of teachers who didn’t put grades into gradebook until day before interim grades. Realized then that she didn’t have an important assignment my kid thought he had turned in, but no chance to turn in late because it’s already interim deadline.

One teacher who was just …. Mean and arbitrary. A bunch of kids dropped class and a bunch of parents have complained and I think teacher is in a disciplinary process but it made for a really hard year with a lot of mental energy expended trying to avoid minimize conflict with teacher and figure out their expectations.

In general, I think McPS is pretty good but it is really a lot to deal with…

Yes! Yes! All of this! You captured it.
If you have a kid with executive functioning issues, you are screwed. My kid has a 504 and had all of these same experiences.
I have friend with no complaints bc their kids are self sufficient in this way. I get it, I have one of those too. But my other kid is not like that.
Get an EF coach. Seriously best decision we made. But again this relies on parents to put in the time to help with content and pay for external resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a tough one because mcps doesn't support students.
It shouldn't have been tough.
Spend your summer mentally and emotionally ally preparing for 3 worse years.

MCPS supports students. MCPS doesn't coddle students. Teach your kid self-advocacy skills.

Not all children are capable of learning to advocate for themselves but thank you for reinforcing the earlier post about mcps being a great place for students who don't need any help.

Exactly this. Had to pay for an EF coach to teach this.

Kudos to all who don’t have any issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tough year for my ninth grader too. What was challenging for us was the many different rules teachers had, many of which seemed totally inconsistent with the McPS reputation of “oh, stuff is rretakable, etc.”. Examples:

Child was sick for an entire week. Came back and trying to make up tests from 7 classes at lunch, while still recovering. One teacher had a sjngle day for test makeup. Kid missed it and was given a zero on the test, no retake.

Lots of teachers with No ippprtunity for late turn in of Hw, even with a 504. If you forget to turn it in at start of class, it’s a zero.

A couple of teachers who didn’t put grades into gradebook until day before interim grades. Realized then that she didn’t have an important assignment my kid thought he had turned in, but no chance to turn in late because it’s already interim deadline.

One teacher who was just …. Mean and arbitrary. A bunch of kids dropped class and a bunch of parents have complained and I think teacher is in a disciplinary process but it made for a really hard year with a lot of mental energy expended trying to avoid minimize conflict with teacher and figure out their expectations.

In general, I think McPS is pretty good but it is really a lot to deal with…

Yes! Yes! All of this! You captured it.
If you have a kid with executive functioning issues, you are screwed. My kid has a 504 and had all of these same experiences.
I have friend with no complaints bc their kids are self sufficient in this way. I get it, I have one of those too. But my other kid is not like that.
Get an EF coach. Seriously best decision we made. But again this relies on parents to put in the time to help with content and pay for external resources.

The funny thing is most people complain that teachers are too lenient with all the retakes etc. No matter what MCPS does you just can't please everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a tough one because mcps doesn't support students.
It shouldn't have been tough.
Spend your summer mentally and emotionally ally preparing for 3 worse years.

How did it not support your student this year?

Mcps operates under the theory that children are adults. There is a classroom. As many students can be squeezed into that classroom as space allows. Classes are as large as some college classes. If your student is motivated, intelligent, has adult like executive functioning skills and had the social support and financial resources to take care of any short comings that prevent them from doing well- then they will do well
If not- screw you, you lazy pos!

Wow! This has not been our experience at all. DS has disabilities and while I overall think MCPS sucks for special education, this is just so inaccurate. DS was never in a class as big as a college class. 30 kids? Sure. 32? Yep. But have you seen the size of college classes? He had kind and caring teachers in the majority of classes over freshman and sophomore year. Were there some duds? You bet. I can think of a math teacher who didn’t believe he had a disability and wanted him to transfer out. He got a D. The next semester his counselor made sure he had a supportive teacher and he turned that math grade around. Most teachers were very kind and patient. He was a mess at the start of freshman year. Missing work. Poor grades. Just lost! His teachers offered extra help. Made sure he had his accommodations. Gave him encouragement. He went from a C student freshman year to an A student sophomore year and he will tell you it’s because of his teachers and counselor. They spent the time to support him and cheer him on. MCPS has its shortcomings, especially at the top, but you are fooling yourself if you think that you won’t find that same ineptitude everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tough year for my ninth grader too. What was challenging for us was the many different rules teachers had, many of which seemed totally inconsistent with the McPS reputation of “oh, stuff is rretakable, etc.”. Examples:

Child was sick for an entire week. Came back and trying to make up tests from 7 classes at lunch, while still recovering. One teacher had a sjngle day for test makeup. Kid missed it and was given a zero on the test, no retake.

Lots of teachers with No ippprtunity for late turn in of Hw, even with a 504. If you forget to turn it in at start of class, it’s a zero.

A couple of teachers who didn’t put grades into gradebook until day before interim grades. Realized then that she didn’t have an important assignment my kid thought he had turned in, but no chance to turn in late because it’s already interim deadline.

One teacher who was just …. Mean and arbitrary. A bunch of kids dropped class and a bunch of parents have complained and I think teacher is in a disciplinary process but it made for a really hard year with a lot of mental energy expended trying to avoid minimize conflict with teacher and figure out their expectations.

In general, I think McPS is pretty good but it is really a lot to deal with…

Yes! Yes! All of this! You captured it.
If you have a kid with executive functioning issues, you are screwed. My kid has a 504 and had all of these same experiences.
I have friend with no complaints bc their kids are self sufficient in this way. I get it, I have one of those too. But my other kid is not like that.
Get an EF coach. Seriously best decision we made. But again this relies on parents to put in the time to help with content and pay for external resources.

The funny thing is most people complain that teachers are too lenient with all the retakes etc. No matter what MCPS does you just can't please everyone.

This exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nah it must be a parent at WJ

It doesn't matter none of them are what they used to be, good luck the next 3 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tough year for my ninth grader too. What was challenging for us was the many different rules teachers had, many of which seemed totally inconsistent with the McPS reputation of “oh, stuff is rretakable, etc.”. Examples:

Child was sick for an entire week. Came back and trying to make up tests from 7 classes at lunch, while still recovering. One teacher had a sjngle day for test makeup. Kid missed it and was given a zero on the test, no retake.

Lots of teachers with No ippprtunity for late turn in of Hw, even with a 504. If you forget to turn it in at start of class, it’s a zero.

A couple of teachers who didn’t put grades into gradebook until day before interim grades. Realized then that she didn’t have an important assignment my kid thought he had turned in, but no chance to turn in late because it’s already interim deadline.

One teacher who was just …. Mean and arbitrary. A bunch of kids dropped class and a bunch of parents have complained and I think teacher is in a disciplinary process but it made for a really hard year with a lot of mental energy expended trying to avoid minimize conflict with teacher and figure out their expectations.

In general, I think McPS is pretty good but it is really a lot to deal with…

Yes! Yes! All of this! You captured it.
If you have a kid with executive functioning issues, you are screwed. My kid has a 504 and had all of these same experiences.
I have friend with no complaints bc their kids are self sufficient in this way. I get it, I have one of those too. But my other kid is not like that.
Get an EF coach. Seriously best decision we made. But again this relies on parents to put in the time to help with content and pay for external resources.

The funny thing is most people complain that teachers are too lenient with all the retakes etc. No matter what MCPS does you just can't please everyone.

I've had three kids now go through MCPS and it is COMPLETELY ARBITRARY. Some teachers are really lenient with retakes. Others are completely strict and unreasonable. My kids take the advanced classes, and in my experience, the vast majority of tests are NOT eligible for retake. Maybe 1-2 a semester might be. And a lot of teachers have very strict rules about when you can take the retake (only one option, if you can't make it that day or don't have time to restudy prior to that, too bad). If I had to discern any particular rule, is that the teachers teaching the easy classes are just handing out A's, whereas the teachers teaching the harder classes can be incredibly strict.
I don't ever complain about the retake policy -- if kids can learn the materials at any point, that is the most important.

I actually think they should report straight-up percentage points for every class for each semester. That would be more fair than this system where the kids that are most successful at gaming the system to end up with 89.5% in one quarter for each class (and 79.5% in the other quarter) somehow end up with straight A's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a tough one because mcps doesn't support students.
It shouldn't have been tough.
Spend your summer mentally and emotionally ally preparing for 3 worse years.

How did it not support your student this year?

Mcps operates under the theory that children are adults. There is a classroom. As many students can be squeezed into that classroom as space allows. Classes are as large as some college classes. If your student is motivated, intelligent, has adult like executive functioning skills and had the social support and financial resources to take care of any short comings that prevent them from doing well- then they will do well
If not- screw you, you lazy pos!

Wow! This has not been our experience at all. DS has disabilities and while I overall think MCPS sucks for special education, this is just so inaccurate. DS was never in a class as big as a college class. 30 kids? Sure. 32? Yep. But have you seen the size of college classes? He had kind and caring teachers in the majority of classes over freshman and sophomore year. Were there some duds? You bet. I can think of a math teacher who didn’t believe he had a disability and wanted him to transfer out. He got a D. The next semester his counselor made sure he had a supportive teacher and he turned that math grade around. Most teachers were very kind and patient. He was a mess at the start of freshman year. Missing work. Poor grades. Just lost! His teachers offered extra help. Made sure he had his accommodations. Gave him encouragement. He went from a C student freshman year to an A student sophomore year and he will tell you it’s because of his teachers and counselor. They spent the time to support him and cheer him on. MCPS has its shortcomings, especially at the top, but you are fooling yourself if you think that you won’t find that same ineptitude everywhere.

Can i ask where your kid ended up getting into college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My rising sophomore did AMAZING! Like everyone she did virtual MCPS in 6th except for the last 6 weeks, did half of seventh before being admitted for suicidal ideation and attempts, missed all of eighth while at a therapeutic school, and came home last June. She started ninth with a safety plan and not knowing a single person. She made friends, enjoyed her teachers, and just graduated from therapy last week. Her grades were As and Bs but that wasn’t the priority.

I'm so happy for you and your child!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tough year for my ninth grader too. What was challenging for us was the many different rules teachers had, many of which seemed totally inconsistent with the McPS reputation of “oh, stuff is rretakable, etc.”. Examples:

Child was sick for an entire week. Came back and trying to make up tests from 7 classes at lunch, while still recovering. One teacher had a sjngle day for test makeup. Kid missed it and was given a zero on the test, no retake.

Lots of teachers with No ippprtunity for late turn in of Hw, even with a 504. If you forget to turn it in at start of class, it’s a zero.

A couple of teachers who didn’t put grades into gradebook until day before interim grades. Realized then that she didn’t have an important assignment my kid thought he had turned in, but no chance to turn in late because it’s already interim deadline.

One teacher who was just …. Mean and arbitrary. A bunch of kids dropped class and a bunch of parents have complained and I think teacher is in a disciplinary process but it made for a really hard year with a lot of mental energy expended trying to avoid minimize conflict with teacher and figure out their expectations.

In general, I think McPS is pretty good but it is really a lot to deal with…

Yes! Yes! All of this! You captured it.
If you have a kid with executive functioning issues, you are screwed. My kid has a 504 and had all of these same experiences.
I have friend with no complaints bc their kids are self sufficient in this way. I get it, I have one of those too. But my other kid is not like that.
Get an EF coach. Seriously best decision we made. But again this relies on parents to put in the time to help with content and pay for external resources.

Have you kid schedule to take the Resource class. Then they can get help with this.

[Anonymous]

My DS had a horrible time during grade 9 due to events outside school and thanks to the support he had from mcps teachers and counselor plus mental health providers of course he recovered and had a tremendous grade 10 year. We can’t imagine where he would be without the help and support from his mcps teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My rising sophomore did AMAZING! Like everyone she did virtual MCPS in 6th except for the last 6 weeks, did half of seventh before being admitted for suicidal ideation and attempts, missed all of eighth while at a therapeutic school, and came home last June. She started ninth with a safety plan and not knowing a single person. She made friends, enjoyed her teachers, and just graduated from therapy last week. Her grades were As and Bs but that wasn’t the priority.

I'm so happy for you and your child!

Congrats

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My rising sophomore did AMAZING! Like everyone she did virtual MCPS in 6th except for the last 6 weeks, did half of seventh before being admitted for suicidal ideation and attempts, missed all of eighth while at a therapeutic school, and came home last June. She started ninth with a safety plan and not knowing a single person. She made friends, enjoyed her teachers, and just graduated from therapy last week. Her grades were As and Bs but that wasn’t the priority.

Oh, this is wonderful. Thank you for sharing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tough year for my ninth grader too. What was challenging for us was the many different rules teachers had, many of which seemed totally inconsistent with the McPS reputation of “oh, stuff is rretakable, etc.”. Examples:

Child was sick for an entire week. Came back and trying to make up tests from 7 classes at lunch, while still recovering. One teacher had a sjngle day for test makeup. Kid missed it and was given a zero on the test, no retake.

Lots of teachers with No ippprtunity for late turn in of Hw, even with a 504. If you forget to turn it in at start of class, it’s a zero.

A couple of teachers who didn’t put grades into gradebook until day before interim grades. Realized then that she didn’t have an important assignment my kid thought he had turned in, but no chance to turn in late because it’s already interim deadline.

One teacher who was just …. Mean and arbitrary. A bunch of kids dropped class and a bunch of parents have complained and I think teacher is in a disciplinary process but it made for a really hard year with a lot of mental energy expended trying to avoid minimize conflict with teacher and figure out their expectations.

In general, I think McPS is pretty good but it is really a lot to deal with…

Yes! Yes! All of this! You captured it.
If you have a kid with executive functioning issues, you are screwed. My kid has a 504 and had all of these same experiences.
I have friend with no complaints bc their kids are self sufficient in this way. I get it, I have one of those too. But my other kid is not like that.
Get an EF coach. Seriously best decision we made. But again this relies on parents to put in the time to help with content and pay for external resources.

Have you kid schedule to take the Resource class. Then they can get help with this.

We did this in 8th grade and it was a total waste. He got zero help and said he felt bad for the teacher because the kids were just so rude and disruptive. I was like “well, at least you finally had the experience of being the best behaved kid in a class!” And he had to give up a real class. My kid is really hungry for the learning and content so doesn’t want to do that—he just needs a little flexibility and understanding on turning stuff in and makeups when he is out sick. We had such issues with makeups this year that next year I am really tempted just to send him in sick. They really don’t seem like they want you to keep your kid home sick anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My rising sophomore did AMAZING! Like everyone she did virtual MCPS in 6th except for the last 6 weeks, did half of seventh before being admitted for suicidal ideation and attempts, missed all of eighth while at a therapeutic school, and came home last June. She started ninth with a safety plan and not knowing a single person. She made friends, enjoyed her teachers, and just graduated from therapy last week. Her grades were As and Bs but that wasn’t the priority.

I'm so happy for you and your child!

Me too. I'm so happy for you and your daughter!