So if MoCo schools are crappier than we all thought, where ARE the good public schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The second poster's kids must not have reached middle school yet. MoCo offers absolutely amazing science, social studies, history, art and music programs. My 7th grader is going to be performing many of the experiments that are done on CSI in his daily science class. He will be learning photoshop in depth during his daily Art class, among many other skills. In his daily Advance World Studies, he's studied China, the Roman Empire, and now he's doing a unit on Europe. I come away from BTSN completely amazed at all of the opportunities my kids have in MoCo schools.

You are correct, our experience was one year in public after she had been in private (we switched for financial reasons). We weren't willing to wait until MS for my child to get a more well-rounded education in public. After her one year (5th grade), we pulled her and she's now in 7th, in private. And doing rigorous academic work in an atmosphere that cultivates personal responsibility, tolerance, service to others, and has a strong commitment to quality extracurricular activities. There is no way I was going to send her to our local MS after the nonsense I saw in our local ES.

So essentially you're admitting that you have no experience with MoCo middle schools -- none, no experience whatsoever -- yet you have incredibly strong opinions about them and won't hesitate to post these uninformed opinions on DCUM? This is when DCUM becomes useless as a source of reliable information....

NP here. I think you're misreading the PP's statements. As I read them, she's saying her family has experience with a MoCo elementary school and she didn't want to wait until middle school for her child to get a more well-rounded education. She says nothing about the quality of MoCo middle schools and she specifically refers to what she saw in her child's elementary school.

OP, I haven't seen anyone here say that MoCo schools are "crappier than we all thought." Though some people may think that, I personally don't. I do think that at the elementary school level there's little instructional time for PE, music, science, etc., and little recess time. While this doesn't equate to "crappy," it does encourage some parents to seek a different type of elementary school experience for their kids.

[Anonymous]

Due to my husbands employment we have lived in three different states since my oldest daughter started kindergartenand I began teaching. I had a wonderful experience in PA and IL both as a teacher and as a parent. My daughter was challenged and happy. We have been so disappointed since moving to MOCO. I have since left teaching and doubt I will go back. My middle school age daughter is not being challenged and is unhappy. We are looking into private for our younger daughter who has special needs and is not getting what she needs in her very large classroom. We are in one of the high acheiving schools. I think it is a matter of perspective though. To compare Moco you need to have experienced something else.

[Anonymous]

My son is sort of "very low normal" in terms of test performance (he has other strong skills, but test taking is not one of them). He does not have LD (we've had testing done), but he just doesn't do well on tests. At our MCPS, he would be invited to participate in extra after school tutoring and free (FREE!!) summer school to boost his test scores. He would be utterly miserable.

At his private school, we ignore low test scores and pay for some extra tutoring in math and reading. He loves school - we and the school focus on what he is good at, try to remediate to the extent that we can and plan for a future that utilizes what he is good at. Some of my neighbors whose kids are in gifted or magnet programs are well served by MCPS, but my son would not be. We feel blessed that we can provide him an alternative.

[Anonymous]

My kids have been very well served by MCPS so far, but they have done this entirely in magnet/gifted programs.

I think the new superintendent recognizes the disparity -- he's said as much. My fear is that his solution will be to get rid of magnets in the interest of fairness, rather than making productive efforts to bring the rest of MCPS up to the standards of these programs.

[Anonymous]

Shutting down magnets in the interest of fairness would be like shutting down Harvard and Yale b/c kids at community colleges don't get the same opportunities. Nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shutting down magnets in the interest of fairness would be like shutting down Harvard and Yale b/c kids at community colleges don't get the same opportunities. Nuts.

7:44 here. I think this isn't a sound analogy, because Harvard and Yale are not publicly funded. In MoCo we pay high state and local taxes to have access to these schools, and while boutique programs such as magnets and immersion programs are great, they can't accommodate all the kids who could benefit from them or who want to participate in them. I think the county supports them not only because they are important (or at least the magnets/HGCs are), but because they placate some affluent parents and keep those children in the system.

11:44, I'm curious about what you mean when you say the new superintendent "recognizes the disparity." Can you say more about that?

[Anonymous]

I know he's made some remarks about the high quality of gifted magnet education and the difference between that and regular MCPS elementary school. I'm sorry, I don't have a quote to link you to right now.

The difference in part is that no one is entitled to a Harvard or Yale education, but by law kids are entitled to an appropriate K-12 education. For many kids in the magnet regular schools are not appropriate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You are correct, our experience was one year in public after she had been in private (we switched for financial reasons). We weren't willing to wait until MS for my child to get a more well-rounded education in public. After her one year (5th grade), we pulled her and she's now in 7th, in private. And doing rigorous academic work in an atmosphere that cultivates personal responsibility, tolerance, service to others, and has a strong commitment to quality extracurricular activities. There is no way I was going to send her to our local MS after the nonsense I saw in our local ES.

So essentially you're admitting that you have no experience with MoCo middle schools -- none, no experience whatsoever -- yet you have incredibly strong opinions about them and won't hesitate to post these uninformed opinions on DCUM? This is when DCUM becomes useless as a source of reliable information....

NP here. I think you're misreading the PP's statements. As I read them, she's saying her family has experience with a MoCo elementary school and she didn't want to wait until middle school for her child to get a more well-rounded education. She says nothing about the quality of MoCo middle schools and she specifically refers to what she saw in her child's elementary school.

You're more generous than I am. Because I do see strong opinions about MS ("no way I was going to send her to our local MS") even though she says she's never tried it. This is when DCUM pisses me off....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is sort of "very low normal" in terms of test performance (he has other strong skills, but test taking is not one of them). He does not have LD (we've had testing done), but he just doesn't do well on tests. At our MCPS, he would be invited to participate in extra after school tutoring and free (FREE!!) summer school to boost his test scores. He would be utterly miserable.

At his private school, we ignore low test scores and pay for some extra tutoring in math and reading. He loves school - we and the school focus on what he is good at, try to remediate to the extent that we can and plan for a future that utilizes what he is good at. Some of my neighbors whose kids are in gifted or magnet programs are well served by MCPS, but my son would not be. We feel blessed that we can provide him an alternative.

I guess I don't really understand from this post what is so bad about MCPS offering tutoring to your son-- you say you do that anyway. If you don't want to do MCPS tutoring or summer school, then don't, but this post isn't really an explanation for why your son wasn't well served by MCPS.

[Anonymous]

There is a huge difference between tutoring geared towards improving test scores and tutoring geared toward what the child really needs to improve his knowledge base. There is a difference between a school which nurtures intellectual curiosity in all kids and one which makes kids who don't do well on tests hate school. MCPS seems to do some things well, but it doesn't work well with kids who don't test well. At the private school my son is at, he loves science and comes home from school eager to tell me all about it - that probably wouldn't happen at MCPS for a child like him. I wish MCPS would do this, but in my experience it doesn't. Like I said before, we feel very fortunate that we are to send him elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's right, don't get caught up in the hype. That said, there are a lot of parents (especially in this budget-cutting climate) who would love to be able to supplement staff and specials, etc. in the schools. I think MCPS are great (after all budget cutting is happening throughout the country), but I also think parents should be allowed to raise money to pay for assistant teachers, recess aides, etc. I think the county should be open to this type of parent partnership.

Why not volunteer? Our teacher and our school loves volunteers. I know, it may be easier for you to fundraise or pay your way to a better adult/student ratio, but that isn't going to happen. A parent can assist in the classroom or even in the lunchroom or at recess.

Uh, right, we should all quit our jobs to go volunteer at school all day?! That's not going to happen. Why can't the school provided adequate staff to children ratios?

uh . . . b/c people are up in arms when we suggest a tax increase??????

It's so easy to blame schools, isn't it? especially when the public is unwilling to support our public system

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


Uh, right, we should all quit our jobs to go volunteer at school all day?! That's not going to happen. Why can't the school provided adequate staff to children ratios?

uh . . . b/c people are up in arms when we suggest a tax increase??????

It's so easy to blame schools, isn't it? especially when the public is unwilling to support our public system

The irony here is that the poster complaining about staff-to-children ratios is probably opposed to any sort of tax increase, including to support schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shutting down magnets in the interest of fairness would be like shutting down Harvard and Yale b/c kids at community colleges don't get the same opportunities. Nuts.

maybe they could expand the magnets?
Why have it so small when the demand is less than the supply

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The difference in part is that no one is entitled to a Harvard or Yale education, but by law kids are entitled to an appropriate K-12 education. For many kids in the magnet regular schools are not appropriate.

Legacy students are entitled to them
If you attend the right private school, then you are entitled to it.
If Harvard has a building named after your grandfather, then you are entitled to it.
If your grandmother is willing to donate money to it, then you are entitled to enroll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The difference in part is that no one is entitled to a Harvard or Yale education, but by law kids are entitled to an appropriate K-12 education. For many kids in the magnet regular schools are not appropriate.

Legacy students are entitled to them
If you attend the right private school, then you are entitled to it.
If Harvard has a building named after your grandfather, then you are entitled to it.
If your grandmother is willing to donate money to it, then you are entitled to enroll.

This is kind of off the mark, PP. I was referring to legal entitlement, not legacy admissions.