Montco Schools are no longer the best

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an immigrant. My kids are doing very well in school. Infact people of my culture are blamed for actually setting the achievement bar too high, and creating a gap. This is the most ridiculous thing I have heard.

I think they mean illegal hispanic immigrants. Asians and even Africans from Africa do well overall.

LOL... Africans from Africa.. you forgot Asians from Asia. You slay me.

[Anonymous]

If it's any consolation, my kids experience at MCPS seems a lot better than my experience at FCPS forty years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools allow entitled families to protect their children from the realities of life and ensure inflated grades and homogeneous friends. That's it. There is a reason why so many private school students get 'great grades' but "can't seem to take those darn standardized tests" very well. It's because the grades are a gift paid for by tuition and the kids aren't that smart - they are just white, entitled, and have hovering parents to ensure short term success.

When your child goes to college, they are better served by a public school education where they need to figure out what to study and no one is giving them a gift. 28 students is fine. This is ridiculous.

Stop bad mouthing different races and immigrants. They have accomplished more than you have and had to do it with racists trying to undermine them the entire way. And these posts just prove that.

The hypocrisy on this post is amazing. Entitled (white) SAHMs who accomplish nothing other than coddling their children and complaining about how it's the school systems fault for their kids' poor performance. Unbelievable.

Oh - and please don't think all white people are this racist and ignorant. I swear this forum has gotten worse in the last year with the racists feeling more comfortable saying ignorant things and (ironically) blaming the 'system' for their child't mediocre performance.

It is interesting that most of the Intel science winners don't come from private schools.

...and the winner of the national science bowl also didn't come from private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private schools allow entitled families to protect their children from the realities of life and ensure inflated grades and homogeneous friends. That's it. There is a reason why so many private school students get 'great grades' but "can't seem to take those darn standardized tests" very well. It's because the grades are a gift paid for by tuition and the kids aren't that smart - they are just white, entitled, and have hovering parents to ensure short term success.

When your child goes to college, they are better served by a public school education where they need to figure out what to study and no one is giving them a gift. 28 students is fine. This is ridiculous.

Stop bad mouthing different races and immigrants. They have accomplished more than you have and had to do it with racists trying to undermine them the entire way. And these posts just prove that.

The hypocrisy on this post is amazing. Entitled (white) SAHMs who accomplish nothing other than coddling their children and complaining about how it's the school systems fault for their kids' poor performance. Unbelievable.

Oh - and please don't think all white people are this racist and ignorant. I swear this forum has gotten worse in the last year with the racists feeling more comfortable saying ignorant things and (ironically) blaming the 'system' for their child't mediocre performance.

Totally agree with paragraphs 3-5.

Totally disagree with paragraphs 1-2. I attended both private and well-regarded public schools, and the privates were far, far superior in terms of academic rigor, teaching independence and preparation for college and professional life. No comparison whatsoever.

I also disagree that 28 kids is "fine". In my experience, classes of this size have a substantial negative impact on educational quality.

[Anonymous]

We stay in Montco for the close proximity to our jobs. My $650K house east of 270 is attached to schools with test scores below district and state averages, high FARMS, and high ESOL. Fifteen years ago our ES had less than 10% FARMS. Today it is almost 40%. In it's current state I consider our ES school to be diverse and am OK with that but do not believe it will stay that way. Each year FARMS creeps up 1-2 percentage points. There must be a tipping point at which middle class parents decide they will not send their kids there. I predict in 10 years it will over 50 percent FARMS. If the pattern continues in our MS and HS I will look for other options. Unfortunately like many I do not want a long commute and cannot afford the more desirable school clusters close in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Immigrants and their children do very well in school.

Not according to the racists posting on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private schools allow entitled families to protect their children from the realities of life and ensure inflated grades and homogeneous friends. That's it. There is a reason why so many private school students get 'great grades' but "can't seem to take those darn standardized tests" very well. It's because the grades are a gift paid for by tuition and the kids aren't that smart - they are just white, entitled, and have hovering parents to ensure short term success.

When your child goes to college, they are better served by a public school education where they need to figure out what to study and no one is giving them a gift. 28 students is fine. This is ridiculous.

Stop bad mouthing different races and immigrants. They have accomplished more than you have and had to do it with racists trying to undermine them the entire way. And these posts just prove that.

The hypocrisy on this post is amazing. Entitled (white) SAHMs who accomplish nothing other than coddling their children and complaining about how it's the school systems fault for their kids' poor performance. Unbelievable.

Oh - and please don't think all white people are this racist and ignorant. I swear this forum has gotten worse in the last year with the racists feeling more comfortable saying ignorant things and (ironically) blaming the 'system' for their child't mediocre performance.


Any citations to back this up or is it just opinion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile, the county residents are being taxed to death!!! I hate this f'king county!!!

No, no, no! Only the shrinking middle class is being taxed. The rich have tax write-offs up to their eyeballs and the poor don't pay a dime in taxes. Illegals? even worse. The middle class pays for education, ESOL, and their 2 meals a day. All so they can drop out of high school by 15 and knock up 2-3 girls instead.

[Anonymous]

Our new county slogan should be Mind the Achievement Gap!

[Anonymous]

This has got to be one of the stupidest OPs ever. Judging how well MoCo schools are doing on the basis of BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT.

Sure, that's a fabulous assessment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This has got to be one of the stupidest OPs ever. Judging how well MoCo schools are doing on the basis of BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT.

Sure, that's a fabulous assessment.

+ 1,000

[Anonymous]

How is it any big surprise that private schools are better than public schools in a lot of ways? Umm, that's why people generally want to be rich, no?

My public school 4th grade in 1981 had 42 kids. The next year (5th grade), we only had 15 kids, but we had to share a teacher with a different class -- 50% of the time we literally had no teacher (or teacher aide -- I'd never even heard of that until recent years), and obviously no computers to do individualized instruction. So all the people saying public school no longer prioritizes education....I'm wondering where you went to public school where the classes were all small and the teachers had the brains of Einstein and the demeanor of Mary Poppins.

I'm not MCPS's biggest defender -- I have a fair amount of criticism of certain things that the central office is doing. But I'm a little sick of all the "private school, here we come" posts when people suddenly recognize that private school is better than public. Particularly given the private schools around here....many of which seem like they have nicer facilities than Harvard. My 5th grader knows how to read and write, knows basic early American history, knows multiplication, long division, fractions, etc....that's more than a lot of the 5th graders I grew up with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools allow entitled families to protect their children from the realities of life and ensure inflated grades and homogeneous friends. That's it. There is a reason why so many private school students get 'great grades' but "can't seem to take those darn standardized tests" very well. It's because the grades are a gift paid for by tuition and the kids aren't that smart - they are just white, entitled, and have hovering parents to ensure short term success.

When your child goes to college, they are better served by a public school education where they need to figure out what to study and no one is giving them a gift. 28 students is fine. This is ridiculous.

Stop bad mouthing different races and immigrants. They have accomplished more than you have and had to do it with racists trying to undermine them the entire way. And these posts just prove that.

The hypocrisy on this post is amazing. Entitled (white) SAHMs who accomplish nothing other than coddling their children and complaining about how it's the school systems fault for their kids' poor performance. Unbelievable.

Oh - and please don't think all white people are this racist and ignorant. I swear this forum has gotten worse in the last year with the racists feeling more comfortable saying ignorant things and (ironically) blaming the 'system' for their child't mediocre performance.


Any citations to back this up or is it just opinion?

Well, the research is there. It seems ‘success’ is determined by parents and not by public v. private school. There is a confounding effect with private schools. Incrementally, private schools aren’t worth it across ALL public schools – even the mediocre ones. Let alone strong public schools like MoCo or Fairfax. While folks complain here about MoCo, you need to go to Alabama or Mississippi or South Dakota to see bad public schools. And the studies include the bad public schools in their research. So one could easily say that MoCo or Fairfax or Howard would be better than average (that’s not a stretch). The key is the incremental benefit above and beyond what parents give their kids by being aware, concerned, active, etc. Everyone on this discussion board is, by definition, aware, concerned, active, etc. So parental disposition, when taken into account, dictates achievement.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/05/14/31publicprivate.h33.html
http://theweek.com/articles/464411/private-school-worth

You can also just ask college professors at major universities. Those little gifts of “A”s that are not deserved set up entitled children who become entitled and delusional college students. We can see what leads to success and it’s not the private school student.

There are probably two things going on: (1) parents want to do more for their child so they spend money on them with a private school thinking more money means better. (2) Then they have to justify their decision otherwise they look pretty stupid for paying all that money for a worse education. That happens in the catholic school near me where kids get As and then are asked to repeat a grade when they transfer to a public school. That is not an exaggeration.

You have to ask yourself how kids get straight As or valedictorian in their private school class and don’t get 800s on their SATs. There are kids with perfect SATs in public schools who have an unweighted 3.5. There are no gifts in a MoCo A. Or Fairfax A. There are easy As in private school.

I don’t expect private school families to admit this – although surprisingly some will admit it wasn’t worth it in hindsight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
FCPS is the same.

I've never really been impressed with MCPS to begin with.

When it was considered good, it was really just a handful of schools that really stood out. And the that top percent was what one of the previous superintendents would always flaunt and brag about.

As the other poster mentioned a lot of what's going on is reflective of what's going on across the region and country as a whole. For example dropping SAT scores.

Baltimore County Public Schools implemented a new policy where they can't give students lower than 50% and also no grades associated with homework or effort:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-co-grading-policy-20160831-story.html

Some of it might have to do with seeing what other school systems are like to appreciate what you have as well. Where I've seen people come from other school systems talking about some of the great offerings and resources that MCPS has compared to what they saw in their previous school district.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools allow entitled families to protect their children from the realities of life and ensure inflated grades and homogeneous friends. That's it. There is a reason why so many private school students get 'great grades' but "can't seem to take those darn standardized tests" very well. It's because the grades are a gift paid for by tuition and the kids aren't that smart - they are just white, entitled, and have hovering parents to ensure short term success.

When your child goes to college, they are better served by a public school education where they need to figure out what to study and no one is giving them a gift. 28 students is fine. This is ridiculous.

Stop bad mouthing different races and immigrants. They have accomplished more than you have and had to do it with racists trying to undermine them the entire way. And these posts just prove that.

The hypocrisy on this post is amazing. Entitled (white) SAHMs who accomplish nothing other than coddling their children and complaining about how it's the school systems fault for their kids' poor performance. Unbelievable.

Oh - and please don't think all white people are this racist and ignorant. I swear this forum has gotten worse in the last year with the racists feeling more comfortable saying ignorant things and (ironically) blaming the 'system' for their child't mediocre performance.


Any citations to back this up or is it just opinion?

Well, the research is there. It seems ‘success’ is determined by parents and not by public v. private school. There is a confounding effect with private schools. Incrementally, private schools aren’t worth it across ALL public schools – even the mediocre ones. Let alone strong public schools like MoCo or Fairfax. While folks complain here about MoCo, you need to go to Alabama or Mississippi or South Dakota to see bad public schools. And the studies include the bad public schools in their research. So one could easily say that MoCo or Fairfax or Howard would be better than average (that’s not a stretch). The key is the incremental benefit above and beyond what parents give their kids by being aware, concerned, active, etc. Everyone on this discussion board is, by definition, aware, concerned, active, etc. So parental disposition, when taken into account, dictates achievement.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/05/14/31publicprivate.h33.html
http://theweek.com/articles/464411/private-school-worth

You can also just ask college professors at major universities. Those little gifts of “A”s that are not deserved set up entitled children who become entitled and delusional college students. We can see what leads to success and it’s not the private school student.

There are probably two things going on: (1) parents want to do more for their child so they spend money on them with a private school thinking more money means better. (2) Then they have to justify their decision otherwise they look pretty stupid for paying all that money for a worse education. That happens in the catholic school near me where kids get As and then are asked to repeat a grade when they transfer to a public school. That is not an exaggeration.

You have to ask yourself how kids get straight As or valedictorian in their private school class and don’t get 800s on their SATs. There are kids with perfect SATs in public schools who have an unweighted 3.5. There are no gifts in a MoCo A. Or Fairfax A. There are easy As in private school.

I don’t expect private school families to admit this – although surprisingly some will admit it wasn’t worth it in hindsight.

Did you even read the first link, or was this a quick "Google and skim"? The principal study cited relates to publicly funded "private" charter schools, which is obviously not what we're talking about here.

FWIW, the valedictorian at my private high school graduated with a B+/A- average. Not one student in a class of 80 had an "A" average. Roughly 1/4 of my graduating class attended Ivy League or equivalents. My GPA jumped a full grade my freshman year of college, with much less effort on my part. Your portrayal of privates certainly does not reflect my experience.

All that said, I have no doubt that many privates are grade inflation factories and that many publics perform admirably. However, the core issue here is whether MCPS will continue to perform admirably. Unfortunately, I have serious doubts, given the expanding population and limited resources.