Best schools in MD - MCPS lagging behind

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These lists just measure a school's overall affluence. It has little to do with the quality of education.

Thank you. It is the W schools and the highly selective magnet programs that are bolstering up the numbers. Other schools are a perfect storm of inexperienced teachers, more FARMS and ESOL students, terrible curriculum and no textbooks.

Uh, the "W" schools have plenty of inexperienced teachers and the same curriculum as the rest of MCPS.

To be honest, the worst teachers from our east county Focus School have been moved to "W feeders" after a year or two. When they are eased out of our school, but can't be fired full-stop, they are moved to a "low needs" school where their deficiencies can be masked by overall preparation and outside support.

That is fair, we sent all of our worst residents to the eastern side of the county. We eased them out to the low expectations communities where their deficiencies are masked by the overall lower standards of the overall population there.

Funny part is one of us is correct, the other is full of it.

Right! The PP is correct, and you're full of it.

But yet all the poor people live and most of the crime happens where?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
All of these 'rankings' are a self licking ice cream cone to make us feel better for the taxes we pay for substandard results. Read the Kirwan Commission Report for the real truth, not 'niche'. Our best students are likely two to three years behind their international peers. Also, when one of these schools -- MCPS included -- has the courage to take an international benchmark test like the PISA then we should give them a bow. MCPS central office deserves as much daily scorn as they receive on this board - probably even a little more -- for the curriculum travesty the past nine years. So hurrah to the cram schools for these results! (Lindamood-Bell, C2, Abacus Math...)

Uh...this is high schools. The curriculum deficiency was ES and MS.
Idiot

'Idiot' here. Fact: the kids who started on Curriculum 2.0 are now entering their Junior Year in MCPS High Schools.
https://angelialevy.com/tag/curriculum-2-0/

And???
In HS, they don't use C2.0

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These lists just measure a school's overall affluence. It has little to do with the quality of education.

Thank you. It is the W schools and the highly selective magnet programs that are bolstering up the numbers. Other schools are a perfect storm of inexperienced teachers, more FARMS and ESOL students, terrible curriculum and no textbooks.

Uh, the "W" schools have plenty of inexperienced teachers and the same curriculum as the rest of MCPS.

To be honest, the worst teachers from our east county Focus School have been moved to "W feeders" after a year or two. When they are eased out of our school, but can't be fired full-stop, they are moved to a "low needs" school where their deficiencies can be masked by overall preparation and outside support.

That is fair, we sent all of our worst residents to the eastern side of the county. We eased them out to the low expectations communities where their deficiencies are masked by the overall lower standards of the overall population there.

Funny part is one of us is correct, the other is full of it.

Right! The PP is correct, and you're full of it.

But yet all the poor people live and most of the crime happens where?

Earth?

[Anonymous]

Actually, all attempts to analyze international scores - both at the national and the state levels - have shown that our "best" students are roughly equivalent to the "best" students elsewhere.

One of the problems with comparing US scores to international scores is that we have an entirely different public education system. It's like asking why the UK has a better prime minister than we do, or why Japan's emperor is better. You can't compare apples to apples because other countries structure their public education completely differently, and therefore a different subset of kids is sitting for the test.

A core tenet of American public education is that everyone gets some academic instruction through Grade 12, and that everyone gets a least restrictive environment. It makes zero sense to then compare ALL US students to a system where kids with learning differences are filtered out.

However, again, when you look at the top percentiles of US kids, they are equivalent to the top percentiles elsewhere.

Citations please? Otherwise you appear to simply ignore international benchmarks to retain your cognitive dissonance... Who can blame you? We all moved here 'for the schools.' But facts are stubborn things. MCPS kids -- just aren't performing as well as you think (particularly after Curriculum 2.0) for the amount of money we are spending - nearly 3 billion a year. The ones that are doing well are doing it the South Korean way: inefficient cram schools. So keep comparing apples to oranges -- political systems to public schools. But for everyone else here is just one link about Massachusetts Public Schools and what that state is getting for spending nearly the same amount of money as MCPS. In 2015, their high schoolers ranked 9th in the world on an international benchmark. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/05/what-are-massachusetts-public-schools-doing-right/483935/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
All of these 'rankings' are a self licking ice cream cone to make us feel better for the taxes we pay for substandard results. Read the Kirwan Commission Report for the real truth, not 'niche'. Our best students are likely two to three years behind their international peers. Also, when one of these schools -- MCPS included -- has the courage to take an international benchmark test like the PISA then we should give them a bow. MCPS central office deserves as much daily scorn as they receive on this board - probably even a little more -- for the curriculum travesty the past nine years. So hurrah to the cram schools for these results! (Lindamood-Bell, C2, Abacus Math...)

Uh...this is high schools. The curriculum deficiency was ES and MS.
Idiot

'Idiot' here. Fact: the kids who started on Curriculum 2.0 are now entering their Junior Year in MCPS High Schools.
https://angelialevy.com/tag/curriculum-2-0/


And???
In HS, they don't use C2.0

Correct. What I am saying is that these same students were on a failed Curriculum 2.0 for nearly 8 years prior to high school. Please see earlier DCUM thread about actually paying for tutors to make up for the disaster:

Troll or not, OP has a point. Not in terms of $$ going to students, but offering supplemental math courses/tutoring sound like a good idea, particularly in the poorer high schools. Maybe even a math class specifically designed to catch students up with the aspects of math that were skipped along the way. And offered on site in MCPS high schools. (Kids who went through 2.0 are primarily still in high school.) 03/25/2019 16:04

[Anonymous]

We mustn't confuse high performance with high test scores. Schools are there to do more than simply educate our kids. Schools must also function as a springboard to create societal change. If a school does that, it can be considered high performing even if test scores are low.

[Anonymous]

I am so thankful that in 3 more years my youngest child will be out of MCPS with a magnet education and largely protected from the overall erosion of the magnet programs and MCPS's educational quality. It will no longer be my fight. This country sucks but then it is a part of the larger problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We mustn't confuse high performance with high test scores. Schools are there to do more than simply educate our kids. Schools must also function as a springboard to create societal change. If a school does that, it can be considered high performing even if test scores are low.

Wait, what??

What does that even mean? What kind of societal change are you looking for your kids’ HS to make? And who determines what exactly that societal change is?

HS is supposed to get your child ready for their next step - whether that is college or trade school or a job.

[Anonymous]

We mustn't confuse high performance with high test scores. Schools are there to do more than simply educate our kids. Schools must also function as a springboard to create societal change. If a school does that, it can be considered high performing even if test scores are low.

Full stop. If kids can not graduate. If kids can not PASS a basic grade level ELA and math test. If kids fail then you do not achieve any societal change. This is the poor kids one shot to break the cycle and by failing them you have basically sentenced them to a lifetime of poverty.

What is the % of MCPS kids going into Montgomery County Community College who are sent back fro remedial English and math? Isn't it something like 70%? These kids will not make it through because they are unprepared by a failed K-12 public school system. Shame on MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We mustn't confuse high performance with high test scores. Schools are there to do more than simply educate our kids. Schools must also function as a springboard to create societal change. If a school does that, it can be considered high performing even if test scores are low.

Full stop. If kids can not graduate. If kids can not PASS a basic grade level ELA and math test. If kids fail then you do not achieve any societal change. This is the poor kids one shot to break the cycle and by failing them you have basically sentenced them to a lifetime of poverty.

What is the % of MCPS kids going into Montgomery County Community College who are sent back fro remedial English and math? Isn't it something like 70%? These kids will not make it through because they are unprepared by a failed K-12 public school system. Shame on MCPS.

+1

The schools should be laser focused on educating kids. That’s it. And MCPS is doing a terrible job of that.

[Anonymous]

PP again

And, it’s the lower income families that suffer the most because of this.

Higher income and more educated parents can fill in the gaps. That’s not always the case for lower income families.

Instead of focusing on ‘societal change’, MCPS needs to focus on teaching students, using a proven curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We mustn't confuse high performance with high test scores. Schools are there to do more than simply educate our kids. Schools must also function as a springboard to create societal change. If a school does that, it can be considered high performing even if test scores are low.

Please don't consider realizing your social ideology as part of the schools responsibility.

The schools are there to educate our kids. That's it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am so thankful that in 3 more years my youngest child will be out of MCPS with a magnet education and largely protected from the overall erosion of the magnet programs and MCPS's educational quality. It will no longer be my fight. This country sucks but then it is a part of the larger problem.

What fight? If your kid got into a magnet, s/he was not "touched" by the masses. Even with the "erosion," magnets shield kids, right? Isn't that what you wanted?

People who aren't satisfied try to get into magnet. If kids don't test in, those with $ go private. Or, some move.

You didn't fight; you escaped through magnet. not putting your kid down - But don't try to make yourself out to be some hero.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We mustn't confuse high performance with high test scores. Schools are there to do more than simply educate our kids. Schools must also function as a springboard to create societal change. If a school does that, it can be considered high performing even if test scores are low.

Please don't consider realizing your social ideology as part of the schools responsibility.

The schools are there to educate our kids. That's it.

When the schools educate our kids -- all of our kids - that creates societal change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We mustn't confuse high performance with high test scores. Schools are there to do more than simply educate our kids. Schools must also function as a springboard to create societal change. If a school does that, it can be considered high performing even if test scores are low.

Please don't consider realizing your social ideology as part of the schools responsibility.

The schools are there to educate our kids. That's it.

When the schools educate our kids -- all of our kids - that creates societal change.

We are talking about what schools are supposed to do, not what effects schools could have. To say: "Schools are there to do more than simply educate our kids." is trying to put extra burden on the schools.

Schools are not there to do anything other than educating our kids. That's it.