Been 1.5 years. How much longer without a superintendent?

[Anonymous]

I gray it us a huge school system, riddled with problems, but no one is up for the challenge?

[Anonymous]

^^I get (not gave)

[Anonymous]

They plan to have new superintendent by the beginning of the next school year. I can tell you that the reputation of the school board does not make the job appealing.

[Anonymous]

Larry Bowers has really improved the PR machine at MCPS. Has anyone else noticed how snazzy the new communications have been? Maybe he will stay longer?

[Anonymous]

Starr's contract wasn't renewed in February 2015. Was that one and a half years ago?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Starr's contract wasn't renewed in February 2015. Was that one and a half years ago?

OP is using Curriculum 2.0 math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Starr's contract wasn't renewed in February 2015. Was that one and a half years ago?

OP is using Curriculum 2.0 math.

No, if OP were using C2.0 math, the answer would have been correct, and OP would have explained how OP got the answer, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Larry Bowers has really improved the PR machine at MCPS. Has anyone else noticed how snazzy the new communications have been? Maybe he will stay longer?

Was just saying this to DH today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Larry Bowers has really improved the PR machine at MCPS. Has anyone else noticed how snazzy the new communications have been? Maybe he will stay longer?

Was just saying this to DH today.

He put emails in a template with clip art. Is that really impressive?

My guess is that no one wants to take on a school board whose primary focus and criteria for success is closing the achievement gap in a huge county with an ever increasing uneducated immigrant population. It's an impossible metric.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Larry Bowers has really improved the PR machine at MCPS. Has anyone else noticed how snazzy the new communications have been? Maybe he will stay longer?

Was just saying this to DH today.

He put emails in a template with clip art. Is that really impressive?

My guess is that no one wants to take on a school board whose primary focus and criteria for success is closing the achievement gap in a huge county with an ever increasing uneducated immigrant population. It's an impossible metric.

My guess is that no one wants to take on a parent population like DCUM posters raging over the snow-related closings to keep kids safe, furious that MCPS dare feed free meals the last 3 days, and outraged that teachers aren't responding to emails every evening, weekend, and snow day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Larry Bowers has really improved the PR machine at MCPS. Has anyone else noticed how snazzy the new communications have been? Maybe he will stay longer?

Was just saying this to DH today.

He put emails in a template with clip art. Is that really impressive?

My guess is that no one wants to take on a school board whose primary focus and criteria for success is closing the achievement gap in a huge county with an ever increasing uneducated immigrant population. It's an impossible metric.

Agreed. It is driving the standards lower and lower. None of these efforts do anything to close the achievement gap. In fact, it is quite the contrary. We are softly encouraged to "think of mitigating circumstances" and "consider the challenges" when preparing grades and recommending minority students for classes. This is code for "make sure they all pass".

My choices as a teacher in this culture are to have two different sets of criteria or to dumb down the curriculum. I'm trying to hold onto the former because it serves the non-ESOL, non-minority and achieving minority kids the best, but I will reach a critical mass soon and will need to dumb it down. The first step will be next year when we no longer have exams. There is no possibility of having a comprehensive "project" that assesses all of the skills a student learns in a course. But it will serve to drive the academic wedge even deeper between high-SES schools and low-SES schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Larry Bowers has really improved the PR machine at MCPS. Has anyone else noticed how snazzy the new communications have been? Maybe he will stay longer?

Was just saying this to DH today.

He put emails in a template with clip art. Is that really impressive?

My guess is that no one wants to take on a school board whose primary focus and criteria for success is closing the achievement gap in a huge county with an ever increasing uneducated immigrant population. It's an impossible metric.

My guess is that no one wants to take on a parent population like DCUM posters raging over the snow-related closings to keep kids safe, furious that MCPS dare feed free meals the last 3 days, and outraged that teachers aren't responding to emails every evening, weekend, and snow day.

That's certainly why I wouldn't want to take the job! No matter what I did, it would be wrong. And not just wrong, but WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG BAD WRONG WHINE COMPLAIN WRONG WRONG WRONG.

However, fortunately, there are people who are not me who are interested in the job.

http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/Web-2016/School-Board-President-Expects-to-Have-New-Superintendent-In-Place-by-Summer/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Larry Bowers has really improved the PR machine at MCPS. Has anyone else noticed how snazzy the new communications have been? Maybe he will stay longer?

Was just saying this to DH today.

He put emails in a template with clip art. Is that really impressive?

My guess is that no one wants to take on a school board whose primary focus and criteria for success is closing the achievement gap in a huge county with an ever increasing uneducated immigrant population. It's an impossible metric.

Agreed. It is driving the standards lower and lower. None of these efforts do anything to close the achievement gap. In fact, it is quite the contrary. We are softly encouraged to "think of mitigating circumstances" and "consider the challenges" when preparing grades and recommending minority students for classes. This is code for "make sure they all pass".

My choices as a teacher in this culture are to have two different sets of criteria or to dumb down the curriculum. I'm trying to hold onto the former because it serves the non-ESOL, non-minority and achieving minority kids the best, but I will reach a critical mass soon and will need to dumb it down. The first step will be next year when we no longer have exams. There is no possibility of having a comprehensive "project" that assesses all of the skills a student learns in a course. But it will serve to drive the academic wedge even deeper between high-SES schools and low-SES schools.

Your pedagogical skill set and ability to be creative both seem limited. Maybe you could better serve MCPS as an administrator rather than a classroom teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Larry Bowers has really improved the PR machine at MCPS. Has anyone else noticed how snazzy the new communications have been? Maybe he will stay longer?

Was just saying this to DH today.

He put emails in a template with clip art. Is that really impressive?

My guess is that no one wants to take on a school board whose primary focus and criteria for success is closing the achievement gap in a huge county with an ever increasing uneducated immigrant population. It's an impossible metric.

Agreed. It is driving the standards lower and lower. None of these efforts do anything to close the achievement gap. In fact, it is quite the contrary. We are softly encouraged to "think of mitigating circumstances" and "consider the challenges" when preparing grades and recommending minority students for classes. This is code for "make sure they all pass".

My choices as a teacher in this culture are to have two different sets of criteria or to dumb down the curriculum. I'm trying to hold onto the former because it serves the non-ESOL, non-minority and achieving minority kids the best, but I will reach a critical mass soon and will need to dumb it down. The first step will be next year when we no longer have exams. There is no possibility of having a comprehensive "project" that assesses all of the skills a student learns in a course. But it will serve to drive the academic wedge even deeper between high-SES schools and low-SES schools.

Your pedagogical skill set and ability to be creative both seem limited. Maybe you could better serve MCPS as an administrator rather than a classroom teacher.

That's a pretty harsh statement for an educator who has stated their challenges. Why not look at the soft messages the educator is receiving from her administration, rather than criticizing? Why not question the elimination of final exams by MCPS, that this educator states is a problem?

When someone is brave enough to express their frustrations why not listen instead of attack? My read of the post is, we have to make sure the lower performing students pass, I've been giving them grades they don't deserve, I can't continue to do this, therefore I will instead have to lower the standards so the lower performing students can pass because our number one priority is closing the achievement gap.

Why are you shooting the messenger?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Larry Bowers has really improved the PR machine at MCPS. Has anyone else noticed how snazzy the new communications have been? Maybe he will stay longer?

Was just saying this to DH today.

He put emails in a template with clip art. Is that really impressive?

My guess is that no one wants to take on a school board whose primary focus and criteria for success is closing the achievement gap in a huge county with an ever increasing uneducated immigrant population. It's an impossible metric.

Agreed. It is driving the standards lower and lower. None of these efforts do anything to close the achievement gap. In fact, it is quite the contrary. We are softly encouraged to "think of mitigating circumstances" and "consider the challenges" when preparing grades and recommending minority students for classes. This is code for "make sure they all pass".

My choices as a teacher in this culture are to have two different sets of criteria or to dumb down the curriculum. I'm trying to hold onto the former because it serves the non-ESOL, non-minority and achieving minority kids the best, but I will reach a critical mass soon and will need to dumb it down. The first step will be next year when we no longer have exams. There is no possibility of having a comprehensive "project" that assesses all of the skills a student learns in a course. But it will serve to drive the academic wedge even deeper between high-SES schools and low-SES schools.

Your pedagogical skill set and ability to be creative both seem limited. Maybe you could better serve MCPS as an administrator rather than a classroom teacher.

That's a pretty harsh statement for an educator who has stated their challenges. Why not look at the soft messages the educator is receiving from her administration, rather than criticizing? Why not question the elimination of final exams by MCPS, that this educator states is a problem?

When someone is brave enough to express their frustrations why not listen instead of attack? My read of the post is, we have to make sure the lower performing students pass, I've been giving them grades they don't deserve, I can't continue to do this, therefore I will instead have to lower the standards so the lower performing students can pass because our number one priority is closing the achievement gap.

Why are you shooting the messenger?

Plus 1. Don't kill the messenger. Until the school board understands that the teachers and school administration can only do so much to make up for lack of parental involvement we will be facing this issue.