Teacher exposes the craptastic decline iof MCPS in Reddit rant

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a pretty enlightening Reddit thread. If a student is not self-motivated and high-performing, they are completely failed by MCPS schools today. It's a race to the bottom for average kids. And it's entirely caused by central office bureaucrats. Monica McKnight cannot leave soon enough.

So in summary, to increase graduation rates, MCPS stopped requiring kids actually go to class and stopped teachers from giving zeros for not doing any assignments. That caused a drop in attendance rates, so they redefined absences as just very tardy. The result is that kids without parental oversight are hanging out in the hallways and graduating with no skills, knowledge, or self-discipline. However, the graduation and attendance rates are meeting metrics.

Lol, you all need to name schools for me to believe this. And even more, you need to name schools because all that was done in the name of equity, but if true, it's actually hurting the kids who need equity.

"

It's a tiny bit more complicated than that. I'm not arguing in favor of the 50% policy, but it's not exactly as described above.

The rule was meant to help kids who had one really bad assignment or one missed assignment not to just give up on the class. So, instead of getting a 0 and seeing that pull down your entire grade, you got a 50% up until the end of the semester, while the teacher was meant to help you get the assignment caught up. Yes, it is onerous on the part of the teacher and both students and parents should be paying better attention than this, but the actual origin of the policy was not nearly as cynical as PPs are making it out to be. It was meant to give kids some grace, and keep them from just giving up and thinking there was no way to even get close to a passing grade if everything they turn in afterward is being pulled down by the 0.

The child can absolutely still get a 0 if the work isn't caught up by the end of the semester, though.

I do think this policy is hurting kids, but it's not hurting the high achieving ones because we're still talking about kids who are getting Ds and Fs. They aren't "competing" with college-bound kids.

What I do think is hurting college-bound kids is the "honors for all" approach that has now pervaded every single grade level up to 11th grade. It means there is no differentiated option for most 9th and 10th graders in English, social studies, or science. Even math isn't differentiated because even the "advanced" kids are still in mixed-grade classes. So, "Honors Pre Calculus" is a mix of super advanced 9th grades, regular advanced 10th graders, grade level 11th graders, and below grade level seniors. That's absurd.

That’s always been the case. The advance as of the class has nothing to do with its content. Honors in the designation has nothing to do with when you take the course. You take the course when you are ready/prepared regardless of grade.

Up until a few years ago, there would have been an on-level Pre-Calculus class and an Honors Pre-Calculus class. Either would be open to kids who wanted the challenge, but the Honors class would have mostly been geared toward kids for whom this is not their terminal math course. When MCPS moved to "Honors for All," that ended.

No it didn’t. The Honors for All that folks talk about is for English not Math. Honors Pre-Cal is notoriously difficult and plenty of kids don’t take the on level class, including students previously in Hi it’s classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a pretty enlightening Reddit thread. If a student is not self-motivated and high-performing, they are completely failed by MCPS schools today. It's a race to the bottom for average kids. And it's entirely caused by central office bureaucrats. Monica McKnight cannot leave soon enough.

So in summary, to increase graduation rates, MCPS stopped requiring kids actually go to class and stopped teachers from giving zeros for not doing any assignments. That caused a drop in attendance rates, so they redefined absences as just very tardy. The result is that kids without parental oversight are hanging out in the hallways and graduating with no skills, knowledge, or self-discipline. However, the graduation and attendance rates are meeting metrics.

Lol, you all need to name schools for me to believe this. And even more, you need to name schools because all that was done in the name of equity, but if true, it's actually hurting the kids who need equity.

"

It's a tiny bit more complicated than that. I'm not arguing in favor of the 50% policy, but it's not exactly as described above.

The rule was meant to help kids who had one really bad assignment or one missed assignment not to just give up on the class. So, instead of getting a 0 and seeing that pull down your entire grade, you got a 50% up until the end of the semester, while the teacher was meant to help you get the assignment caught up. Yes, it is onerous on the part of the teacher and both students and parents should be paying better attention than this, but the actual origin of the policy was not nearly as cynical as PPs are making it out to be. It was meant to give kids some grace, and keep them from just giving up and thinking there was no way to even get close to a passing grade if everything they turn in afterward is being pulled down by the 0.

The child can absolutely still get a 0 if the work isn't caught up by the end of the semester, though.

I do think this policy is hurting kids, but it's not hurting the high achieving ones because we're still talking about kids who are getting Ds and Fs. They aren't "competing" with college-bound kids.

What I do think is hurting college-bound kids is the "honors for all" approach that has now pervaded every single grade level up to 11th grade. It means there is no differentiated option for most 9th and 10th graders in English, social studies, or science. Even math isn't differentiated because even the "advanced" kids are still in mixed-grade classes. So, "Honors Pre Calculus" is a mix of super advanced 9th grades, regular advanced 10th graders, grade level 11th graders, and below grade level seniors. That's absurd.

That’s always been the case. The advance as of the class has nothing to do with its content. Honors in the designation has nothing to do with when you take the course. You take the course when you are ready/prepared regardless of grade.

Up until a few years ago, there would have been an on-level Pre-Calculus class and an Honors Pre-Calculus class. Either would be open to kids who wanted the challenge, but the Honors class would have mostly been geared toward kids for whom this is not their terminal math course. When MCPS moved to "Honors for All," that ended.

No it didn’t. The Honors for All that folks talk about is for English not Math. Honors Pre-Cal is notoriously difficult and plenty of kids don’t take the on level class, including students previously in Hi it’s classes.

Plenty of students take the on level instead of Honors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a pretty enlightening Reddit thread. If a student is not self-motivated and high-performing, they are completely failed by MCPS schools today. It's a race to the bottom for average kids. And it's entirely caused by central office bureaucrats. Monica McKnight cannot leave soon enough.

Exactly. It’s a damn shame. How do we change this?

We don't. Progressives live in a fantasy world and implement solutions that only work in that world. Because they control MoCo from to to bottom, things cannot get better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whatever. Let the kids ‘pass’, graduate, and learn the hard way that their slacking off will not land them a career. They can work a crappy job and be miserable, get fired for not coming in, and deal with the consequences. These are not little kids- these are soon to be adults who have made a choice. Teachers- stop wasting your energy on these students/parents that don’t respect what you do. We can’t save them all and instead, focus your energy on the ones that want to learn and the ones you can make an impact on. I changed my ways in the last two years and it has made teaching so much more enjoyable and meaningful.

You must not have SLOs where you are. At my school, we were given a list of the lowest performers and told to focus on them for the SLO. In 2 months, I have to show multi-point data that they have improved although all of them are two or more years behind and one is chronically absent.

Virginia has slo. This is mcps.

Virginia has SOLs.

And in MCPS, we have student learning objectives.

[Anonymous]

From this post, I thought the Reddit post was going to be much worse. It’s really only a min indictment of education for the kids who are not self motivated or with parents driving their education. It’s the bigotry of soft expectations for kids from lower income families …. The system is not doing them any favors by just passing them along and letting them skip classes.
I have a separate question about whether McPS is still a good place for the highly motivated advanced students. I definitely have some criticisms but I think there’s still a fair argument that it surpasses other publics and many area privates, at least at the HS level. The MS level is very patchy as there is no real advanced English or Science and the language teachers at the MS level are often pretty bad.

I do wish we could get SROs back and increase the security officer presence so we could increase hallway safety, including more female security offers so bathrooms could be more effectively policed. We also need to pay subs more so teachers don’t have to cover classes during their planning periods, and bring back real discipline.

If I were on the MCEA negotiating committee, I would be proposing a financial bonus for any teacher whose assignment is changed less than 6 weeks before start of school year, and also propose that teachers have the right to request students be transferred out of their class if the student threatens physical violence against them or assaults them. I would also definitely be grieving the crap out of any principal that makes the teachers do the attendance calls—that’s not their job. When I see these posts I often wonder why teachers don’t get their reps to grieve some of this stuff. Have you called your uniserve rep? If no response, have you called the MCEA board members?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a pretty enlightening Reddit thread. If a student is not self-motivated and high-performing, they are completely failed by MCPS schools today. It's a race to the bottom for average kids. And it's entirely caused by central office bureaucrats. Monica McKnight cannot leave soon enough.

So in summary, to increase graduation rates, MCPS stopped requiring kids actually go to class and stopped teachers from giving zeros for not doing any assignments. That caused a drop in attendance rates, so they redefined absences as just very tardy. The result is that kids without parental oversight are hanging out in the hallways and graduating with no skills, knowledge, or self-discipline. However, the graduation and attendance rates are meeting metrics.

Lol, you all need to name schools for me to believe this. And even more, you need to name schools because all that was done in the name of equity, but if true, it's actually hurting the kids who need equity.

Name schools? It’s happening at all of them at some level. Our MS and HS are doing this and it’s a total shame.

Names!? We don't need no stinkin' names!

[Anonymous]

They raised our taxes for this freakshow too.

Can we just admit MCPS is one giant baby sitting program for a bunch of delinquent losers with trash parents?

Zero education is going on. I am sick and tired of the argument 'It's for the schools!' as justification for constantly raising our taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a pretty enlightening Reddit thread. If a student is not self-motivated and high-performing, they are completely failed by MCPS schools today. It's a race to the bottom for average kids. And it's entirely caused by central office bureaucrats. Monica McKnight cannot leave soon enough.

Exactly. It’s a damn shame. How do we change this?

We don't. Progressives live in a fantasy world and implement solutions that only work in that world. Because they control MoCo from to to bottom, things cannot get better.

C’mon, leave politics out of it. We all want what is best for our kids and for the future of our communities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whatever. Let the kids ‘pass’, graduate, and learn the hard way that their slacking off will not land them a career. They can work a crappy job and be miserable, get fired for not coming in, and deal with the consequences. These are not little kids- these are soon to be adults who have made a choice. Teachers- stop wasting your energy on these students/parents that don’t respect what you do. We can’t save them all and instead, focus your energy on the ones that want to learn and the ones you can make an impact on. I changed my ways in the last two years and it has made teaching so much more enjoyable and meaningful.

But then when these loser kids grow up and cannot perform, the inevitable outcome will be lawsuits against companies because they don't hire them. They'll claim discrimination etc. etc. Companies will be forced to take on these losers and everything gets watered down and dumber. America then loses its preeminence in science and technology and the whole country declines. All for the sake of equity and diversity. That means less wealth overall and a decline. It's Idiocracy in real life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They raised our taxes for this freakshow too.

Can we just admit MCPS is one giant baby sitting program for a bunch of delinquent losers with trash parents?

Zero education is going on. I am sick and tired of the argument 'It's for the schools!' as justification for constantly raising our taxes.

They raised taxes less than inflation. Doesn't take a CPA to see the inherent problem there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whatever. Let the kids ‘pass’, graduate, and learn the hard way that their slacking off will not land them a career. They can work a crappy job and be miserable, get fired for not coming in, and deal with the consequences. These are not little kids- these are soon to be adults who have made a choice. Teachers- stop wasting your energy on these students/parents that don’t respect what you do. We can’t save them all and instead, focus your energy on the ones that want to learn and the ones you can make an impact on. I changed my ways in the last two years and it has made teaching so much more enjoyable and meaningful.

But then when these loser kids grow up and cannot perform, the inevitable outcome will be lawsuits against companies because they don't hire them. They'll claim discrimination etc. etc. Companies will be forced to take on these losers and everything gets watered down and dumber. America then loses its preeminence in science and technology and the whole country declines. All for the sake of equity and diversity. That means less wealth overall and a decline. It's Idiocracy in real life.

Pretty sure that ship has sailed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They raised our taxes for this freakshow too.

Can we just admit MCPS is one giant baby sitting program for a bunch of delinquent losers with trash parents?

Zero education is going on. I am sick and tired of the argument 'It's for the schools!' as justification for constantly raising our taxes.

They raised taxes less than inflation. Doesn't take a CPA to see the inherent problem there.

Motivated kids will get their education. We can't make schools into prisons. There is definitely a societal cost when there are a bunch of undereducated adults roaming around. How enforcement oriented to we expect the schools to be? If the parents aren't reinforcing the value of education, attending class, good grades, how do we expect the schools to deal with it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They raised our taxes for this freakshow too.

Can we just admit MCPS is one giant baby sitting program for a bunch of delinquent losers with trash parents?

Zero education is going on. I am sick and tired of the argument 'It's for the schools!' as justification for constantly raising our taxes.

They raised taxes less than inflation. Doesn't take a CPA to see the inherent problem there.

They raised taxes, period.

They should be CUTTING taxes based on the fact that zero education is going on in MCPS, genius.

What are we paying all that money for? For a giant baby sitting program, that's it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of it is true, but we have a few really good teacher this year who are holding the kids accountable and really tuff with grading but they are also teaching them the the skills that they didn't get in ES or MS. The teachers can do far more and some choose not to. The worst are the ones who will not read or return email when you try to work with them.

Parents don’t care. Period. I have 12 kids who had over 26 absences each in quarter 1. It’s time for a mirror.

Which school?

All of them. Seriously.

My kid is at an MCPS high school and she commented that there are about 6 kids in her Health class who pretty much never attend the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a pretty enlightening Reddit thread. If a student is not self-motivated and high-performing, they are completely failed by MCPS schools today. It's a race to the bottom for average kids. And it's entirely caused by central office bureaucrats. Monica McKnight cannot leave soon enough.

Exactly. It’s a damn shame. How do we change this?

We don't. Progressives live in a fantasy world and implement solutions that only work in that world. Because they control MoCo from to to bottom, things cannot get better.

C’mon, leave politics out of it. We all want what is best for our kids and for the future of our communities.

You can’t leave politics out of it. Our local BOE is elected by voters. Our policy schools directly reflect local politics.

Voters have voted for ALL of this.