New principal will lead with equity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people are sympathetic to efforts to boost performance of struggling students, but the evidence shows that is not the actual effect of MCPS "equity" efforts. In fact, "equity" has hollowed out the education in MCPS and thus continues to hurt all the students. MCPS is a Potemkin village, and is in dire need of an audit to determine whether it is actually educating students as it says it is.

A few examples of how "equity" manifests in MCPS schools in practice:
-Elimination of honors classes (or rebranding grade-level class as honors as in the case of middle school English).
-Lowering the level of instruction to the lowest common denominator
-50% rule for assignments
-Exclusion of students from schools with large number of gifted students from admission to gifted magnet programs
-Lowering academic standards (including but not limited to grade inflation).
-Restorative Justice/lowering standards of discipline, removing consequences for offenders and placing the burden of offenses on victims (and students wanting to learn)
-Closing of alternative schools and mainstreaming students with significant behavior problems in regular classes
-Replacing challenging classic novels with contemporary "flavor of the month" books (or graphic novels) at markedly lower reading level
-Novels featuring communists or socialists as protagonists used in the curriculum as early as grade school
-Watching videos or listening to audiobooks instead of reading
-De-emphasizing effective writing in favor of other means of communication
-Group work instead of individual work to conceal both the achievement of the high achievers and the deficiencies of the low achievers
-Free feminine products in the girls/womens room
-Free feminine products in the boys/mens room
-More sexual content at a younger age in books and materials in school
-More violent content at a younger age in books and material in school

Honors for English happens in high school too. It is not just middle school. It is a major problem. The English curriculum is extremely week with very little reading expected.

Making sure feminine hygiene products are in bathrooms though, what is the issue? Going to the nurse is for illness not normal bodily functions. Surely you don’t think people should just bleed through it their period starts unexpectedly?

Agree that the English curriculum in MCPS is very weak---perhaps the weakest part of the overall MCPS curriculum. I expect this probably could be measured and that, for instance, recent MPCS grads would have vocabularies that are significantly smaller than graduates in previous decades or generations.

I included the period products as a tangible example of "equity" in MCPS, because offering free feminine products in public places (such as schools) (as well as eliminating taxes on period products) is part of an issue termed "menstrual equity" by the organizations and activists that promote this. In fact, MCPS began to provide these at the behest of a former SMOB (now at Harvard University) who was a member of the Youth Advisory Council of the nonprofit PERIOD. Peruse some of these links and you may notice common themes that seem to run through all "equity" activism. (One of them is that feminine products are declared as a "human right" and the United Nations is invoked).

https://www.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/BKUJJ64D5773/$file/Hana%20O’Looney.pdf

https://thermtide.com/15888/news/hana-olooney-wraps-up-the-semester-as-smob/

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/cfw/Resources/Files/WLB/speakers2022/emerging-leaders/Hana_OLooney.pdf

https://period.org/who-we-are#

https://www2.montgomerycountymd.gov/mcgportalapps/Press_Detail.aspx?Item_ID=44313&Dept=1

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/period-equity-what-is-it-why-does-it-matter-202106012473

https://www.aclu.org/publications/menstrual-equity

[Anonymous]

When I think of equity, to me it means the outcomes for everyone must be the same. You can infer what you want from that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I think of equity, to me it means the outcomes for everyone must be the same. You can infer what you want from that.

I can infer from that that you are hostile to or at the very least ignorant of how MCPS uses the term. I could probably infer a few more things too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked at a middle school in MCPS that had very few whites or Asians. One little nice thing about it is that we didn’t have to dance around equity issues since most kids were Hispanic. We targeted real problems and traumas for specific students. We had ABC parties to reward students who worked hard. There were no issues putting kids into the reading classes they needed. If a kid was acting up staff didn’t get blamed automatically for not connecting to the student.

This is actually really heartbreaking. The mere presence of whites or Asians should not complicate targeting problems or traumas for specific students, prevent parties to reward students who worked hard, the appropriate assignment of needed reading classes or automatic blame toward staff for a kid acting up. Each student is an actual individual human, not just a member of a racial or ethnic identity group.

The real truth is that equity itself is a wonderful, noble idea, but the equity leaders who are actually hired to do the work in MCPS and many other organizations are actually just empty suit grifters who want to guilt everyone into funneling as many resources as possible away from those they assume have privilege or power toward their own group, who they see as more deserving. They have not found the secret sauce to actually unlocking the potential in their priority groups, so they go all smoke and mirrors with the optics by depriving high achievers of appropriate enrichment and twisting all policies through a lens derived alongside the bigotry of low expectations.

I'm curious what you think "equity" is, that you would refer to it as noble. Equity is equal outcomes, which can only be achieved through force. Equity is authoritarian socialism. In practice in MCPS it means demotivating, demoralizing, and hamstringing students who would achieve so that the gap between them and poorly performing students closes. It also means grade inflation and de-emphasizing or eliminating tests so that progress cannot be accurately assessed. While I was driving my kids and their friends in the car today, they brought up the 50% rule while discussing school. The friend said that she would probably try harder if there were no 50% rule. This, I think is the biggest way equity is implemented in MCPS across the broadest swathe of student population---by instilling in them apathy and laziness--causing them to not try as hard. The noble thing for MCPS to do would be to challenge each and every student to reach new heights (their fullest potential). To the contrary, though, MCPS is not only not doing this---but MCPS is actually expending considerable resources (read our tax dollars) to prevent this from happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also means my RMIB kid has had THREE books assigned in all 12th grade for her IB HL English class. One was a short play.

One of my kids had to do a feminist analysis of a Shel Silverstein kids book in high school english. I am not even kidding.

That actually sounds interesting.

There are whole courses like this offered in MCPS. Below is a description of a course offered at Wootton High School. Note that its lack of rigor (no translating?) is included in the description as a selling point for students:
""Shakespeare, Race, and Gender
ENG 2086 Shakespeare, Race, And Gender
Course Description: Analyze Shakespeare to ask questions about societal problems like racism, antisemitism, sexism, homophobia. No worksheets, no lectures, no translating. Yes to discussions, movies, acting, music, art, and creativity. We’ll use interpretations of Shakespeare to battle White supremacy and be critical of Shakespeare’s historical position as a tool of colonialism.
Prerequisite: None
Grades: 9-12"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people are sympathetic to efforts to boost performance of struggling students, but the evidence shows that is not the actual effect of MCPS "equity" efforts. In fact, "equity" has hollowed out the education in MCPS and thus continues to hurt all the students. MCPS is a Potemkin village, and is in dire need of an audit to determine whether it is actually educating students as it says it is.

A few examples of how "equity" manifests in MCPS schools in practice:
-Elimination of honors classes (or rebranding grade-level class as honors as in the case of middle school English).
-Lowering the level of instruction to the lowest common denominator
-50% rule for assignments
-Exclusion of students from schools with large number of gifted students from admission to gifted magnet programs
-Lowering academic standards (including but not limited to grade inflation).
-Restorative Justice/lowering standards of discipline, removing consequences for offenders and placing the burden of offenses on victims (and students wanting to learn)
-Closing of alternative schools and mainstreaming students with significant behavior problems in regular classes
-Replacing challenging classic novels with contemporary "flavor of the month" books (or graphic novels) at markedly lower reading level
-Novels featuring communists or socialists as protagonists used in the curriculum as early as grade school
-Watching videos or listening to audiobooks instead of reading
-De-emphasizing effective writing in favor of other means of communication
-Group work instead of individual work to conceal both the achievement of the high achievers and the deficiencies of the low achievers
-Free feminine products in the girls/womens room
-Free feminine products in the boys/mens room
-More sexual content at a younger age in books and materials in school
-More violent content at a younger age in books and material in school

Why are they sponsering Communist novels in grade school? This is the US.

Are we sure that they are? Titles, school and grade please?

One example is One Crazy Summer, which my daughter read in "Literacy" class in middle school, and was also in the classroom library in Elementary School. It is the story of three children---whose mother left them to join the Black Panthers--who are sent to spend the summer with their mother. Their mom puts them in a Black Panther summer camp where they participate in political education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also means my RMIB kid has had THREE books assigned in all 12th grade for her IB HL English class. One was a short play.

One of my kids had to do a feminist analysis of a Shel Silverstein kids book in high school english. I am not even kidding.

That actually sounds interesting.

There are whole courses like this offered in MCPS. Below is a description of a course offered at Wootton High School. Note that its lack of rigor (no translating?) is included in the description as a selling point for students:
""Shakespeare, Race, and Gender
ENG 2086 Shakespeare, Race, And Gender
Course Description: Analyze Shakespeare to ask questions about societal problems like racism, antisemitism, sexism, homophobia. No worksheets, no lectures, no translating. Yes to discussions, movies, acting, music, art, and creativity. We’ll use interpretations of Shakespeare to battle White supremacy and be critical of Shakespeare’s historical position as a tool of colonialism.
Prerequisite: None
Grades: 9-12"

That sounds like a great class. Wish my kid's school offered it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I think of equity, to me it means the outcomes for everyone must be the same. You can infer what you want from that.

I infer you have an ill-conceived idea of equity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked at a middle school in MCPS that had very few whites or Asians. One little nice thing about it is that we didn’t have to dance around equity issues since most kids were Hispanic. We targeted real problems and traumas for specific students. We had ABC parties to reward students who worked hard. There were no issues putting kids into the reading classes they needed. If a kid was acting up staff didn’t get blamed automatically for not connecting to the student.

This is actually really heartbreaking. The mere presence of whites or Asians should not complicate targeting problems or traumas for specific students, prevent parties to reward students who worked hard, the appropriate assignment of needed reading classes or automatic blame toward staff for a kid acting up. Each student is an actual individual human, not just a member of a racial or ethnic identity group.

The real truth is that equity itself is a wonderful, noble idea, but the equity leaders who are actually hired to do the work in MCPS and many other organizations are actually just empty suit grifters who want to guilt everyone into funneling as many resources as possible away from those they assume have privilege or power toward their own group, who they see as more deserving. They have not found the secret sauce to actually unlocking the potential in their priority groups, so they go all smoke and mirrors with the optics by depriving high achievers of appropriate enrichment and twisting all policies through a lens derived alongside the bigotry of low expectations.

I'm curious what you think "equity" is, that you would refer to it as noble. Equity is equal outcomes, which can only be achieved through force. Equity is authoritarian socialism. In practice in MCPS it means demotivating, demoralizing, and hamstringing students who would achieve so that the gap between them and poorly performing students closes. It also means grade inflation and de-emphasizing or eliminating tests so that progress cannot be accurately assessed. While I was driving my kids and their friends in the car today, they brought up the 50% rule while discussing school. The friend said that she would probably try harder if there were no 50% rule. This, I think is the biggest way equity is implemented in MCPS across the broadest swathe of student population---by instilling in them apathy and laziness--causing them to not try as hard. The noble thing for MCPS to do would be to challenge each and every student to reach new heights (their fullest potential). To the contrary, though, MCPS is not only not doing this---but MCPS is actually expending considerable resources (read our tax dollars) to prevent this from happening.

I totally agree with you. I think we are actually saying the same thing. The way I think equity used to be defined before it got all garbled is meeting students where they are and giving them what they need to reach their individual potential. This means some kids “get” more because they need more, but it doesn’t end in equal outcomes for all, because different individuals have different individual trajectories of potential. This is in contrast to what schools used to do which was give everyone the same thing. I am not here for this authoritarian socialism either and I completely agree they are watering down so many things simultaneously that we will have a generation of undereducated kids and they still will have the achievement gap with everyone’s baseline lowered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also means my RMIB kid has had THREE books assigned in all 12th grade for her IB HL English class. One was a short play.

One of my kids had to do a feminist analysis of a Shel Silverstein kids book in high school english. I am not even kidding.

That actually sounds interesting.

There are whole courses like this offered in MCPS. Below is a description of a course offered at Wootton High School. Note that its lack of rigor (no translating?) is included in the description as a selling point for students:
""Shakespeare, Race, and Gender
ENG 2086 Shakespeare, Race, And Gender
Course Description: Analyze Shakespeare to ask questions about societal problems like racism, antisemitism, sexism, homophobia. No worksheets, no lectures, no translating. Yes to discussions, movies, acting, music, art, and creativity. We’ll use interpretations of Shakespeare to battle White supremacy and be critical of Shakespeare’s historical position as a tool of colonialism.
Prerequisite: None
Grades: 9-12"

This is an elective that cannot fulfill any part of the 4 year English requirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked at a middle school in MCPS that had very few whites or Asians. One little nice thing about it is that we didn’t have to dance around equity issues since most kids were Hispanic. We targeted real problems and traumas for specific students. We had ABC parties to reward students who worked hard. There were no issues putting kids into the reading classes they needed. If a kid was acting up staff didn’t get blamed automatically for not connecting to the student.

This is actually really heartbreaking. The mere presence of whites or Asians should not complicate targeting problems or traumas for specific students, prevent parties to reward students who worked hard, the appropriate assignment of needed reading classes or automatic blame toward staff for a kid acting up. Each student is an actual individual human, not just a member of a racial or ethnic identity group.

The real truth is that equity itself is a wonderful, noble idea, but the equity leaders who are actually hired to do the work in MCPS and many other organizations are actually just empty suit grifters who want to guilt everyone into funneling as many resources as possible away from those they assume have privilege or power toward their own group, who they see as more deserving. They have not found the secret sauce to actually unlocking the potential in their priority groups, so they go all smoke and mirrors with the optics by depriving high achievers of appropriate enrichment and twisting all policies through a lens derived alongside the bigotry of low expectations.

I'm curious what you think "equity" is, that you would refer to it as noble. Equity is equal outcomes, which can only be achieved through force. Equity is authoritarian socialism. In practice in MCPS it means demotivating, demoralizing, and hamstringing students who would achieve so that the gap between them and poorly performing students closes. It also means grade inflation and de-emphasizing or eliminating tests so that progress cannot be accurately assessed. While I was driving my kids and their friends in the car today, they brought up the 50% rule while discussing school. The friend said that she would probably try harder if there were no 50% rule. This, I think is the biggest way equity is implemented in MCPS across the broadest swathe of student population---by instilling in them apathy and laziness--causing them to not try as hard. The noble thing for MCPS to do would be to challenge each and every student to reach new heights (their fullest potential). To the contrary, though, MCPS is not only not doing this---but MCPS is actually expending considerable resources (read our tax dollars) to prevent this from happening.

You may define equity as equal outcomes so you have a straw man but that’s not what I mean by it and not what MCPS means by it.

I also just do not believe that story about you driving a kid who said they would have tried harder in class if it wasn’t for the 50% rule. I’m not here to argue about the 50% rule though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked at a middle school in MCPS that had very few whites or Asians. One little nice thing about it is that we didn’t have to dance around equity issues since most kids were Hispanic. We targeted real problems and traumas for specific students. We had ABC parties to reward students who worked hard. There were no issues putting kids into the reading classes they needed. If a kid was acting up staff didn’t get blamed automatically for not connecting to the student.

This is actually really heartbreaking. The mere presence of whites or Asians should not complicate targeting problems or traumas for specific students, prevent parties to reward students who worked hard, the appropriate assignment of needed reading classes or automatic blame toward staff for a kid acting up. Each student is an actual individual human, not just a member of a racial or ethnic identity group.

The real truth is that equity itself is a wonderful, noble idea, but the equity leaders who are actually hired to do the work in MCPS and many other organizations are actually just empty suit grifters who want to guilt everyone into funneling as many resources as possible away from those they assume have privilege or power toward their own group, who they see as more deserving. They have not found the secret sauce to actually unlocking the potential in their priority groups, so they go all smoke and mirrors with the optics by depriving high achievers of appropriate enrichment and twisting all policies through a lens derived alongside the bigotry of low expectations.

I'm curious what you think "equity" is, that you would refer to it as noble. Equity is equal outcomes, which can only be achieved through force. Equity is authoritarian socialism. In practice in MCPS it means demotivating, demoralizing, and hamstringing students who would achieve so that the gap between them and poorly performing students closes. It also means grade inflation and de-emphasizing or eliminating tests so that progress cannot be accurately assessed. While I was driving my kids and their friends in the car today, they brought up the 50% rule while discussing school. The friend said that she would probably try harder if there were no 50% rule. This, I think is the biggest way equity is implemented in MCPS across the broadest swathe of student population---by instilling in them apathy and laziness--causing them to not try as hard. The noble thing for MCPS to do would be to challenge each and every student to reach new heights (their fullest potential). To the contrary, though, MCPS is not only not doing this---but MCPS is actually expending considerable resources (read our tax dollars) to prevent this from happening.

You may define equity as equal outcomes so you have a straw man but that’s not what I mean by it and not what MCPS means by it.

I also just do not believe that story about you driving a kid who said they would have tried harder in class if it wasn’t for the 50% rule. I’m not here to argue about the 50% rule though.

Then you don’t know any high school kids. This is absolutely what kids say. Also the A + B is an A rule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked at a middle school in MCPS that had very few whites or Asians. One little nice thing about it is that we didn’t have to dance around equity issues since most kids were Hispanic. We targeted real problems and traumas for specific students. We had ABC parties to reward students who worked hard. There were no issues putting kids into the reading classes they needed. If a kid was acting up staff didn’t get blamed automatically for not connecting to the student.

This is actually really heartbreaking. The mere presence of whites or Asians should not complicate targeting problems or traumas for specific students, prevent parties to reward students who worked hard, the appropriate assignment of needed reading classes or automatic blame toward staff for a kid acting up. Each student is an actual individual human, not just a member of a racial or ethnic identity group.

The real truth is that equity itself is a wonderful, noble idea, but the equity leaders who are actually hired to do the work in MCPS and many other organizations are actually just empty suit grifters who want to guilt everyone into funneling as many resources as possible away from those they assume have privilege or power toward their own group, who they see as more deserving. They have not found the secret sauce to actually unlocking the potential in their priority groups, so they go all smoke and mirrors with the optics by depriving high achievers of appropriate enrichment and twisting all policies through a lens derived alongside the bigotry of low expectations.

I'm curious what you think "equity" is, that you would refer to it as noble. Equity is equal outcomes, which can only be achieved through force. Equity is authoritarian socialism. In practice in MCPS it means demotivating, demoralizing, and hamstringing students who would achieve so that the gap between them and poorly performing students closes. It also means grade inflation and de-emphasizing or eliminating tests so that progress cannot be accurately assessed. While I was driving my kids and their friends in the car today, they brought up the 50% rule while discussing school. The friend said that she would probably try harder if there were no 50% rule. This, I think is the biggest way equity is implemented in MCPS across the broadest swathe of student population---by instilling in them apathy and laziness--causing them to not try as hard. The noble thing for MCPS to do would be to challenge each and every student to reach new heights (their fullest potential). To the contrary, though, MCPS is not only not doing this---but MCPS is actually expending considerable resources (read our tax dollars) to prevent this from happening.

You may define equity as equal outcomes so you have a straw man but that’s not what I mean by it and not what MCPS means by it.

I also just do not believe that story about you driving a kid who said they would have tried harder in class if it wasn’t for the 50% rule. I’m not here to argue about the 50% rule though.

Then you don’t know any high school kids. This is absolutely what kids say. Also the A + B is an A rule.

Yeah. If you talk to high school kids, they'll freely admit to you that the 50% contributes to their slacking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked at a middle school in MCPS that had very few whites or Asians. One little nice thing about it is that we didn’t have to dance around equity issues since most kids were Hispanic. We targeted real problems and traumas for specific students. We had ABC parties to reward students who worked hard. There were no issues putting kids into the reading classes they needed. If a kid was acting up staff didn’t get blamed automatically for not connecting to the student.

This is actually really heartbreaking. The mere presence of whites or Asians should not complicate targeting problems or traumas for specific students, prevent parties to reward students who worked hard, the appropriate assignment of needed reading classes or automatic blame toward staff for a kid acting up. Each student is an actual individual human, not just a member of a racial or ethnic identity group.

The real truth is that equity itself is a wonderful, noble idea, but the equity leaders who are actually hired to do the work in MCPS and many other organizations are actually just empty suit grifters who want to guilt everyone into funneling as many resources as possible away from those they assume have privilege or power toward their own group, who they see as more deserving. They have not found the secret sauce to actually unlocking the potential in their priority groups, so they go all smoke and mirrors with the optics by depriving high achievers of appropriate enrichment and twisting all policies through a lens derived alongside the bigotry of low expectations.

Spot on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I think of equity, to me it means the outcomes for everyone must be the same. You can infer what you want from that.

I can infer from that that you are hostile to or at the very least ignorant of how MCPS uses the term. I could probably infer a few more things too.

Yes, always infer that anyone who objects to the direction MCPS has gone is a RWNJ MAGA Trumper. The thing is, you're wrong. That would just be too easy, PP. Many posters have made thoughtful, detailed objections to what is happeneing, and yet you find it easy to just brush it off as MAGA craziness. You are sadly, dangerously wrong. I say "dangerously" because more and more mainstream people are being forced to the right by this kind of attitude. That, apparently, is the only way to do anything about their legitimate concerns.