Are you relieved to be done with MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MoCo has an approx. population of 1 million + (1,000,000+) residents.

Let's say about 4 ppl represented per household, approx. 3000.

3,000/1,000,000 = .003

So 0.3 percent of households in MoCo

Yeah, surveys aren't perfect. But a PP (you?) claimed research shows most people are happy with MCPS. Were they referring to this "one" survey that shows a decline in satisfaction among residents? What were they referring to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is still great for top students. But if you are not in that top 10 percent that can take advantage of all the classes and opportunities, it has definitely gone downhill. MCPS and principals made some choices.

Not true. Both my kids are in the top 1%. The service/opportunities to them are day and night. Luckily I'm well educated and well off. With experience seeing what my elder one was able to be exposed to, I can give my younger one a leg up as much as I can. I don't give a single percent of trust to the success of regional model. It is not going to make local school better in any sense. Rather, it will further drain the resource, and either driving kids and parents nuts, or die quietly in a few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is still great for top students. But if you are not in that top 10 percent that can take advantage of all the classes and opportunities, it has definitely gone downhill. MCPS and principals made some choices.

Was it the regional model that Julie Yang voted against and Rita Montoya declared everyone that was cheering racist?

Then yesterday with all of the RMIB student testifying for keeping the program as is, Rita Montoya suggested that the students didn't understand what the new regionals are offering and how it's beneficial.

It may be the case some what. But it also shows how much the top students do appreciate and want to keep the current countywide programs and the supporters for the regional program either not understanding or caring what they're proposing to dismantle and take out an avenue for top performing students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MoCo has an approx. population of 1 million + (1,000,000+) residents.

Let's say about 4 ppl represented per household, approx. 3000.

3,000/1,000,000 = .003

So 0.3 percent of households in MoCo

Yeah, surveys aren't perfect. But a PP (you?) claimed research shows most people are happy with MCPS. Were they referring to this "one" survey that shows a decline in satisfaction among residents? What were they referring to?

My understanding is that someone said no, ppl are not really declining in their satisfaction bc a majority were still fine with everything. Surveys are super sus to me (know how the sausage is made w a lot of studies, exclusion criteria, etc. etc.) and my point is that this is no exception

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MoCo has an approx. population of 1 million + (1,000,000+) residents.

Let's say about 4 ppl represented per household, approx. 3000.

3,000/1,000,000 = .003

So 0.3 percent of households in MoCo

Yeah, surveys aren't perfect. But a PP (you?) claimed research shows most people are happy with MCPS. Were they referring to this "one" survey that shows a decline in satisfaction among residents? What were they referring to?

My understanding is that someone said no, ppl are not really declining in their satisfaction bc a majority were still fine with everything. Surveys are super sus to me (know how the sausage is made w a lot of studies, exclusion criteria, etc. etc.) and my point is that this is no exception

Okay so it sounds like you don't believe we have any real data on MCPS satisfaction. Not that satisfaction is not declining because by your standards we could not possibly know one way or the other.

Do you believe in NAEP scores? They show nationwide declines over the past 15 years and especially since the pandemic in math and reading proficiency rates. While we don't have local NAEP data, we see the same trend in Maryland overall and in MoCo on the MCAP. Does it really seem that unbelievable to you that as student outcomes are getting worse, families' satisfaction might be declining?

[Anonymous]

Dude, I agree that it's worse. Someone pointed out that the survey saying it's worse still says the majority are fine with everything. Countering that interp of data bc the data suck

[Anonymous]

Ppl don't need to spend $$$$ doing a bad mail in labor intensive survey with 761 participants to try and prove something

Literally someone could do a survey monkey to all MCPS parents/caregivers and get a more accurate representation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y’all would not have survived MCPS 80’s and 90’s.

Snowflakes

LOL. Been there. Done that. MCPS is going in the wrong direction.

Why did they reinstate the senior lounge with smoking?

Did they cut out honors classes?

Are you upset that they’re not busing kids anymore?

[Anonymous]

And it may be MUCH worse, if that's done

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ppl don't need to spend $$$$ doing a bad mail in labor intensive survey with 761 participants to try and prove something

Literally someone could do a survey monkey to all MCPS parents/caregivers and get a more accurate representation

No, they actually couldn’t.

Parents are irrational.

They have no idea what’s going on.

I would take a survey of teachers over parents any day as a matter of fact, I’d even listen to students over parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that the size of the county is a major contributing factor to why people are so dissatisfied. There’s so much diversity of backgrounds and viewpoints and it’s extremely difficult (impossible, really) to come up with a solution that meets the needs of everyone. The leadership not being great just makes things worse. We also have an extremely high striver/entitled population in the close to DC suburbs which also cranks up the complaints. Friends in New England suburbs have had such a different experience for their children in public school and I regret getting stuck (work) in this area. Ready to move on…

But most people are happy with MCPS IRL.
The loud minority on DCUM (about 10 of them) doesn't represent the vast majority of MCPS families.

Most of the parents I know IRL have complaints. They're usually not extreme, but especially after the abundance of snow days, calendar shuffles, etc. this past year, the mood I see is mixed rather than positive.

Everybody has a complaint, but research shows most parents are happy with MCPS.

A 2024 resident survey showed that the percentage of residents rating k-12 education in MoCo went down from 82% in 2018 to 68% in 2024. Let's assume this is reflective of attitudes among current MCPS parents (the survey was of residents so this might also be reflective of people whose MCPS experiences are not current). If we assume that, you are correct that "most parents are happy with MCPS". However, it would appear that a large and increasing minority of parents do not think MCPS is good, much less excellent. MCPS should stop dismissing people who have concerns as "privileged" (the irony is they also ignore unprivileged people).

Everybody knows that survey responses go up when people are unhappy, and most people won’t respond to a survey if they don’t have anything to complain about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y’all would not have survived MCPS 80’s and 90’s.

Snowflakes

MCPS then was more like a community school system and less like a massive liability-paranoid corporation focused on documentation.

Nobody I knew even thought about their own or their kid's "resume" for college. Literally I never once had to think about this and just succeeded in a non-transactional way.

Kids were in general much better behaved. They didn't get away with one iota of what passes for "well at least it's not physical!" today, much less assaults.

I loved it.

So parents are much worse nowadays, including the ones who have their kids taking 20 AP classes.

The problem is the parents not the kids, not the schools not the teachers not the bureaucracy. It’s the parents.

[Anonymous]

Surveying students is a great idea. What I've heard as a parent is completely egregious. Mostly about student behavior that cannot be controlled and has zero consequences.

The "parents are irrational" is probably from hearing the loudest voices. You'd be surprised at some of the parents who could help if there wasn't so much us-them legal paranoia about them.

[Anonymous]

If schools welcomed parent volunteers they'd have a lot of help. I've literally worked w kids who carry and nothing phases me. (Except fake cya documentation and bad science)

[Anonymous]

And fwiw back in the 80s and 90s parent volunteers were everywhere. Teachers had a lot of help.

Kids also from what I've seen can be on their best behavior when they know parents are around.