Exactly how good are MoCo schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:El Paso? But isn't MoCo looking like El Paso these days anyway??

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know several people in Texas and they have to home school. The schools started teaching creationism and the teachers were not really very progressive. I think Montgomery County is one of the most progressive districts in the country so it is very hard to compare it to Texas.

That said, I am really scared for the rest of the country if Montgomery County is supposed to be that good. Last year, my son had a great teacher. This year, his teacher doesn't seem all that organized and he doesn't seem to be learning as much. It's always going to depend on the teacher but Texas schools seem super scary. It might not have been as bad a while ago.

MCPS PR folks don't tell you what the fine print says.

"Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is the 5th best school district in America in terms of delivering high student performance at a low cost, according to a new analysis published in Forbes magazine. MCPS ranked the highest of any school system in Maryland and the Washington, D.C. region on the list of 97 districts studied by Forbes. "

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.asp...tYear=2007&pageNumber=10&mode=

NOTE that "school district" means: "The Forbes analysis focused on 775 counties with more than 65,000 residents that had the highest average property taxes. Forbes narrowed the final list to 97 by looking at the jurisdictions where more than 50 percent of the education spending came from property taxes. The study examined the per pupil spending costs adjusted for the cost of living in these communities and compared them with national student performance indicators such as SAT scores and participation rates and high school graduation rates. "

That leaves out a LOT of school districts.

I don't believe for a New York minute that MCPS is truly the 5th best school district in America.

[Anonymous]

Comparing a 1 million resident county to a 2000 person town is not relevant. These studies all paint a very broad brush - and no study is exactly what YOUR child is going to receive as an education. You can excel in a poor school setting, or fail in a great school setting. All this tells you is that MoCo at the top level at least has the ability to prepare most students to be better than 95% of other publicly educated kids in the country.

My question - is it one MoCo basher who posts all the "MCPS PR bullshit" posts, and if so, bravo for your years of dedicated service to DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Comparing a 1 million resident county to a 2000 person town is not relevant. These studies all paint a very broad brush - and no study is exactly what YOUR child is going to receive as an education. You can excel in a poor school setting, or fail in a great school setting. All this tells you is that MoCo at the top level at least has the ability to prepare most students to be better than 95% of other publicly educated kids in the country.

My question - is it one MoCo basher who posts all the "MCPS PR bullshit" posts, and if so, bravo for your years of dedicated service to DCUM.

No. It tells you that MCPS has the ability to prepare most students to be better than 80% of students in comparably-sized school districts in the country. Not the whole country. In school districts of that size.

Not bad. But not what the headlines want you to believe.

This is not bashing. It is clarifying how those rankings are calculated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
I know several people in Texas and they have to home school. The schools started teaching creationism and the teachers were not really very progressive. I think Montgomery County is one of the most progressive districts in the country so it is very hard to compare it to Texas.

That said, I am really scared for the rest of the country if Montgomery County is supposed to be that good. Last year, my son had a great teacher. This year, his teacher doesn't seem all that organized and he doesn't seem to be learning as much. It's always going to depend on the teacher but Texas schools seem super scary. It might not have been as bad a while ago.


Where in Texas? It's a big state and opinions/practices differ dramatically between the progressive cities and the rural areas. By the sound of this, I highly doubt it was Austin, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, or even San Antonio. I suspect it was a smaller district somewhere.

Yes, PP who lived in Austin, and I definitely agree with this. As I said, there are some fantastic options for public schools in the Austin area that do teach global warming and don't teach creationism. It's a huge state, and you really can't make generalizations about a state with a population of 26 million.

[Anonymous]

MCPS only excels at manipulating the data it reports. Its not the 5th best in the country, its the 5th out of the small sample of extremely large districts. MCPS hides failing test scores. MCPS rolls out a horrible curriculum and when 3rd grade MSA scores drop they blame socio economic change which is bullshit. The big drop in MCPS tracks with the groups that experienced 2.0. SES didn't change as significantly in 2 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS only excels at manipulating the data it reports. Its not the 5th best in the country, its the 5th out of the small sample of extremely large districts. MCPS hides failing test scores. MCPS rolls out a horrible curriculum and when 3rd grade MSA scores drop they blame socio economic change which is bullshit. The big drop in MCPS tracks with the groups that experienced 2.0. SES didn't change as significantly in 2 years.

WAHHHHHWAHHHHHH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS only excels at manipulating the data it reports. Its not the 5th best in the country, its the 5th out of the small sample of extremely large districts. MCPS hides failing test scores. MCPS rolls out a horrible curriculum and when 3rd grade MSA scores drop they blame socio economic change which is bullshit. The big drop in MCPS tracks with the groups that experienced 2.0. SES didn't change as significantly in 2 years.

No, actually, they blamed the fact that the MSA is designed to test learning under the previous curriculum, which the children taking the test are no longer being taught under.

[Anonymous]

How was your lunch at Chipotle, ma'am?

[Anonymous]

MCPS is mediocre. I agree with the daycare comment. In 2.0 my kids are now just starting to do in 3 rd grade what they did in private K. My 1st grader is doing stuff that he had in his Montessori classroom for the 3 yr olds.

Common core is simply a standard. The dumbing down of the curriculum is MCPS. MCPS hired a company called Pearson to develop their curriculum. Pearson did this with the intent to sell it to other school districts. The contract includes requirements that MCPS officials promote Pearson's 2.0 to other districts. he curriculum may be a step up in Arkansas but its a HUGE step down for this area.

Starr is too arrogant to admit ever making a mistake and too incompetent to do anything else about it. It appears that he is hunting for a new gig so he has no incentive to fix anything. Either he will leave or the BOE will have to toss him after another round of dropping test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is mediocre. I agree with the daycare comment. In 2.0 my kids are now just starting to do in 3 rd grade what they did in private K. My 1st grader is doing stuff that he had in his Montessori classroom for the 3 yr olds.

Common core is simply a standard. The dumbing down of the curriculum is MCPS. MCPS hired a company called Pearson to develop their curriculum. Pearson did this with the intent to sell it to other school districts. The contract includes requirements that MCPS officials promote Pearson's 2.0 to other districts. he curriculum may be a step up in Arkansas but its a HUGE step down for this area.

Starr is too arrogant to admit ever making a mistake and too incompetent to do anything else about it. It appears that he is hunting for a new gig so he has no incentive to fix anything. Either he will leave or the BOE will have to toss him after another round of dropping test scores.

+1 Those touting Common Core as national really need to do there research. MCPS is the one who dumbed it down, eliminated most acceraltion, got ride of unit testing and has turned it into a curriculm aimed at the bottom.

[Anonymous]

Yes, yes, yes. 2.0 dumbing-down Pearson Starr arrogant my-first-grader-can-do-it.

I've done my research. I've looked at the Common Core standards. I have two kids in elementary school. I'm happy with 2.0.

[Anonymous]

18:18 if you are happy with this curriculum then you are a moron. I guess its good that at least the dumb or lazy people feel better.

[Anonymous]

OP I would not suggest basing your relocation decision on any school. You should move to where your family will be happy and you can find good employment. If you stay in this area for MCPS, you will be deeper disappointed because MCPS is just meh...not a reason to move.

If you are very intent on moving someplace for a better public school education then go to Northern Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:18:18 if you are happy with this curriculum then you are a moron. I guess its good that at least the dumb or lazy people feel better.

Do you talk to people like that in real life?