We need to stop saying MCPS is one of the best school systems in the country

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It wouldn't reduce class sizes. The class size caps are the same whether the school is under capacity or over capacity. The only difference is whether the class is in the building or in a portable.

Schools that are under capacity could take more kids from other schools that are at overcapacity to level the class sizes between neighboring schools. It is ridiculous to have neighboring schools be so far off in terms of capacity.

How would it level the class sizes? Meaning the number of students per class, not the number of students per grade.

Let's say a school has 35 1st graders. The cap is 30. So, they are obligated to have two 1st grade classes -- 17 and 18 in each class respectively. Another school has 50 1st graders, which would make 25/class. You could send some of those kids to the other school and that would help even out the class sizes. I know, it's not that simple, but this is the kind of thing that would help make class sizes smaller.

[Anonymous]

What i refer a long journey for Asians means a lot of them came here as graduate students likely having earned a full scholarship. It was a long journey beginning at college to prepare English (TOFEL), GRE, etc..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What i refer a long journey for Asians means a lot of them came here as graduate students likely having earned a full scholarship. It was a long journey beginning at college to prepare English (TOFEL), GRE, etc..

These are recent immigrants around here that you are referring to. Most of the Asians I know came in the 80's and 90's and came as MS/HS kids with their poor parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Let's say a school has 35 1st graders. The cap is 30. So, they are obligated to have two 1st grade classes -- 17 and 18 in each class respectively. Another school has 50 1st graders, which would make 25/class. You could send some of those kids to the other school and that would help even out the class sizes. I know, it's not that simple, but this is the kind of thing that would help make class sizes smaller.

That is mostly a function of small school vs. big school, I think. If the school is small, it only takes a small number of students to get an additional teacher -- or to lose a teacher. If the school is large, you need more students to get or lose a teacher. So the class sizes are more stable.

Rezoning would certainly help with number of lunch shifts, room on the playground, and so on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of like SNL...it stinks now but it was great back in the olden days.

It's sort of like Chevy Chase- both the comedian and the town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Let's say a school has 35 1st graders. The cap is 30. So, they are obligated to have two 1st grade classes -- 17 and 18 in each class respectively. Another school has 50 1st graders, which would make 25/class. You could send some of those kids to the other school and that would help even out the class sizes. I know, it's not that simple, but this is the kind of thing that would help make class sizes smaller.

That is mostly a function of small school vs. big school, I think. If the school is small, it only takes a small number of students to get an additional teacher -- or to lose a teacher. If the school is large, you need more students to get or lose a teacher. So the class sizes are more stable.

Rezoning would certainly help with number of lunch shifts, room on the playground, and so on.

Some of the schools are *undercapacity*, meaning they can add more kids and still be at capacity. So, it's not just because they are physically a smaller school. And, yes, it would definitely help with the lunch shifts and playground. My DC has lunch at 1pm, and when recess is black top only, there's no room to "play" in the so-called playground because there are more than 4 portables on the precious little blacktop space they do have.

[Anonymous]

Chinese students started to come US in 80s, China restored College education in 1977/1978. Some of them were old enough to have kids at MS/HS in late 80s and 90s.

If immigrants coming from China in 80s/90s -- I would say majority were graduate students.

Of course, Indians, Japanese, Koreans are also Asians.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It has one of the highest concentrations of affluent education parents in the country, so of course it will score well. That really doesn't tell you anything about the quality of the district itself, though.

It also has one of the highest concentrations of student from poor, uneducated, illiterate illegal aliens and single parent black communities, whom mostly score poorly.

Most of the budget, that doesn't go towards pension and benefits, goes toward the problem schools. Well performing schools nickel and dime the parents and even have foundations for donations. MCPS doesnt like this workaround, tho parents are paying thru high taxes and donations, thus demand 10%+ of any donation to a well functioning high school go to a poorly performing high school.

I'd tend to agree with OP. Would love to see a 10 year simulation model of what happens to this over capacitated, over taxed, over extended huge school district. Its trajectory is more of a basket case charity experiment than its former teach to potential and excel model. And then there's the curriculum 2.0 and myopic achievement gap focus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Howard will fall too, eventually. But they are behind us by 10-15 years. Families with young kids should look Howard carefully.

Only if they adopt the MCPS 2.0 curriculum. The people with older kids upset about the decline are from the W schools where the demographics haven't changed. What has changed in those schools is the curriculum. 2.0 isn't just common core, its MCPS' own special version with a lovely super informative report card. Many parents with higher degrees in STEM were also thrilled when math acceleration abruptly stopped. It was just so great having your child go back and repeat math they did two years earlier. I love how my youngest can extend her childhood by counting pasta all the way up through elementary school. In the past, this was preschool stuff. Now they get to do preschool work in K-3.

That's a bit of an exaggeration (my DC went through 2.0 in 2nd and 3rd), but I love how some people on this forum complain about this, how K is doing stuff that their kids did in preschools, and on the other side of the aisle, people complain how CC standards are too hard for K-3. It just goes to show, you cannot ever please everybody.

Isn't it sad that the once great school district used to be able to challenge both the ES kid who knew math well AND the ES kid who did not in each and every HOME SCHOOL?
Now many home schools cite curriculum 2.0 as the reason they can't move ahead, or supplement, or do tracking until 4th or 5th grade.
oh, but don't worry, there is a teeny tiny magnet program (in the huge county and student populace) that your 5th grader or middle schooler or high schooler can commute to 45-90 minutes away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It has one of the highest concentrations of affluent education parents in the country, so of course it will score well. That really doesn't tell you anything about the quality of the district itself, though.

It also has one of the highest concentrations of student from poor, uneducated, illiterate illegal aliens and single parent black communities, whom mostly score poorly.

Most of the budget, that doesn't go towards pension and benefits, goes toward the problem schools. Well performing schools nickel and dime the parents and even have foundations for donations. MCPS doesnt like this workaround, tho parents are paying thru high taxes and donations, thus demand 10%+ of any donation to a well functioning high school go to a poorly performing high school.

I'd tend to agree with OP. Would love to see a 10 year simulation model of what happens to this over capacitated, over taxed, over extended huge school district. Its trajectory is more of a basket case charity experiment than its former teach to potential and excel model. And then there's the curriculum 2.0 and myopic achievement gap focus.

Montgomery Ciunty Maryland has one of the highest concentrations of students from poor and uneducated families? LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Not just because of Asians. What a long/tough journey for Asians to come this land ! You can't just walk cross the boarder, so those Asians who made the trip here were tough minded and very competitive Asians. I believe there a lot not so smart and competitive Asians back in Asia

You can't "just" walk across the border from Mexico, either.

Oh yes you can. Have lived in Del Rio, TX on an AFB for fighter jet training. There are ambulances stationed every few miles for the Hispanic women who throw themselves over the border while in labor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It has one of the highest concentrations of affluent education parents in the country, so of course it will score well. That really doesn't tell you anything about the quality of the district itself, though.

It also has one of the highest concentrations of student from poor, uneducated, illiterate illegal aliens and single parent black communities, whom mostly score poorly.

Most of the budget, that doesn't go towards pension and benefits, goes toward the problem schools. Well performing schools nickel and dime the parents and even have foundations for donations. MCPS doesnt like this workaround, tho parents are paying thru high taxes and donations, thus demand 10%+ of any donation to a well functioning high school go to a poorly performing high school.

I'd tend to agree with OP. Would love to see a 10 year simulation model of what happens to this over capacitated, over taxed, over extended huge school district. Its trajectory is more of a basket case charity experiment than its former teach to potential and excel model. And then there's the curriculum 2.0 and myopic achievement gap focus.

Montgomery Ciunty Maryland has one of the highest concentrations of students from poor and uneducated families? LOL.

No other county in the Washington region, including the District of Columbia, experienced increases in poverty of the same magnitude during the late 2000s as MoCo.
http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/the-avenue/posts/2013/05/22-suburban-poverty-kneebone-berube

Data Point: In the three years between 2007 and 2010, Montgomery County shed more than 37,000 jobs, dropping below its 2000 jobs total by 2010.
At the same time that the county faced unprecedented economic challenges, it also experienced a rapid demographic transformation. The 2010 census revealed that, for the first time, non-Hispanic whites constituted less than half (49 percent) of the county’s residents, down from 73 percent two decades earlier. And while immigrants accounted for fewer than one in five residents in 1990, in 2010 they represented almost one-third of the population and almost 40 percent of poor residents.

Data Point: Between 2007 and 2010, the number of residents living below the federal poverty line grew by two-thirds, or more than 30,000 people, pushing the poverty rate up by nearly 3 percentage points.
Rapid increases in poverty, coupled with the shifting demographics, often left communities in suburban Montgomery County struggling to play catch-up without the resources to match the growing and changing needs of their residents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Oh yes you can. Have lived in Del Rio, TX on an AFB for fighter jet training. There are ambulances stationed every few miles for the Hispanic women who throw themselves over the border while in labor.

Throw themselves over the border (which is the Rio Grande) while in labor? Wow. Those are some athletic women. I couldn't have done that while in labor. The US should deport me and let those women stay!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
No other county in the Washington region, including the District of Columbia, experienced increases in poverty of the same magnitude during the late 2000s as MoCo.
http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/the-avenue/posts/2013/05/22-suburban-poverty-kneebone-berube

Data Point: In the three years between 2007 and 2010, Montgomery County shed more than 37,000 jobs, dropping below its 2000 jobs total by 2010.
At the same time that the county faced unprecedented economic challenges, it also experienced a rapid demographic transformation. The 2010 census revealed that, for the first time, non-Hispanic whites constituted less than half (49 percent) of the county’s residents, down from 73 percent two decades earlier. And while immigrants accounted for fewer than one in five residents in 1990, in 2010 they represented almost one-third of the population and almost 40 percent of poor residents.

Data Point: Between 2007 and 2010, the number of residents living below the federal poverty line grew by two-thirds, or more than 30,000 people, pushing the poverty rate up by nearly 3 percentage points.
Rapid increases in poverty, coupled with the shifting demographics, often left communities in suburban Montgomery County struggling to play catch-up without the resources to match the growing and changing needs of their residents.

I think that you may have misunderstand what "concentrations" means. It doesn't mean "numbers of people". Montgomery County doesn't even have the highest concentrations of poor people in the state (Somerset County does), let alone the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Montgomery Ciunty Maryland has one of the highest concentrations of students from poor and uneducated families? LOL.

No other county in the Washington region, including the District of Columbia, experienced increases in poverty of the same magnitude during the late 2000s as MoCo.
http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/the-avenue/posts/2013/05/22-suburban-poverty-kneebone-berube

Data Point: In the three years between 2007 and 2010, Montgomery County shed more than 37,000 jobs, dropping below its 2000 jobs total by 2010.
At the same time that the county faced unprecedented economic challenges, it also experienced a rapid demographic transformation. The 2010 census revealed that, for the first time, non-Hispanic whites constituted less than half (49 percent) of the county’s residents, down from 73 percent two decades earlier. And while immigrants accounted for fewer than one in five residents in 1990, in 2010 they represented almost one-third of the population and almost 40 percent of poor residents.

Data Point: Between 2007 and 2010, the number of residents living below the federal poverty line grew by two-thirds, or more than 30,000 people, pushing the poverty rate up by nearly 3 percentage points.
Rapid increases in poverty, coupled with the shifting demographics, often left communities in suburban Montgomery County struggling to play catch-up without the resources to match the growing and changing needs of their residents.

We can only afford to buy a house under 500k, and one of our goals is to try to find a neighborhood where we can actually speak English as a first or second language with our neighbors. The LOL poster must not go across Rockville Pike to points east very much.