Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You might have gotten more if the schools were better.

Because housing prices in Montgomery County aren't unaffordable to enough people yet?

+1 I keep hearing how people are fleeing MoCo but then see all these new developments come up. If you are expecting that a better curriculum would make Gaithersburg house prices and desirability to be the same as Bethesda, then you will be waiting for a very long time (like never).

LOL. Nice troll job.

- Kentlands resident (avg HHI in our neighborhood is $160K ... not all areas of Gaithersburg are the same)

Kentland prices is still no where near house prices in Bethesda. I was trying to disparage Gaithersburg. Just stating that house prices around here are not just dependent on school curriculum but more on being closer in.

Explain Wheaton and Bethesda then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Kentland prices is still no where near house prices in Bethesda. I was trying to disparage Gaithersburg. Just stating that house prices around here are not just dependent on school curriculum but more on being closer in.

Explain Wheaton and Bethesda then.

Wheaton is not close in, as I understand the term "close in".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Kentland prices is still no where near house prices in Bethesda. I was trying to disparage Gaithersburg. Just stating that house prices around here are not just dependent on school curriculum but more on being closer in.

Explain Wheaton and Bethesda then.

Wheaton is not close in, as I understand the term "close in".

It sure as heck is closer than Gaithersburg.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Kentland prices is still no where near house prices in Bethesda. I was trying to disparage Gaithersburg. Just stating that house prices around here are not just dependent on school curriculum but more on being closer in.

Explain Wheaton and Bethesda then.

Wheaton is not close in, as I understand the term "close in".

It sure as heck is closer than Gaithersburg.

Closer to what than Gaithersburg? Gaithersburg is way out up the Red Line. So is Wheaton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Kentland prices is still no where near house prices in Bethesda. I was trying to disparage Gaithersburg. Just stating that house prices around here are not just dependent on school curriculum but more on being closer in.

Explain Wheaton and Bethesda then.

Wheaton is not close in, as I understand the term "close in".

It sure as heck is closer than Gaithersburg.

Closer to what than Gaithersburg? Gaithersburg is way out up the Red Line. So is Wheaton.

... closer to the District ... that's what you mean by "close in," right? Wheaton is much closer to the District than Gaithersburg.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Or, just maybe, you could shut up. People are right to be upset that the curriculum failed their kids.

I have to assume that 1) you're an MCPS hack, 2) you're a private school parent, 3) you're from another school system, or 4) you don't give a crap about your kid's education.

Those are silly assumptions. Why would you make them? I don't work for MCPS, I have two kids in MCPS, and my kids' education in MCPS has been fine so far. Perfect? No, but I don't expect perfection.

How, specifically, has the curriculum failed your child?

have you read the audit? Read it, and then come back and tell me it's fine.

How, specifically, has the curriculum failed your specific child?

Most of the audit is about how poorly performing low income and ESOL students continue to perform. That is again, where all the focus, energy, money will go. Everyone else can get a generic curriculum built for ESOL'ers and just deal with it.

As for our house, yes we would not have moved here but bought before MD did common core and MCPS did C2.0. It was night and day worse. Kids on either side of the cusp. Spun wheels until HS. MCPS won't dare touch HS since those will be for all colleges to see in all their glory. Thus they experiment around with ES and MS even more, trying and trying to close the achievement gap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's great that your kids totally loved 2.0. Johns Hopkins, nearly all the teachers, and many parents have concluded that it utterly failed, so you are the exception.

So go have fun with your super well-educated kids. Over here, we're worried about the real deficiencies in the curriculum.

You're confusing people saying that their kids did learn foundational skills with 2.0 with "we love 2.0". I don't see anyone saying they want to keep 2.0, just that their kids did learn some things. I, and I'm sure most parents, are fine, even happy, with replacing 2.0, we just don't think we wasted money buying into MCPS. There's a bit of difference there.

I'll raise you: Most parents in MCPS are totally clueless about C2.0 or what their kid does on a weekly basis in school.

We asked a neighbor what she thought about the curriculum and she literally said, "Oh, I don't know anything about it. My kids love school."

There you have it, ignorance is bliss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's great that your kids totally loved 2.0. Johns Hopkins, nearly all the teachers, and many parents have concluded that it utterly failed, so you are the exception.

So go have fun with your super well-educated kids. Over here, we're worried about the real deficiencies in the curriculum.

You're confusing people saying that their kids did learn foundational skills with 2.0 with "we love 2.0". I don't see anyone saying they want to keep 2.0, just that their kids did learn some things. I, and I'm sure most parents, are fine, even happy, with replacing 2.0, we just don't think we wasted money buying into MCPS. There's a bit of difference there.

I'll raise you: Most parents in MCPS are totally clueless about C2.0 or what their kid does on a weekly basis in school.

We asked a neighbor what she thought about the curriculum and she literally said, "Oh, I don't know anything about it. My kids love school."

There you have it, ignorance is bliss.

I think that's totally true. They don't want to look under the hood and see what's actually going on. This is why nothing will change. There are too few parents actually examining these things closely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'll raise you: Most parents in MCPS are totally clueless about C2.0 or what their kid does on a weekly basis in school.

We asked a neighbor what she thought about the curriculum and she literally said, "Oh, I don't know anything about it. My kids love school."

There you have it, ignorance is bliss.

Alternatively, maybe your neighbor knows more about her children's foundational skills than you do?

[Anonymous]

For us it was a holistic approach- where could we afford to buy a house with at least a good ES (we didn't have any kids at the time so looking beyond 10 years just wasn't realistic) that was within reasonable commuting distance for both of us? I'm not happy with all the changes in MCPS, but I'm not sure our answer would necessarily be different either. Howard, Fairfax, Loudon counties are too far for at least one of us, DC and Arlington too expensive, and I'm not sure PG schools are any better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's great that your kids totally loved 2.0. Johns Hopkins, nearly all the teachers, and many parents have concluded that it utterly failed, so you are the exception.

So go have fun with your super well-educated kids. Over here, we're worried about the real deficiencies in the curriculum.

You're confusing people saying that their kids did learn foundational skills with 2.0 with "we love 2.0". I don't see anyone saying they want to keep 2.0, just that their kids did learn some things. I, and I'm sure most parents, are fine, even happy, with replacing 2.0, we just don't think we wasted money buying into MCPS. There's a bit of difference there.

I'll raise you: Most parents in MCPS are totally clueless about C2.0 or what their kid does on a weekly basis in school.

We asked a neighbor what she thought about the curriculum and she literally said, "Oh, I don't know anything about it. My kids love school."

There you have it, ignorance is bliss.

I think that's totally true. They don't want to look under the hood and see what's actually going on. This is why nothing will change. There are too few parents actually examining these things closely.

Most parents assume ES and MS is the same as when they went. But guess what, IT IS NOT.
No more frequent PE, Art, Music, Science Class, History/Social Studies.
No more handwriting, graded work, text books, ability tracking.
No more well-rounded, breadth of subject-matter.
No more ES teachers who have 15, 20, 25 years of teaching experience.
No more.

No Child Left Behind federalized public schools with monetary carrots for their mismanaged budgets. Curricula were re-written to focus on the TWO STANDARDIZED TEST SUBJECTS: Reading and Math.
That's it, your school gets good reading and math standardized test scores, you get a Blue RIbbon, you get a pizza party, you passed PARCC, you get your annual grant money for the district.
Anything but Math and Reading, fell by the wayside. Best way to get scores up? Instead of 1 hour of math a day, let's do 1.5 hours -- there goes PE and science. Instead of 1 hour of reading, let's do 1.5 hours -- oop there goes full unit on geography. We can water it down and add it to some reading.

Common Core (obama, Duncan) doubled down on Federal-level standards and the attached grant money. Maryland signed up, renamed it Whatever-I-Can't-Remember, hired more admin to re-invest the wheel. MCPS overpaid Pearsons and Erick Lang to customize the C2.0 Curriculum. Make no mistake, redoing standards and curricula every 5-10 years is a very lucrative business for private businesses, universities, and public school administrators and bloat, I mean, staff.

So, if you want your kid to have any resemblance of the K-8 experience you did, check out the parochial and independent schools. HS is it's own storm of APs, crafting a story and college apps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's great that your kids totally loved 2.0. Johns Hopkins, nearly all the teachers, and many parents have concluded that it utterly failed, so you are the exception.

So go have fun with your super well-educated kids. Over here, we're worried about the real deficiencies in the curriculum.

You're confusing people saying that their kids did learn foundational skills with 2.0 with "we love 2.0". I don't see anyone saying they want to keep 2.0, just that their kids did learn some things. I, and I'm sure most parents, are fine, even happy, with replacing 2.0, we just don't think we wasted money buying into MCPS. There's a bit of difference there.

I'll raise you: Most parents in MCPS are totally clueless about C2.0 or what their kid does on a weekly basis in school.

We asked a neighbor what she thought about the curriculum and she literally said, "Oh, I don't know anything about it. My kids love school."

There you have it, ignorance is bliss.

I think that's totally true. They don't want to look under the hood and see what's actually going on. This is why nothing will change. There are too few parents actually examining these things closely.

Most parents assume ES and MS is the same as when they went. But guess what, IT IS NOT.
No more frequent PE, Art, Music, Science Class, History/Social Studies.
No more handwriting, graded work, text books, ability tracking.
No more well-rounded, breadth of subject-matter.
No more ES teachers who have 15, 20, 25 years of teaching experience.
No more.

No Child Left Behind federalized public schools with monetary carrots for their mismanaged budgets. Curricula were re-written to focus on the TWO STANDARDIZED TEST SUBJECTS: Reading and Math.
That's it, your school gets good reading and math standardized test scores, you get a Blue RIbbon, you get a pizza party, you passed PARCC, you get your annual grant money for the district.
Anything but Math and Reading, fell by the wayside. Best way to get scores up? Instead of 1 hour of math a day, let's do 1.5 hours -- there goes PE and science. Instead of 1 hour of reading, let's do 1.5 hours -- oop there goes full unit on geography. We can water it down and add it to some reading.

Common Core (obama, Duncan) doubled down on Federal-level standards and the attached grant money. Maryland signed up, renamed it Whatever-I-Can't-Remember, hired more admin to re-invest the wheel. MCPS overpaid Pearsons and Erick Lang to customize the C2.0 Curriculum. Make no mistake, redoing standards and curricula every 5-10 years is a very lucrative business for private businesses, universities, and public school administrators and bloat, I mean, staff.

So, if you want your kid to have any resemblance of the K-8 experience you did, check out the parochial and independent schools. HS is it's own storm of APs, crafting a story and college apps.

+100

We had state tests back in the day, of course, but they didn't result in this watered down crap of an education. Pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's great that your kids totally loved 2.0. Johns Hopkins, nearly all the teachers, and many parents have concluded that it utterly failed, so you are the exception.

So go have fun with your super well-educated kids. Over here, we're worried about the real deficiencies in the curriculum.

You're confusing people saying that their kids did learn foundational skills with 2.0 with "we love 2.0". I don't see anyone saying they want to keep 2.0, just that their kids did learn some things. I, and I'm sure most parents, are fine, even happy, with replacing 2.0, we just don't think we wasted money buying into MCPS. There's a bit of difference there.

I'll raise you: Most parents in MCPS are totally clueless about C2.0 or what their kid does on a weekly basis in school.

We asked a neighbor what she thought about the curriculum and she literally said, "Oh, I don't know anything about it. My kids love school."

There you have it, ignorance is bliss.

I think that's totally true. They don't want to look under the hood and see what's actually going on. This is why nothing will change. There are too few parents actually examining these things closely.

Most parents assume ES and MS is the same as when they went. But guess what, IT IS NOT.
No more frequent PE, Art, Music, Science Class, History/Social Studies.
No more handwriting, graded work, text books, ability tracking.
No more well-rounded, breadth of subject-matter.
No more ES teachers who have 15, 20, 25 years of teaching experience.
No more.

No Child Left Behind federalized public schools with monetary carrots for their mismanaged budgets. Curricula were re-written to focus on the TWO STANDARDIZED TEST SUBJECTS: Reading and Math.
That's it, your school gets good reading and math standardized test scores, you get a Blue RIbbon, you get a pizza party, you passed PARCC, you get your annual grant money for the district.
Anything but Math and Reading, fell by the wayside. Best way to get scores up? Instead of 1 hour of math a day, let's do 1.5 hours -- there goes PE and science. Instead of 1 hour of reading, let's do 1.5 hours -- oop there goes full unit on geography. We can water it down and add it to some reading.

Common Core (obama, Duncan) doubled down on Federal-level standards and the attached grant money. Maryland signed up, renamed it Whatever-I-Can't-Remember, hired more admin to re-invest the wheel. MCPS overpaid Pearsons and Erick Lang to customize the C2.0 Curriculum. Make no mistake, redoing standards and curricula every 5-10 years is a very lucrative business for private businesses, universities, and public school administrators and bloat, I mean, staff.

So, if you want your kid to have any resemblance of the K-8 experience you did, check out the parochial and independent schools. HS is it's own storm of APs, crafting a story and college apps.

So reading and math takes up 3hrs of the day then. What do they do the rest of the time?

[Anonymous]

I don't know why all this disparagement of MCPS. It was actually their decision to bring in JHU to evaluate the curriculum. I think Dr. Smith did the right thing bringing them in and now is doing the right thing in acting on their recommendations. I'm not sure what else they could have done. I didn't here MCCPTA or any PTAs leading a charge to change the curriculum or any of the Teachers for that matter.

Sure they deserve some blame but they are also being proactive in trying to fix the issues.

And what were they supposed to do, back when common core started there really wasn't much choice for a district as big as MCPS for curriculum so they had to write their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know why all this disparagement of MCPS. It was actually their decision to bring in JHU to evaluate the curriculum. I think Dr. Smith did the right thing bringing them in and now is doing the right thing in acting on their recommendations. I'm not sure what else they could have done. I didn't here MCCPTA or any PTAs leading a charge to change the curriculum or any of the Teachers for that matter.

Sure they deserve some blame but they are also being proactive in trying to fix the issues.

And what were they supposed to do, back when common core started there really wasn't much choice for a district as big as MCPS for curriculum so they had to write their own.

+1 They’re trying to fix the curriculum issue. And at least if they’re buying off the shelf, it won’t be some ridiculous homegrown McPS thing. If they were ignoring it (and I do feel they ignore some overcrowding problems), I would feel differently.