Is the 2.0 debacle worth opting out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. Thanks for your reply. This is part of my fear; DH and I both work full time and I have to clock hours for the feds, so unless I took vacation time every week (a possibility but of course a major sacrifice) I couldn’t volunteer in the classroom every week. DH maybe could, but not reliably. I worry our work situation doesn’t allow us to stay as on top of MCPS as everyone seems to need to be.

Everyone does not need to be. It is fine if you don't volunteer in the classroom every week. I mean, think about it. Do you think that everybody volunteers in the classroom every week?

Some schools/teachers will not even let you volunteer in the classroom every week. At our school each teacher has their own policy. I know a parent with an education background who volunteered a lot in a very substantive way, but aside from that in our experience it has been classroom by classroom with some teachers not really welcoming classroom volunteers. Though my sense is that the parents who really wanted to volunteer regularly were able to make it happen.

[Anonymous]

You don't need to volunteer in the classroom to see what a mess the system is. Wait until the crappy worksheets start coming home and then you will begin to get a sense of what a mess it is.

[Anonymous]

We solved the problem by moving out of MOCO. One year was enough to show me that the schools are a disaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We solved the problem by moving out of MOCO. One year was enough to show me that the schools are a disaster.

Where did you move to? Was it within the DC area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to volunteer in the classroom to see what a mess the system is. Wait until the crappy worksheets start coming home and then you will begin to get a sense of what a mess it is.

hahahha. yeah, between P for proficient nonsense report card with no comments and worksheet errors....

That said, my spouse and I shared one shift of volunteering in K. So did most of our neighborhood. Can't believe they don't have a teacher's aide for K or 1 when class sizes are 22-28 five or 6 year olds. Cannot believe it with a $2 billion + school district budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to volunteer in the classroom to see what a mess the system is. Wait until the crappy worksheets start coming home and then you will begin to get a sense of what a mess it is.

hahahha. yeah, between P for proficient nonsense report card with no comments and worksheet errors....

That said, my spouse and I shared one shift of volunteering in K. So did most of our neighborhood. Can't believe they don't have a teacher's aide for K or 1 when class sizes are 22-28 five or 6 year olds. Cannot believe it with a $2 billion + school district budget.

Note that MCPS does not have this report card anymore. I infer that your experience with MCPS is not current.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have the same fear. We both realized half our BETHESDA neighborhood works at home or has a sahp. Lots of intel st the 3:50pm pickups on playground time.

Consider the possibility that this reflects the needs of the parents, not the needs of the children.

we both work, do not have flexible jobs where one of us can leave at 3pm weekly. the work at home and stay at home parents in our neighborhood are way better at navigating MCPS and supplementing than we are. We review what little graded work comes home and then started buying Singapore Math and English Lit workbooks when MCPS topics looked too incoherent and no sequencing or logical build-up within each subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to volunteer in the classroom to see what a mess the system is. Wait until the crappy worksheets start coming home and then you will begin to get a sense of what a mess it is.

hahahha. yeah, between P for proficient nonsense report card with no comments and worksheet errors....

That said, my spouse and I shared one shift of volunteering in K. So did most of our neighborhood. Can't believe they don't have a teacher's aide for K or 1 when class sizes are 22-28 five or 6 year olds. Cannot believe it with a $2 billion + school district budget.

Note that MCPS does not have this report card anymore. I infer that your experience with MCPS is not current.

I know, wasn't that a FANTASTIC P and ES experiment from 2010 until 2016. So glad, thanks for the reminder that it took 7 years of consistent complaints for MCPS to do anything for the parents, students or teachers left in the dark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to volunteer in the classroom to see what a mess the system is. Wait until the crappy worksheets start coming home and then you will begin to get a sense of what a mess it is.

hahahha. yeah, between P for proficient nonsense report card with no comments and worksheet errors....

That said, my spouse and I shared one shift of volunteering in K. So did most of our neighborhood. Can't believe they don't have a teacher's aide for K or 1 when class sizes are 22-28 five or 6 year olds. Cannot believe it with a $2 billion + school district budget.

Note that MCPS does not have this report card anymore. I infer that your experience with MCPS is not current.

no value add here.

love your take on the K volunteering, high class caps in ES and lack of teacher aides in overstuffed elementary schools (non Title 1).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I know, wasn't that a FANTASTIC P and ES experiment from 2010 until 2016. So glad, thanks for the reminder that it took 7 years of consistent complaints for MCPS to do anything for the parents, students or teachers left in the dark.

Actually I thought that the letter-grade report card with comments and the N/I/P/ES report card without comments provided just about the same amount of information. If you want to know how your elementary-school-aged kid is doing, a report card won't tell you, no matter what the format. I got the feeling that most parents didn't like the N/I/P/ES report card because it didn't let them brag on their children's grades. (This comment does not apply to parents who were trying to get special-education services for their children.)

In any case, how is a report card format THAT MCPS DOES NOT USE ANYMORE relevant to the OP's question?

[Anonymous]

Glad we agree, feedback and report cards are still useless at MCPS.

next!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Glad we agree, feedback and report cards are still useless at MCPS.

next!

OP, important lesson: people who have complaints post on DCUM; people who don't, don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We solved the problem by moving out of MOCO. One year was enough to show me that the schools are a disaster.

Where did you move to? Was it within the DC area?

Clearly it was somewhere so boring that PP has nothing to do but complain about the school she just left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad we agree, feedback and report cards are still useless at MCPS.

next!

OP, important lesson: people who have complaints post on DCUM; people who don't, don't.

Have you been to a central office town hall, a PtA meeting or the pickup chats after school??? Thank gawd those people dont post here. There’s practically a carpool system to the math tutor center!

[Anonymous]

ES and HS is not a problem. MS is a problem and has always been,