Ben Jealous & MoCo Schools ???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jealous is about as likely to win as Peppa Pig based on the polling data. However, if he did win there would be a massive shortfall in the MCPS budget.

The problem would then bounce between the BOE/MCPS and the County Council. The BOE/MCPS will expect the CC to come up with the funds to cover the shortfall by cutting other programs or raising taxes. There will likely need to be a combination of MCPS cutting its budget, the rest of county services cutting their budgets to share some with MCPS and a tax increase. This will leave everyone very angry.

MCPS already takes the lion share of the budget. It infuriated police, fire, and other county workers when during the recession when everyone's pay was frozen MCPS gave itself a raise by increasing the class sizes/teacher ratios. These groups are still mad about this a decade later. From their perspective, MCPS cries that they are helping the children and then turns around and rewards their own employees while the rest of the county employees were frozen. They are not going to be happy about giving up more. This is just one example.

People keep saying that, in a sky-is-falling kind of way. I haven't seen any explanations from them for why this would happen, yet.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't want free pre-k for all however, I fully support the idea of all K-3 classroom having a full-time paraeducator. I would even support the school week being cut from 5 days a week to 4 days a week to fund this. We would still be able to get to 180 school days somehow with the constraints of the Governor's order, the BOE just has to learn to make it work. Poorer school districts have gone from 5 day school weeks to 4 days school weeks. Although the links below says it hurts poorer demographics most of the school districts who have gone from 5 to 4 days also don't have quality free pre-k for poorer students. If MCPS were to keep the free pre-k for poorer families and implement a 4 day week with full-time paraeducators in classrooms the school data might soar with the student to teacher ratio.

I am not in favor of everyone gets free community college either because we cannot afford it.

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/18/06/four-day-school-week

https://bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/why-some-us-school-districts-are-adopting-a-4-day-school-week

[Anonymous]

In MCPS high schools that run seven 47 minute periods, we could increase each class period (making each class 60 minutes per day), keep passing time and lunch the same, and have the same number of minutes of instruction in four days as five. This would be a tremendous cost saving measure for MCPS. I think it would be really beneficial for high school students, who could use the fifth day for all kinds of enrichment, even more sports practice if people are worried about the lengthened day cutting into after school activities. I'm not sure how well it would work for elementary and middle school students, but it would certainly be worth looking into. Obviously the 180 day requirement would have to be changed, but the annual hourly instructional requirement could remain the same.

[Anonymous]

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I’m from MoCo and I think they should yank funds from MoCo for this stupidity! They are more corrupt than Baltimore - fix it please.

What money should who yank from Montgomery County, for what?

Maybe they mean the Curriculum 2.0 stuff from MCPS. They decided to pay millions to create their own materials instead of just using existing materials like every other school system. Then, they paid a vendor to write the materials, and the vendor gets to keep those materials MCPS paid for and re-sell them at will. A bunch of 2.0 MCPS staff ended up going to work for the vendor for nice pay raises.

Here's a sort of summary of that mess:
https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/mcps-pauses-search-for-new-curriculum-after-learning-staff-members-are-taking-jobs-with-vendor/

Everybody knows about Curriculum 2.0, PP. MCPS paid for it. Again, who's going to yank which money from Montgomery County, for what?

Yes, everyone knows about the Curriculum 2.0 mess but someone else upthread was trying to blame Hogan for the dysfunction in MCPS. Which is just crazy because MCPS was 100% responsible for the Curriculum fiasco.

Maybe MCPS will end up like Philly, where the state takes over and improves the school district due to all the terrible mismanagement. Philly has gotten so much better with the addition of charter schools and more options for the kids.

The state is going to take over the strongest district in the state and a district that performs far better than the vast majority of districts nationwide?

MCPS has plenty of issues and maybe it has coaster based on demographics to a degree, something that is more difficult as demographics change, but some of the MCPS hatred here is just crazy.

Strongest district in the state? Did you see the recent article about state PARCC scores? MCPS was NOT at the top.

Did you see the recent AP test scores? MCPS WAS at the Top.
No one cares about PARCC, that's why it is on its way out.

[Anonymous]

Oh dear. MCPS is 9th in the state not #1.

You can't cherry pick a data point that only applies to small subset of students. MD's fall to 6th place is in great part due to MCPS failing as pre-2.0 MCPS used to hold up the rest of the state. There is no indication that MCPS will stabilize or begin to improve. All indicators point downward even more now so get ready for a bigger drop each year.

[Anonymous]

I don’t believe MCPS will fall any further, in fact all trends suggest with the new curriculum we are poised to make a come back. But I’m all honesty no one can blame anyone but themselves. This is what mass importation of poor, unskilled and not educated people looks like. We can only handle so much before struggling and the bridge begins to crack from the ratio of wealth to poverty.

[Anonymous]

I don’t believe MCPS will fall any further, in fact all trends suggest with the new curriculum we are poised to make a come back.

Pray tell what trends are you reading? MCPS hasn't chosen the curriculum yet. Heck, they couldn't even get an RFP out without pulling a sleazy move by Eric Lang to get Discovery ahead so they could just keep 2.0! The whole process was delayed because of this. Discovery wasn't even barred from bidding!!

Plus if you read the JHU report it identified that the curriculum had serious gaps in basic skills AND that while these holes hurt all students, low performing students were even more impacted. Guess what you can't do if you lack foundational skills? You can't do higher level math. The 2.0 kids are about to enter 9th grade next year. Those test scores will be horrible. MCPS is just praying that it can get away with not reporting or collecting any test scores for a few years while PARCC is being replaced but that's a whole different problem. Its about to get much much worse.

[Anonymous]

PP, you need to calm down that anxiety will age you horribly. The fact that MCPS notifies the community about Eric Lang and they were transparent in starting the progress from scratch shows MCPS attempting to get this right. They simply could have pushed ahead with the first RFP and not told the commmnity anything. It seems that MCPS is trying to learn from their first mistake of excluding the community. I’m also sure it was a lot of work to have to re-submit for a second RFP. You can’t say anything is trending down because the proposals aren’t even in yet. The fact that MCPS does a curriculum review every ten years is progress. Do VA schools do curriculum reviews by reputable universities? I’ve been on those VA forums and everyone is in a field of daises about their curriculum and SOL’s. Don’t even get me started on the mess that is all things DCPS and charter!! I’d love to see UVA do a curriculum analysis of Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudon and Prince William counties. The only reason why MoCo pushed common core 2.0 was because of federal funding received for the state of MD for common core. Many states rushed to implement it and have dropped it. MD is doing the same. I am not making excuses for MCPS but rather pointing out simple facts. Did MCPS make a crap show with 2.0? Certainly! Is MCPS going to listen to JHU recommendations about more effective curricula? It sure looks that way.

In the mean time, email Dr. Smith with your desires along with the BOE. Someone on here earlie rmentioned gathering your PTA. I fully support that instead of fear-lingering, twittling your thumbs and being full of anxiety. I’d rather do without the stress lines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t believe MCPS will fall any further, in fact all trends suggest with the new curriculum we are poised to make a come back. But I’m all honesty no one can blame anyone but themselves. This is what mass importation of poor, unskilled and not educated people looks like. We can only handle so much before struggling and the bridge begins to crack from the ratio of wealth to poverty.

You do realize how first generation children are outperforming in MCPS, I would hope. My lazy neighbors kids who are 3rd and 4th generation kids with 504s and IEPs and who don't put any extra effort into school are the ones dragging the resources down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t believe MCPS will fall any further, in fact all trends suggest with the new curriculum we are poised to make a come back. But I’m all honesty no one can blame anyone but themselves. This is what mass importation of poor, unskilled and not educated people looks like. We can only handle so much before struggling and the bridge begins to crack from the ratio of wealth to poverty.

If schools are only good when they're filled with students from affluent, educated families, are they actually good schools? Or are they just schools filled with students from affluent, educated families?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jealous is about as likely to win as Peppa Pig based on the polling data. However, if he did win there would be a massive shortfall in the MCPS budget.

The problem would then bounce between the BOE/MCPS and the County Council. The BOE/MCPS will expect the CC to come up with the funds to cover the shortfall by cutting other programs or raising taxes. There will likely need to be a combination of MCPS cutting its budget, the rest of county services cutting their budgets to share some with MCPS and a tax increase. This will leave everyone very angry.

MCPS already takes the lion share of the budget. It infuriated police, fire, and other county workers when during the recession when everyone's pay was frozen MCPS gave itself a raise by increasing the class sizes/teacher ratios. These groups are still mad about this a decade later. From their perspective, MCPS cries that they are helping the children and then turns around and rewards their own employees while the rest of the county employees were frozen. They are not going to be happy about giving up more. This is just one example.

People keep saying that, in a sky-is-falling kind of way. I haven't seen any explanations from them for why this would happen, yet.

Oh, FFS. In every single post someone (sometimes me) explains about the Kirwan Commission recommendations and their potential impact on MCPS. Google it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In MCPS high schools that run seven 47 minute periods, we could increase each class period (making each class 60 minutes per day), keep passing time and lunch the same, and have the same number of minutes of instruction in four days as five. This would be a tremendous cost saving measure for MCPS. I think it would be really beneficial for high school students, who could use the fifth day for all kinds of enrichment, even more sports practice if people are worried about the lengthened day cutting into after school activities. I'm not sure how well it would work for elementary and middle school students, but it would certainly be worth looking into. Obviously the 180 day requirement would have to be changed, but the annual hourly instructional requirement could remain the same.

It's hard to quantify how dumb an idea this is. But if I had to, I'd say it was just slightly more idiotic than using hydrogen instead of Helium in the Hindenburg.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't want free pre-k for all however, I fully support the idea of all K-3 classroom having a full-time paraeducator. I would even support the school week being cut from 5 days a week to 4 days a week to fund this. We would still be able to get to 180 school days somehow with the constraints of the Governor's order, the BOE just has to learn to make it work. Poorer school districts have gone from 5 day school weeks to 4 days school weeks. Although the links below says it hurts poorer demographics most of the school districts who have gone from 5 to 4 days also don't have quality free pre-k for poorer students. If MCPS were to keep the free pre-k for poorer families and implement a 4 day week with full-time paraeducators in classrooms the school data might soar with the student to teacher ratio.

I am not in favor of everyone gets free community college either because we cannot afford it.

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/18/06/four-day-school-week

https://bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/why-some-us-school-districts-are-adopting-a-4-day-school-week

[/b]I would support a 4 day school. This is a great idea. We should move to hours instead of days.[b]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't want free pre-k for all however, I fully support the idea of all K-3 classroom having a full-time paraeducator. I would even support the school week being cut from 5 days a week to 4 days a week to fund this. We would still be able to get to 180 school days somehow with the constraints of the Governor's order, the BOE just has to learn to make it work. Poorer school districts have gone from 5 day school weeks to 4 days school weeks. Although the links below says it hurts poorer demographics most of the school districts who have gone from 5 to 4 days also don't have quality free pre-k for poorer students. If MCPS were to keep the free pre-k for poorer families and implement a 4 day week with full-time paraeducators in classrooms the school data might soar with the student to teacher ratio.

I am not in favor of everyone gets free community college either because we cannot afford it.

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/18/06/four-day-school-week

https://bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/why-some-us-school-districts-are-adopting-a-4-day-school-week

[/b]I would support a 4 day school. This is a great idea. We should move to hours instead of days.[b]

Agree!

I also do not support free community college and universal preK. Leave the preK as it is for low income families.

[Anonymous]

Great idea. Every Friday will have to be take your child to work day though.