Achievement gap will worsen with refusal to provide distance learning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my opinion, MCPS is being incredibly short-sighted by refusing to let any distance or on-line learning take place. I understand that access will be a problem for some students. However, by putting a stop to any learning of new material or feedback from teachers, or assesments of any kind, no child is served. Some parents who are lucky enough to have resources and time will provide lots of enrichment for their kids for as long as this lasts. They will find activities and make sure their kids stay on track academically. These kids will end up ahead of grade level. Some kids have parents that are still working, or are in difficult family situations without any adult support at home. These children will suffer with no support from MCPS. When they all come back, whenever that might be, I'm afraid that the achievement gap will be even bigger. For fear of looking inequitable, MCPS is harming more students than it would if it would just transition to online learning for whoever can access it and then try to help the folks that have trouble with access. Not to mention, the "work" that is online, at least for Elementary school, is complete dreck. Am I off base with this? I'm just disgusted by how MCPS is handling this. Everyone loses.

+100

I’m tired of MCPS using the achievement gap as an excuse to be mediocre and fail the vast majority of families they are supposed to be serving.

I'm tired of families taking less and less responsibility for raising their kids, and shifting that responsibility to MCPS and other school districts.

I'm tired of coronavirus, eh?

"Families! Stop doing stuff I think you shouldn't do, and start doing stuff I think you should do!" is just about as effective as "Coronavirus! Stop making people sick!"

DP

That’s simply not true.

The government has a good amount of control as to implementing incentives and changing behavior.

We currently have a system that ‘rewards’ women for having more kids, even when they can’t afford them. We have a system that has made families think that they can get free food/free clothes and other necessities from their kids’ schools, so why bother worrying about it.

Like it or not, our society has made some decisions that have led to even more and more people being comfortable with having kids that they cannot support. There are consequences to that, and it’s naive to ignore them.

+1

[Anonymous]

3 billion a year for this show. Remember the MCPS system was built to be a Democratic employment system not an educational system. Gotta love the late night Kirwan vote too from the Maryland Senate just before shutting down - more money to these incompetents. Read ‘A Well Trained Mind’ and get on with it. These folks never intended to provide your children with a world class education - Curriculum 2.0 taught us that. It took a pandemic to reveal it to the folks who weren’t paying attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my opinion, MCPS is being incredibly short-sighted by refusing to let any distance or on-line learning take place. I understand that access will be a problem for some students. However, by putting a stop to any learning of new material or feedback from teachers, or assesments of any kind, no child is served. Some parents who are lucky enough to have resources and time will provide lots of enrichment for their kids for as long as this lasts. They will find activities and make sure their kids stay on track academically. These kids will end up ahead of grade level. Some kids have parents that are still working, or are in difficult family situations without any adult support at home. These children will suffer with no support from MCPS. When they all come back, whenever that might be, I'm afraid that the achievement gap will be even bigger. For fear of looking inequitable, MCPS is harming more students than it would if it would just transition to online learning for whoever can access it and then try to help the folks that have trouble with access. Not to mention, the "work" that is online, at least for Elementary school, is complete dreck. Am I off base with this? I'm just disgusted by how MCPS is handling this. Everyone loses.

+100

I’m tired of MCPS using the achievement gap as an excuse to be mediocre and fail the vast majority of families they are supposed to be serving.

How the hell would you grade and assess kids who are unable to access the curriculum? Do you just hold them back end mass?

I'm sure they have X-box adn 65" TV. Highly doubtful that they don't have high speed internet.

[Anonymous]

So are parents reconsidering their overpriced housing purchases? When your kid goes to a public school, their district educates a very broad spectrum of students. Unless all of those students can receive an education, none of them will. If you don’t like it, move and spend your money on private schools. The reason they are already up and running is that they don’t have to honor IEPs and 504 plans. It costs money to opt out of the free version of education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If MCPS went forward with on-line instruction for say a month — in this example assume a 7th grade math reacher posts the lectures she would normally give, teachers are available to try to answer questions, and they figure out a way to give a test of the material. What should MCPS do when they re-open the schools? Not all students will have been able to participate in the on-line learning. So should the same material be taught again in the classroom?

Students that transfer from other school districts or countries get evaluated at the beginning of the year. We may have to do that for everyone next year. Students that are prepared, perhaps because they studied over the summer or continued with instruction somehow should NOT be penalized simply because others did not; those who can move forward should, and those who cannot move forward should not; they should be placed in the appropriate class no matter what. Whatever is done, it will be unfair to some; as a society I want the decision that is best for SOCIETY, not necessarily what is best for each and every individual. Society will be better off with at least SOME students continuing to learn NOW, rather than enacting a policy where NO STUDENT learns. Fair to all? No. Best for society? Most certainly.

The evaluation you are describing may work if there were no school for a year. But what if the school is closed for only one month or the rest of the academic year? Are you going to create extra classes to accommodate the students who had access to the internet and those who did not. What are your practical solutions to the problem the school would face?

PP here. I don't have all the answers; unlike "Jackanniny" Smith, no one is paying me $315,000, giving me 55 days of leave (scratch that, maybe they are, LoL!), a free car, or (most importantly) indemnity from lawsuits over my incompetence. So I don't have all the answers. But here goes 10 seconds worth of thought.
MCPS already has the problem that all students are going have missed an entire quarter/marking period of instruction. The chance school reopens this year is small and diminishing; let assume the chance is zero. i'm also assuming that even as incompetent as MCPS is, they will have something up and running for Fall 2020/21; either we are back in school, or actual on line lessons have been worked out.

One solution is to ignore the missed instruction and advance students without preparation; I think this is the worst worst solution, but the one I expect MCPS to make. That is I expect MCPS to do this and just give teachers yet another "unfunded mandate" to "catch students up" without any adjustments to curriculum and lesson timing. yup, pretty certain this is what MCPS will do.

2nd, MCPS could make everyone repeat the entire grade; also a terrible solution. Logistically simple, so probably pretty appealing to MCPS. And as all the top students leave in droves for private school, on paper MCPS' achievement gaps will diminish. So a win-win for MCPS bureaucracy. Hmm, now I'm beginning to wonder if this will be what the county does...

3rd, MCPS could pick up where we left off in the curriculum when schools reopen, possibly in the fall. So MP1 of 2020/21 school year is the material that should have been MP4 of 2019/20. To get everyone "back on schedule" MCPS would need to extend the school year (done summer of 2021 and not summer 2020). So by Fall 2021/2022 we are "back to normal". Politically painful, but these are strange and unprecedented times and business as usual will not work.

Just like we have differentiation of honors vs on level classes, MCPS could add sections that are "on time" or "one quarter behind". So, for instance, instead of a school having, for instance 12 sections of "Geometry", that becomes 8 sections of "MP4 Algebra" and 4 sections of "MP1 Geometry". Logistically difficult, but not undo-able. Where a student needs to be placed would depend on above metioned testing; county could adapt its already existing "Progress Checks" via Performance Matters to do this. Alternatively, it could write or commission tests that aren't crap. Chunking will be by an entire, not smaller units. No 1000 different levels, depending on whether little Johnny or sweet Jane covered "Unit 5, Topic 3, SLT 4" but not "Unit 5, Topic 3, SLT 5".

These scenarios would work for middle and high school. I admit I've done nothing to think about elementary school. But if you give ME $315,000 in salary and a free car loaded with lots of other taxpayer-funded perks, I'll spend more time thinking about this!

Love to hear what other long term solutions people have. And yes, I know there are TONS of issues, especially equity. But you don't force everyone on the sinking ship to drown just because your Titanic-sized school district didn't build enough lifeboats.

[Anonymous]

Spring is testing season so they aren’t going to miss much. Chill out people and take care of your own kids. The school districts should provide packets of work and free online resources. Time for parents to step up.

[Anonymous]

This is going to be world~wide problem and definitely country~wide, so the solutions will need to be adequate.

[Anonymous]

Ultimately, it is the parents' job to educate and raise their children. School is a wonderful bonus in a first-world country. No school right now, so parents: do your *original* job!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So are parents reconsidering their overpriced housing purchases? When your kid goes to a public school, their district educates a very broad spectrum of students. Unless all of those students can receive an education, none of them will. If you don’t like it, move and spend your money on private schools. The reason they are already up and running is that they don’t have to honor IEPs and 504 plans. It costs money to opt out of the free version of education.

Record high private school applications this year for the above reason. Ironically, the private kids are the only ones being educated. MCPS is broken and is racing to the bottom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So are parents reconsidering their overpriced housing purchases? When your kid goes to a public school, their district educates a very broad spectrum of students. Unless all of those students can receive an education, none of them will. If you don’t like it, move and spend your money on private schools. The reason they are already up and running is that they don’t have to honor IEPs and 504 plans. It costs money to opt out of the free version of education.

Record high private school applications this year for the above reason. Ironically, the private kids are the only ones being educated. MCPS is broken and is racing to the bottom.

I always wonder what people base these statements on. Is there some kind of public data clearinghouse for private-school applications?

In any case, when the economy crashes, everyone's coming back to MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ultimately, it is the parents' job to educate and raise their children. School is a wonderful bonus in a first-world country. No school right now, so parents: do your *original* job!

No, school is not a "bonus." School is a basic societal institution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my opinion, MCPS is being incredibly short-sighted by refusing to let any distance or on-line learning take place. I understand that access will be a problem for some students. However, by putting a stop to any learning of new material or feedback from teachers, or assesments of any kind, no child is served. Some parents who are lucky enough to have resources and time will provide lots of enrichment for their kids for as long as this lasts. They will find activities and make sure their kids stay on track academically. These kids will end up ahead of grade level. Some kids have parents that are still working, or are in difficult family situations without any adult support at home. These children will suffer with no support from MCPS. When they all come back, whenever that might be, I'm afraid that the achievement gap will be even bigger. For fear of looking inequitable, MCPS is harming more students than it would if it would just transition to online learning for whoever can access it and then try to help the folks that have trouble with access. Not to mention, the "work" that is online, at least for Elementary school, is complete dreck. Am I off base with this? I'm just disgusted by how MCPS is handling this. Everyone loses.

+100

I’m tired of MCPS using the achievement gap as an excuse to be mediocre and fail the vast majority of families they are supposed to be serving.

I'm tired of families taking less and less responsibility for raising their kids, and shifting that responsibility to MCPS and other school districts.

I'm tired of coronavirus, eh?

"Families! Stop doing stuff I think you shouldn't do, and start doing stuff I think you should do!" is just about as effective as "Coronavirus! Stop making people sick!"

DP

That’s simply not true.

The government has a good amount of control as to implementing incentives and changing behavior.

We currently have a system that ‘rewards’ women for having more kids, even when they can’t afford them. We have a system that has made families think that they can get free food/free clothes and other necessities from their kids’ schools, so why bother worrying about it.

Like it or not, our society has made some decisions that have led to even more and more people being comfortable with having kids that they cannot support. There are consequences to that, and it’s naive to ignore them.

+1

Most of the large families I know are the more comfortable to wealthy ones. Those kids are far more neglected. They may have material things but they don't get time.

[Anonymous]

If they can bring UMC whites and asians down then their social engineering worked. We are now finally all at a mutual disadvantage against Asia

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So are parents reconsidering their overpriced housing purchases? When your kid goes to a public school, their district educates a very broad spectrum of students. Unless all of those students can receive an education, none of them will. If you don’t like it, move and spend your money on private schools. The reason they are already up and running is that they don’t have to honor IEPs and 504 plans. It costs money to opt out of the free version of education.

Record high private school applications this year for the above reason. Ironically, the private kids are the only ones being educated. MCPS is broken and is racing to the bottom.

I always wonder what people base these statements on. Is there some kind of public data clearinghouse for private-school applications?

In any case, when the economy crashes, everyone's coming back to MCPS.

If your child went through the process, you would know. It’s mentioned in acceptance letters and discussed among the parents. “Everyone” is not coming back to MCPS. Right now, there is nothing to comeback to anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ultimately, it is the parents' job to educate and raise their children. School is a wonderful bonus in a first-world country. No school right now, so parents: do your *original* job!

Agree. So many poor people just pop out babies and expect the school and government to take care of them.