"Is MCPS losing its edge?"

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The article points out that at ALL MCPS schools, even in honor classes, there’s a lack of rigor, grade level assignments, and assigned books.

Even in AP classes! Look at your high school’s AP scores and you can easily see that. Very much a lack of rigor.

21 out 25 MCPS schools made the AP honor roll.
MCPS has an AP passing rate of over 70%.
How is it a lack of rigor?

And many, if not most AP courses have a total pass rate of 70% now, so this is nothing special.

The national AP passing rate is 52%

You are out-of-date... See last column...
https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/about-ap-scores/score-distributions

For about half of those courses have a pass rate below 70%. Even if they all had a 70% pass rate, isn’t that the point. For kids to take a class and demonstrate mastery of the content? It’s like you have a problem with kids and teachers being successful.

I personally wouldn’t count receiving a 3 on an AP test a success.

MCPS counts the score of 3 and above as a ‘success’. But I agree with you.

Yes - not surprising from the system that, just yesterday, publicly released the district's MCAP scores with a headline touting how they are the best in Maryland while glossing over the fact that MCPS scores have been declining year-over-year.

Idiot, it's the college board that decides 3 and above as success. If you have a problem with that, take it with them.
Second, MCPS' MCAP scores have not been declining. This is an unproven test that is only 3 years old.
You would think these private schools parents would be smarter

Why are you so triggered by private school parents that you bring them up even when no one has identified themselves as a private school parent?

Why are you posting here if you are a private school parent?

… when did I say I’m a private school parent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just read the article. What an absolute mess.

I can’t understand how anyone can continue defending this district or pretending it’s providing kids with a high quality education.

Can you post it online? I don't think it's on their website, which is annoying.

Try this: https://issuu.com/bethesdamagazine/docs/bethesda-sept-2024?ff

It starts on page 64.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Demographics are destiny.

Import the third world, become the third world. Not sure what people expect.

Whatever Uncle Donnie. My kids recently joined MCPS from "the third world" and are excelling in the accelerated classes that MCPS offers.

[Anonymous]

Can you all stop accusing people of being private school parents and actually engage with the issues at hand?

Here’s just one example:

During the 2023-2024 school year, Rebekah Jacobs’ son was required to read only 2 books for English class at Wootton High School and none of his writing assignments were more than 4 pages long. He, like all freshmen at the school, was in honors English.

During the 2022-2023 school year, Paul Jaskunas’ son was supposed to be studying Homer’s The Odyssey for his sophomore year honors English class at B-CC, but the students were only assigned a short excerpt from the book. To round out the unit, the class watched a 12-minute YouTube video summarizing the plot, performed a skit of the scene, and read a novella about Penelope, Odysseus’ wife.

Jacobs and Jaskunas are both members of the curriculum committee of the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, At a recent workshop with MCPS administrators in attendance, the committee reported that in classrooms at every socioeconomic level, “students are not reading a lot of texts within the grade level band.” Even at high schools with 90% pass rates on the MCAP, where even the feeder schools had 70+ percent MCAP pass rates, “teachers are not assigning grade-level work,” the organization reported.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Demographics are destiny.

Import the third world, become the third world. Not sure what people expect.

Whatever Uncle Donnie. My kids recently joined MCPS from "the third world" and are excelling in the accelerated classes that MCPS offers.

Define “excelling.” Nearly half of MCPS high schoolers have 4.0 GPAs.

Are they reading entire books? Are they writing research papers that are more than a few pages long?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you all stop accusing people of being private school parents and actually engage with the issues at hand?

Here’s just one example:

During the 2023-2024 school year, Rebekah Jacobs’ son was required to read only 2 books for English class at Wootton High School and none of his writing assignments were more than 4 pages long. He, like all freshmen at the school, was in honors English.

During the 2022-2023 school year, Paul Jaskunas’ son was supposed to be studying Homer’s The Odyssey for his sophomore year honors English class at B-CC, but the students were only assigned a short excerpt from the book. To round out the unit, the class watched a 12-minute YouTube video summarizing the plot, performed a skit of the scene, and read a novella about Penelope, Odysseus’ wife.

Jacobs and Jaskunas are both members of the curriculum committee of the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, At a recent workshop with MCPS administrators in attendance, the committee reported that in classrooms at every socioeconomic level, “students are not reading a lot of texts within the grade level band.” Even at high schools with 90% pass rates on the MCAP, where even the feeder schools had 70+ percent MCAP pass rates, “teachers are not assigning grade-level work,” the organization reported.

The bolded is the source of the problem. If everyone is in Honors English, but they've reduced or changed the readings to account for a wider range of abilities in the class, then no one is in Honors English.

[Anonymous]

1. The demographics of the cou ty have changed dramatically over the past 20-30 years, and that had had an impact on our schools

2. Nationally, many states are opting for charters and vouchers, which starve our public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you all stop accusing people of being private school parents and actually engage with the issues at hand?

Here’s just one example:

During the 2023-2024 school year, Rebekah Jacobs’ son was required to read only 2 books for English class at Wootton High School and none of his writing assignments were more than 4 pages long. He, like all freshmen at the school, was in honors English.

During the 2022-2023 school year, Paul Jaskunas’ son was supposed to be studying Homer’s The Odyssey for his sophomore year honors English class at B-CC, but the students were only assigned a short excerpt from the book. To round out the unit, the class watched a 12-minute YouTube video summarizing the plot, performed a skit of the scene, and read a novella about Penelope, Odysseus’ wife.

Jacobs and Jaskunas are both members of the curriculum committee of the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, At a recent workshop with MCPS administrators in attendance, the committee reported that in classrooms at every socioeconomic level, “students are not reading a lot of texts within the grade level band.” Even at high schools with 90% pass rates on the MCAP, where even the feeder schools had 70+ percent MCAP pass rates, “teachers are not assigning grade-level work,” the organization reported.

The bolded is the source of the problem. If everyone is in Honors English, but they've reduced or changed the readings to account for a wider range of abilities in the class, then no one is in Honors English.

The Honors/Advanced English thing is stupid. My middle school kid is in "Advanced English." So are all the rest of his classmates--they don't need to inflate the titles of the coursework if there's no actual differentiation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The article points out that at ALL MCPS schools, even in honor classes, there’s a lack of rigor, grade level assignments, and assigned books.

Even in AP classes! Look at your high school’s AP scores and you can easily see that. Very much a lack of rigor.

21 out 25 MCPS schools made the AP honor roll.
MCPS has an AP passing rate of over 70%.
How is it a lack of rigor?

And many, if not most AP courses have a total pass rate of 70% now, so this is nothing special.

The national AP passing rate is 52%

You are out-of-date... See last column...
https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/about-ap-scores/score-distributions

For about half of those courses have a pass rate below 70%. Even if they all had a 70% pass rate, isn’t that the point. For kids to take a class and demonstrate mastery of the content? It’s like you have a problem with kids and teachers being successful.

I personally wouldn’t count receiving a 3 on an AP test a success.

MCPS counts the score of 3 and above as a ‘success’. But I agree with you.

Yes - not surprising from the system that, just yesterday, publicly released the district's MCAP scores with a headline touting how they are the best in Maryland while glossing over the fact that MCPS scores have been declining year-over-year.

Idiot, it's the college board that decides 3 and above as success. If you have a problem with that, take it with them.
Second, MCPS' MCAP scores have not been declining. This is an unproven test that is only 3 years old.
You would think these private schools parents would be smarter

Why are you so triggered by private school parents that you bring them up even when no one has identified themselves as a private school parent?

Your ignorance and cluelessness gave you away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The article points out that at ALL MCPS schools, even in honor classes, there’s a lack of rigor, grade level assignments, and assigned books.

Even in AP classes! Look at your high school’s AP scores and you can easily see that. Very much a lack of rigor.

21 out 25 MCPS schools made the AP honor roll.
MCPS has an AP passing rate of over 70%.
How is it a lack of rigor?

And many, if not most AP courses have a total pass rate of 70% now, so this is nothing special.

The national AP passing rate is 52%

You are out-of-date... See last column...
https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/about-ap-scores/score-distributions

For about half of those courses have a pass rate below 70%. Even if they all had a 70% pass rate, isn’t that the point. For kids to take a class and demonstrate mastery of the content? It’s like you have a problem with kids and teachers being successful.

I personally wouldn’t count receiving a 3 on an AP test a success.

MCPS counts the score of 3 and above as a ‘success’. But I agree with you.

Yes - not surprising from the system that, just yesterday, publicly released the district's MCAP scores with a headline touting how they are the best in Maryland while glossing over the fact that MCPS scores have been declining year-over-year.

Idiot, it's the college board that decides 3 and above as success. If you have a problem with that, take it with them.
Second, MCPS' MCAP scores have not been declining. This is an unproven test that is only 3 years old.
You would think these private schools parents would be smarter

Why are you so triggered by private school parents that you bring them up even when no one has identified themselves as a private school parent?

Your ignorance and cluelessness gave you away.

I’m not even the poster you were replying to. Just stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you all stop accusing people of being private school parents and actually engage with the issues at hand?

Here’s just one example:

During the 2023-2024 school year, Rebekah Jacobs’ son was required to read only 2 books for English class at Wootton High School and none of his writing assignments were more than 4 pages long. He, like all freshmen at the school, was in honors English.

During the 2022-2023 school year, Paul Jaskunas’ son was supposed to be studying Homer’s The Odyssey for his sophomore year honors English class at B-CC, but the students were only assigned a short excerpt from the book. To round out the unit, the class watched a 12-minute YouTube video summarizing the plot, performed a skit of the scene, and read a novella about Penelope, Odysseus’ wife.

Jacobs and Jaskunas are both members of the curriculum committee of the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, At a recent workshop with MCPS administrators in attendance, the committee reported that in classrooms at every socioeconomic level, “students are not reading a lot of texts within the grade level band.” Even at high schools with 90% pass rates on the MCAP, where even the feeder schools had 70+ percent MCAP pass rates, “teachers are not assigning grade-level work,” the organization reported.

The bolded is the source of the problem. If everyone is in Honors English, but they've reduced or changed the readings to account for a wider range of abilities in the class, then no one is in Honors English.

The Honors/Advanced English thing is stupid. My middle school kid is in "Advanced English." So are all the rest of his classmates--they don't need to inflate the titles of the coursework if there's no actual differentiation.

But it didn't used to be this way. There used to be on-level English and also Honors or Advanced English. Then they stopped offering on-level English and signed everyone up for Honors/Advanced, but made the class less rigorous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. The demographics of the cou ty have changed dramatically over the past 20-30 years, and that had had an impact on our schools

2. Nationally, many states are opting for charters and vouchers, which starve our public schools.

No vouchers in MCPS. Our politics won’t allow them. And MCPS spending per student is high. Our public schools are not starving. They are horribly mismanaged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you all stop accusing people of being private school parents and actually engage with the issues at hand?

Here’s just one example:

During the 2023-2024 school year, Rebekah Jacobs’ son was required to read only 2 books for English class at Wootton High School and none of his writing assignments were more than 4 pages long. He, like all freshmen at the school, was in honors English.

During the 2022-2023 school year, Paul Jaskunas’ son was supposed to be studying Homer’s The Odyssey for his sophomore year honors English class at B-CC, but the students were only assigned a short excerpt from the book. To round out the unit, the class watched a 12-minute YouTube video summarizing the plot, performed a skit of the scene, and read a novella about Penelope, Odysseus’ wife.

Jacobs and Jaskunas are both members of the curriculum committee of the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, At a recent workshop with MCPS administrators in attendance, the committee reported that in classrooms at every socioeconomic level, “students are not reading a lot of texts within the grade level band.” Even at high schools with 90% pass rates on the MCAP, where even the feeder schools had 70+ percent MCAP pass rates, “teachers are not assigning grade-level work,” the organization reported.

The bolded is the source of the problem. If everyone is in Honors English, but they've reduced or changed the readings to account for a wider range of abilities in the class, then no one is in Honors English.

The Honors/Advanced English thing is stupid. My middle school kid is in "Advanced English." So are all the rest of his classmates--they don't need to inflate the titles of the coursework if there's no actual differentiation.

Middle School Advanced English is SO SO SO bad. They often just read excerpts of books instead of reading the entire book.

The teachers are supposed to make the class ‘equitable’ and ‘accessible’ so instead of having the kids actually read the book, they show YouTube videos of someone else reading it.

There is zero differentiation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you all stop accusing people of being private school parents and actually engage with the issues at hand?

Here’s just one example:

During the 2023-2024 school year, Rebekah Jacobs’ son was required to read only 2 books for English class at Wootton High School and none of his writing assignments were more than 4 pages long. He, like all freshmen at the school, was in honors English.

During the 2022-2023 school year, Paul Jaskunas’ son was supposed to be studying Homer’s The Odyssey for his sophomore year honors English class at B-CC, but the students were only assigned a short excerpt from the book. To round out the unit, the class watched a 12-minute YouTube video summarizing the plot, performed a skit of the scene, and read a novella about Penelope, Odysseus’ wife.

Jacobs and Jaskunas are both members of the curriculum committee of the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, At a recent workshop with MCPS administrators in attendance, the committee reported that in classrooms at every socioeconomic level, “students are not reading a lot of texts within the grade level band.” Even at high schools with 90% pass rates on the MCAP, where even the feeder schools had 70+ percent MCAP pass rates, “teachers are not assigning grade-level work,” the organization reported.

The bolded is the source of the problem. If everyone is in Honors English, but they've reduced or changed the readings to account for a wider range of abilities in the class, then no one is in Honors English.

The Honors/Advanced English thing is stupid. My middle school kid is in "Advanced English." So are all the rest of his classmates--they don't need to inflate the titles of the coursework if there's no actual differentiation.

Middle School Advanced English is SO SO SO bad. They often just read excerpts of books instead of reading the entire book.

The teachers are supposed to make the class ‘equitable’ and ‘accessible’ so instead of having the kids actually read the book, they show YouTube videos of someone else reading it.

There is zero differentiation.

That's not true across the board. My kid is in his first week of middle school, and his English homework nightly (I can see it on ParentVue) is reading a chapter or two of an actual book. Is he challenged? Not really--but it's not quite as dire as the article leads one to believe, which is an odd one, which basically draws upon the opinions of paid tutors to the richest of MCPS kids. Where I am disappointed is the class sizes of 30-34 students on average and the general lack of staffing. My kid (and others) say lunchtime and recess are a free-for-all with 4 teachers watching 400 kids and kids throwing stuff without adequate supervision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you all stop accusing people of being private school parents and actually engage with the issues at hand?

Here’s just one example:

During the 2023-2024 school year, Rebekah Jacobs’ son was required to read only 2 books for English class at Wootton High School and none of his writing assignments were more than 4 pages long. He, like all freshmen at the school, was in honors English.

During the 2022-2023 school year, Paul Jaskunas’ son was supposed to be studying Homer’s The Odyssey for his sophomore year honors English class at B-CC, but the students were only assigned a short excerpt from the book. To round out the unit, the class watched a 12-minute YouTube video summarizing the plot, performed a skit of the scene, and read a novella about Penelope, Odysseus’ wife.

Jacobs and Jaskunas are both members of the curriculum committee of the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, At a recent workshop with MCPS administrators in attendance, the committee reported that in classrooms at every socioeconomic level, “students are not reading a lot of texts within the grade level band.” Even at high schools with 90% pass rates on the MCAP, where even the feeder schools had 70+ percent MCAP pass rates, “teachers are not assigning grade-level work,” the organization reported.

The bolded is the source of the problem. If everyone is in Honors English, but they've reduced or changed the readings to account for a wider range of abilities in the class, then no one is in Honors English.

The Honors/Advanced English thing is stupid. My middle school kid is in "Advanced English." So are all the rest of his classmates--they don't need to inflate the titles of the coursework if there's no actual differentiation.

Middle School Advanced English is SO SO SO bad. They often just read excerpts of books instead of reading the entire book.

The teachers are supposed to make the class ‘equitable’ and ‘accessible’ so instead of having the kids actually read the book, they show YouTube videos of someone else reading it.

There is zero differentiation.

That's not true across the board. My kid is in his first week of middle school, and his English homework nightly (I can see it on ParentVue) is reading a chapter or two of an actual book. Is he challenged? Not really--but it's not quite as dire as the article leads one to believe, which is an odd one, which basically draws upon the opinions of paid tutors to the richest of MCPS kids. Where I am disappointed is the class sizes of 30-34 students on average and the general lack of staffing. My kid (and others) say lunchtime and recess are a free-for-all with 4 teachers watching 400 kids and kids throwing stuff without adequate supervision.

The quotes about the English curriculum come from parents who are on the curriculum committee for the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations. They aren’t paid tutors.

Also, this is primarily about high school, not middle school.