What happened to MCPS?????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How did MCPS end up going from the school system that everyone raved about to being the school system that everyone hates? We had always assumed that we would move to MD for the schools but now I'm wondering if we should just stay in DC or go to VA. We prefer MD for commute and neighborhoods but schools are most important to us. Everyone we know in Arlington, Fallschurch, and Fairfax still raves about their school system. The opposite is true of MCPS. Bad curriculum, meaningless report cards, bad superintendent, failing test scores and declining test scores...

Is it just a bad superintendent or are these bigger problems that just show its declining and will not recover?

Yes, I have looked at the websites for all the school systems above and read both the VA and MD boards in addition to talking with as many people that we know with kids in elementary school.

Move to VA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't worry, Common Core will tank MoCo property values across the board so all that will be left are people who can't move. Then your utopia of everyone having the same and equal skills, discipline, work ethic and smarts will be realized.

You are aware that the Common Core is a NATIONAL program, aren't you? Well done Einstein!

Hey Sherlock:
Implemented differently by each state or county, up to the locality and their needs to get act test scores up.

And guess what, huge MoCo has decided their needs aren't the GT kids, or the average kids, or the kids with actual families, it's the thousands of kids from low-skilled immigrants who don't speak English and live off benefits and cash jobs. Those get the extra teachers, the extra help, the teacher training, the lions share of the budget, the free breakfasts/lunches/weekend meal bags, etc. Those kids are what MoCo has deemed "low hanging fruit" to focus in to bring up test scores and school performance numbers. Everyone else can just coast along for the experiment, sorry if you're bored or not challenged.

I don't know what planet, country , state, or county in which you reside, but where-so-eva it is... I beg you, STEP AWAY FROM THE CRACK PIPE!!!!

This sad person keeps writing about crack pipes instead of actually making any rational agrument supporting the other side. The system is spending the majority of the resources on the poor performers and is no longer stimulating the rest the way it has CHOSEN to implement the CC. There is no longer a way for a student to earn and "A". These kids don't even know what the grades mean but "a P is good". YOU are the one that needs to step away and leave the discussion if you have nothing meaningful to say except name calling. Reminds me of the administration not having any discussion with parents.

You make broad, sweeping, unsubstantiated accusations regarding everything from free food to welfare and a conspiracy to plummet the education of every kid in the county, then you wonder about the responses you get???
PRICELESS!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Totally agree. The crack pipe commenter is the real crack pipe. The truth is the majority of parents hate 2.0. And I have children two grades apart. Yes I can explain an A vs a B to my older son and no I cannot explain the P vs. ES to my other son

The truth is probably that the majority of parents have only the foggiest notion of a curriculum change.

"Parents you know" + "Anonymous comments on DCUM" =/= "The majority of parents"

[Anonymous]

^^^Also, P = proficient. That means that you can do what you're supposed to be able to do. (Which is good.) ES = exceptional at the grade-level standard. That means that you did something extra, related to the thing that you're supposed to be able to do and can do.

What do A and B mean? What did O, S, and I mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/math/math-curriculum-plan.aspx

MCPS says that the following math classes are under 2.0 in 2013-2014:

Kindergarten, Math 1, Math 2, Math 3, Math 4, Math 5, Algebra 1.

Math 6 and Geometry in 2014-2015, Math 7/IM and Algebra 2 in 2015-2016, Math 8 and Pre-calculus in 2016-2017.

Since Algebra 1 in 8th grade is on-grade-level math under 2.0, Algebra 1 should be (as the PP says) mostly a middle-school class.

Are they deviating from this schedule?

I guess Winston Churchill is along with the middle schools that feed there - according to the info. we received at Back to School Night. Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 all fall into 2.0 this year at these schools. Perhaps our children are a subtest group.

Well there you go - Churchill is so advanced you are getting 2.0 two years before other high schools. We don't have it at Whitman (except maybe in Algebra 1, but how many Whitman or Churchill kids are taking Algebra 1?) Enjoy!

I wouldn't consider it as advancement. The teachers don't seem to have the training or materials to follow through with the instruction intended. The result is confusion for teachers and students.

[Anonymous]

awesome, 85% of my daughter's classmates received P for Proficient last year. What a bunch of smarties... They passed the proficiency bar... What about the bar for potential? Oops this is msps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:awesome, 85% of my daughter's classmates received P for Proficient last year. What a bunch of smarties... They passed the proficiency bar... What about the bar for potential? Oops this is msps.[/quote

So true!!! But yea explain to them that P is a better motivator than A. These people defending it must be government workers that don't know the meaning of motivation. 85% in one bucket, Lower the bar.......

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:awesome, 85% of my daughter's classmates received P for Proficient last year. What a bunch of smarties... They passed the proficiency bar... What about the bar for potential? Oops this is msps.[/quote

So true!!! But yea explain to them that P is a better motivator than A. These people defending it must be government workers that don't know the meaning of motivation. 85% in one bucket, Lower the bar.......

Gee, if only you knew why "yea" is wrong and how to use ellipses, we might respect your rant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:awesome, 85% of my daughter's classmates received P for Proficient last year. What a bunch of smarties... They passed the proficiency bar... What about the bar for potential? Oops this is msps.

85% received a P? 85% received all Ps? How do you know what your daughter's classmates got?

And if your daughter's school thinks that the children are supposed to learn as much as will get them a P, and nothing more, then your daughter's school is the problem -- not the elementary school report card system.

(Note: this is actually MCPS, not MSPS.)

[Anonymous]

There is widespread disgust at our school regarding the new grade reports. For math, the non-math oriented parents think its too easy but are not as upset if they think their kids are stronger in reading anyway. The STEM career focused parents are very upset.

My prediction is that MCPS will have to change course on math anyway. The county scores keep dropping as the low bar math curriculum will not meet the higher standards of the new tests that are emerging. This is so ironic considering one of MCPS's talking points is that they are only following Common Core. They really aren't. The end to math acceleration, adoption of constant repetition and limiting the math curriculum have nothing to do with Common Core. This is entirely MCPS attempting to hide the achievement gap by not accelerating the higher performing math students out of the base classes with the kids who score poorly. They are banking on the idea that the high performing students will always score high on tests regardless of the curriculum and that the #s of low performers rising will counter the drop in the middle. The students in the middle are the ones who suffer the most under curriculum 2.0 math. The highest performing students are more aware that math in school is a joke BUT they will get enrichment outside of MCPS anyway.

I do think that MCPS will be forced by parents to change the grading system. There is far more universal outrage about the grade cards. MCPS will be forced to at least identify low Ps and high Ps and deal with the stupidity of ES or do away with it. Teacher comments will be forced back into the grade reports.

[Anonymous]

Let me count the generalizations.

1. Non-math parents don't care much about math grades.
2. Math parents hate that their children can't get As in math!
3. The Common Core curriculum is a "low bar" (although somehow at the same time the Common Core tests have "higher standards").
4. MCPS has ended math acceleration.
5. MCPS is trying to close the achievement gap by reducing achievement among high-achievers.
6. High-performing students in MCPS believe that "math in school is a joke".
7. There is "universal outrage" (!!!!) about the P/I/N grading system on elementary school report cards.

[Anonymous]

8:47 works for MCPS.

[Anonymous]

8:47 (me) does not work for MCPS. Good grief. If you believe that everybody agrees with you except people who get paid to believe otherwise, that is a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:awesome, 85% of my daughter's classmates received P for Proficient last year. What a bunch of smarties... They passed the proficiency bar... What about the bar for potential? Oops this is msps.[/quote

So true!!! But yea explain to them that P is a better motivator than A. These people defending it must be government workers that don't know the meaning of motivation. 85% in one bucket, Lower the bar.......

NP here, you see the thing is, it has only been recently that our DC has even mentioned "P"s or "ES's.
In our family, we have set up learning and doing your best as the motivator.
We don't expect symbols for grades, be they "P"'s or "A"'s to be our child's PRIMARY motivator for doing DC's best.
If the only thing motivating your kid is the grade they get, then you have a family problem, not a MCPS problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:awesome, 85% of my daughter's classmates received P for Proficient last year. What a bunch of smarties... They passed the proficiency bar... What about the bar for potential? Oops this is msps.

So true!!! But yea explain to them that P is a better motivator than A. These people defending it must be government workers that don't know the meaning of motivation. 85% in one bucket, Lower the bar.......

NP here, you see the thing is, it has only been recently that our DC has even mentioned "P"s or "ES's.
In our family, we have set up learning and doing your best as the motivator.
We don't expect symbols for grades, be they "P"'s or "A"'s to be our child's PRIMARY motivator for doing DC's best.
If the only thing motivating your kid is the grade they get, then you have a family problem, not a MCPS problem.

Well, the problem is, how do they get feedback when everybody gets the same rating? How do you judge "learning and doing your best" if everything is the same?