MCPS has Plans!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Adorable. Please teach my kids to read and do math at grade level and give them some balls and equipment at recess without masks and we’ll be good. No fancy word game necessary.

With parents like you, I hope they keep virtual.

And, if your kids aren't grade level, you have all summer to work with them.

And I hope you pick DL virtual academy all smug and realize your kid will never catch up socially or academically once it’s too late.

Do tell? When is it too late? 50% of MCPS graduates end up at Montgomery College and a huge percentage of MCPS graduates need remediation in math and English after they graduate. Too late already happened, but learning is always possible throughout life. There is no end date on when one can learn.

Many MCPS grads are at MC because it is a financially smart move. I wish I’d made my oldest do her first two years there. She wouldn’t have any loans today. I know dozens of kids from outside of MCPS who went straight to four year schools and still had to take one or two remedial courses just because they blew off the entrance test done during orientation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have to laugh at the name - 2.5 Year Project plan. Looks like Curriculum 2.0. They couldn’t do a 3 year or heaven really far out planning, a 5 year plan?

Perhaps MCPS thinks it will take 2.5 years to find a new Superintendent and therefore this plan will get the boot for the new Superintendent’s agenda. Keep the pendulum that is education in MCPS swinging. The people in Central Office need to justify their big paychecks while students struggle to catch up after online learning. Here’s a thought - hire more teachers and decrease class sizes.

Wonder where they’ll find these extra teachers in the middle of a National teacher shortage and after a year where many existing ones are burnt out? Also wonder where those new classes will go in the buildings that are already overcrowded?(because we know how much MCPS parents love portables).

The crappy Central Office is part of causes teacher burnout, IMO. How many useless trainings can you expect teachers to take? How often can you ‘rework’ the technology and the curriculum before teachers get frustrated.

Pay more. Offer smaller class sizes. Less bureaucratic nonsense. People will take the jobs.

+1 This should be an issue that parents and teachers can unite on. Who ever is chosen for the Apple Ballot at the next election should put more teachers, better pay for teachers, smaller class sizes, and less bureaucratic waste at the top of their agenda.

Downsize Central Office and increase the number of teachers.

Yes!

But it will never happen. This County is crazy. And the Apple Ballot rarely has candidates that will advocate for what is best for students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have to laugh at the name - 2.5 Year Project plan. Looks like Curriculum 2.0. They couldn’t do a 3 year or heaven really far out planning, a 5 year plan?

Perhaps MCPS thinks it will take 2.5 years to find a new Superintendent and therefore this plan will get the boot for the new Superintendent’s agenda. Keep the pendulum that is education in MCPS swinging. The people in Central Office need to justify their big paychecks while students struggle to catch up after online learning. Here’s a thought - hire more teachers and decrease class sizes.

Wonder where they’ll find these extra teachers in the middle of a National teacher shortage and after a year where many existing ones are burnt out? Also wonder where those new classes will go in the buildings that are already overcrowded?(because we know how much MCPS parents love portables).

The crappy Central Office is part of causes teacher burnout, IMO. How many useless trainings can you expect teachers to take? How often can you ‘rework’ the technology and the curriculum before teachers get frustrated.

Pay more. Offer smaller class sizes. Less bureaucratic nonsense. People will take the jobs.

+1 This should be an issue that parents and teachers can unite on. Who ever is chosen for the Apple Ballot at the next election should put more teachers, better pay for teachers, smaller class sizes, and less bureaucratic waste at the top of their agenda.

Downsize Central Office and increase the number of teachers.

Yes!

But it will never happen. This County is crazy. And the Apple Ballot rarely has candidates that will advocate for what is best for students.

People recently posted here that tons of people were leaving the CO. According to them it's a ghost town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we want the next generation to make a better country, we need them to learn from the mistakes of the past, including state sponsored, systemic racism.

But, even if they know something about systemic racism, it will not do them or anyone else any good if they can’t articulate what they know, especially in coherent written English, and form persuasive, organized arguments to support their beliefs. Schools should be very focused on training students to understand and make good arguments and much less focused on what to fill those arguments with. Content is important and some examination of what that content is might be helpful, but MCPS isn’t balancing it very well with a strong program in skills development right now.

The students may know systemic racism in the US well but they cannot balance a check book, budget their monthly expanse, find a job that pays rent and meals.

Well, it's still an improvement over when I graduated from high school - I didn't know how to balance a checkbook or budget my monthly expenses, I certainly couldn't find a job that paid rent and meals (I went to college instead), AND I didn't know about systemic racism in the US.

It is your parents responsibility to teach you about money.

Where's the line between parental teaching responsibilities and school? You can absurdly reduce that one all the way to argue for homeschooling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we want the next generation to make a better country, we need them to learn from the mistakes of the past, including state sponsored, systemic racism.

But, even if they know something about systemic racism, it will not do them or anyone else any good if they can’t articulate what they know, especially in coherent written English, and form persuasive, organized arguments to support their beliefs. Schools should be very focused on training students to understand and make good arguments and much less focused on what to fill those arguments with. Content is important and some examination of what that content is might be helpful, but MCPS isn’t balancing it very well with a strong program in skills development right now.

The students may know systemic racism in the US well but they cannot balance a check book, budget their monthly expanse, find a job that pays rent and meals.

Well, it's still an improvement over when I graduated from high school - I didn't know how to balance a checkbook or budget my monthly expenses, I certainly couldn't find a job that paid rent and meals (I went to college instead), AND I didn't know about systemic racism in the US.

This.

And unless your kid is taking some specialized elective, the only time they even learn about checkbooks is one lesson in seventh grade as part of Finance Park. We should do more financial literacy, but the only way to make it work is to add a fourth required Social Studies course. It ought to be done in 12th grade as many other districts do. Or make NSL 1 semester and do 1 semester of Financial Literacy.

I think my MCPS kid had a whole checkbook unit in 4th grade-ish. They learned the parts of a check, how to sign their names, how to keep balances by adding deposits and subtracting withdrawals, etc. It's really not that hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$5 million, which is a number that somebody made up on this thread, is 0.19% of the MCPS annual budget. Optimistically, MCPS could hire 50 teachers with $5 million (assuming there are teachers to hire), which would increase the number of teachers in MCPS by 0.4%.

That's not to say it isn't worth doing, or that it wouldn't make a difference for the people immediately affected.

It wouldn't make a system-wide difference, though.

50 special education teachers would be helpful for compensatory services students need after not receiving services during online learning. Start there and add to the $5,000,000.

At the school level, school’s wants to limit a disabled child’s opportunities because there’s a lack of staffing. The needs of students should be driving services but MCPS is so out of whack with compliance that parents are actually told they don’t have the staffing to be compliant.

MCPS needs to either hire more staff or pay for private services. That’s their legal obligation. $5,000,000 would be a start.

If you put them all in elementary schools, that would be one additional teacher per 2.7 elementary schools.

Considering most elementary schools only have one special education teacher, that’s a 100% increase. Huge impact for those schools. Add to the $5,000,000 and the impact will be felt in all elementary schools.

Which ES has only one special education teacher? I just spot-checked 10 schools on the staff directory, and every one has 2 or in most cases 3 or 4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$5 million, which is a number that somebody made up on this thread, is 0.19% of the MCPS annual budget. Optimistically, MCPS could hire 50 teachers with $5 million (assuming there are teachers to hire), which would increase the number of teachers in MCPS by 0.4%.

That's not to say it isn't worth doing, or that it wouldn't make a difference for the people immediately affected.

It wouldn't make a system-wide difference, though.

50 special education teachers would be helpful for compensatory services students need after not receiving services during online learning. Start there and add to the $5,000,000.

At the school level, school’s wants to limit a disabled child’s opportunities because there’s a lack of staffing. The needs of students should be driving services but MCPS is so out of whack with compliance that parents are actually told they don’t have the staffing to be compliant.

MCPS needs to either hire more staff or pay for private services. That’s their legal obligation. $5,000,000 would be a start.

If you put them all in elementary schools, that would be one additional teacher per 2.7 elementary schools.

Considering most elementary schools only have one special education teacher, that’s a 100% increase. Huge impact for those schools. Add to the $5,000,000 and the impact will be felt in all elementary schools.

Which ES has only one special education teacher? I just spot-checked 10 schools on the staff directory, and every one has 2 or in most cases 3 or 4.

Potomac Elementary has 0 Special Education classroom teachers and 1.5 Special Education resource teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$5 million, which is a number that somebody made up on this thread, is 0.19% of the MCPS annual budget. Optimistically, MCPS could hire 50 teachers with $5 million (assuming there are teachers to hire), which would increase the number of teachers in MCPS by 0.4%.

That's not to say it isn't worth doing, or that it wouldn't make a difference for the people immediately affected.

It wouldn't make a system-wide difference, though.

50 special education teachers would be helpful for compensatory services students need after not receiving services during online learning. Start there and add to the $5,000,000.

At the school level, school’s wants to limit a disabled child’s opportunities because there’s a lack of staffing. The needs of students should be driving services but MCPS is so out of whack with compliance that parents are actually told they don’t have the staffing to be compliant.

MCPS needs to either hire more staff or pay for private services. That’s their legal obligation. $5,000,000 would be a start.

If you put them all in elementary schools, that would be one additional teacher per 2.7 elementary schools.

Considering most elementary schools only have one special education teacher, that’s a 100% increase. Huge impact for those schools. Add to the $5,000,000 and the impact will be felt in all elementary schools.

Which ES has only one special education teacher? I just spot-checked 10 schools on the staff directory, and every one has 2 or in most cases 3 or 4.

Potomac Elementary has 0 Special Education classroom teachers and 1.5 Special Education resource teachers.

But is that number inappropriate? The school only has a total of 396 students, and fewer than 5% are enrolled in special education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we want the next generation to make a better country, we need them to learn from the mistakes of the past, including state sponsored, systemic racism.

But, even if they know something about systemic racism, it will not do them or anyone else any good if they can’t articulate what they know, especially in coherent written English, and form persuasive, organized arguments to support their beliefs. Schools should be very focused on training students to understand and make good arguments and much less focused on what to fill those arguments with. Content is important and some examination of what that content is might be helpful, but MCPS isn’t balancing it very well with a strong program in skills development right now.

The students may know systemic racism in the US well but they cannot balance a check book, budget their monthly expanse, find a job that pays rent and meals.

Well, it's still an improvement over when I graduated from high school - I didn't know how to balance a checkbook or budget my monthly expenses, I certainly couldn't find a job that paid rent and meals (I went to college instead), AND I didn't know about systemic racism in the US.

This.

And unless your kid is taking some specialized elective, the only time they even learn about checkbooks is one lesson in seventh grade as part of Finance Park. We should do more financial literacy, but the only way to make it work is to add a fourth required Social Studies course. It ought to be done in 12th grade as many other districts do. Or make NSL 1 semester and do 1 semester of Financial Literacy.

Who even balances checkbooks anymore? Once again, you’re all so stuck in outdated times. You have no clue how to evolve and just think you know what is best bc it’s apparently still 1988 to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If we want the next generation to make a better country, we need them to learn from the mistakes of the past, including state sponsored, systemic racism.

All that won’t matter if they can’t do math, can’t spell and can’t write well. The people in leadership positions will be able to do all these things well and those who can’t will never be in any position to make the real change you are speaking of. If you want your kid to change the world make sure they are educated in the basics. They will never be taken seriously and get into positions to make change otherwise.
Critical thinking skills is also a must for this next generation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we want the next generation to make a better country, we need them to learn from the mistakes of the past, including state sponsored, systemic racism.

But, even if they know something about systemic racism, it will not do them or anyone else any good if they can’t articulate what they know, especially in coherent written English, and form persuasive, organized arguments to support their beliefs. Schools should be very focused on training students to understand and make good arguments and much less focused on what to fill those arguments with. Content is important and some examination of what that content is might be helpful, but MCPS isn’t balancing it very well with a strong program in skills development right now.

The students may know systemic racism in the US well but they cannot balance a check book, budget their monthly expanse, find a job that pays rent and meals.

Well, it's still an improvement over when I graduated from high school - I didn't know how to balance a checkbook or budget my monthly expenses, I certainly couldn't find a job that paid rent and meals (I went to college instead), AND I didn't know about systemic racism in the US.

This.


And unless your kid is taking some specialized elective, the only time they even learn about checkbooks is one lesson in seventh grade as part of Finance Park. We should do more financial literacy, but the only way to make it work is to add a fourth required Social Studies course. It ought to be done in 12th grade as many other districts do. Or make NSL 1 semester and do 1 semester of Financial Literacy.

Who even balances checkbooks anymore? Once again, you’re all so stuck in outdated times. You have no clue how to evolve and just think you know what is best bc it’s apparently still 1988 to you.

The point is about how to be a responsible adult who knows how to manage their money. Sadly most adults in this country don’t, so the cycle of poverty continues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we want the next generation to make a better country, we need them to learn from the mistakes of the past, including state sponsored, systemic racism.

All that won’t matter if they can’t do math, can’t spell and can’t write well. The people in leadership positions will be able to do all these things well and those who can’t will never be in any position to make the real change you are speaking of. If you want your kid to change the world make sure they are educated in the basics. They will never be taken seriously and get into positions to make change otherwise.
Critical thinking skills is also a must for this next generation.

Who said anything about getting rid of reading, writing, and arithmetic? We can do those and teach some historical context, too.

[Anonymous]

Rather than paying people 6 figures to come up with these marketing schemes, let's get more teachers in ES classrooms so we can reduce class sizes and provide more academic supports for our most vulnerable students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rather than paying people 6 figures to come up with these marketing schemes, let's get more teachers in ES classrooms so we can reduce class sizes and provide more academic supports for our most vulnerable students.

It's a nice notion, but it doesn't seem they spent many marketing dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we want the next generation to make a better country, we need them to learn from the mistakes of the past, including state sponsored, systemic racism.

But, even if they know something about systemic racism, it will not do them or anyone else any good if they can’t articulate what they know, especially in coherent written English, and form persuasive, organized arguments to support their beliefs. Schools should be very focused on training students to understand and make good arguments and much less focused on what to fill those arguments with. Content is important and some examination of what that content is might be helpful, but MCPS isn’t balancing it very well with a strong program in skills development right now.

The students may know systemic racism in the US well but they cannot balance a check book, budget their monthly expanse, find a job that pays rent and meals.

Well, it's still an improvement over when I graduated from high school - I didn't know how to balance a checkbook or budget my monthly expenses, I certainly couldn't find a job that paid rent and meals (I went to college instead), AND I didn't know about systemic racism in the US.

It is your parents responsibility to teach you about money.

This might be the dumbest post I've read all year.
You do realize that systemic racism would be nullified if you taught black kids in school what white kids learn about money at home
Typical mcps bs.. teach everyone about feelz but nothing practical to actually solve an issue