Changes in MCPS in the last 15 years

[Anonymous]

What happened to MCPS in the last 15 years? I am genuinely curious about all the negativity and pessimism on this board.

Some background I graduated from MCPS almost 20 years ago. I'm from a very middle class immigrant family. Started off in MCPS not knowing any English back in elementary school and through the help of many great teachers along the way I ended up graduating from the RM IB program and attended a top 10 University without much parental guidance or any extra tutoring and etc.

I always raved about the education I recieved from MCPS and felt like I was very prepared at a rigorous college with many kids from prep schools. I truly felt lucky about the education I received especially after hearing about other public schools from people I met in college (no AP offering, no music programs, ...) Now my baby sister is in elementary school and I happened upon this forum. Baby sister is in 4th grade at a Wootton feeder school and so far reported back that she likes school. Her teacher seems very dedicated though a bit overworked and she's been enjoying the free instrumental music lessons offered and looks forward to joining the 5th grade chorus next year.

So what's changed since or has the forum always been this dramatic?

[Anonymous]

Mcps was not that great 20 years ago but at least we had textbooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happened to MCPS in the last 15 years? I am genuinely curious about all the negativity and pessimism on this board.

Some background I graduated from MCPS almost 20 years ago. I'm from a very middle class immigrant family. Started off in MCPS not knowing any English back in elementary school and through the help of many great teachers along the way I ended up graduating from the RM IB program and attended a top 10 University without much parental guidance or any extra tutoring and etc.

I always raved about the education I recieved from MCPS and felt like I was very prepared at a rigorous college with many kids from prep schools. I truly felt lucky about the education I received especially after hearing about other public schools from people I met in college (no AP offering, no music programs, ...) Now my baby sister is in elementary school and I happened upon this forum. Baby sister is in 4th grade at a Wootton feeder school and so far reported back that she likes school. Her teacher seems very dedicated though a bit overworked and she's been enjoying the free instrumental music lessons offered and looks forward to joining the 5th grade chorus next year.

So what's changed since or has the forum always been this dramatic?

Well there was curriculum 2.0. You probably were in accelerated math. They eliminated that for awhile then brought it back. That plus lots of overcrowding in some of the schools. But mostly it’s fine. DCUM is an echo chamber, that’s all.

[Anonymous]

The BOE thought they were doing such a bang up job educating kids that they decided they were moving on to fix other social issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened to MCPS in the last 15 years? I am genuinely curious about all the negativity and pessimism on this board.

Some background I graduated from MCPS almost 20 years ago. I'm from a very middle class immigrant family. Started off in MCPS not knowing any English back in elementary school and through the help of many great teachers along the way I ended up graduating from the RM IB program and attended a top 10 University without much parental guidance or any extra tutoring and etc.

I always raved about the education I recieved from MCPS and felt like I was very prepared at a rigorous college with many kids from prep schools. I truly felt lucky about the education I received especially after hearing about other public schools from people I met in college (no AP offering, no music programs, ...) Now my baby sister is in elementary school and I happened upon this forum. Baby sister is in 4th grade at a Wootton feeder school and so far reported back that she likes school. Her teacher seems very dedicated though a bit overworked and she's been enjoying the free instrumental music lessons offered and looks forward to joining the 5th grade chorus next year.

So what's changed since or has the forum always been this dramatic?

Well there was curriculum 2.0. You probably were in accelerated math. They eliminated that for awhile then brought it back. That plus lots of overcrowding in some of the schools. But mostly it’s fine. DCUM is an echo chamber, that’s all.

My sister is in compact math 4/5 and her school only has one section of that so the class is white crowded at 35 kids unfortunately. How different is it? I looked at the tracks and it seems like she's still going to take IM7 in 6th grade, algebra I in 7th and so on - that lines up with what I did back in the days with Math B in 5th grade.

I took a look through her math homework and I'm not a huge fan of the convoluted way they are teaching long division but my sister says it makes sense to her and she can do long division now. I figure it's just birds of a feather and the quirky methods taught are going to fade out on their own once the kids hit algebra and all that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened to MCPS in the last 15 years? I am genuinely curious about all the negativity and pessimism on this board.

Some background I graduated from MCPS almost 20 years ago. I'm from a very middle class immigrant family. Started off in MCPS not knowing any English back in elementary school and through the help of many great teachers along the way I ended up graduating from the RM IB program and attended a top 10 University without much parental guidance or any extra tutoring and etc.

I always raved about the education I recieved from MCPS and felt like I was very prepared at a rigorous college with many kids from prep schools. I truly felt lucky about the education I received especially after hearing about other public schools from people I met in college (no AP offering, no music programs, ...) Now my baby sister is in elementary school and I happened upon this forum. Baby sister is in 4th grade at a Wootton feeder school and so far reported back that she likes school. Her teacher seems very dedicated though a bit overworked and she's been enjoying the free instrumental music lessons offered and looks forward to joining the 5th grade chorus next year.

So what's changed since or has the forum always been this dramatic?

Well there was curriculum 2.0. You probably were in accelerated math. They eliminated that for awhile then brought it back. That plus lots of overcrowding in some of the schools. But mostly it’s fine. DCUM is an echo chamber, that’s all.

My sister is in compact math 4/5 and her school only has one section of that so the class is white crowded at 35 kids unfortunately. How different is it? I looked at the tracks and it seems like she's still going to take IM7 in 6th grade, algebra I in 7th and so on - that lines up with what I did back in the days with Math B in 5th grade.

I took a look through her math homework and I'm not a huge fan of the convoluted way they are teaching long division but my sister says it makes sense to her and she can do long division now. I figure it's just birds of a feather and the quirky methods taught are going to fade out on their own once the kids hit algebra and all that.

They eventually learn to do division the old fashioned way. My kids are now in 9th and 6th, 9th grader is at RMIB. He seems to like it so far, except for the HW load LOL

[Anonymous]

I think the change is that there are a lot more poor brown people now, much like the rest of the US, and many don't like it.

[Anonymous]

Being at a Wootton feeder school probably helps keep her immune to some of the issues that other clusters are facing.

We are in a nonW Middle School and it is definitely challenging. Our Advanced English class has a range of kids from those who can barely read English to those who can read advanced level books. It’s really hard for teachers to teach to this range of kids in one classroom.

This is why people pay extra money to seek out clusters like Wootton and Churchill. To avoid the issues that arise from having too high of a FARMS and ESOL population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened to MCPS in the last 15 years? I am genuinely curious about all the negativity and pessimism on this board.

Some background I graduated from MCPS almost 20 years ago. I'm from a very middle class immigrant family. Started off in MCPS not knowing any English back in elementary school and through the help of many great teachers along the way I ended up graduating from the RM IB program and attended a top 10 University without much parental guidance or any extra tutoring and etc.

I always raved about the education I recieved from MCPS and felt like I was very prepared at a rigorous college with many kids from prep schools. I truly felt lucky about the education I received especially after hearing about other public schools from people I met in college (no AP offering, no music programs, ...) Now my baby sister is in elementary school and I happened upon this forum. Baby sister is in 4th grade at a Wootton feeder school and so far reported back that she likes school. Her teacher seems very dedicated though a bit overworked and she's been enjoying the free instrumental music lessons offered and looks forward to joining the 5th grade chorus next year.

So what's changed since or has the forum always been this dramatic?

Well there was curriculum 2.0. You probably were in accelerated math. They eliminated that for awhile then brought it back. That plus lots of overcrowding in some of the schools. But mostly it’s fine. DCUM is an echo chamber, that’s all.

My sister is in compact math 4/5 and her school only has one section of that so the class is white crowded at 35 kids unfortunately. How different is it? I looked at the tracks and it seems like she's still going to take IM7 in 6th grade, algebra I in 7th and so on - that lines up with what I did back in the days with Math B in 5th grade.

I took a look through her math homework and I'm not a huge fan of the convoluted way they are teaching long division but my sister says it makes sense to her and she can do long division now. I figure it's just birds of a feather and the quirky methods taught are going to fade out on their own once the kids hit algebra and all that.

They eventually learn to do division the old fashioned way. My kids are now in 9th and 6th, 9th grader is at RMIB. He seems to like it so far, except for the HW load LOL

That workload is worth it RMIB taught me how to write so well that my professors in college tried to get me to major in English (I couldn't even get an A back in high school half the time!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the change is that there are a lot more poor brown people now, much like the rest of the US, and many don't like it.

Whether you like it or not, doesn’t change the fact that the demographics of MCPS have changed.

OP’s sister doesn’t really see it at Wootton, but we see it at other schools.

Our MS sends out every email and newsletter in Spanish and spends money to have translators at all events. My friend at Frost doesn’t report the same.

[Anonymous]

It's the textbooks!!! No textbooks? Are you kidding me? My kids come home with "worksheets" with no explanation and that's supposed to take the place of textbooks???? They don't know how to learn. They don't know how to review. They don't know how to study. They are going to FAIL when they get to college.

This all started 7 or 8 years ago with curriculum 2.0, when they decided that math was like a blossoming flower and needed to be imagined in kids' heads instead of memorized. This is the only generation on earth that will NEVER need to know math -- they will ALWAYS have a calculator on hand -- and yet MCPS has decided to teach them "concepts" of math, in their heads, from every angle instead of simply teaching them to memorize math tools like multiplication tables.

Insane. .MCPS is so so so so bad now. I'm also a product of MCPS and have older kids who went through it before they changed everything. My youngest is really being shafted. Very disappointed in MCPS now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the change is that there are a lot more poor brown people now, much like the rest of the US, and many don't like it.

Whether you like it or not, doesn’t change the fact that the demographics of MCPS have changed.

OP’s sister doesn’t really see it at Wootton, but we see it at other schools.

Our MS sends out every email and newsletter in Spanish and spends money to have translators at all events. My friend at Frost doesn’t report the same.

I'm sorry but this has nothing to do with brown skinned children. My kids go to school in mostly white Bethesda and Chevy Chase schools where most kids are wealthy and it STILL SUCKS. It's still the same MCPS lame curriculum taught in some newfangled way. FARMS has absolutely ZERO to do with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's the textbooks!!! No textbooks? Are you kidding me? My kids come home with "worksheets" with no explanation and that's supposed to take the place of textbooks???? They don't know how to learn. They don't know how to review. They don't know how to study. They are going to FAIL when they get to college.

This all started 7 or 8 years ago with curriculum 2.0, when they decided that math was like a blossoming flower and needed to be imagined in kids' heads instead of memorized. This is the only generation on earth that will NEVER need to know math -- they will ALWAYS have a calculator on hand -- and yet MCPS has decided to teach them "concepts" of math, in their heads, from every angle instead of simply teaching them to memorize math tools like multiplication tables.

Insane. .MCPS is so so so so bad now. I'm also a product of MCPS and have older kids who went through it before they changed everything. My youngest is really being shafted. Very disappointed in MCPS now.

Are there online resources you found helpful? I guess memorizing 12x12 multiplication table can be done at home but I didn't want to try and show my sis new ways of doing stuff and confuse her. She's keeping up okay but I do want to make sure she get solid basic math foundation before all the fun stuff gets added on.

My parents' English isn't too great and they are pretty out of the loop on the nuances of public school so any pointers would be appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the change is that there are a lot more poor brown people now, much like the rest of the US, and many don't like it.

Whether you like it or not, doesn’t change the fact that the demographics of MCPS have changed.

OP’s sister doesn’t really see it at Wootton, but we see it at other schools.

Our MS sends out every email and newsletter in Spanish and spends money to have translators at all events. My friend at Frost doesn’t report the same.

I'm sorry but this has nothing to do with brown skinned children. My kids go to school in mostly white Bethesda and Chevy Chase schools where most kids are wealthy and it STILL SUCKS. It's still the same MCPS lame curriculum taught in some newfangled way. FARMS has absolutely ZERO to do with it.

What would you say has been the biggest negative change in curriculum in the past years with 2.0?

I definitely had a lot of testing back in my days too if I remember correctly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the change is that there are a lot more poor brown people now, much like the rest of the US, and many don't like it.

Whether you like it or not, doesn’t change the fact that the demographics of MCPS have changed.

OP’s sister doesn’t really see it at Wootton, but we see it at other schools.

Our MS sends out every email and newsletter in Spanish and spends money to have translators at all events. My friend at Frost doesn’t report the same.

I'm sorry but this has nothing to do with brown skinned children. My kids go to school in mostly white Bethesda and Chevy Chase schools where most kids are wealthy and it STILL SUCKS. It's still the same MCPS lame curriculum taught in some newfangled way. FARMS has absolutely ZERO to do with it.

Guess I’m somewhat reassured to hear this. We’re in a definitely lower-income cluster and I wonder if the wealthier schools have it better. Sounds like it’s just poor leadership all around in MCPS.

Partly, I think MCPS is just too big to run effectively.

The student body has increased in the past 20 years. And the schools can’t keep up with the growth.