Achievement gap will worsen with refusal to provide distance learning
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Anonymous
| 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. |
Anonymous
| This rant is based on what, exactly? One anonymous poster in another thread who said they heard from someone that MCPS isn't doing distance learning? Nobody has any idea what's going on. |
Anonymous
| If kids need chrome books they may not have internet access either. A lot of families don’t use email, which their internet access is purely off of mobile phones. Sometimes that can be shared, sometimes not. |
Anonymous
Or there’s internet access but not enough to support a two family household with 5+ kids all trying to use it at the same time. |
Anonymous
| Good grief - it's been three days. Give them time to figure out what and how. You can't just magically throw a switch to convert 12,000 teachers and 165,000 students from an analog to a digital system. |
Anonymous
+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. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
| Agree. It would be nice if they put the same amount of effort into developing distance learning through this time. There are other social service agencies that they could work with to step up for lunch. |
Anonymous
How the hell would you grade and assess kids who are unable to access the curriculum? Do you just hold them back end mass? |
Anonymous
| It doesn't worsen when there is no academics for everyone. The issue is the W and some other schools get far better resources in terms of AP and honors classes and "better" teachers because of the population they serve. They aren't going to ever close the gap as far more resources need to go to those who are struggling and many kids just slide through elementary school without the help they need (regardless of the school) and that gap continues to grow when in middle and high school they don't have the basic math and reading skills they need to succeed. |
Anonymous
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Dear Colleagues:
I am writing to provide a brief update on our status and our work while schools are closed. While schools are closed for two weeks and no announcements have been made otherwise, we are preparing for the possibility of a longer school closure. This would obviously have a significant impact on the way we operate as a school district. We have been in ongoing conversations with our association partners about the implications of a longer closure and how we plan for instruction and other core operational functions. In addition, our dedicated ITSS staff have been working diligently to prepare Chromebooks and other devices to support remote learning capabilities if needed. Thank you! We are getting ready for the long haul and will provide updates as we have them. Thank you to the many teachers, administrators, and support staff who have emailed asking how they can support our food distribution efforts. We are coordinating with the Montgomery County Office of Community Partnerships and local nonprofits to expand our reach. To volunteer, please contact 240-777-8320. As we continue to navigate through this challenging time, I want to thank all of you for your commitment, dedication, and flexibility. Sincerely, Andrew Zuckerman Chief Operating Officer |
Anonymous
Lol. They get AP and honors classes because the kids there are capable of taking and passing honors and AP classes. The curriculum is the same between schools. Poorer schools generally get more money and I guarantee you, the teachers at the W schools aren’t “better” than the other teachers in the county. If you swapped the student body between Churchill and Einstein and left everything else the same, Einstein would suddenly become one of the “best” schools in the county. |
Anonymous
DCUM hopes the older ones will just drop out. I laughed out loud yesterday at all the posts asking if kids could just repeat this grade. DCUM hates a 19 year old senior when he’s a black or brown refugee kid, but it’s fine when it’s redshirted Larlo or little Charlotte who lost second semester of second grade to the pandemic. |
Anonymous
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The signals from the MCPS email posted above and the update we all should have gotten yesterday suggest to me that they're preparing some kind of plan for distance learning. It will be wildly inadequate, unfortunately - that's not a bash of MCPS but simply a recognition that upending the entire system of education and transitioning to virtual learning would be a gigantic task under the best of circumstances and with tons of lead time. We don't have that here.
I'm an academic and believe me, even elite universities with tons of tech already integrated aren't able to make this leap effectively. We're all just going to do the best we can under terrible, terrible circumstances. I wish my kids were in a $50k private school w/tiny classes and individual tech budgets. But they're not, and there's nothing I can do about that. |