Support the Montgomery Virtual Academy (MVA) from Budget Cuts!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Other districts use virtual instruction to keep kids who are dangerous to others out of the school buildings. Do we? If so, will they all be sent back into school?

I know there are kids now in schools who require security escorts at all times because they pose an immediate danger to others. Will we have enough staff to accommodate any increase in those kinds of students?

There's a state-administered online program that MCPS uses in those cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Other districts use virtual instruction to keep kids who are dangerous to others out of the school buildings. Do we? If so, will they all be sent back into school?

I know there are kids now in schools who require security escorts at all times because they pose an immediate danger to others. Will we have enough staff to accommodate any increase in those kinds of students?

I think there is a program administered by the State for these kinds of cases, AND, your question is an excellent one. Who exactly has been assigned to MVA and why? Maybe more people would be supportive of keeping it, if we had categories and numbers, not just anecdotal information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other districts use virtual instruction to keep kids who are dangerous to others out of the school buildings. Do we? If so, will they all be sent back into school?

I know there are kids now in schools who require security escorts at all times because they pose an immediate danger to others. Will we have enough staff to accommodate any increase in those kinds of students?

I think there is a program administered by the State for these kinds of cases, AND, your question is an excellent one. Who exactly has been assigned to MVA and why? Maybe more people would be supportive of keeping it, if we had categories and numbers, not just anecdotal information.

Probably not. What would you bucket the Covidians into?

[Anonymous]

Looks like we’ve reached the “trolls responding to sock puppets that were responding to trolls” phase of this thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other districts use virtual instruction to keep kids who are dangerous to others out of the school buildings. Do we? If so, will they all be sent back into school?

I know there are kids now in schools who require security escorts at all times because they pose an immediate danger to others. Will we have enough staff to accommodate any increase in those kinds of students?

There's a state-administered online program that MCPS uses in those cases.

There is no state online program. Stop making stuff up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Other districts use virtual instruction to keep kids who are dangerous to others out of the school buildings. Do we? If so, will they all be sent back into school?

I know there are kids now in schools who require security escorts at all times because they pose an immediate danger to others. Will we have enough staff to accommodate any increase in those kinds of students?

MCPS was... now they are all going back in person with your precious kids. Good luck with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other districts use virtual instruction to keep kids who are dangerous to others out of the school buildings. Do we? If so, will they all be sent back into school?

I know there are kids now in schools who require security escorts at all times because they pose an immediate danger to others. Will we have enough staff to accommodate any increase in those kinds of students?

There's a state-administered online program that MCPS uses in those cases.

There is no state online program. Stop making stuff up.

There is. It predates covid. I think we use Edmentum as the vendor for most/all courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other districts use virtual instruction to keep kids who are dangerous to others out of the school buildings. Do we? If so, will they all be sent back into school?

I know there are kids now in schools who require security escorts at all times because they pose an immediate danger to others. Will we have enough staff to accommodate any increase in those kinds of students?

There's a state-administered online program that MCPS uses in those cases.

There is no state online program. Stop making stuff up.

There is. It predates covid. I think we use Edmentum as the vendor for most/all courses.

Please provide a link to the program now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other districts use virtual instruction to keep kids who are dangerous to others out of the school buildings. Do we? If so, will they all be sent back into school?

I know there are kids now in schools who require security escorts at all times because they pose an immediate danger to others. Will we have enough staff to accommodate any increase in those kinds of students?

There's a state-administered online program that MCPS uses in those cases.

There is no state online program. Stop making stuff up.

There is. It predates covid. I think we use Edmentum as the vendor for most/all courses.

Please provide a link to the program now.

www.google.com

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other districts use virtual instruction to keep kids who are dangerous to others out of the school buildings. Do we? If so, will they all be sent back into school?

I know there are kids now in schools who require security escorts at all times because they pose an immediate danger to others. Will we have enough staff to accommodate any increase in those kinds of students?

There's a state-administered online program that MCPS uses in those cases.

There is no state online program. Stop making stuff up.

There is. It predates covid. I think we use Edmentum as the vendor for most/all courses.

Please provide a link to the program now.

www.google.com

So, there is no program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other districts use virtual instruction to keep kids who are dangerous to others out of the school buildings. Do we? If so, will they all be sent back into school?

I know there are kids now in schools who require security escorts at all times because they pose an immediate danger to others. Will we have enough staff to accommodate any increase in those kinds of students?

There's a state-administered online program that MCPS uses in those cases.

There is no state online program. Stop making stuff up.

There is. It predates covid. I think we use Edmentum as the vendor for most/all courses.

Edmentum is the platform for the Online Pathways to Graduation (OPTG). It's an asynchronous, self-driven course model. That's different from the MVA which offered live, synchronous instruction.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:If you are dead set that your kid needs virtual education and you refuse to consider other options, perhaps move to Florida. Apparently they have a Va run by the state that fits what you are looking for

+1. It’s very strange to me that it’s all or nothing for the MVA advocates. Maybe it speaks to the fact that it was a very niche, small program with essentially private tutoring, and the other available programs won’t have that. If simply having a virtual education was their #1 priority, they’d be making arrangements for their child to attend another program.

+2 The alternative to MVA isn't IIS, it's an appropriate in-person placement. Depending on the child, that might take a lot of different forms.

If a child was in MVA because their family wanted to be able to travel freely to Disneyland on the off-season, that child can return to a regular classroom.

If a child was in MVA due to bullying, the answer might be a COSA, but it's also worth considering that a child who entered MVA in 1st grade would be entering 6th next year. That's a whole new peer group and dynamic.

If a child was in MVA due to anxiety/rigidity, there are accommodations, interventions, and in-school placements that can help move the needle on those issues.

You have no idea what you are talking about. If those options were viable, MVA families would have gladly used them. Having your child attend virtual school requires more work for the parent. It involves supervision and controlling gadgets/technologies, arranging social activities to ensure your child is not isolated. It is definitely much easier to just send them in person. Why do you think MVA families advocated so much for the school? They really do not have any other options other than private online programs, which not everyone can afford.

How is in-person school not viable for the mom quoted in recent press articles as needing MVA for her daughters because they would otherwise be too distracted by fashion if they went in-person?

Maybe, for that one family, an in-person option would work. But what about the girl with medically resistant epilepsy who had a seizure in the school building and fell down the stairs, injuring herself? Or the suicidal teen who wanted to drop out of high school but is now considering attending college? I can provide you with many examples and quotes. These are real families with kids who were in MVA for various reasons, but they all absolutely thrived. If you are an MVA teacher reading this, thank you for your amazing work. What happened is so terribly sad, but you have truly touched those kids' hearts and changed their lives.

So where do we draw the line? Serving 800 students is too expensive when the cohort includes the kids who are using MVA because it’s a nice option for them. Do we add some sort of medical criteria to make sure the kids who truly need it get it and we don’t spend money on a virtual program for kids who should be back in-person?

Making it smaller would make it even more expensive on a per pupil basis. And give it fewer stakeholders.

Maybe it would be more expensive, maybe not if you take out the costs associated with all the kids who didnt really need it and would return to school.

We spend more money on a per pupil basis on certain populations all the time anyway. Poor kids get wrap around services at community schools, for example. Recent immigrants get English language learning services. Special needs children get specialized instruction from separate staff. Delayed talkers and readers get speech therapy and literacy intervention. High achievers get separate magnet programs. None of that is free and all of it adds to the per pupil cost beyond the cost of educating your plain vanilla kid. But it sounds like if your child is born with a disability making in-person schooling impossible or highly risky to their health, the system says “sorry, here’s 4 hours per week of isolated instruction” even though we now have evidence of a virtual model that works much better.

Is there public data on the cost and effectiveness of wrap-around services? Depending on their needs, the MVA has a much higher likelihood of benefiting those children. They should probably consider cutting funding to wrap-around services in favor of keeping the MVA.

You know, if you are going to advocate BOE to restore funding for MVA, you should probably come up with some items to cut instead, so why don’t you propose this and see what they say? Never know.

So far, I've heard two options for cutting expenses.

1) Cut funding for schools with low test scores
2) Cut wrap-around services

Guess what those two ideas have in common?

Totally fits if they’re using MVA to escape low performing schools….

I looked through MCPS's report on MVA and did not see anything about why MVA students were placed at MVA. It would be interesting to see a breakdown. I suspect that few people are using it truly to escape low-performing schools. Just doesn't make sense to me. For kids who have been in it since the pandemic, does it still make sense for them to be in MVA. Is there any evaluation done to see if MVA is still the best placement after a year or two. The FARMS rate is high. 43.1% for an environment where presumably kids need parent support and help at home. As a social worker that works with low income families, this is a big red flag for me that something doesn't quite make sense.

This. The farms rate being high for the virtual academy is a red flag

What red flag? Parents who stay home with their children are likely to earn less income but I am sure that they believe that it is worth the sacrifice to avoid overcrowded, underperforming in-person schools that can’t meet their children’s educational needs. For some families, the MVA is their only chance at escaping generational poverty. I can’t imagine why that’s a red flag to a social worker.

That's quite the claim. What MCPS school is so bad that it guarantees its students will end up poverty for the rest of their lives? That sounds like a bigger problem than getting rid of MVA.

I think we're getting a window into the minds of some of the MVA folks here. It's not about disability - it's about fear of Black and brown students. They are so worked up into their idea of public schools as some gang-infested hellscape that they can't imagine their poor child navigating that minefield every day. Never mind that almost 200K kids go to MCPS schools every day and the vast majority of them never encounter anything scarier than a tussle in the hallway.

You are minimizing what's going on. You think the kids who are raped should think its no big deal?

Rape is horrible but fortunately it is extremely rare in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Other districts use virtual instruction to keep kids who are dangerous to others out of the school buildings. Do we? If so, will they all be sent back into school?

I know there are kids now in schools who require security escorts at all times because they pose an immediate danger to others. Will we have enough staff to accommodate any increase in those kinds of students?

There are no kids in MCPS regular schools with a security escort. I’m a teacher at a “rough” public HS. We sometimes have kids with ankle bracelets for tracking by their probation officer but never anyone with an actual security escort. We have fights break out every few weeks but most kids are just regular kids and there are no actual safety issues. It is a much better experience than virtual school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are dead set that your kid needs virtual education and you refuse to consider other options, perhaps move to Florida. Apparently they have a Va run by the state that fits what you are looking for

+1. It’s very strange to me that it’s all or nothing for the MVA advocates. Maybe it speaks to the fact that it was a very niche, small program with essentially private tutoring, and the other available programs won’t have that. If simply having a virtual education was their #1 priority, they’d be making arrangements for their child to attend another program.

+2 The alternative to MVA isn't IIS, it's an appropriate in-person placement. Depending on the child, that might take a lot of different forms.

If a child was in MVA because their family wanted to be able to travel freely to Disneyland on the off-season, that child can return to a regular classroom.

If a child was in MVA due to bullying, the answer might be a COSA, but it's also worth considering that a child who entered MVA in 1st grade would be entering 6th next year. That's a whole new peer group and dynamic.

If a child was in MVA due to anxiety/rigidity, there are accommodations, interventions, and in-school placements that can help move the needle on those issues.

You have no idea what you are talking about. If those options were viable, MVA families would have gladly used them. Having your child attend virtual school requires more work for the parent. It involves supervision and controlling gadgets/technologies, arranging social activities to ensure your child is not isolated. It is definitely much easier to just send them in person. Why do you think MVA families advocated so much for the school? They really do not have any other options other than private online programs, which not everyone can afford.

How is in-person school not viable for the mom quoted in recent press articles as needing MVA for her daughters because they would otherwise be too distracted by fashion if they went in-person?

Maybe, for that one family, an in-person option would work. But what about the girl with medically resistant epilepsy who had a seizure in the school building and fell down the stairs, injuring herself? Or the suicidal teen who wanted to drop out of high school but is now considering attending college? I can provide you with many examples and quotes. These are real families with kids who were in MVA for various reasons, but they all absolutely thrived. If you are an MVA teacher reading this, thank you for your amazing work. What happened is so terribly sad, but you have truly touched those kids' hearts and changed their lives.

So where do we draw the line? Serving 800 students is too expensive when the cohort includes the kids who are using MVA because it’s a nice option for them. Do we add some sort of medical criteria to make sure the kids who truly need it get it and we don’t spend money on a virtual program for kids who should be back in-person?

Making it smaller would make it even more expensive on a per pupil basis. And give it fewer stakeholders.

Maybe it would be more expensive, maybe not if you take out the costs associated with all the kids who didnt really need it and would return to school.

We spend more money on a per pupil basis on certain populations all the time anyway. Poor kids get wrap around services at community schools, for example. Recent immigrants get English language learning services. Special needs children get specialized instruction from separate staff. Delayed talkers and readers get speech therapy and literacy intervention. High achievers get separate magnet programs. None of that is free and all of it adds to the per pupil cost beyond the cost of educating your plain vanilla kid. But it sounds like if your child is born with a disability making in-person schooling impossible or highly risky to their health, the system says “sorry, here’s 4 hours per week of isolated instruction” even though we now have evidence of a virtual model that works much better.

Is there public data on the cost and effectiveness of wrap-around services? Depending on their needs, the MVA has a much higher likelihood of benefiting those children. They should probably consider cutting funding to wrap-around services in favor of keeping the MVA.

You know, if you are going to advocate BOE to restore funding for MVA, you should probably come up with some items to cut instead, so why don’t you propose this and see what they say? Never know.

So far, I've heard two options for cutting expenses.

1) Cut funding for schools with low test scores
2) Cut wrap-around services

Guess what those two ideas have in common?

Totally fits if they’re using MVA to escape low performing schools….

I looked through MCPS's report on MVA and did not see anything about why MVA students were placed at MVA. It would be interesting to see a breakdown. I suspect that few people are using it truly to escape low-performing schools. Just doesn't make sense to me. For kids who have been in it since the pandemic, does it still make sense for them to be in MVA. Is there any evaluation done to see if MVA is still the best placement after a year or two. The FARMS rate is high. 43.1% for an environment where presumably kids need parent support and help at home. As a social worker that works with low income families, this is a big red flag for me that something doesn't quite make sense.

This. The farms rate being high for the virtual academy is a red flag

What red flag? Parents who stay home with their children are likely to earn less income but I am sure that they believe that it is worth the sacrifice to avoid overcrowded, underperforming in-person schools that can’t meet their children’s educational needs. For some families, the MVA is their only chance at escaping generational poverty. I can’t imagine why that’s a red flag to a social worker.

That's quite the claim. What MCPS school is so bad that it guarantees its students will end up poverty for the rest of their lives? That sounds like a bigger problem than getting rid of MVA.

I think we're getting a window into the minds of some of the MVA folks here. It's not about disability - it's about fear of Black and brown students. They are so worked up into their idea of public schools as some gang-infested hellscape that they can't imagine their poor child navigating that minefield every day. Never mind that almost 200K kids go to MCPS schools every day and the vast majority of them never encounter anything scarier than a tussle in the hallway.

You are minimizing what's going on. You think the kids who are raped should think its no big deal?

Rape is horrible but fortunately it is extremely rare in MCPS.

Kids are bullied, attacked, sexually harassed every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other districts use virtual instruction to keep kids who are dangerous to others out of the school buildings. Do we? If so, will they all be sent back into school?

I know there are kids now in schools who require security escorts at all times because they pose an immediate danger to others. Will we have enough staff to accommodate any increase in those kinds of students?

There are no kids in MCPS regular schools with a security escort. I’m a teacher at a “rough” public HS. We sometimes have kids with ankle bracelets for tracking by their probation officer but never anyone with an actual security escort. We have fights break out every few weeks but most kids are just regular kids and there are no actual safety issues. It is a much better experience than virtual school.

I would not want my kid going to school with kids that violent they need ankle bracelets. What is your experience with the MVA to decide in person is better for all students? You can say that as you don't have to worry about kids mental health, health issues, or significant special needs.