Serious Answers Only—How to Fix MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone mentioned, split the county up. It’s too big. That’s one of the main problems. Let towns run districts like they do in New England and in addition, find ways to make sure funding is equitable. Town districts in New England are arguably much better, but they also have issues with inequality when property taxes fund schools.

But, if this can be addressed somehow - then MCPS should break up into a bunch of smaller districts. I’d be so happy to support a candidate with this platform.

How does that even happen? Splitting a district? Has it happened anywhere before?

Or build more schools. Some of the high schools have over 2500 kids. That's too many kids in a building. The one downside to a New England type system is that people will game it and schools will become overcrowded as people will move to higher quality districts.

Not sure how to implement a self-governing board under MD law.

The high schools are way too big. Many colleges are the same size.

Why is it relevant how big the colleges are compared to the high schools? Maybe the colleges that are smaller than the high schools are too small?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone mentioned, split the county up. It’s too big. That’s one of the main problems. Let towns run districts like they do in New England and in addition, find ways to make sure funding is equitable. Town districts in New England are arguably much better, but they also have issues with inequality when property taxes fund schools.

But, if this can be addressed somehow - then MCPS should break up into a bunch of smaller districts. I’d be so happy to support a candidate with this platform.

How does that even happen? Splitting a district? Has it happened anywhere before?

Or build more schools. Some of the high schools have over 2500 kids. That's too many kids in a building. The one downside to a New England type system is that people will game it and schools will become overcrowded as people will move to higher quality districts.

Not sure how to implement a self-governing board under MD law.

MCPS can’t just build more schools. Schools aren’t free and they don’t isn’t in air. They require approval, land purchase, millions of dollars in construction, additional staff, and continued maintenance. They can’t snap their fingers and be like let’s build 10 more HS.

MCPS and the county has given away so much government land, including former schools. They also lease out a few of those schools. They could have those properties returned to them that are leased and they have plenty of money for what's important to them, so they can find the money to build more schools. They wouldn't need that much more staff, that that would be significant if they are reducing the school sizes overall.

Each school require a Principal and AP, counselor, Reading Specialist(@ES level), Nurse, Secretaries, Building Services staff. Depending on school location you may need additional bus drivers or at least routes. Potential crossing guards. Art Teachers, Music teachers(they already rotate schools so likely couldn’t add another), PE teacher, cafeteria staff. That’s just what I thought of off the top of my head.

[Anonymous]

Cap the size of high schools. These oversized schools are a mess. They are too huge to be run well, sports are too hard to get into, counselors don’t know their students or really get support. Kids are just swallowed up and lost.

[Anonymous]

Offer parents supplemental support for special needs and behavioral problems OUTSIDE of the regular school day, like a Saturday class. While their kids are participating in the supplemental class, they stay in the regular core curriculum during the school day. Create separate curriculums for students that don't improve with supplemental support or decline supplemental support. Place double or triple staff in those special curriculum classes. Increase number of students per teacher in the core curriculum classes to free up staffing.

I think this will lead many parents of kids with mild deficiencies to think twice before claiming an iep, leading to more resources available for students that need it more. It will also incentivize parents who don't generally pay attention to their kids education, both by giving them a clear threat (your kid will move class) and a clear goal (improve behavior/learning). And it will give them help to improve.

Many parents may balk at this because of the extra time requirement placed on them or their kids. Well, they can choose to send their kids to the special curriculum and keep their time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Offer parents supplemental support for special needs and behavioral problems OUTSIDE of the regular school day, like a Saturday class. While their kids are participating in the supplemental class, they stay in the regular core curriculum during the school day. Create separate curriculums for students that don't improve with supplemental support or decline supplemental support. Place double or triple staff in those special curriculum classes. Increase number of students per teacher in the core curriculum classes to free up staffing.

I think this will lead many parents of kids with mild deficiencies to think twice before claiming an iep, leading to more resources available for students that need it more. It will also incentivize parents who don't generally pay attention to their kids education, both by giving them a clear threat (your kid will move class) and a clear goal (improve behavior/learning). And it will give them help to improve.

Many parents may balk at this because of the extra time requirement placed on them or their kids. Well, they can choose to send their kids to the special curriculum and keep their time.

This seems completely unworkable for a variety of reasons

[Anonymous]

I know that it's something that has to be addressed by a change in State law, but I agree with those advocating for splitting up the county into 2 or 3 separate school districts instead of one massive one.

And I know they did a study and decided that they couldn't repurpose some of all the empty suburban office spaces around to relieve school overcrowding, but still feels like a wasted opportunity to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Offer parents supplemental support for special needs and behavioral problems OUTSIDE of the regular school day, like a Saturday class. While their kids are participating in the supplemental class, they stay in the regular core curriculum during the school day. Create separate curriculums for students that don't improve with supplemental support or decline supplemental support. Place double or triple staff in those special curriculum classes. Increase number of students per teacher in the core curriculum classes to free up staffing.

I think this will lead many parents of kids with mild deficiencies to think twice before claiming an iep, leading to more resources available for students that need it more. It will also incentivize parents who don't generally pay attention to their kids education, both by giving them a clear threat (your kid will move class) and a clear goal (improve behavior/learning). And it will give them help to improve.

Many parents may balk at this because of the extra time requirement placed on them or their kids. Well, they can choose to send their kids to the special curriculum and keep their time.

They already offer this. Saturday School. Been around for years and it’s free. Has not made a difference in outcomes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know that it's something that has to be addressed by a change in State law, but I agree with those advocating for splitting up the county into 2 or 3 separate school districts instead of one massive one.

And I know they did a study and decided that they couldn't repurpose some of all the empty suburban office spaces around to relieve school overcrowding, but still feels like a wasted opportunity to me.

MCPS is simply too large to be run effectively.

Name another school district that is as large as MCPS that performs well. There are none.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids have been in MCPS for 15 years and I’m just disgusted by the decline. Wondering if anyone has ideas to fix the many problems in MCPS?

The only thing broken about MCPS are the clueless parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know that it's something that has to be addressed by a change in State law, but I agree with those advocating for splitting up the county into 2 or 3 separate school districts instead of one massive one.

And I know they did a study and decided that they couldn't repurpose some of all the empty suburban office spaces around to relieve school overcrowding, but still feels like a wasted opportunity to me.

MCPS is simply too large to be run effectively.

Name another school district that is as large as MCPS that performs well. There are none.

Making it smaller wouldn't change anything. It performs very well for people who value education but not so much for people who expect the county to raise their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Offer parents supplemental support for special needs and behavioral problems OUTSIDE of the regular school day, like a Saturday class. While their kids are participating in the supplemental class, they stay in the regular core curriculum during the school day. Create separate curriculums for students that don't improve with supplemental support or decline supplemental support. Place double or triple staff in those special curriculum classes. Increase number of students per teacher in the core curriculum classes to free up staffing.

I think this will lead many parents of kids with mild deficiencies to think twice before claiming an iep, leading to more resources available for students that need it more. It will also incentivize parents who don't generally pay attention to their kids education, both by giving them a clear threat (your kid will move class) and a clear goal (improve behavior/learning). And it will give them help to improve.

Many parents may balk at this because of the extra time requirement placed on them or their kids. Well, they can choose to send their kids to the special curriculum and keep their time.

They already offer this. Saturday School. Been around for years and it’s free. Has not made a difference in outcomes.

Great. The second part of my suggestion is to mandate it for any child on an IEP or with behavioral issues, as a requirement for staying in the core curriculum classes. The third part is to create special curriculum classes for students who decline Saturday supplement or don't improve.

The point is to discourage parents from abusing the iep system, and also incentivize parents (and students) who aren't otherwise actively involved or refuse to even try to improve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know that it's something that has to be addressed by a change in State law, but I agree with those advocating for splitting up the county into 2 or 3 separate school districts instead of one massive one.

And I know they did a study and decided that they couldn't repurpose some of all the empty suburban office spaces around to relieve school overcrowding, but still feels like a wasted opportunity to me.

MCPS is simply too large to be run effectively.

Name another school district that is as large as MCPS that performs well. There are none.

Not that Niche is authoritative, but of the 50 largest districts in the US (~75k students or more), only one (Katy Independent School District in Texas; about 88k, roughly half the size of MCPS, but on a similar scale) gets an A+. However, several, including Fairfax, Loudoun and, yes, MCPS, score As. There's a mixed bag of grades for others.

There are plenty of small districts that get an A+, most with under 10k students, and perhaps a majority of the top 200 or so with only a couple thousand. There are also a [i]ton[/] of small districts that are abject failures.

The question is, though, are there any of those A+ districts that when combined with all the nearby districts to add up to 100k+ students would achieve an A average. In pretty sure there are few or none that would hit the better-than-MCPS A+ mark.

Sure, you could carve off part of Chevy Chase, Bethesda and Potomac and get an A+ district. Not sure where you think that marginal improvement justifies the expense of the overhaul, much less the presumed difficulty generated elsewhere if you'd also be trying to fund the separated districts only from the separated populations.

A much better use of the extra $ a separation would take would be to actually fund MCPS at levels that are requested. That hasn't happened in decades. Just let your Councilmember know you're up for the tax hit, including everything in arrears to get facilities back on track.

[Anonymous]

Allow High Schools to leave MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Offer parents supplemental support for special needs and behavioral problems OUTSIDE of the regular school day, like a Saturday class. While their kids are participating in the supplemental class, they stay in the regular core curriculum during the school day. Create separate curriculums for students that don't improve with supplemental support or decline supplemental support. Place double or triple staff in those special curriculum classes. Increase number of students per teacher in the core curriculum classes to free up staffing.

I think this will lead many parents of kids with mild deficiencies to think twice before claiming an iep, leading to more resources available for students that need it more. It will also incentivize parents who don't generally pay attention to their kids education, both by giving them a clear threat (your kid will move class) and a clear goal (improve behavior/learning). And it will give them help to improve.

Many parents may balk at this because of the extra time requirement placed on them or their kids. Well, they can choose to send their kids to the special curriculum and keep their time.

They already offer this. Saturday School. Been around for years and it’s free. Has not made a difference in outcomes.

Great. The second part of my suggestion is to mandate it for any child on an IEP or with behavioral issues, as a requirement for staying in the core curriculum classes. The third part is to create special curriculum classes for students who decline Saturday supplement or don't improve.

The point is to discourage parents from abusing the iep system, and also incentivize parents (and students) who aren't otherwise actively involved or refuse to even try to improve.

Not all kids with ieps have behavioral or academic concerns and Saturday school is a good idea but not the fix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Offer parents supplemental support for special needs and behavioral problems OUTSIDE of the regular school day, like a Saturday class. While their kids are participating in the supplemental class, they stay in the regular core curriculum during the school day. Create separate curriculums for students that don't improve with supplemental support or decline supplemental support. Place double or triple staff in those special curriculum classes. Increase number of students per teacher in the core curriculum classes to free up staffing.

I think this will lead many parents of kids with mild deficiencies to think twice before claiming an iep, leading to more resources available for students that need it more. It will also incentivize parents who don't generally pay attention to their kids education, both by giving them a clear threat (your kid will move class) and a clear goal (improve behavior/learning). And it will give them help to improve.

Many parents may balk at this because of the extra time requirement placed on them or their kids. Well, they can choose to send their kids to the special curriculum and keep their time.

They already offer this. Saturday School. Been around for years and it’s free. Has not made a difference in outcomes.

Great. The second part of my suggestion is to mandate it for any child on an IEP or with behavioral issues, as a requirement for staying in the core curriculum classes. The third part is to create special curriculum classes for students who decline Saturday supplement or don't improve.

The point is to discourage parents from abusing the iep system, and also incentivize parents (and students) who aren't otherwise actively involved or refuse to even try to improve.

Not all kids with ieps have behavioral or academic concerns and Saturday school is a good idea but not the fix.

True, there are students with physical disabilities. All students should be helped, but the goal should be to transition to normal instruction in the core curriculum, not permanent special instruction until they graduate. If a student can't resume core curriculum without special instruction, they will be best served in a special curriculum class.

I realize that's probably not a popular opinion in this forum, filled with worried iep parents looking for ideas, but the silent majority of NT students need to speak up because our classroom instruction is being overwhelmed with administrative iep legal requirements. And no disincentive to claim any iep.