MCPS is no longer a desirable school district

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved to Montgomery County because of the schools, and now, we are moving out for the exact same reason. MCPS has been deteriorating on so many levels over the last decade. It feels like watching a car wreck in slow motion. Our kids deserve better.

On so many levels. It’s an absolute disaster. Our school (Travilah elementary) is in an outright crisis of confidence with staff departures over the last few years, abrupt resignations, and more that can be directly tied to the pressures MCPS places on teachers and admins to make testing and ridiculous choices about equity and other intangible uselessness more important than academic excellence and character. I’m so sad to see it. We can’t afford private and have done all we can to support the school but the environment is a nightmare and the news about MCPS worse every day.

try a different cluster. you might find a gem.

This is such a silly and pointless answer. We live where we live. We chose it for the schools and the community. Right now the community is propping up the school and MCPS but how much til it breaks??? People like us don’t move, we go private. And then you lose MCPS’ biggest asset- students whose parents are present, who care, who enforce discipline so kids don’t act out, who send them in prepared. It’s just such a shame.

Do you really mean "students whose parents are wealthy"? Because many of us would not and could not "go private," but still do all of those things.

Wait a second – you actually pose an interesting question. What happens to MCPS when all of the wealthy people who can leave do leave? Is that really the type of public school system you all want? A public school system strained by the pressure of free and reduced meals, enhanced need for counselors, security officers, Social service, and more? The truth is it should be a place that all students and families want to attend, whether wealthy or poor, not just those who can’t afford better. This is a flipping travesty.

That is exactly where the school system is headed.

The wealthy already pull their kids from public school and opt for private. Now the middle class is being chased out of the county.

[Anonymous]

A private that does not shove religious "stuff"?
Where is that school???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is doing well in a title 1 ES school. She is learning and has map scores in the 90's. It's not the experience or curriculum I would have picked but I am relatively happy. I see the inequities between title 1 and non title 1 schools and even between title 1 schools and wish MCPS would address this more. I feel that compared to other districts MCPS is not keeping up but it is not the worst of the bunch for such a large district with a wide range of SES. I haven't experienced MS yet so I may be changing my tune soon.

We went from a Title 1 ES to our home MS and it was terrible.

I think you very likely might change your tune depending on which MS it is. MS is a weak link in MCPS anyway an if you are at a MS with a high FARMS/ELL rate, it can be pretty bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been a big McPS defender and have two in the system with one graduated now. And I’m starting to feel very worried. The curriculum issues for 4-8 have been troubling (shifting math curriculum, basically no MS English curriculum). The teachers are demoralized and while some are still incredibly fabulous, it seems like every year my kids’ favorite teachers retire or quit. A lot of the other teachers are just starting to see burned out and don’t grade things until end of quarter, don’t give any feedback, tell kids to figure it out if they have questions. These are MS and HS teachers — our ES teachers were all basically great. And it’s a minority that are bad but it’s really hard — if you have a math teacher that has given up, it’s hard to miss a full year. Or if you never have a good science teacher through bad luck of the draw, it’s hard to be excited about science.
And I am upset about the bathrooms and things like the broken hvac. To have kids and teachers sweating in 90 degree classroom with no bathrooms available…..just doesn’t seem right. Even my public school in a state people would consider craptastic had bathrooms!

I have siblings in smalll town Massachusetts and their schools seem really great. Same with friends in New Hampshire. The county system here is skmewhat challenging.

The township system is great for students and teachers in wealthy towns and not great for those in poor ones.

Look at MCPS’ own data that is readily available online.

The huge county school system isn’t working well for lower-income students either. The Achievement Gap just gets larger and larger.

MCPS is terrible for poor students. Low expectations and a lack of discipline makes our lower-income schools miserable learning environments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So curious where you think is better.

My neice attends a public charter school in AZ and it is amazing! Excellent academics and not nearly the level of behavioral issues we have at my kids’ public MCPS HS.

And yet most of these are just scams that can do well because they aren't required to educate all children just the ones that are easy.

Nah. The scam is that we throw billions of dollars into a failing school system year after year and never see an improvement in student outcomes.

Where is all this money going?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, have you lived elsewhere in the country?

I have lived in Boulder, CO; Los Angeles; Richmond, VA; North Carolina and Miami.

Whether people want to believe it or not DC area public schools are very well funded much moreso than many districts across the country.

Hate to break it to you, but "more funding" does not always equal better education. There is more waste and administrative bloat in MCPS than anywhere I've seen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is doing well in a title 1 ES school. She is learning and has map scores in the 90's. It's not the experience or curriculum I would have picked but I am relatively happy. I see the inequities between title 1 and non title 1 schools and even between title 1 schools and wish MCPS would address this more. I feel that compared to other districts MCPS is not keeping up but it is not the worst of the bunch for such a large district with a wide range of SES. I haven't experienced MS yet so I may be changing my tune soon.

We went from a Title 1 ES to our home MS and it was terrible.

I think you very likely might change your tune depending on which MS it is. MS is a weak link in MCPS anyway an if you are at a MS with a high FARMS/ELL rate, it can be pretty bad.

Our MS was just amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So curious where you think is better.

My neice attends a public charter school in AZ and it is amazing! Excellent academics and not nearly the level of behavioral issues we have at my kids’ public MCPS HS.

And yet most of these are just scams that can do well because they aren't required to educate all children just the ones that are easy.

Nah. The scam is that we throw billions of dollars into a failing school system year after year and never see an improvement in student outcomes.

Where is all this money going?

Even better to give those billions to some grifter charter. These are are much worse than publics. Sometimes they pretend to be effective by not educating all students just the easy ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is doing well in a title 1 ES school. She is learning and has map scores in the 90's. It's not the experience or curriculum I would have picked but I am relatively happy. I see the inequities between title 1 and non title 1 schools and even between title 1 schools and wish MCPS would address this more. I feel that compared to other districts MCPS is not keeping up but it is not the worst of the bunch for such a large district with a wide range of SES. I haven't experienced MS yet so I may be changing my tune soon.

We went from a Title 1 ES to our home MS and it was terrible.

I think you very likely might change your tune depending on which MS it is. MS is a weak link in MCPS anyway an if you are at a MS with a high FARMS/ELL rate, it can be pretty bad.

Our MS was just amazing.

Which middle school? And when was is amazing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, have you lived elsewhere in the country?

I have lived in Boulder, CO; Los Angeles; Richmond, VA; North Carolina and Miami.

Whether people want to believe it or not DC area public schools are very well funded much moreso than many districts across the country.

Hate to break it to you, but "more funding" does not always equal better education. There is more waste and administrative bloat in MCPS than anywhere I've seen.

THIS

And our kids suffer because of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is doing well in a title 1 ES school. She is learning and has map scores in the 90's. It's not the experience or curriculum I would have picked but I am relatively happy. I see the inequities between title 1 and non title 1 schools and even between title 1 schools and wish MCPS would address this more. I feel that compared to other districts MCPS is not keeping up but it is not the worst of the bunch for such a large district with a wide range of SES. I haven't experienced MS yet so I may be changing my tune soon.

We went from a Title 1 ES to our home MS and it was terrible.

I think you very likely might change your tune depending on which MS it is. MS is a weak link in MCPS anyway an if you are at a MS with a high FARMS/ELL rate, it can be pretty bad.

Our MS was just amazing.

Which middle school? And when was is amazing?

TPMS and everything

[Anonymous]

Posting as a neutral and as an outsider, but MCPS is definitely still the envy of the DMV, it seems. No other school system is being talked about as much as MCPS. Everything it does is scrutinized, analyzed and maligned. Their shortcomings are magnified and many times blown out of proportion.
Their successes? Minimized or barely talked about. People in DCUM seem to have an obsession with MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been a big McPS defender and have two in the system with one graduated now. And I’m starting to feel very worried. The curriculum issues for 4-8 have been troubling (shifting math curriculum, basically no MS English curriculum). The teachers are demoralized and while some are still incredibly fabulous, it seems like every year my kids’ favorite teachers retire or quit. A lot of the other teachers are just starting to see burned out and don’t grade things until end of quarter, don’t give any feedback, tell kids to figure it out if they have questions. These are MS and HS teachers — our ES teachers were all basically great. And it’s a minority that are bad but it’s really hard — if you have a math teacher that has given up, it’s hard to miss a full year. Or if you never have a good science teacher through bad luck of the draw, it’s hard to be excited about science.
And I am upset about the bathrooms and things like the broken hvac. To have kids and teachers sweating in 90 degree classroom with no bathrooms available…..just doesn’t seem right. Even my public school in a state people would consider craptastic had bathrooms!

I have siblings in smalll town Massachusetts and their schools seem really great. Same with friends in New Hampshire. The county system here is skmewhat challenging.

The township system is great for students and teachers in wealthy towns and not great for those in poor ones.

Look at MCPS’ own data that is readily available online.

The huge county school system isn’t working well for lower-income students either. The Achievement Gap just gets larger and larger.

MCPS is terrible for poor students. Low expectations and a lack of discipline makes our lower-income schools miserable learning environments.

Poor kids deserve a chance for a good education too. Unfortunately, we spend a lot of time dealing with kids who hate school and make it hard to focus on the ones who want to learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A private that does not shove religious "stuff"?
Where is that school???

NP here. Bullis School immediately comes to mind as an independent private HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Posting as a neutral and as an outsider, but MCPS is definitely still the envy of the DMV, it seems. No other school system is being talked about as much as MCPS. Everything it does is scrutinized, analyzed and maligned. Their shortcomings are magnified and many times blown out of proportion.
Their successes? Minimized or barely talked about. People in DCUM seem to have an obsession with MCPS.

Chris Cram? Lynne Harris? Whoever you are, this PR stumping sucks.