Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Ack and improved not improvised, damn spell check!

[Anonymous]

Please talk to parents who have experienced both pre 2.0 vs post 2.0 education at the same MCPS schools. The ones I know really see their younger kids lagging behind their older siblings in areas like writing and science. The lack of textbooks has also contributed to kids not really mastering any subjects.

Regarding PARCC, note that MD is now one of only a handful of states using the PARCC test. It is something that the system dedicates a lot of time to, but it is hardly an accurate indicator of student performance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Believe me I am rooting for the system to get its act together. I’m a homeowner and a parent. But we won’t see that improvement if parents don’t lock up some dust. The defensive peeps on here who don’t like the complaining are short-sighted. An improvised system will benefit you in every way. Short term pain for long term gain.

No one is defending 2.0, saying it's the best thing. People are just saying it's not the doom and gloom some have stated it has been. In any case, they are going to implement a new curriculum, and I don't think anyone has stated that we shouldn't move on to a new curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please talk to parents who have experienced both pre 2.0 vs post 2.0 education at the same MCPS schools. The ones I know really see their younger kids lagging behind their older siblings in areas like writing and science. The lack of textbooks has also contributed to kids not really mastering any subjects.

Regarding PARCC, note that MD is now one of only a handful of states using the PARCC test. It is something that the system dedicates a lot of time to, but it is hardly an accurate indicator of student performance.

Yep. My, oldest DC was in the guinea pig year of the HS 2.0 math sequence, so students just one year ahead were 2.0 free. When DC hit pre-calc, the first class not re-written by the curriculum office, it was a disaster. Speaking to the pre-calc teacher repeatedly, it was not just DC having problems, it was a dramatic drop off across the cohort. He said he knew the students had to be just as smart as the ones in previous years, but the simple things they couldn't do were shocking (e.g. finding a common denominator when working with variables). After DC working extremely hard in math for two years, I think things are mostly back on track, but confidence will never be there. And, midway through HS is a terrible time to discover profound deficiencies.

Agree, MD should drop PARCC, a standardized test taken by almost no one is useless. Are we going to just wait for the publisher to pull the plug?

But to OP's question, no, schools didn't factor into my purchase decision and I doubt this will drive real estate prices down measurably.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's great that your kids totally loved 2.0. Johns Hopkins, nearly all the teachers, and many parents have concluded that it utterly failed, so you are the exception.

So go have fun with your super well-educated kids. Over here, we're worried about the real deficiencies in the curriculum.

You're confusing people saying that their kids did learn foundational skills with 2.0 with "we love 2.0". I don't see anyone saying they want to keep 2.0, just that their kids did learn some things. I, and I'm sure most parents, are fine, even happy, with replacing 2.0, we just don't think we wasted money buying into MCPS. There's a bit of difference there.

I'll raise you: Most parents in MCPS are totally clueless about C2.0 or what their kid does on a weekly basis in school.

We asked a neighbor what she thought about the curriculum and she literally said, "Oh, I don't know anything about it. My kids love school."

There you have it, ignorance is bliss.

I think that's totally true. They don't want to look under the hood and see what's actually going on. This is why nothing will change. There are too few parents actually examining these things closely.

Totally agree!

I think many parents just think MCPS is a ‘good’ school system and so they don’t think much more about it. They trust that their kids are getting a good education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please talk to parents who have experienced both pre 2.0 vs post 2.0 education at the same MCPS schools. The ones I know really see their younger kids lagging behind their older siblings in areas like writing and science. The lack of textbooks has also contributed to kids not really mastering any subjects.

Regarding PARCC, note that MD is now one of only a handful of states using the PARCC test. It is something that the system dedicates a lot of time to, but it is hardly an accurate indicator of student performance.

Hi! *waves*

My 2.0 kid did a lot more writing, and better writing, in elementary school than my pre-2.0 kid. (Same teachers, same elementary school.) My 2.0 kid's math was better, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is it with the spate of MCPS HAS BETRAYED US AND RUINED OUR LIVES threads on DCUM? Is this a regular spring break thing?

There are definitely a bunch of doom and gloom MCPS posters who resurface every now and then.

Every now and then? It feels like the MCPS bashing never ends. I have my own issues with various aspects of my kids' education, but honestly the tone here is so over the top I find myself sympathizing with the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is it with the spate of MCPS HAS BETRAYED US AND RUINED OUR LIVES threads on DCUM? Is this a regular spring break thing?

There are definitely a bunch of doom and gloom MCPS posters who resurface every now and then.

Every now and then? It feels like the MCPS bashing never ends. I have my own issues with various aspects of my kids' education, but honestly the tone here is so over the top I find myself sympathizing with the county.

Have you read the Johns Hopkims audit saying the curriculum fails to teach core skills? That’s where it’s coming from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think every parent should complain as loudly as we can. The way 2.0 was implemented was nothing short of criminal negligence. Sure, some kids are going to be fine no matter what happens. Their native intelligence and advantaged circumstance protected them from an inadequate education at school. But for the majority of the students, 2.0 was a massive failure as the JHU studies pointed out in student performance changes relative to neighboring district. MCPS needs to be rebuked and held accountable by every stakeholder. Your child may be fine but the school reputation and your property value may be affected as well. Just tell others to shut up is not the answer when the external audit is so black and white.

Agree. I am from a developing nation and if my relatives back home saw some of the worksheets, they would laugh. I had a baby sitter from Spain, who was a teacher there, and she begged me to complain. Typos like the diagram not matching up with the words in the question, stuff like that.

I remember years ago watching a movie about a man who gave his wife money to buy their daughter a dress. The mother got a brilliant idea and decided to buy fabric to make a dress instead, even though she was not a seamstress. The dress was a complete failure and the daughter was very upset. When the father found out, he yelled at his wife and asked why she didn't just buy a d-m dress.

I want to ask MCPS, why they didn't just buy a d-m curriculum.

Exactly. I think many parents who assumed all was fine did not actually spend time helping their kids with homework, or perhaps did not have kids who complained about the curriculum. We pulled my son out of MCPS after third grade. I wanted to yank him mid-year and wish we had. He’s in s private school now and is still struggling to catch up in math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think every parent should complain as loudly as we can. The way 2.0 was implemented was nothing short of criminal negligence. Sure, some kids are going to be fine no matter what happens. Their native intelligence and advantaged circumstance protected them from an inadequate education at school. But for the majority of the students, 2.0 was a massive failure as the JHU studies pointed out in student performance changes relative to neighboring district. MCPS needs to be rebuked and held accountable by every stakeholder. Your child may be fine but the school reputation and your property value may be affected as well. Just tell others to shut up is not the answer when the external audit is so black and white.

Agree. I am from a developing nation and if my relatives back home saw some of the worksheets, they would laugh. I had a baby sitter from Spain, who was a teacher there, and she begged me to complain. Typos like the diagram not matching up with the words in the question, stuff like that.

I remember years ago watching a movie about a man who gave his wife money to buy their daughter a dress. The mother got a brilliant idea and decided to buy fabric to make a dress instead, even though she was not a seamstress. The dress was a complete failure and the daughter was very upset. When the father found out, he yelled at his wife and asked why she didn't just buy a d-m dress.

I want to ask MCPS, why they didn't just buy a d-m curriculum.

Exactly. I think many parents who assumed all was fine did not actually spend time helping their kids with homework, or perhaps did not have kids who complained about the curriculum. We pulled my son out of MCPS after third grade. I wanted to yank him mid-year and wish we had. He’s in s private school now and is still struggling to catch up in math.

This is what terrifies me, as a parent with a young child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is it with the spate of MCPS HAS BETRAYED US AND RUINED OUR LIVES threads on DCUM? Is this a regular spring break thing?

There are definitely a bunch of doom and gloom MCPS posters who resurface every now and then.

Every now and then? It feels like the MCPS bashing never ends. I have my own issues with various aspects of my kids' education, but honestly the tone here is so over the top I find myself sympathizing with the county.

Have you read the Johns Hopkims audit saying the curriculum fails to teach core skills? That’s where it’s coming from.

Yes I’ve read it. I’m glad a new curriculum is coming. By these posts that talk about McPS being beyond hope are ridiculous. If they were constructive, they would be much more useful. OP is so histrionic she sounds like a troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is what terrifies me, as a parent with a young child.

When I read about Curriculum 2.0 on DCUM before my younger child started kindergarten, I thought, "Oh no! My child will languish! My child will be doomed!" However, my child did not languish, and my child was not doomed. Curriculum 2.0 had some good aspects and some bad aspects. I'm not sad to see it go. But really, let's maintain some perspective. The alarmist hyperbole is just that, alarmist hyperbole. I don't know what goal OP and the other hyperbolic alarmists are trying to achieve with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is what terrifies me, as a parent with a young child.

When I read about Curriculum 2.0 on DCUM before my younger child started kindergarten, I thought, "Oh no! My child will languish! My child will be doomed!" However, my child did not languish, and my child was not doomed. Curriculum 2.0 had some good aspects and some bad aspects. I'm not sad to see it go. But really, let's maintain some perspective. The alarmist hyperbole is just that, alarmist hyperbole. I don't know what goal OP and the other hyperbolic alarmists are trying to achieve with it.

The audit is scathing. Have you read it? There is reason for a ton of concern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is what terrifies me, as a parent with a young child.

When I read about Curriculum 2.0 on DCUM before my younger child started kindergarten, I thought, "Oh no! My child will languish! My child will be doomed!" However, my child did not languish, and my child was not doomed. Curriculum 2.0 had some good aspects and some bad aspects. I'm not sad to see it go. But really, let's maintain some perspective. The alarmist hyperbole is just that, alarmist hyperbole. I don't know what goal OP and the other hyperbolic alarmists are trying to achieve with it.

The audit is scathing. Have you read it? There is reason for a ton of concern.

PP you're responding to. Seriously, what goal are you trying to achieve by posting all of this alarm on DCUM? Do you think that it will make MCPS adopt a new and better curriculum faster?

Also, I'm not discounting the audit. Please don't discount that I know what I'm talking about when I talk about my child's education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is what terrifies me, as a parent with a young child.

When I read about Curriculum 2.0 on DCUM before my younger child started kindergarten, I thought, "Oh no! My child will languish! My child will be doomed!" However, my child did not languish, and my child was not doomed. Curriculum 2.0 had some good aspects and some bad aspects. I'm not sad to see it go. But really, let's maintain some perspective. The alarmist hyperbole is just that, alarmist hyperbole. I don't know what goal OP and the other hyperbolic alarmists are trying to achieve with it.

The audit is scathing. Have you read it? There is reason for a ton of concern.

PP you're responding to. Seriously, what goal are you trying to achieve by posting all of this alarm on DCUM? Do you think that it will make MCPS adopt a new and better curriculum faster?

Also, I'm not discounting the audit. Please don't discount that I know what I'm talking about when I talk about my child's education.

Do you really think all of this is by me? I am one of many people (and virtually all teachers, according to the audit) upset by curriculum 2.0.