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[quote=Anonymous][quote]+ 100 MCPS is only gung ho on this because they think its a way to avoid getting to the point of having lots of failing, 80% FARMS schools. For MCPS, its about being able to say look all of our schools are 6s. Trust me, they know from their own data that reducing the FARMS number in schools does nothing to increase the performance of lower income kids. The studies that show any of those changes were across multiple schools systems with a correlating gap in resources not one system that is able to increased resources to schools with more FARMS kids. Even the changes across disparate school systems evaporate once you cross the 20% level. This isn't about lowering the achievement gap. It is about optics of overall school performance.

Its a shame because this will initiative will lower the services available for low income kids and drive higher income kids out of the system. MCPS will simply end up accelerating what they were hoping to avoid.

Don't forget that the purpose of 2.0 was to slow down the pace of the curriculum to reduce the achievement gap. Despite all the data and teacher input that the new curriculum was making the achievement gap worse not better, MCPS didn't listen. If there hadn't been the John Hopkins audit we would still have 2.0.

There's research that indicates low income kids do better in schools with about 25% or less FARMs population. For MCPS, it's about trying to close the achievement gap. Is that a bad thing?[/quote]

Those studies only hold true when comparing across different school systems. The low income schools were in low funded schools and the high income schools were much better funded. If you look across MCPS schools, you do not see any consistent performance change in low income schools based on how many kids are low income. It is all over the map. At some schools that have 20-30% where you would expect to see a bump its lower than schools with 40%-50%. There are some low FARMS schools where FARMS kids do better but then many others where they do worse than other schools with more FARMS.

If you want to reduce the achievement gap the only way to do it is with more resources. More teachers, more after school programs, more wrap around services, more intervention services. There is no magic cheap way to solve the achievement gap but just moving kids around. Just like moving the deck chairs around on a sinking ship isn't going to keep the ship from sinking. [/quote]

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