Reply to What are the real facts about MCPS inequities?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Staff salaries are the same from school to school. Facilities are obviously in a wide range of conditions across the county, and there are examples of run-down schools in wealthier areas and brand-new schools in less wealthy areas, and vice versa.[/quote]

Sadly the academic programs in these schools widely differ as well which is what concerns to most parents.[/quote]

THe main thing I've noticed so far is many of these kids get math acceleration at an early age. I remember reading rising 6th graders who had scored 250+ on their MAP-M are often placed in Algebra in 6th.  I remember one of my kids managed to score higher in 3rd grade when they were 8 on the exact same test but since we were at a DCC school they were forced to sit through compacted math which was a snoozefest for them. I even discussed this with the principal of our school but they said there was nothing they could do about it. I guess it bothers me that kids born on the other side of the tracks are offered these opportunities while this is denied them.[/quote]

Your resentment is misplaced. There are one or two schools in one W cluster that does this and one less wealthy cluster that does it. All the other schools which are wealthy or poor do not allow this ever. Our DC's school had several kids like this and all took the regular accelerated math track and when we went to MS it was the same. There was absolutely no one accelerated beyond the regular track. Give me a break. You don't know anything.
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Some DCC schools allow Algebra in 6th.  
+1

All PP1 knows is that their own kid did not get the acceleration that they thought they should have had and "remembers reading" sixth graders who had scored 250+ are "often" placed in Algebra in 6th in some W school. Ergo, the conclusion - it must be because they were in DCC that they were discriminated. This is worse than nonsense - you are propagating resentment.

If you want to know how MCPS operates, read [url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/how-a-top-school-district-tried-to-block-a-very-gifted-child/2016/07/31/32dfc37a-5513-11e6-bbf5-957ad17b4385_story.html[/url] This was a kid that was in a W school, and without a doubt, a doogie howser type. And that parent's fight with MCPS played out in public. You can search up yourself using the father's name. I personally know another family that had a similar kid (W school again) and they had a lot of problems too. They tried to send the kid to a private school specializing in GT kids, and then had to move back to MCPS due to financial reasons. This was a kid that ended up acing SAT in sixth or seventh grade. DC was refused any acceleration - by the central office - even though DC's teachers recommended it. DC later ended up meeting a kid from non W cluster in an extracurricular activity that had been accelerated in the same cohort, who was going to the MS for math in fifth grade.

Truth is, until a few years ago MCPS was universally refusing to do any acceleration, while occasionally allowing some acceleration here and there. It used to look like it was easier to get acceleration if you are not in a W school since the central office was worried about optics. Yes, there were kids in DCC who had to go to the MS for math in fifth grade, but over all, there were not that many.

This changed when the magnet admissions process changed four years ago. When there was a huge outcry since a lot of advanced students were rejected based on the peer cohort criterion, MCPS offered a sop; they offered Algebra for some advanced students in sixth grade, I think in Frost or Cabin John. (I think there were kids from this group that represented Maryland in Mathcounts competition last year, but can not say for sure.) It is by no means the default path in most schools. I am guessing this will also go the same way as AIM/HIGH. (In case of AIM/HIGH - announce cohorted differentiation with fanfare, but after a couple of years, slowly kill it. Say every student will be placed in AIM/HIGH and make it meaningless.) Once things settle down, MCPS will go back to its merry old ways.

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