Reply to Teacher exposes the craptastic decline iof MCPS in Reddit rant

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are only 2-6 good high schools in MoCo and people pay a lot to live there.

The other people buy cheap houses zoned for bad schools

[/quote]

If you believe that the only good schools are ones in neighborhoods with over-priced real estate, what do you think we as a society owe to people who truly cannot afford to live in those neighborhoods?

Surely, you also believe that an adequate education is a human right and the key to breaking cycles of generational poverty. Are you okay with real estate prices being the tool that creates a permanent underclass?

The slide began with eliminating finals, but that policy was a symptom of decline, not the cause. What we are calling pandemic learning loss was like a heart attack after the patient had a Krispy Kreme donut following a decade of daily Big Macs.

It is time for a true overhaul. But one that must include parental accountability as well. And buying a $900k house zoned to a W feeder doesn’t discharge your responsibility. Affluent parents need to advocate for a grading policy that supports rather than diminishes students learning time management and accountability skills. Affluent parents need to have constructive conversations with their children about the feedback teachers provide and not just react to low grades with angry emails and vitriolic DCUM posts. Your child didn’t get an A on homework because they really understand the concept. They got an A because that category only allows 100%, 90% (if late), and 50% (if never submitted). The C they got on classwork shows their true achievement. [/quote]

Wait, they don't take final exams in MCPS?

Absolutely pathetic. What are these kids going to do when they get to college?  Fail so much our colleges will have to water down curricula?

This is insane. Where's the education in MCPS and why do they keep raising my taxes? [/quote][b]Finals, college, and success are aspects of whiteness.  As an anti-racism school system, MCPS must eschew these things and work toward equity[/b].[/quote]

This.  This has been the basis of staff training and ‘professional development’ in MCPS recently.  [/quote]

OMG. I am not in the school system but have done anti-racist training and the parts about "white supremacist culture" are so ridiculous. It almost makes me wonder if a right-wing operative designed those pieces secretly as kind of a poison pill to undermine anti-racist efforts. But the anti-racist trainers kind of deserve it because they present it as something that can't be questioned or you'll be called a racist. [/quote]

These are all good ideas, although I think they would be better received if they were not characterized as aspects of "white supremacy" and instead discussed as ways that the current social structure advantages some people over others. For example, strict enforcement of punctuality in the workplace will favor individuals with reliable cars over those who must rely on public transportation like buses to get to work. The same is true for the original discussions about school discipline. We all have personal biases about what is the best way to behave. I find a noisy environment to be very stressful, so I can see how at times, my perception of certain behaviors that I find too loud or too confrontational might lead to inappropriate judgment of others.

Still, as a society and within communities, including school buildings, we must have some standards to create order and stability. This is particularly important for children. Personally, I think that we are in a mess because there is a lack of stability and clear expectations at every level and between stakeholders as well, and some of that stems from well-intentioned social justice ideals. My younger kids' experience in public school (not MCPSS, but a neighboring district) was one of complete chaos during the elementary school years when it seemed that options for disciplining extremely disruptive students had vanished. A small group of highly disruptive students, students switching classes to avoid them (and physical harm), significant teacher absences without stable substitute coverage (partly due to the chaos), and poor communication between administration and parents all undermined educational outcomes - for everyone. Students should not be disciplined based on unfair standards that disregard cultural differences; however, there has to be a limit to what is tolerated (assault, threats of physical harm, swearing at teachers and other students) and an ability to address what we all should consider unacceptable behavior. If kids get moved from grade to grade without attending school regularly or making a good-faith effort to do their work, there is less motivation for all students to hold themselves to high standards. Can we reconcile telling students that a fight at school or an assault of a teacher isn't a problem if the students are from marginalized groups, but also, it's really, really, really important that you show up for class on time and study for your exams?

Schools' ability to return to higher standards is compromised because students aren't ready for it, and part of that is due to the pandemic. Every time I hear someone say, "But this was happening before the pandemic," I fume. If standards were falling off before the pandemic and student behavior was deteriorating (and it was), there should have been even more urgency to avoid further dropoff instead of writing off the COVID years and then blaming kids and their parents for reentry difficulties. [/quote]

This is all true.  It is also true that this was falling off before the pandemic.  The pandemic did made it exponentially worse because some things were not caught early, students that normally would just have been annoying are now horrible (and Yes this is because of parents), and those who would have been horrible to begin with are now even worse.  What’s infuriating for teachers/admin and school districts is that they have been harping about how things were falling off for a decade and no one was really listening until pandemic.

Same as how MCPS has been talking about this ESSR cliff  and yet folks acted surprised when they starting scaling back tutoring and summer school.[/quote]

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