Reply to Time for a mutiny yet? MCPS = crummy math, no grammar, poor writing

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]5) math acceleration at all costs - pushed too much too soon[/quote]
This isn't really something being pushed by MCPS; it's MCPS responding to all the tiger parents out there who insist on their kid taking calculus in 11th because they mistakenly think it's going to help with college placement or be necessary to enter a STEM field (which it isn't).[/quote]

I disagree. I think if MCPS offered true honors/advanced tracking in math in ES and MS most parents would be perfectly happy keeping their kids "on level". If you have a kid who has advanced abilities in math, MCPS's answer is to immediately move them up a grade level (in the old curriculum you were moved up two grade levels). [b]Why not offer grade level work with acceleration for those who can handle it?[/b] Instead of your 5th grader taking 6th grade level math, they'd be delving deeper into 5th grade math concepts/maybe doing more project-based work, having deeper discussions in class with other 5th graders who want to be challenged at math.[/quote]

They do that. And DCUM complains about it.[/quote]

This. Of course MCPS curriculum isn't perfect -- far from it -- but the fact is that most MCPS schools (and certainly the top performing ones) are among the best public schools in the country. We're talking within the top 5%. If you're not happy with the education your kid is getting, fight for improvements and supplement at home, but the idea that MCPS is some shit-hole is patently ridiculous. [/quote]

No they're really not.  They have a lot of smart kids that score well, but the schools aren't great.  Massachusetts has good schools.[/quote]

MCPS is in the top 5% of school districts in the country. yes, Massachusetts has districts that are stronger, but they also have districts that are weaker than MCPS.

it's also important to point out that MCPS is huge and diverse. it's not reasonable to compare it to, say, Wellesley public schools (one of the best districts in MA), which has about 5,000 students and is at 6% free or reduced lunch. MCPS is the 16th largest school district in the country and has 35% of its students on free or reduced lunch.

I'm not arguing MCPS doesn't have problems -- it absolutely does. I'm arguing that things could be a hell of a lot worse. [/quote]

here's another point, which is important to remember when we're trying to make comparisons, especially on a national level: MCPS is a county-level school district. many places don't organize their school districts by county. they're often done by town, especially in the NE. that means it's very difficult to compare outcomes. to standardize your unit of analysis, you'd have to aggregate the results from town-based districts to come up with county-level data. if you did that, things would likely look very different.

take Westchester County in New York, for example. if you look just at the best school districts, it looks great, but the districts are tiny and town-based. if you aggregated results across the county, however, you'd end up with everything from the rich, yuppie towns like Chappaqua and Bedford, to the more working class areas like yonkers and new Rochelle. the county-level outcomes would be very different. [/quote]

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