Reply to Anti-Racist Audit

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If MCPS or any other school system wants to combat racism, they should prioritize raising the academic accomplishments of groups who traditionally underperform average student outcomes. Was this included in the audit? [/quote]
+1 money would be better spent closing the achievement gap than on a useless "audit" with no meaningful followup.  The great equalizer is education.  Focus on that if you want to address racism.[/quote]

The achievement gap is something that the school can't do much about. It is a function of parental education level and student home life, like family values. No amount of money is going to change these things. MCPS can't raise people's kids for them or tell them what to value. It can only provide choices and opportunities so people can make the best choices based on their goals and values.[/quote]

I agree with this for the most part.  However there are some things that could be done that would help or at lessen the overall impact.

1) K-2 classes neither to either be smaller or have two adults in there all the time.  Expecting that one teacher can teach a whole range of kids at that age waste precious time and almost always results in the kids further ahead getting little attention.  The achievement gap shouldn’t be about the space between the lowest learner and the highest learner it’s about the lowest learners and what we expect on average.

2) Let’s stop pretending have one reading and one math specialist per school is going to move the needle when on average most ES have 600-800 kids.  Kids with LDs are going to need more support from K-8 in order to be ready for HS.

3) Explicitly teach study skills and executive function skills.

4) Stop short changing other subjects for Math and English, because those subjects actually use math and English.  Science and Social Studies need to be taught with more regularity in K-5 because those subjects actually put into practice what is taught in Math and English.

5) Enforce consequences for simple things like no answering/texting/or use of cellphones during class.  Will it be a nuisance at first? YES.  But the greater nuisance is the continuation of not enforcing the rule.  Get a bunch of cellphone bags, & every time a kid violates the policy confiscate the phone, put it in a bag wi/ the child’s name, hand the child a pre-typed sheet indicating that a parent is welcome to come to school to pick it up and discuss the district’s cellphone policy.  Phone goes in the safe till parents come to retrieve.Administrators and MCPS need to stand strong on this.

6) Create before school/ after school/evening EML programs so student get up to speed on language quicker.  Hire and pay people to staff these roles.  Counties/State/Nation can’t keep treating school like community centers without districts transforming to address the issues in that way and then telling politicians this is whatnot looks like and cost.

7) Hire 2-5 graduate students to put together a comprehensive report w/ cost of the differences between public and private education.  Class size of 10-12 students? Great, this is how many additional teachers, paras, classrooms would be needed.  This is the approximate cost of each per year.  Special Education improvements? Yep, this is how many private placements we’d really like and here is the cost.  Can your please go tell those schools to create more spots.  Field trips 2-3x per year? Wonderful, Here is the cost for said field trips, here is the cost of the bus driver wage, and here is the planning time. Expanded sports offering/opportunities? Sounds helpful, here is the additional cost for uniforms, coaches, transportation, and paying for community centers so these additional practices can take place. This is needed because it’s the only way the public and politicians are going to get it and stop the endless debate, comparison, and actually fund everything they say they want.
[/quote]

All EXCELLENT suggestions.  I think most parents and teachers would love to see this happen.

Send this to McKnight and the BOE.  [/quote]
I'm the ^PP who posted about spending the money on closing the achievement gap rather than the anti-racism audit, and I +100 to all that.

Now that ^ is something concrete and actionable plans that might help URM rather than some fluffy anti-racism audit that just makes some white people feel better about themselves.[/quote]

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