Reply to recent experiences at takoma park elementary

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Does anyone know how a focus school is determined? What’s the FARMS rate cutoff? Does a school have to hit a certain FARMS metric for a certain number of years before the designation is changed?[/quote]

I don't know the exact cutoff, but all of the focus schools are listed in the chart on page 3 here, so it can probably be extrapolated, if someone wants to take the time.

[url]https://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP25_Chapter3.pdf[/url][/quote]

The class size for focus schools is only for k to 2. My kid is in a focus school in 3rd grade and their class has 25 plus kids. The focus status does mean more staffing and paras.

I believe the cut off for focus is around 50-60 percent Farms

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/budget/archiveDetail.aspx?id=125&year=2016&order=39&keywords=[/quote]

True, this only effects K-2 but since we're talking about TPES, which is K-2, does it matter?

Also, 50%-60% is well above what is required to be designated as Title 1, let alone a focus school. Focus is much lower like 30% or higher, but below title 1. In fact, TPES was around 30% farms when it was a focus school.

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MCPS has the ability to choose how to use its Title I funds, and chooses to designate the absolutely neediest schools as "title I" while designating others as "Focus."

Given the size of MCPS, and the residential segregation that led to concentrated poverty, there are schools with functionally 100% FARMS. So, you have a situation where a specific school would be Title I in a different district, but is "only" Focus in MCPS. I've had kids in those schools, and the struggle is that the neediest kids in the school are every bit as traumatized and in need of support as the neediest kids in a Title I school but the school doesn't get the appropriate resources for those kids.

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