Reply to MCPS just isn't so great anymore

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Reply to "MCPS just isn't so great anymore - WashPo Opinion 9/6/2013"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To the PP, it's not quite fair to say the only thing you could do to help kids in poverty is give them new parents. I thought the [b]research was pretty clear on the benefits of putting disadvantaged kids in smaller classes, and in schools not completely full of other disadvantaged kids[/b]. [/quote]

By all means - put the disadvantaged kids in smaller classes - I am all for it.

But putting your disadvantaged kid in the same class as my high achiever kid, may help your kid, but is actually hampering my child in reaching his full potential.

Good for your kid.  Got that.  Bad for my kid.  Where is the logic of that?
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I just disagree that it would be bad for your child. Poverty is not contagious. Young children are smart and adaptable. Someone is bound on come on here and tell about how difficult it was for their middle class kid at a school that was 90% FARMs. There's the point exactly. Schools that are 90% FARMs aren't good for anyone.

If you disagree, then just substitute "black" for "disadvantaged." So your quote above would read "putting your black kid in the same class as my kid, may help your kid, but is actually hampering my child in reaching his full potential." It sounds archaic and objectionable. Saying it about poor kids in general sounds no different to me.[/quote]

I did not say "BLACK" kid - I did not say "POVERTY" ...this is your mindset, your perception and the chip on your shoulder - so you can deal with it or wallow in it - your choice.  I am talking about[b] parenting as a factor in the success of students[/b].  Something that MCPS cannot replicate on an institutional basis.

I do not have a problem with a child from a "poor" family or any other minority group sitting in the same classroom as my child - since I am a minority too whose kids have gone to the bottom of the heap ES and MS in MCPS.  I have a problem with disruptive students who are below grade level and who hamper my kid from being challenged academically in school.  That is the kind of "disadvantaged student" I am seeing.  Not Black not Hispanic, but a disruptive child who does not do assigned work or homework, who sucks up the time of the teacher.  Pity the teachers as well, since they cannot even complain about such students because they get dinged in their evaluation.

[/quote]

OK, fair enough. Fortunately for me, my kids haven't gone to the bottom of the heap, as you say, so my perspective is different. Wouldn't you rather there was no school at the bottom of the heap, though, and children weren't segregated so completely by income? If you are a minority whose kids have gone to subpar schools, why are you arguing against Dan Reed?
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I do not agree with Dan Reed.  I think how schools are doing should not be a concern...the concern should be how individual students are doing.  And how individual students are doing is in a large part a function of parenting.   My kids did well in all the schools that they went to.  And the teachers knew that if my kids stepped out of line in any shape or form...they would get hell from me.  Studying is the profession of my kids, the school is their place of work - they know that I will not tolerate them giving anything but their best effort.

I can understand if the schools are performing poorly if  - 1) the facilities are rundown   2) School supplies are inadequate   3) Teachers are under-qualified  4) Study resources are not available.   Things which we saw in DCPS a few years back.,  This is however not the case in MCPS.

Redrawing the boundaries ...is achieving what precisely? The school population will change and the data will look better - except the kids who were doing well will continue to do well, the kids who were failing will continue to fail.

Lowering your educational standards or changing how you grade...is achieving what precisely? These students cannot compete and get good jobs in the end.  Everyone suffers.

If MCPS cannot control  the work ethic at home or impact the parent involvement...then maybe another solution is to do intensive tutoring for these disadvantaged kids - each and every day- 2 hours a day.  If they don't attend or misbehave - send the bill to the parents.

MCPS should be in the business of teaching...and they are going away from it each and every year.  I see a growing trend of a dual system of education in MCPS - what MCPS teaches and what the kids are being taught outside of school, privately.  And the kids who are advantaged are the ones who are using this dual system.

I am a minority whose kids went to subpar schools and got the best education. The school were subpar because of the students - not because of the teachers or the curriculum.  In the end these teachers helped to get my children where they are today.  They guided them and they guided me.  I met the most caring and dedicated teachers in these subpar schools.  And they had it in them to help even a student who was disadvantaged but wanted to better themselves. Instead what they were dealing with everyday were kids who were disruptive and parents who were unable or unwilling to discipline . 
  
So - show me a plan which will make these kids behave and apply themselves academically - and I will endorse and support the plan.

I am suspicious of any other plans that improves the school results by getting in higher performing kids in the mix.  AND - I also think that this is a punishment for the kids who were doing well in studies but now are made to go to other schools with a peer group that is not interested in studies.

[/quote]

This is very well said.  Although I would like to pull everyone up with a rising tide, if kids are disruptive and parents don't care, then why should my child suffer?  On the other hand, if the problem is, truly, that parents want to help (but can't due to poor education, time (working two jobs to pay the rent etc.), and children are disruptive because they don't have the structure, food, etc. they need at home (kids want to learn and have structure), shouldn't it be society's hope, and ultimately responsibility, to make sure we catch those kids whose parents are failing them?  If we don't catch them then, we will end up catching them with our prison system, which is far less beneficial to the society as a whole.[/quote]

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