Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are thinking about sending your child to MCPS, please don't base your decision on the stuff you read on DCUM! A lot of the complaining about Curriculum 2.0 is just complaining by complainers. If they didn't have Curriculum 2.0 to complain about, they would complain about something else. You should talk to real actual people in real actual life who send their children to the real actual schools in the neighborhoods you're considering.

Just remember that having a smart, active, involved and yes complaining(!) parent community is VITAL to ensuring a great school system. Do not forget for a moment that these complaining parents are your greatest asset. They, more than any MCPS bureaucrat, are invested in making sure the system is the best it can be. It's easy to mock parents as "complainers" yet interesting to note that these complaints clearly have merit (as evidenced by the system moving back to some differentiation and acceleration).

Thank you to every MCPS parent who cares enough to complain!!!

There is an important distinction between people who complain on DCUM and people who actually try to accomplish something.

Anonymous wrote:If you are thinking about sending your child to MCPS, please don't base your decision on the stuff you read on DCUM! A lot of the complaining about Curriculum 2.0 is just complaining by complainers. If they didn't have Curriculum 2.0 to complain about, they would complain about something else. You should talk to real actual people in real actual life who send their children to the real actual schools in the neighborhoods you're considering.

Just remember that having a smart, active, involved and yes complaining(!) parent community is VITAL to ensuring a great school system. Do not forget for a moment that these complaining parents are your greatest asset. They, more than any MCPS bureaucrat, are invested in making sure the system is the best it can be. It's easy to mock parents as "complainers" yet interesting to note that these complaints clearly have merit (as evidenced by the system moving back to some differentiation and acceleration).

Thank you to every MCPS parent who cares enough to complain!!!

2.0 or no, compared to the rest of the nation MCPS (and, Fairfax county too FWIW) are providing stellar, well above-average educations. According to this tool, student in MoCo perform 66% better than other students nationwide: http://www.theatlantic.com/misc/global-report-card/

USNews goes more in depth, if you Google there's a lot of websites, and overall MoCo is a very strong county. It's hard to speculate on what policy changes will be made in 2 - 3 years. Some of it is being driven by the common core initiative which is a nationwide policy (http://www.corestandards.org/), and then some of it is customizable. I think the best thing to ask yourself is what your goals are for your child's education, and if you're concerned that where you live can't meet those goals, where would you look for a better alternative.

And I have kids under both systems, and I think the new program is far better.

But yes, we'll see.

One entity that may have sway is the teachers union. I am not sure if they have a position, but my feeling is the teachers don't like this. Teachers have more sway through the union that parents have.

It won't change for many years. Our kids are the guinea pigs. I heard from a friend who has a fifth grader and a third grader, therefore under both systems, that she thinks the old program was far better for her kids. We'll see.

Anonymous wrote:

(And some of the complaining complainers are also conspiracy theorists.)

Nope. MCPS staffers have identified themselves before and they are defensive about the curriculum they created.

When and how?

I've seen this: "I am a teacher in MCPS, and my experience of Curriculum 2.0 has been [good/bad/mixed]."

And I've seen this:

PP#1: Actually I like Curriculum 2.0.
PP#2: You must be a MCPS staffer who gets paid to say that.

But I've never seen, "I'm a MCPS staffer, and..."

(And some of the complaining complainers are also conspiracy theorists.)

Nope. MCPS staffers have identified themselves before and they are defensive about the curriculum they created.

It will have changed for the better - more acceleration/differenciation, hopefully.

It can't change back to this quickly. 2.0 includes cyclical repetition. The kids see the same concepts year after year. The upward moves between grade level are very small so putting back meaningful acceleration or differentiation can't be done easily with a curriculum that is so basic.

The entire system is based on scoring schools, principals and teachers on meeting a bottom bar. They collect data for this purpose and manage to this goal. The goals are not based on individual student progress unless the student is falling below the bottom line.

The schools are scored on reducing the % of lower SES students who fall below the line..the achievement gap. If they go back to differentiation, the scores rise in the high SES areas again and MCPS must put more resources into low SES school to close the gap. Yes, this is better for low SES students but it is harder for MCPS to close the gap.

There is no way MCPS will change its entire system in 2-3 years.

Anonymous wrote:The 2.0 complaints are not limited to DCUM. MCPS staffers post here and defend 2.0 all the time.

OP - I would not move to Montgomery County if I could do it over again. I do think that MCPS will be forced to scrap 2.0 but it will happen after they bomb the PARCC tests and as other counties out score them. MCPS just isn't organized in a way to make quick changes and they lack the talent to fix things. MCPS isn't motivated to improve it either. They really do not care one bit about what parents, students, or even taxpayers think. MCPS has huge budget problems and terrible fiscal and facility planning which is a dangerous combination.

For resell value, you'll be fine in Bethesda and Potomac because people there can always do privates or hire tutors. I would seriously worry about the resell value for areas in the upper middle or middle where in the past people moved because of the school system.

(And some of the complaining complainers are also conspiracy theorists.)

The 2.0 complaints are not limited to DCUM. MCPS staffers post here and defend 2.0 all the time.

OP - I would not move to Montgomery County if I could do it over again. I do think that MCPS will be forced to scrap 2.0 but it will happen after they bomb the PARCC tests and as other counties out score them. MCPS just isn't organized in a way to make quick changes and they lack the talent to fix things. MCPS isn't motivated to improve it either. They really do not care one bit about what parents, students, or even taxpayers think. MCPS has huge budget problems and terrible fiscal and facility planning which is a dangerous combination.

For resell value, you'll be fine in Bethesda and Potomac because people there can always do privates or hire tutors. I would seriously worry about the resell value for areas in the upper middle or middle where in the past people moved because of the school system.

It will have changed for the better - more acceleration/differenciation, hopefully.

Anonymous wrote:If you are thinking about sending your child to MCPS, please don't base your decision on the stuff you read on DCUM! A lot of the complaining about Curriculum 2.0 is just complaining by complainers. If they didn't have Curriculum 2.0 to complain about, they would complain about something else. You should talk to real actual people in real actual life who send their children to the real actual schools in the neighborhoods you're considering.

Best advice you'll get today.

If you are thinking about sending your child to MCPS, please don't base your decision on the stuff you read on DCUM! A lot of the complaining about Curriculum 2.0 is just complaining by complainers. If they didn't have Curriculum 2.0 to complain about, they would complain about something else. You should talk to real actual people in real actual life who send their children to the real actual schools in the neighborhoods you're considering.

They have already added math acceleration back in and I think we will see it expand with more parents demanding it. I think that (and the report cards) are the major complaints. The old system was far from perfect either.

We're trying to decide where we want to move in 2 years when DS starts K based largely on schools, and it sounds like many parents are unhappy with the 2.0 curriculum and the report cards in MoCo. Do you think that the school system will get things straightened out in a couple years? How big of a deal are the current problems?