Anonymous wrote:Things I see on a daily basis teaching high school:

- 100+ students lined up out the door every morning and after open lunch, waiting for late passes that mean absolutely nothing because no one tracks them and there are no consequences for tardiness.

- Dozens and dozens of students just roaming the halls, sitting in stairwells, or coming and going from local eating establishments while classes are going on, with no consequences.

- Groups of students vaping or smoking pot in the bathrooms and only being told by security to return to class when they are found.

- Students basically gaming the grading system, doing the bare minimum to get by. Because students earn 50% now, even for assignments they don't complete, they know they only need to do a couple of assignments per quarter to pass the course. Even the high fliers know that earning a 79.5% one quarter and an 89.5% another quarter results in an A on the high school transcript under our policy. Semester exams are a thing of the past, so students are not held accountable for retaining what they've learned, with the exception of AP courses. Cheating is rampant because, often we are told that we must give students another chance to complete the assignment rather than assigning a zero. This grading policy also results in almost everyone being "eligible" so losing the ability to play a sport or do another activity of interest is no longer a motivator.

I could go on and on....

You might be asking yourself, why aren't teachers penalizing students for being late, or talking back, or spending most of a class period in the bathrooms? The reason is because there is absolutely nothing we can do. If we assign lunch detention and kids don't show up, there is no follow through or support from administration. If we stop them in the halls while they are roaming during class, we just get eyerolls or worse. Kids who get in "real trouble" are sent to restorative justice circles instead of being suspended as they would have been years ago.

I encourage other teachers to add on to this list. I work in high school, so I know very little about the specifics of what's happening at the elementary level.

Anonymous wrote:Essentially the consensus is that like most schools districts in America, MCPS has its share of problems. Unless you are going to run to a small wealthy township, you will encounter them. That said, kids are still getting a good education and great opportunities. MCPS is still head and shoulders above many many school districts in the nation.

Anonymous wrote:Recently moved to this county and considering local public school for our youngest child. Are the MCPS issues I hear about truly being "overblown" as I read on a post on here? Or is it truly that MCPS is declining and teachers are struggling to keep up? I have read that teachers get little lesson planning time, are micro-managed, supplies are scarce (for ex copying paper at schools), lack of support to kids with behavioral issues which impacts other students' learning? Anything that you would like to share, please do so!

Anonymous wrote:The focus in MCPS is on kids with IEPs and this that are EML (even more attention for those dually coded). It’s a crapshoot from school to school what kind of leadership you’ll get because McPs is a “system of schools” and not a school system.

Our child’s elementary teacher was suspended for a week earlier this year for hitting and shaking a kid in front of the entire class. No communication from admin about the incident or follow up counseling for kids that witnessed it. Just a bunch of random subs while their classmate got transferred to another class. After winter break, the teacher told kids to stop wearing clothing with pockets because the class was full of thieves.

The principal presents to parents as if the teacher did nothing wrong but I pray he chewed the teacher out behind closed doors. She has over 30 years in McPS so I doubt there are any kind of formal
Observations. At this point, MCPs is desperate and will take any warm
Body to work in a classroom.

Also, it seems so ridiculous to me that elementary kids don’t get social studies and science regularly. Our school will do one subject weekly for a month and then switch to the other. This is where private schools have a huge leg up. They are actually teaching all subjects AND incorporating true SEL and EF in their curriculums.

MCPs was a si king ship, but it’s recently been lit on fire by all of the bad PR. Anyone that can gets out and gets their kids out

Anonymous wrote:All school districts have issues. MCPS issues get blown out of portion because the district is so large and the type of parents that live here.

So much has changed in eduction and in the district makeup in the last 20-30 years. MCPS use to be known as private school for free and folks still want it to be that.

Good teaching and learning happens here on a daily basis and families that want a good education get one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Things I see on a daily basis teaching high school:

- 100+ students lined up out the door every morning and after open lunch, waiting for late passes that mean absolutely nothing because no one tracks them and there are no consequences for tardiness.

- Dozens and dozens of students just roaming the halls, sitting in stairwells, or coming and going from local eating establishments while classes are going on, with no consequences.

- Groups of students vaping or smoking pot in the bathrooms and only being told by security to return to class when they are found.

- Students basically gaming the grading system, doing the bare minimum to get by. Because students earn 50% now, even for assignments they don't complete, they know they only need to do a couple of assignments per quarter to pass the course. Even the high fliers know that earning a 79.5% one quarter and an 89.5% another quarter results in an A on the high school transcript under our policy. Semester exams are a thing of the past, so students are not held accountable for retaining what they've learned, with the exception of AP courses. Cheating is rampant because, often we are told that we must give students another chance to complete the assignment rather than assigning a zero. This grading policy also results in almost everyone being "eligible" so losing the ability to play a sport or do another activity of interest is no longer a motivator.

I could go on and on....

You might be asking yourself, why aren't teachers penalizing students for being late, or talking back, or spending most of a class period in the bathrooms? The reason is because there is absolutely nothing we can do. If we assign lunch detention and kids don't show up, there is no follow through or support from administration. If we stop them in the halls while they are roaming during class, we just get eyerolls or worse. Kids who get in "real trouble" are sent to restorative justice circles instead of being suspended as they would have been years ago.

I encourage other teachers to add on to this list. I work in high school, so I know very little about the specifics of what's happening at the elementary level.

I wish I knew which high school you are referring to because it sounds exactly like the high school where I teach.