Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's right, don't get caught up in the hype. That said, there are a lot of parents (especially in this budget-cutting climate) who would love to be able to supplement staff and specials, etc. in the schools. I think MCPS are great (after all budget cutting is happening throughout the country), but I also think parents should be allowed to raise money to pay for assistant teachers, recess aides, etc. I think the county should be open to this type of parent partnership.

Why not volunteer? Our teacher and our school loves volunteers. I know, it may be easier for you to fundraise or pay your way to a better adult/student ratio, but that isn't going to happen. A parent can assist in the classroom or even in the lunchroom or at recess.

Uh, right, we should all quit our jobs to go volunteer at school all day?! That's not going to happen. Why can't the school provided adequate staff to children ratios?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think whether or not you like MCPS will be influenced by the capabilities of your child. If you have a very capable, off the charts type of kid, MCPS does not have a good system to teach them something. Most of the dissatisfied parents fall into this category.

Not my experience at all. My off the charts kid is at public school and thriving with the challenge of AP and honors classes. My not so off the charts kid is in private school.

I agree with the 2nd poster. My off the charts kid is loving MCPS with lots of individualized attention from magnet teachers.

Where I think MCPS really stinks is for kids in the 90-97 percentile, or so, and specifically in various MCPS schools that are lower performing. These are the kids who don't get in to the magnets which only take the top 2%. If these kids are in Whitman they will be challenged by classes that are aimed at a large body of kids in these percentiles. I don't know if PP's happy kid is at a magnet, or at Whitman and its ilk, but I can see either scenario working out for a gifted kid.

But if a 90-97th pctile kid is in various other, lower-performing MCPS schools, you need to know that MCPS is moving away from things like tracking and these kids are going to end up in heterogeneous classes with overburdened teachers who are "supposed" to differentiate by everybody's needs. I'm not a teacher, but let's face it, I'm pretty sure I couldn't differentiate in a class where some kids are reading way below level and other kids are doing Tolstoy, so I think this MCPS policy is totally unreasonable and unfair to kids at both the top and bottom ends of the spectrum. These are the kids for whom I'd recommend private school.

I am not thrilled with MC public school, and think the principal is awful and my son had a terrible kindergarten teacher. That being said, his 1st grade teacher is wonderful. So sometimes it is very teacher dependent.

Anonymous wrote:That's right, don't get caught up in the hype. That said, there are a lot of parents (especially in this budget-cutting climate) who would love to be able to supplement staff and specials, etc. in the schools. I think MCPS are great (after all budget cutting is happening throughout the country), but I also think parents should be allowed to raise money to pay for assistant teachers, recess aides, etc. I think the county should be open to this type of parent partnership.

Why not volunteer? Our teacher and our school loves volunteers. I know, it may be easier for you to fundraise or pay your way to a better adult/student ratio, but that isn't going to happen. A parent can assist in the classroom or even in the lunchroom or at recess.

Anonymous wrote:To help my child succeed, I:

read to him everynight
I spend a lot of time focusing on his homework
I do extra "mommy worksheets"
I do flash cards
I find every opportunity to teach and listen (e.g., in the car on the way to school)

No, when I volunteer, I do not focus on my son. My point was that volunteering really opens your eyes.

My son's MCPS encourages parents to volunteer everyday to assist the teacher.

You realize that this is a great formula for a burnt out kid right? These kids that are drilled all day long are the ones who eventually hate school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think whether or not you like MCPS will be influenced by the capabilities of your child. If you have a very capable, off the charts type of kid, MCPS does not have a good system to teach them something. Most of the dissatisfied parents fall into this category.

Wait. You'll like it just fine unless your kid is really smart? Is this some kind of passive aggressive thing? You should get together with the lady over on the private school thread who is complaining there are not enough gifted kids in private schools and how private schools should track all the kids, especially those with IQs of 130 and up, so they don't languish and their "giftedness" can be fully maximized. In other words, she thinks privates should be GT magnets.

I have a gifted kid and a kid at the other end of the spectrum. Both in ES. I think MCPS has done fine with the gifted kid only because they let this child take advanced math. However, they are now talking about taking this kind of acceleration away with the new curriculum that is being rolled out in K-2. Right now, I don't have a lot of confidence in the future of MCPS. I think it is full of ideological ivory tower policy makers that want to push a social utopia that says all kids are the same and can learn the same way and at the same pace. They won't admit that this will probably just produce the same outcomes and probably hurt those kids at either extreme end of the learning spectrum. That said, your kid will still learn to read and write. They probably can get to Algebra by 8th grade and Calculus by 12th. Don't expect them to do big exciting projects and research papers. After MCPS, it is up to them to push their own education agenda in college and beyond.

Anonymous wrote:I think whether or not you like MCPS will be influenced by the capabilities of your child. If you have a very capable, off the charts type of kid, MCPS does not have a good system to teach them something. Most of the dissatisfied parents fall into this category.

Wait. You'll like it just fine unless your kid is really smart? Is this some kind of passive aggressive thing? You should get together with the lady over on the private school thread who is complaining there are not enough gifted kids in private schools and how private schools should track all the kids, especially those with IQs of 130 and up, so they don't languish and their "giftedness" can be fully maximized. In other words, she thinks privates should be GT magnets.

To help my child succeed, I:

read to him everynight
I spend a lot of time focusing on his homework
I do extra "mommy worksheets"
I do flash cards
I find every opportunity to teach and listen (e.g., in the car on the way to school)

No, when I volunteer, I do not focus on my son. My point was that volunteering really opens your eyes.

My son's MCPS encourages parents to volunteer everyday to assist the teacher.

Anonymous wrote:I have a child in MCPS and in private. We love both. I do a lot of volunteering and it is very very clear that YOU are the key to your child's success. Even in small classes, the teacher can't give good invididual attention.

So, you can't go wrong with MCPS but you will make the difference either way.

So what do you do to provide the child's succes? How do you volounteer? Do you help just your child in the class?

Yeah, some of the posters dont seem to make sense -- I had always heard that if your child was G&T or special needs, MCPS is great. It is the middle of the road students that may get lost.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please don't take everything you read on here seriously. The people who come on here to complain have unrealistic expectations of public schools. Your kids will have access to a wonderful education in MCPS.

Thank you, I do appreciate that! I hate getting caught up in the hype.

Ha ha ha, don't believe it. People who are posting are indeed pissed off but it is not that those who do not post are happy. They usually
have no access to the internet or already sent their kids to private.

or.. are low income and don't speak English or speak and write English with "accente" and get bullied off this forum all the time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please don't take everything you read on here seriously. The people who come on here to complain have unrealistic expectations of public schools. Your kids will have access to a wonderful education in MCPS.

Thank you, I do appreciate that! I hate getting caught up in the hype.

Ha ha ha, don't believe it. People who are posting are indeed pissed off but it is not that those who do not post are happy. They usually
have no access to the internet or already sent their kids to private.

I have a child in MCPS and in private. We love both. I do a lot of volunteering and it is very very clear that YOU are the key to your child's success. Even in small classes, the teacher can't give good invididual attention.

So, you can't go wrong with MCPS but you will make the difference either way.

OP, add another vote for wait and see. I have spent time worrying about all this. We have 2 kids and couldn't really afford private and I didn't get a sense the parochial options were better. My oldest is now in 2nd grade and we have had seriously fantastic teachers, and he's learned tons. I'd be thrilled if class sizes were smaller, but even my active boy has adjusted and seems to be thriving. We are at a well-regarded elementary but not the top of the top, and my son is a bright kid, extremely interested in certain things, but not one of the many DCUM progeny who are clearly gifted. Still, he's come so far in two years, and I'm really happy with our school. Try not to obsess over the alarmist reports; investigate your school and see if it's the right match for your kid.

Anonymous wrote:I think whether or not you like MCPS will be influenced by the capabilities of your child. If you have a very capable, off the charts type of kid, MCPS does not have a good system to teach them something. Most of the dissatisfied parents fall into this category.

Not my experience at all. My off the charts kid is at public school and thriving with the challenge of AP and honors classes. My not so off the charts kid is in private school.