Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are so many people misunderstanding and projecting on this thread. Looking through, exactly zero posters have identified themselves as MCPS teachers. Please don’t throw around unfounded accusations that MCPS teachers are vindictive or anti-student.

Here are three responses that pretty much sound like they are from a teacher's perspective:

There are reasons they want to talk to their current teachers. Why not go parent your child about how it isn’t the teacher’s job to get along with children but it is absolutely the child’s responsibility to be a top shelf student who earns their respect. You sound like you empowered her to give some attitude and now are just a tiny bit bitter it will come back to haunt her. This is called pissing in the wind and it is an important lesson for your kid the learn and it reflects poorly on you that it will be learned the hardway.

and

It isn’t a teachers job to get along with your daughter, it is her job to get along with the teacher. She didn’t and will suffer a tad for it. As other have said judging by you and the “mad women” tone of your email, I doubt she was the magnet type anyway so it doesn’t change much.

and

Perhaps you should have taught DD social graces of not burning bridges. As the saying goes, “One never knows when you’ll need to cross a bridge again later in life, so don’t burn it down.” Now your rooster has come to crow. I will never understand the entitlement of suburban kids and how they treat educators and other adults that they don’t deem “worthy & successful”. Op, let us know what you decided and how your daughter fared after notification letters go out and your DD receives hers.

I can't imagine any parent writing those responses. Sorry.

Anonymous wrote:There are so many people misunderstanding and projecting on this thread. Looking through, exactly zero posters have identified themselves as MCPS teachers. Please don’t throw around unfounded accusations that MCPS teachers are vindictive or anti-student.

There are reasons they want to talk to their current teachers. Why not go parent your child about how it isn’t the teacher’s job to get along with children but it is absolutely the child’s responsibility to be a top shelf student who earns their respect. You sound like you empowered her to give some attitude and now are just a tiny bit bitter it will come back to haunt her. This is called pissing in the wind and it is an important lesson for your kid the learn and it reflects poorly on you that it will be learned the hardway.

and

It isn’t a teachers job to get along with your daughter, it is her job to get along with the teacher. She didn’t and will suffer a tad for it. As other have said judging by you and the “mad women” tone of your email, I doubt she was the magnet type anyway so it doesn’t change much.

and

Perhaps you should have taught DD social graces of not burning bridges. As the saying goes, “One never knows when you’ll need to cross a bridge again later in life, so don’t burn it down.” Now your rooster has come to crow. I will never understand the entitlement of suburban kids and how they treat educators and other adults that they don’t deem “worthy & successful”. Op, let us know what you decided and how your daughter fared after notification letters go out and your DD receives hers.

Anonymous wrote:OP,

For MCPS magnet HS applications, the teachers have to fill a form recommendation in which they have to rate the student. It is not a free form recommendation. They cannot give their own personal opinions about the student. They have to give the recommendation that is reflective of their performance at school and standardized tests like PARCC and MAP. In other words, if your student is getting good grades and doing well in standardized tests and have not been disciplined/suspended at school for doing something really terrible, then you will be fine.

You also have access to what recommendation was given by the teacher after the admission process is over and if your child did not get through. Teachers are not supposed to write anything that is not supported by academic data on file. In other words, if a student is getting D's in their class, the teacher can say that the student is not performing above grade levels and have difficulties in higher level thinking required for magnet classes. Nothing more than that. But they cannot write that if the student is getting an A or B, because the data is not supporting what they are writing.

The admissions committee also knows to discard a bad recommendation from 1 teacher, if the rest of the teachers are giving good recommendations. Infact, the committee know who the vindictive teachers are and if they see a pattern these teachers are reported.

For MCPS, my own observation has been that the most important thing after home school cohort (also race and gender) is 1) the admissions test. 2) academic record 3) Essays and 4)Teacher recommendations.

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t clear that the mom is just setting up the one teacher for when her daughter doesn’t get in? Is she going to ask colleges to only look at here 11th grade transcripts? Untimely bad behavior has consequences as your daughter is finding out. Do your job and make it a teaching moment and not help her normalize it.