Latin culture trusts the institution? Have they seen their kid's tests scores? They just go with the flow. What a load of crap.

In Asian communities you do not see the academic achievement gap between high and low SES students. Low SES students perform just as well and much of this is cultural expectations that given the opportunity you must do well. Asian communities put less emphasis on being born gifted and see academic achievement as a product of hard work.

This attitude is NOT present in american culture. American educational education expects that you are either born smart or you are not. There is an acceptance that US education is bad so if you work in US education whatever you do is good enough. The super smart kids will still succeed and the wealthy will opt out for private schools.

MCPS takes this one step forward and does nothing to reward or incentivize achievement for the middle class, immigrants, low, average, or bright students. I've never seen a school system that shuts out parental involvement, demotivates students, and acts to minimize or restrict achievement to the extent that 2.0 and MCPS does. The focus is clearly on the bottom bar and this is exactly why MCPS will never solve the achievement gap.

Latin american cultures trust the institution. Parental involvement in schools is very uncommon in latin american countries. It isn't an issue that they do not care about education but its a foreign concept to think you need to constantly supplement your child's education at home or push to be aware of how your child is performing in school.

If MCPS focused more on achievement of the individual student and delivered a quality curriculum the latin american students would do much better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread has turned very racist. I don't care if you are blue, purple, or whatever I want the needs of my high SES. child status met. High and middle income SES parents are annoyed that they pay all of the taxes but the public school school doesn't care about their kids.

I know a lot of foreign born highly educated parents who let their kids learn English in school. They eventually send their kids to Ivies so it's the low SES. that people are really complain about.

Give us a break, you are the same sock purporting troll who is posting all the racist stuff.
No one is foolish enough to buy your elitist elitist rants either!!

I'm not the racist poster who is hell bent that people who speak English as a second language is the problem. I completely disagree. I'm saying it is SES not language/ ethnicity that is dragging down the schools. I believe the educational needs of all children should be met not just the needs of those who are struggling. I'm okay with more resources going to them too. It's not fair though to completely ignore my kids though because they are going to do fine on standardized tests anyway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are unequal because they are illegal. They broke the law and feed off of our taxes to survive in this country. Oh and hold all our kids back in their education. Sorry, you don't speak English, you are not equal in an English speaking American schools. I can not walk into a school in Spain and receive free Spanish classes so I can eventually learn the language and move forward. I have to learn Spanish before going to school. But then again, Spain doesn't let illegals run across their borders and enter school for free either.

I think you don't know much about Spain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/world/europe/as-desperation-mounts-more-migrants-cast-their-lot-on-a-troubled-sea.html?_r=0

From this article: The impact was immediate: In 2006, a record 39,180 people reached Spain illegally by boat. Last year, the total was 3,804.

Wow. Almost 4000 people in all of Spain! We probably have 10 times that many just in MoCo.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"They should cluster schools longitudinally. Would Potomac be inline with Wheaton or Glenmont "

ha! that'll be the day! Pigs would fly sooner than Potomac would permit that.

Agree with an earlier PP that the way to "save" the schools in the DCCC is to focus on reattracting and reassuring the middle class parents - of whatever race of course - about how their kids will do. The Blair magnet is so successful because it does just that - creates an environment where they can thrive and in turn captures those kids into the student body where they must interact with others in extracurriculars or specials classes presumably and their parents become part of the PTA. I live in a part of SS with a school that's roughly 2/3 FARM but there are MANY middle class homes around - they must either be sprinkled into other school clusters or else mostly using private or getting county waivers (a few of those in my neighborhood alone) though. If they were at our school instead it would help all the kids there. I say that as someone happy with the school so far but that realizes that more kids from middle class homes would be helpful too.

I think if you dig a little deeper, you'll see that MCPS has abandoned any effort to re-attract and reassure middle class parents in the red zone. They see the red zone as a lost cause when it comes to making the schools more attractive for middle class families. From what I've been told, there's a "you knew this about your area when you moved here" attitude in response to red zone parents who think MCPS ought to at least pretend to give a crap about whether any of the middle class families will take a chance on their local schools. It's really too bad. I think they feel overwhelmed by the budget and overcrowding and really just pray to scrape by at this point. Caring what parents think about their assigned schools in the red zone has been bumped to the bottom of the list at this point. Those parents just get into specialty programs elsewhere in the county or go private. The problem solves itself, right?

I agree, and it's not just in the red zone. In fact, read the County report - it is challenging the schools to make things less segregated, better for the disadvantaged, not better for the middle class. Call your council member.

Believe me, we've been in touch with our council member. And just about everybody else elected to serve. Not to sound too bleak, but I think they're equally resigned to let things continue on their current trajectory as MCPS and the BOE. It's not that they wouldn't like to see positive changes, it's just too much work to swim against the tidal wave.

Anonymous wrote:^ above meant high SES child

Actually, I felt like what you typed first got your real point across better.

I volunteer once a week in my daughter's class. It is insane how little time a core group of kids gets and how much time her teacher has to try to communicate with 1/3 of the class. We are in Rockville and I thought the system was top notch but it is clear my kid is skating thru as an obvious average student.

Average to bright kids are skating by and doing nothing in the high performing schools too. We're in a "W" cluster and I volunteer in my youngest child's K class. The ESOL kids in this school are Chinese and Russian. Despite the language barrier they run academic circles around their American classmates. They get the advantage of going to school on Saturdays and learning actual material. MCPS M-F is busy work for everyone. The only difference is that in the "W" schools the teachers aren't running around trying to get every up to speed. The work is just as lackluster and the bar is just as low. Its just as bad in the upper grades.

Its not fair to blame ESOL students, the problem runs much deeper. MCPS should be accountable for providing a better learning environment and competitive curriculum. As long as parents supplement and smart kids score high on tests despite being taught nothing in school, there is no incentive for MCPS to change.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our aging population needs those kids to support social security. They won't be doing that if they are not educated enough to get jobs to support themselves.

If they aren't legal they can't work a job and put into SS. THAT is the problem with SS. So many illegals working jobs under the table, not enough are putting into SS. By the time we retire there won't be any.

Except, of course, that many undocumented workers actually do work AND pay into Social Security.

Anonymous wrote:They are unequal because they are illegal. They broke the law and feed off of our taxes to survive in this country. Oh and hold all our kids back in their education. Sorry, you don't speak English, you are not equal in an English speaking American schools. I can not walk into a school in Spain and receive free Spanish classes so I can eventually learn the language and move forward. I have to learn Spanish before going to school. But then again, Spain doesn't let illegals run across their borders and enter school for free either.

I think you don't know much about Spain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/world/europe/as-desperation-mounts-more-migrants-cast-their-lot-on-a-troubled-sea.html?_r=0

Anonymous wrote:This thread has turned very racist. I don't care if you are blue, purple, or whatever I want the needs of my high SES. status met. High and middle income SES parents are annoyed that they pay all of the taxes but the public school school doesn't care about their kids.

I know a lot of foreign born highly educated parents who let their kids learn English in school. They eventually send their kids to Ivies so it's the low SES. that people are really complain about.

Give us a break, you are the same sock purporting troll who is posting all the racist stuff.
No one is foolish enough to buy your elitist elitist rants either!!

Anonymous wrote:This thread has turned very racist. I don't care if you are blue, purple, or whatever I want the needs of my high SES. status met. High and middle income SES parents are annoyed that they pay all of the taxes but the public school school doesn't care about their kids.

I know a lot of foreign born highly educated parents who let their kids learn English in school. They eventually send their kids to Ivies so it's the low SES. that people are really complain about.

Not wanting illegal immigrants in this country is not racist.

^ above meant high SES child

This thread has turned very racist. I don't care if you are blue, purple, or whatever I want the needs of my high SES. status met. High and middle income SES parents are annoyed that they pay all of the taxes but the public school school doesn't care about their kids.

I know a lot of foreign born highly educated parents who let their kids learn English in school. They eventually send their kids to Ivies so it's the low SES. that people are really complain about.

But the children who are born here are LEGAL! They are the ones we are educating.

Anonymous wrote:Our aging population needs those kids to support social security. They won't be doing that if they are not educated enough to get jobs to support themselves.

If they aren't legal they can't work a job and put into SS. THAT is the problem with SS. So many illegals working jobs under the table, not enough are putting into SS. By the time we retire there won't be any.