I wish mcps and the larger MoCo community would step back and examine what the real issues are. I’m not opposed to tackling the issues, but I feel like our community tends to miss the mark despite its well-intentioned, well-resourced efforts.

Fact: MoCo is a highly educated, super progressive, welcoming place.

Fact: Racism exists everywhere and everyone experiences bias.

Fact: There’s nothing wrong with flagging this and encouraging people to do better…and there’s nothing wrong with establishing expectations for teachers and students.

Fact: Demographics have shifted dramatically in the last two decades, and it’s causing issues that moco and mcps seem to fail to understand.

-Latino newcomers can’t be shoe-horned into our culture. They don’t prioritize education the same way African and Asian newcomers do. Latinos make up the fastest growing student demographic and will outpace whites across the county soon (it’s already happened in several school pyramids).

Fact: There’s a conflict between blacks and Latinos. Reams of research and data on this at the school level as well as the societal level.

Fact: We won’t see the success mcps is looking for until they realize the game has changed. We need a system that recognizes the real issues rather than focusing on the wrong things.

The unfortunately, I’m not optimistic. The changes we need are big.

Anonymous wrote:My takeaways were they’re going to bring in experts, more teacher training, and engage with the community. So yeah, basically more of nothing.

It would be nice if they could pivot to education and focus on reading and math.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Now, central office leaders are among the first employees to be trained in four, three-hour sessions."

"The training is paid for with federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds"

I thought ESSER fund is emergency relief funds to address the impact that COVID-19 has had, and continues to have, on elementary and secondary schools across the Nation

Can someone link anti-racism to COVID19 for me? Did COVID-19 cause racism? Shouldn't ESSER fund be used for classroom support as oppose to more and more training?

Anonymous wrote:Well, the antiracism training that Dr. McKnight touted in her action plan has kicked off with central office staff. WJLA 7News was invited to observe the training: https://wjla.com/news/crisis-in-the-classrooms/racism-anti-racist-training-session-for-montgomery-county-public-schools-leaders-dr-heather-yuhaniak-coordinator-of-districtwide-professional-learning-dana-edwards#

I'm underwhelmed. This training looks like more hand-wavy nonsense.

Communities of color were disproportionately impacted by covid. I'm sure MCPS can use that in their justification. Or you can report it as fraud if you feel strongly.

Earth destroyed by meteor; women and minorities hardest hit.

Anonymous wrote:"Now, central office leaders are among the first employees to be trained in four, three-hour sessions."

"The training is paid for with federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds"

I thought ESSER fund is emergency relief funds to address the impact that COVID-19 has had, and continues to have, on elementary and secondary schools across the Nation

Can someone link anti-racism to COVID19 for me? Did COVID-19 cause racism? Shouldn't ESSER fund be used for classroom support as oppose to more and more training?

Anonymous wrote:Well, the antiracism training that Dr. McKnight touted in her action plan has kicked off with central office staff. WJLA 7News was invited to observe the training: https://wjla.com/news/crisis-in-the-classrooms/racism-anti-racist-training-session-for-montgomery-county-public-schools-leaders-dr-heather-yuhaniak-coordinator-of-districtwide-professional-learning-dana-edwards#

I'm underwhelmed. This training looks like more hand-wavy nonsense.

Communities of color were disproportionately impacted by covid. I'm sure MCPS can use that in their justification. Or you can report it as fraud if you feel strongly.

"Now, central office leaders are among the first employees to be trained in four, three-hour sessions."

"The training is paid for with federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds"

I thought ESSER fund is emergency relief funds to address the impact that COVID-19 has had, and continues to have, on elementary and secondary schools across the Nation

Can someone link anti-racism to COVID19 for me? Did COVID-19 cause racism? Shouldn't ESSER fund be used for classroom support as oppose to more and more training?

Anonymous wrote:Well, the antiracism training that Dr. McKnight touted in her action plan has kicked off with central office staff. WJLA 7News was invited to observe the training: https://wjla.com/news/crisis-in-the-classrooms/racism-anti-racist-training-session-for-montgomery-county-public-schools-leaders-dr-heather-yuhaniak-coordinator-of-districtwide-professional-learning-dana-edwards#

I'm underwhelmed. This training looks like more hand-wavy nonsense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could we replace McKnight with someone good like Michelle Rhee?

Rhee, who came in, flipped tables for 3 years, and then fled to California to funnel public money into her charter school business?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Rhee

She would be awesome. Just the person to clean up MCPS. Put the focus back on education and clean house in the Central Office.

Michelle Rhee would be in over her head in MCPS. She doesn't have the depth of experience, especially when it comes to curriculum and instruction. MCPS is larger than anything she has tried to run.

Anonymous wrote:Did we ever see the data school by school after the surveys were done to assess how well each school is doing with that work?

The school reports are posted here:

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/antiracist/report/

Did we ever see the data school by school after the surveys were done to assess how well each school is doing with that work?

Well, the antiracism training that Dr. McKnight touted in her action plan has kicked off with central office staff. WJLA 7News was invited to observe the training: https://wjla.com/news/crisis-in-the-classrooms/racism-anti-racist-training-session-for-montgomery-county-public-schools-leaders-dr-heather-yuhaniak-coordinator-of-districtwide-professional-learning-dana-edwards#

I'm underwhelmed. This training looks like more hand-wavy nonsense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could we replace McKnight with someone good like Michelle Rhee?

It’s always funny to hear people bring up Michelle Rhee because she was also not well loved at the time.

Dismissing 30% of the staff for incompetence usually doesn't go over well, but it seems like the medicine that MCPS needs.

+1. And I wouldn't mind if the old guard at the BOE is swept out as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one has bothered to post or discuss the grandiose speech Dr. McKnight that teased and promoted through multiple MCPS communication blasts:

Article: https://moco360.media/2023/04/28/mcps-averages-one-hate-incident-a-day-mcknight-reports-outlining-response-plan/

I'm guessing the reason why no one DCUM is talking about it is because it fell flat?

For me, just as with the antiracist audit report, I heard a lot of talk and fluff but I can't figure out for the life of me what action she and/or MCPS are actually proposing. You say we need to do better, how will you make people do better? Training is a pathetic response to that question, in my opinion.

That speech was so inspiring, and McKnight is a fantastic role model for our kids. We are so lucky to have such a great leader!

If your only priority is closing the gap by dumbing down school then sure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Develop a coaching plan for heterogeneous instruction, including language supports, in grades."

In which grades? Missed proofreading?

Also, they seem to be inconsistent about "Intermediate" and "Immediate" for goals with start date in 2023.

Intermediate and Immediate does not relate to start date. Read the key.

The key doesn't says what they relate to. Maybe it is intended to refer to End Date, despite being in the Start Date column.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could we replace McKnight with someone good like Michelle Rhee?

It’s always funny to hear people bring up Michelle Rhee because she was also not well loved at the time.

Dismissing 30% of the staff for incompetence usually doesn't go over well, but it seems like the medicine that MCPS needs.

Anonymous wrote:Could we replace McKnight with someone good like Michelle Rhee?

It’s always funny to hear people bring up Michelle Rhee because she was also not well loved at the time.

Anonymous wrote:"Develop a coaching plan for heterogeneous instruction, including language supports, in grades."

In which grades? Missed proofreading?

Also, they seem to be inconsistent about "Intermediate" and "Immediate" for goals with start date in 2023.

Intermediate and Immediate does not relate to start date. Read the key.