Anonymous wrote:They take the same sat and ap exams

Anonymous wrote:The higher SES schools will continue to keep the higher standards and push the instruction towards getting kids into higher-level classes. The lower SES schools will have a lighter curriculum that "meets" the standards so those kids can pass. All the kids get a coveted MCPS diploma, but which one is of high quality? It won't matter because no one will know!

Except when the can is kicked down the road and look at college success. Then the kids with the same GPAs but from 2 different MCPS schools plays out in a shocking disparity that mirrors the same ol' achievement gap.

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Exactly. The only way to stop the achievement gap is to deport illegal aliens. All that $$ from increasing ESOL yearly could go to reading/math specialists

1. MCPS has zero control over US immigration policy.
2. ESOL is federal law.
3. The majority of kids in ESOL are US citizens.

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Anonymous wrote:Larry Bowers has really improved the PR machine at MCPS. Has anyone else noticed how snazzy the new communications have been? Maybe he will stay longer?

Was just saying this to DH today.

He put emails in a template with clip art. Is that really impressive?

My guess is that no one wants to take on a school board whose primary focus and criteria for success is closing the achievement gap in a huge county with an ever increasing uneducated immigrant population. It's an impossible metric.

Agreed. It is driving the standards lower and lower. None of these efforts do anything to close the achievement gap. In fact, it is quite the contrary. We are softly encouraged to "think of mitigating circumstances" and "consider the challenges" when preparing grades and recommending minority students for classes. This is code for "make sure they all pass".

My choices as a teacher in this culture are to have two different sets of criteria or to dumb down the curriculum. I'm trying to hold onto the former because it serves the non-ESOL, non-minority and achieving minority kids the best, but I will reach a critical mass soon and will need to dumb it down. The first step will be next year when we no longer have exams. There is no possibility of having a comprehensive "project" that assesses all of the skills a student learns in a course. But it will serve to drive the academic wedge even deeper between high-SES schools and low-SES schools.

Your pedagogical skill set and ability to be creative both seem limited. Maybe you could better serve MCPS as an administrator rather than a classroom teacher.