Anonymous
Post 01/13/2019 12:32     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:I am from Wisconsin and town-based school systems is one of the biggest things I miss here.


Same here.

220 school, 500 square mile, $2b budget, 1000s of admin county-run school districts are failing big time. Esp those in sanctuary cities like Mont County, Md and Los Angeles. Too much money sloshing around, different priorities, politics galore, and incompetent bloated admin to do anything well.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2019 10:53     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We should follow New Jersey system - every town/township is a separate school district. Each having its own Primary, Middle, High Schools and a superintendent called School District Superintendent. Each school district operates within the parameters conforming to National and State Education Standards. That way, each town residents have more say in how a school district is run. Only those towns where a majority of residents opt for grading system similar to current MCPS grading system will have that. Other towns will have traditional comprehensive exam system and/or letter grades with "+" or "-" prefixes. We will also have less bureaucracy and less resistance to change.


Are we waving magic wands here, to make things that are impossible happen? Because if we are, I can come up with much better impossible ideas than "Maryland should be like New Jersey".


I'm from NJ. NJ school systems are SO INEFFICIENT, there is no economy of scale, because there is a superintendent for each little town. The admin overhead alone for each mini school system there is ridiculous, and no doubt contributes to the high property taxes in NJ.

NJ did have a state supreme court case some years ago (Abbott) that was about inequities in local school systems; it has required compensatory funding to lower-income districts, which is a good thing since there are greater needs in low-income communities. http://edlawcenter.org/litigation/abbott-v-burke/abbott-history.html

Our whole system in the US of property-tax-based school funding supports big inequities in education, and is a problem.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2019 10:53     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Segregationists love this old trope.


+1

LOL. No segregation in MCPS at all!
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2019 10:41     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:Remedies for MCPS?

Magnet type options and curriculum for ALL eligible kids, not just the ones who don't have a cohort. Test all, and have enough seats for all. This should be at ALL grade levels.;

Smaller class sizes for all, not just focus/title 1;

Smaller schools in general (state of MD has suggested best school sizes, but MCPS has changed their numbers in recent years to be much higher than those state numbers, esp at the HS level, but really at all levels);

Hire Principals that have some experience and will do what is best for children, not whatever MCPS central office says to do ( the young ones have been hired recently, are all looking out for their career, not the students).

Give teachers more autonomy;

More counselors;

Priority needs to focus on all students, not only closing the opportunity/achievement gap;

Get rid of Smith, Zuckerman and Sullivan.

Will this happen? No, would cost to much money...



All fantastic suggestions, but I disagree that it would cost too much money. MCPS spends a ridiculous amount of money on things (e.g. useless initiatives, unnecessary Central Office staff) that have no positive influence on a child's educational experience.

The benefit to having smaller school district, instead of one large, cumbersome school district is that it is easier to meet the needs of the students. And, it feels like more of a community. Plus, parents have more of a say in what goes one, and the BOE is held more accountable to the students/parents. In a town based district, you'll see the BOE members at sports events, or at the store. You're able to discuss issue on a personal level, and it is easier to make changes as needed.

Right now, MCPS makes it incredibly difficult for parents to advocate for change in their schools. Principals are in a rough spot, and teachers have almost no voice. It's not working well for our students.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2019 10:00     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
This is a terrible fight to have because MCPS is never going to break into smaller districts.

However, it does provide an opportunity for some historical discussion of why we have county-wide districts. In general, southern, agrarian, states have county-wide school districts.

In general, norther, metropolitan, states have smaller districts.

In both cases, though, the existing systems perpetuate and reinforce racial and economic segregation. In districts like MCPS, segregation was upheld through housing covenants and red-lining. By the time those covenants were deemed illegal, the racial wealth gap had become so vast that they were almost no longer needed.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2019 09:45     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Magnet type options and curriculum for ALL eligible kids, not just the ones who don't have a cohort. Test all, and have enough seats for all. This should be at ALL grade levels.;

But make the criteria high enough that it does not include virtually everyone. My small New England town had gifted program but it was probably less than 10% of the kids. Here we seem to be asking for GT programs for the top 40% (or at least every family who posts here)
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2019 09:34     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Remedies for MCPS?

Magnet type options and curriculum for ALL eligible kids, not just the ones who don't have a cohort. Test all, and have enough seats for all. This should be at ALL grade levels.;

Smaller class sizes for all, not just focus/title 1;

Smaller schools in general (state of MD has suggested best school sizes, but MCPS has changed their numbers in recent years to be much higher than those state numbers, esp at the HS level, but really at all levels);

Hire Principals that have some experience and will do what is best for children, not whatever MCPS central office says to do ( the young ones have been hired recently, are all looking out for their career, not the students).

Give teachers more autonomy;

More counselors;

Priority needs to focus on all students, not only closing the opportunity/achievement gap;

Get rid of Smith, Zuckerman and Sullivan.

Will this happen? No, would cost to much money...

Anonymous
Post 01/13/2019 09:19     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What about special ed? Is each one of your little townships going to have a Learning Center, LFI, SCB, Autism, Asperger's, ED, Bridge, AAC, ARS, Extensions, and all three versions of DHOH? And all five PEP programs? Where are you going to find the money and building space to house and staff the massive replication of these services? If not, are you going to pay the other townships to educate these students and find buses to take them there? Or pay $100,000 per kid to Ivymount or Katherine Thomas School? What about the public 100% special ed schools like Carl Sandburg, Rock Terrace, and RICA?

Were you even aware that MCPS had all these programs? Or is it just about CES and magnet in your brain, because those are the only kids who matter?

Are you suggesting school districts in NY/NJ/MA/CT/MN (generally regarded as the best schools in the nation) don’t offer special ed services?


No, I'm suggesting they don't have the same diversity of programs available. Which they don't. I just looked at the district website for the town in upstate NY where my cousin lives and for ES special ed there are exactly 3 options. And you conveniently left out all the states that don't organize school districts on a county basis but are poorly ranked anyway, like New Mexico, California, and Arizona. And it's one thing when you've organized districts from townships from the get-go. Breaking down a countywide system that's been in place for decades is quite another matter. A totally unrealistic one. Once it's written in the IEP that a child needs X program, you have to do your best to match that or pay someone who can. You can't just say, "Whoops, we axed it, go back to your home school, too bad so sad." The lawsuits claiming denial of FAPE would be endless. Unless you are planning to recreate every program in every little township division, which would cost a fortune. Hard as it may be to believe, families actually do move to MCPS for the special ed options.[b]


This is true and this is the only thing I agree with in your post. It would be difficult to recreate the Special Ed options in every single township.

NJ does have County based programs for Special Ed, and that can continue in MCPS.

MCPS is just too large the way it is now, and it has led to so many negative consequences for the students and the teachers. It's can't continue on the way it is. Why not consider that there may be other ways to run the schools?
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2019 09:16     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:Segregationists love this old trope.


+1
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2019 09:16     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:What about special ed? Is each one of your little townships going to have a Learning Center, LFI, SCB, Autism, Asperger's, ED, Bridge, AAC, ARS, Extensions, and all three versions of DHOH? And all five PEP programs? Where are you going to find the money and building space to house and staff the massive replication of these services? If not, are you going to pay the other townships to educate these students and find buses to take them there? Or pay $100,000 per kid to Ivymount or Katherine Thomas School? What about the public 100% special ed schools like Carl Sandburg, Rock Terrace, and RICA?

Were you even aware that MCPS had all these programs? Or is it just about CES and magnet in your brain, because those are the only kids who matter?


Why are you so condescending towards anyone who has ideas different from yours?

Yes, I am well aware of these programs, and I agree that they are important. The programs can continue and be supported by the County. It would be possible to set aside money for these programs in each township, and the students can still be bussed to the programs as they currently are in MCPS.

The programs would not need to be 'replicated', as you fearfully state. They can remain as they are.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2019 07:49     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:Why don't we just segregate all our students by PSAT scores? Even better


Psat scores come too late. Parent income at time of K registration is the only way.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2019 05:36     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What about special ed? Is each one of your little townships going to have a Learning Center, LFI, SCB, Autism, Asperger's, ED, Bridge, AAC, ARS, Extensions, and all three versions of DHOH? And all five PEP programs? Where are you going to find the money and building space to house and staff the massive replication of these services? If not, are you going to pay the other townships to educate these students and find buses to take them there? Or pay $100,000 per kid to Ivymount or Katherine Thomas School? What about the public 100% special ed schools like Carl Sandburg, Rock Terrace, and RICA?

Were you even aware that MCPS had all these programs? Or is it just about CES and magnet in your brain, because those are the only kids who matter?

Are you suggesting school districts in NY/NJ/MA/CT/MN (generally regarded as the best schools in the nation) don’t offer special ed services?


No, I'm suggesting they don't have the same diversity of programs available. Which they don't. I just looked at the district website for the town in upstate NY where my cousin lives and for ES special ed there are exactly 3 options. And you conveniently left out all the states that don't organize school districts on a county basis but are poorly ranked anyway, like New Mexico, California, and Arizona. And it's one thing when you've organized districts from townships from the get-go. Breaking down a countywide system that's been in place for decades is quite another matter. A totally unrealistic one. Once it's written in the IEP that a child needs X program, you have to do your best to match that or pay someone who can. You can't just say, "Whoops, we axed it, go back to your home school, too bad so sad." The lawsuits claiming denial of FAPE would be endless. Unless you are planning to recreate every program in every little township division, which would cost a fortune. Hard as it may be to believe, families actually do move to MCPS for the special ed options.
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2019 01:48     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Anonymous wrote:What about special ed? Is each one of your little townships going to have a Learning Center, LFI, SCB, Autism, Asperger's, ED, Bridge, AAC, ARS, Extensions, and all three versions of DHOH? And all five PEP programs? Where are you going to find the money and building space to house and staff the massive replication of these services? If not, are you going to pay the other townships to educate these students and find buses to take them there? Or pay $100,000 per kid to Ivymount or Katherine Thomas School? What about the public 100% special ed schools like Carl Sandburg, Rock Terrace, and RICA?

Were you even aware that MCPS had all these programs? Or is it just about CES and magnet in your brain, because those are the only kids who matter?

Are you suggesting school districts in NY/NJ/MA/CT/MN (generally regarded as the best schools in the nation) don’t offer special ed services?
Anonymous
Post 01/13/2019 01:45     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
What about special ed? Is each one of your little townships going to have a Learning Center, LFI, SCB, Autism, Asperger's, ED, Bridge, AAC, ARS, Extensions, and all three versions of DHOH? And all five PEP programs? Where are you going to find the money and building space to house and staff the massive replication of these services? If not, are you going to pay the other townships to educate these students and find buses to take them there? Or pay $100,000 per kid to Ivymount or Katherine Thomas School? What about the public 100% special ed schools like Carl Sandburg, Rock Terrace, and RICA?

Were you even aware that MCPS had all these programs? Or is it just about CES and magnet in your brain, because those are the only kids who matter?
Anonymous
Post 01/12/2019 22:05     Subject: The Best Remedy for Maryland K-12 Schooling.
Why don't we just segregate all our students by PSAT scores? Even better