Anonymous wrote:Yeah, saying that Black students with African parents are more successful can be quite a stretch depending on the student. I find that Many African parents are not used to bringing up children in the U.S. and teaching them about the problems that they may have not ever faced before. That whole "it takes a village" mentality can work against them. Africa is typically a high power difference culture, so the whole neighborhood keeps the kid in line. Here that doesn't happen and there are few real consequences for kids.

He goes on to say "educators are the most important factor in determining student outcomes." What proves that? And we all know it certainly isn't curriculum 2.0...I thought decades of research shows that parental involvement is the most important factor.

He concludes by saying that "equity requires equal access and opportunity." So there is not access and opportunity of the effective "educators"?

The MoCo public schools already provide access to the same curriculum, trained teachers, and classes and opportunity (not at magnets, specialty schools access and opportunity whatsoever. there are more aides and esol aides in Title 1 as well).

Anonymous wrote:Kids of Black African immigrants are doing well in MCPS. They are accepted by top colleges and become the post child for diversity. I wonder if MCPS knows the different between a kid from Africa immigrant family and a kid from a black family who has been here for generation.
50% hispanic are white, and many of them came from well educated and two parents family. Those kids have nothing in common with the poor central american migrants.
Why not focusing on EACH student? If a student progresses too slow, wotk with him/her. You cannot expect a 5th grade student with 2nd grade knowledge to reach the 5th bench mark within one year. I would like see any center office admin to work as a classroom teacher for a year and make the magic happen.

Anonymous wrote:Kids of Black African immigrants are doing well in MCPS. They are accepted by top colleges and become the post child for diversity. I wonder if MCPS knows the different between a kid from Africa immigrant family and a kid from a black family who has been here for generation.
50% hispanic are white, and many of them came from well educated and two parents family. Those kids have nothing in common with the poor central american migrants.
Why not focusing on EACH student? If a student progresses too slow, wotk with him/her. You cannot expect a 5th grade student with 2nd grade knowledge to reach the 5th bench mark within one year. I would like see any center office admin to work as a classroom teacher for a year and make the magic happen.

Anonymous wrote:Why are we paying consultants to devise new tools to measure the achievement gap. It is there. It is not getting smaller!

If I could wave my magic wand:
1. At all grade levels, Allow any low income student to cosa to a school that is less than 30% farms and mcps provides transportation.
2. Implement very small class sizes in all grade levels of ES’s with higher than 30% farms. 12 per class?
3. Get rid of ES and MS magnets and implement enriched education at ES level and honors level classes in MS.
4. Provide academic supports for kids in MS who are below grade level with a focus on college readiness.
5. Focus on diploma/ged attainment and career readiness for high schoolers who are below grade level.

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Anonymous wrote:I see the problem and feel badly about it but I also wonder how you can help people who by and large don’t want help because this isn’t a priority for then.

Really? What evidence do you have that poor people “by and large” don’t prioritize education? My issue is MCPS isn’t proposing any actual solutions and is ignoring the fact that things aren’t all hunky dory for the non-FARMS kids.

I'm sure there are some that do by and large the scores indicate that most don't.

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Anonymous wrote:I see the problem and feel badly about it but I also wonder how you can help people who by and large don’t want help because this isn’t a priority for then.

Really? What evidence do you have that poor people “by and large” don’t prioritize education? My issue is MCPS isn’t proposing any actual solutions and is ignoring the fact that things aren’t all hunky dory for the non-FARMS kids.

Anonymous wrote:I see the problem and feel badly about it but I also wonder how you can help people who by and large don’t want help because this isn’t a priority for then.

Anonymous wrote:I love that Montgomery County is really looking into what works for struggling students. As the UMC parent of high-achieving kids, here are my (possibly selfish) thoughts:

1) I wish they didn't have so much testing. I get why they're doing it - data is the answer! it will tell us who we're failing and how - but it's too much. Two MAPs, three times a year. Two PARCCs, in multiple parts, yearly. Two district assessments, some of them in multiple parts, four times a year. Plus whatever classroom assessments they do just as part of regular teaching and learning. Plus CoGat some years. And science testing some years. When do they have time to actually teach anything? We came from far less diverse schools. One kid had two MAPs, twice a year, plus two PARCCs, once a year. The other had three MAPs (they also used the Language Usage piece, which MoCo does not use), twice a year, and nothing else. The testing is definitely disruptive, and when all you find out from it is that your kid is a high achiever, which you already knew, it hardly seems worth it. Surely there's a way to get baselines for all the kids and follow up more on the kids most at risk? Or would that just put them further behind because they'd spend more time testing and less time learning than the other kids?

2) "Equity does not require equal results and achievement. Equity requires equal access and opportunity so that success cannot be predicted by race or socioeconomic status." This will NEVER work unless the school is willing to offer underperforming students the types of extracurricular learning that UMC kids get. UMC kids are not increasing the achievement gap at school; they're increasing it through parentally provided enrichment. The schools can not solve this problem.

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Anonymous wrote:I think they are making this too much about race, especially considering the county is majority-minority and whites are only the second largest group at MCPS (latinos are #1).

The five groups they identify for special focus seem to comprise more than half of all students. At that point, why not just focus on all students?

It's like the free lunch program -- at schools where more than a certain percentage of teh student body is entitled to it, they realized it's easier to just give everyone free lunch at that school than deal with the hassle of charging/running a payment program for the minority of kids who don't qualify for it.

I think they should just focus on students who are lower SES, regardless of race.

+1 in the other thread about Asian Americans and MS magnet, someone stated that people should stop making it about race, and I responded that I totally agree, but that it's MCPS that keeps bringing race into the picture.

If they want to be race blind in magnets, then why call out races for under achievers?

If they want to look at the individual rather than the group, then why make magnet admission about "peer cohort"?

If you truly understand the history of the United States, you know that race and SES are linked. Even if you did focus on SES and didn't mention race, you are still going to find Blacks and Hispanics overrepresented when it comes to poverty.

I find the desire to "take race out of it" to be....questionable.

Yes, I do *truly* understand US history, which includes discrimination against Asian Americans, as well. Do you *truly* understand that?

And I hope you *truly* understand that you can't say "let's look at race when it comes to instance x but not look at race when it comes to instance y". Either you look at it, or you don't. Stop picking and choosing when you want to look at race and when you don't.

I have no problem helping low income students. I grew up low income, with very little help from our poor school district when I was in school. I am now upper/middle income and have donated thousands of dollars to our public schools via the "buy nothing drive"; we participate in the backpack back to school drives. I have no problem with MCPS helping out low income students. I have a problem with MCPS (and others) picking and choosing when to look at race (when it helps some groups) and when not to (when it doesn't help said group).

I think it is perfectly fine to look at SES...but if you think that doing so will get you away from the race factor that you so clearly loathe, you are mistaken.

This country was built on brutality and the subjugation of some to the benefit of others. We see the remnants of this today in the form of massive inequalities with black and brown kids more likely to be in the losing in.

So sure, let's focus on SES in lieu of race. You will still be focused in the same group of kids , but you will probably "feel" better about it.

There are also kids who are black but are perfectly at a good advantage. Focusing on SES might overlap mostly with the black/Latino community, but it targets it better to the group that needs the most help while weeding out the few that were mistakenly caught in the net.