Anonymous wrote:All of this points to the fact that MCPS should do a full boundary study before making decisions about which schools are getting renovated. And, especially, they should not be spending MILLIONS to turn SCES and SSIMS into holding schools if a boundary study could reassign kids and create a holding school organically bc of pop decline.

Instead they are spending huge amounts of money to build a new SCES, build a new bigger Eastern and renovate Sligo in order to accommodate displaced SSIMS students. It's just really bad planning and use of tax payer funds.

It's not million dollars, it's billion dollars. Check out the most recent CO presentation slides in BOE's CIP discussion meeting.

Anonymous wrote:All of this points to the fact that MCPS should do a full boundary study before making decisions about which schools are getting renovated. And, especially, they should not be spending MILLIONS to turn SCES and SSIMS into holding schools if a boundary study could reassign kids and create a holding school organically bc of pop decline.

Instead they are spending huge amounts of money to build a new SCES, build a new bigger Eastern and renovate Sligo in order to accommodate displaced SSIMS students. It's just really bad planning and use of tax payer funds.

I agree.
The boundary study should be conducted before CIP, and CIP before proposed regions. To rush would waste millions.

All of this points to the fact that MCPS should do a full boundary study before making decisions about which schools are getting renovated. And, especially, they should not be spending MILLIONS to turn SCES and SSIMS into holding schools if a boundary study could reassign kids and create a holding school organically bc of pop decline.

Instead they are spending huge amounts of money to build a new SCES, build a new bigger Eastern and renovate Sligo in order to accommodate displaced SSIMS students. It's just really bad planning and use of tax payer funds.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way MCPS is going--

in lowering the bar so that B students (85 percentile) and other lower performers are in accelerated math classes, which--depending on which school your DC attends--can significantly slow down the class, making implementation of accelerated math classes inequitable,

That is not what 85th percentile means. Being above the 85th percentile means being in the top 15% of test scores. It does not mean you are a B student-- it has nothing to do with your actual grades/getting 85% of questions correct.

I call that a B student because the 85 percentile perform like B students

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way MCPS is going--

in lowering the bar so that B students (85 percentile) and other lower performers are in accelerated math classes, which--depending on which school your DC attends--can significantly slow down the class, making implementation of accelerated math classes inequitable,

That is not what 85th percentile means. Being above the 85th percentile means being in the top 15% of test scores. It does not mean you are a B student-- it has nothing to do with your actual grades/getting 85% of questions correct.

Local norms means 85% by school? That's a lot of variation.

Anonymous wrote:The way MCPS is going--

in lowering the bar so that B students (85 percentile) and other lower performers are in accelerated math classes, which--depending on which school your DC attends--can significantly slow down the class, making implementation of accelerated math classes inequitable,

That is not what 85th percentile means. Being above the 85th percentile means being in the top 15% of test scores. It does not mean you are a B student-- it has nothing to do with your actual grades/getting 85% of questions correct.

The way MCPS is going--

in lowering the bar so that B students (85 percentile) and other lower performers are in accelerated math classes, which--depending on which school your DC attends--can significantly slow down the class, making implementation of accelerated math classes inequitable,

only running ELC for three years and not having a satisfactory replacement program in its place,

in effectively kneecapping Blair SMCS--MCPS's version of TJ--by greatly reducing, geographically, who can apply--

I can see more flight out of MCPS, starting with mixed-earner areas like Gaithersburg. Los Angeles has many high earners with higher performing students living with mixed earners, but there is no way they would put their kids in LAUSD at this point. It is striking how--in a large city full of high earners and higher performing students--LAUSD's demographic looks similar to Watkins Mill. Parents of higher performing students know to move to those suburbs where there is a critical mass of other parents who value education that is not watered down.

Here, parents of higher performing students will see how little MCPS values its accelerated learners and will either do private school, homeschool, or move out a little bit farther to somewhere that values education that is not watered down.