The failure to show in this annual federal measure of academic excellence is just the latest embarrassment for MCPS. Surging drop-out rates, questions about student safety, failure to fully-vet staff, repeated sexual abuse scandals, a persistent achievement gap, poor test scores, and a chronic class attendance problem have already tarnished what was once considered the premiere school district in the Mid-Atlantic. MCPS has also begun to earn a national reputation as lightweight in academic rigor; a new, easy grading system has really taken the shine off top marks, and when students continued to fail final exams, MCPS simply got rid of the exams. Neither move will impress college admission officials as word spreads.
Unlike Montgomery County, public schools from Calvert, Howard, Prince George's and Worcester counties were recognized on this year's Blue Ribbon Schools list. Only one Montgomery County school made the list this year, and it was a Catholic school - St. Raphael School in Rockville. Students there celebrated with Chick-fil-A, according to the Catholic Standard.
Montgomery County officials have continued to throw greater amounts of money at MCPS, with no positive result, clearly indicating that the problem is not funding alone. With Montgomery County floundering on every front from education and economic development to crime and traffic congestion, it's clear we need new leaders who actually know what they are doing, and will put the best interests of children ahead of their own political calculations. We must overcome a political cartel that suffers from a severe case of Lake Wobegon Syndrome, and accept that this County is in real trouble, folks.
Remember when MCPS was great? Along with the county's services, it was once the gold standard in our region.
ReplyDeleteWe are on the illegal immigrant blue ribbon list....
ReplyDelete10:31 AM And yet, Dyer has the most popular blogs in the county. Who's the dummy now?
ReplyDeleteThat's because Catholic schools rock. At least one in our area makes the list every year including ours. Suck that MoCo.
ReplyDeleteHow many MoCo schools were ineligible because they had won in the prior five years?
ReplyDeleteMy kids attend(ed) MoCo schools (Westbrook, Westland & BCC) and got/are getting a great education. I'd take those schools over many of the schools on the Blue Ribbon list.
ReplyDelete@ 6:52 PM:
ReplyDeleteCashell Elementary School, Rockville - 2014
Farmland Elementary School, Rockville - 2017
Luxmanor Elementary School, Rockville - 2018
Ronald McNair Elementary School, Germantown - 2017
6:52: LOL - that's about the lamest, fake excuse I've heard. In order for your excuse to work, every MCPS school would have had to have won a blue ribbon in the last five years, which didn't happen in this dimension or any other.
ReplyDeleteAs 8:40's list shows, MCPS has had a paltry and poor showing overall, and in some years (like this year) is shut out entirely.
Robert Dyer (9:57): Why did you mischaracterize one of my questions as "the lamest excuse I've ever heard", not answer my other questions, and then delete my prior response and all other responses answering my questions, disagreeing with your perspective or that you otherwise had no answer for?
ReplyDeleteAlso, why did you delete my response questioning whether the alleged Catholic school supporter who stated "suck that MoCo" had been taught that language in a Catholic school & not the original statement which was arguably offensive. My post was not anti-Catholic, it was only anti-vulgar language. Signed, Catholic School Graduate.
ReplyDelete8:22: You keep moving the goalposts, changing the subject and Gish Galloping. Off topic. Stick to the topic of MCPS being shut out of the Blue Ribbon list several years this decade.
ReplyDelete