Nov 9 2013 05:59:44:000AM
Recipient: Montgomery County Public Schools
Location: Rockville, Maryland, United States of America
Recipient URL: www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org
Grantmaker: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Grant Amount: $100,000
Grant Period: 09/26/13 - 01/31/14
Duration: 4 months
Fiscal Year End: 12/31/13
Description: to support the development of a system-level strategic plan for personalized learning
Geographic Area Served: North America
Source: Glass Pockets
As an MCPS teacher very opposed to the Gates Foundation and what they are doing to education, could you please post more about this? I know nothing about the initiative.
ReplyDeleteAsk your union. Doug Prouty has a seat at the MCPS behind closed door budget meetings. He knows what MCPS is doing with grant funds. See if he will tell you.
DeleteIs this a joke? I don't even know what, " to support the development of a system-level strategic plan for personalized learning" means. Who will be the beneficiary of the "personalized learning"? Who will administer the funds? Is there any public accountability?
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteThere is no 'public accountability' because the people you elected to the Board of Education and the County Council do not want any, ergo, the voters don't want any 'public accountability.' If you as a voter want some 'public accountability' that would mean some 'accountable' elected officials would have to be elected. People are declaring for council races right now. Beth Daly, running for an at-large seat (D) on the County Council, has already said she thinks Josh Starr is doing a good job.
ReplyDeletePersonalized Learning Plans (PLPs) are simply forms (eventually online) that capture data representing a student's social-emotional needs, academic strengths and weaknesses, and goals - college or career plans (or both in some cases). The forms are being created and piloted in specific schools. I imagine the grant will provide MCPS the resources to create an online program to house these documents. These forms are nothing new. I am surprised that for as "resourceful" as many of you claim to be, you refuse to do your research. All confidential matters are kept with the mental health team members (social worker, PPW, school psychologist). The form is simply a way to monitor a student's growth. So if, for example, a 9th grader is reading at a 6th grade level, the PLPs will include goals (similar to those found on IEPs) and will track progress toward those goals. It is a very integrated approach, as it marries the academics with SEL. We complain we're not doing enough for our students - that we ignore their mental health. In most cases, their academic weaknesses stem from emotional obstacles. Once those barriers are removed, academic progress can be enhanced.
ReplyDeleteYou "imagine"? But, we didn't do our research?
DeleteHow about imagining a link to the Board of Education discussion and vote on how the Gates money will be spent?
How about imagining a link to the Board of Education discussion of what is on the website in the above link, because what you are imagining doesn't match with the case studies that are included in the MCPS website. The MCPS website information is about a whole lot more than just "capturing data".
What you imagine sounds a lot like a great big database in the cloud.... oh, wait, there already IS at least one. InBloom, anyone?
DeleteCould there be improvement on grade-to-grade record-keeping of students to enhance their academic progress? Of course there could. But I don't want my kids' data in Bill Gates' pocket. In their school, their teachers see each other daily, they share what they know about their students, both academically and on record, and that helps students without the need for a database that will eventually cost a whole heck of a lot more than the $100K grant Bill is dangling here.
@Janis
ReplyDeleteThere is plenty of research to support the implementation of PLPs. Use your brain, Janis, and research just how many alternative settings use PLPs. Why not expand that format to ALL schools? The PLP framework allows teams to monitor the whole child. Your only concern, however, is about money The money from the Gates Foundation will be used toward implementation. Well, this is a grant. MCPS isn't spending taxpayers' money in this case. What's your beef? Can you clearly articulate what your issue is? It's very unclear.
Cite the "research". We are still waiting.
DeleteWhat "format?" Clearly you haven't read the documents on the MCPS link above.
$100,000 to implement what? How can you want "it" at all schools and think that $100,000 will cover the cost of something at all MCPS schools? So for under $500 per school we can do "it" and "it" won't cost taxpayers a dime? Tell us another joke.
Here's the MCPS link: http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2014/03/coming-to-mcps-via-gates-foundation.html
DeleteA year's supply of Equity Sticks? Just a thought.
DeleteOne high school "staff developer" bought equity sticks for everyone at her school -- hate to think how much that cost! I wonder what happened to them? Maybe craft projects?
ReplyDeleteHmmm, Let's say a high school has 125 teachers. 35 kids per class. 125 x 35 = 4375 tongue depressors needed. Price on Amazon - $8.65 for 500. Free shipping too! Grand total of $77.85 ($8.65 x 9). Oh the humanity!
DeleteCamel's head under the tent side. All Bill Gate's does is purchse influence for privatizing use of public dollars for eduaction - whether that is standardized testing and curriculum, online "learning," and aggregating student data. Any connection between this and the Office of Shared Accountabilty's new endeavor to identifying potential high school drop-outs begining in grade one and building data files on these students throughout their school careeers, to somehow orevent their dropping out - someone will come up with the stratgey for that, as long as we track the data on these labelled kids?
ReplyDelete