P.G. County School how to turn it around (Clinton: crime, transfer)

[jayman1981]

Good day to everyone. I'm posing this question because it is a heavy on my heart. I grew up in P.G. mainly Suitland and Clinton areas. What can we do to change the P.G. county school system? You know everyone in the D.C. area as well as this board usually have a problem with P.G. like it's just like a child that just does not belong to the family. Getting back to the point what makes the system bad and how can we change it. Let me just put it out to you like this. P.G. is not a broke county. It seems like county leaders are so hell bent on trying to attract business that they are ignoring a school system in disarray. Maybe I could be a bit jaded and don't know what there doing to improve, if anyone has that info please enlighten me. I just want people to see that if there is a problem then fix it. It's sad that people have to spend a lot of money to send there kids to school. I believe that is the major reason a lot of families are moving to Charles County. We as parents and school board officials have to correct this problem. Because if your going to attract business then they need to know who trained to do the job and if the school systems are churning out respectable prospects. These are my opinions and concerns I'm open to dialouge about this issue. Lets begin......

[lscalder]

Well PG county is fixing the current school system. I see people love to post/find articles on only the negative issues but when their are improvements some people are not willing to post the positives.

I can not believe that people are not aware of the positive changes going on today in PG County school system.

There are so many improvements here are a few links:

Deasy Pushing For More Excellence - washingtonpost.com

Deasy’s plans taking root

Yahoo! Groups

County gets $6M to track performance beyond test scores, reward teachers - Examiner.com

[KRB97]

As a teacher in PG county, I can say that so far, not much has been done to fix the system, although our new superintendent is certainly trying. There just isn't enough money being spent in the right places to keep scores up. THe population in the area I teach is so transient, that even though most of the teachers in our school are really great, the kids we teach to do well move and do well for another school by the time they get to a testing grade. Last year there were 6 children out of 600 that graduated from our elementary school that had been there since Kindergarten. Also, PG needs to STOP hiring people who haven't been trained to teach just because they have a bachelors degree. THey put tons of teachers in schools just to have a warm body with degrees in other fields and pay for them to get their education degree, which will be good in a few years when they have learned how to teach, but does nothing for their students while they are first learning. Also, when schools are in improvement, as soon as they get their scores up, they immediately remove money for the programs that got them out of improvement, causing them to go right back in!

Originally Posted by lscalder

Well PG county is fixing the current school system. I see people love to post/find articles on only the negative issues but when their are improvements some people are not willing to post the positives.

I can not believe that people are not aware of the positive changes going on today in PG County school system.

There are so many improvements here are a few links:

Deasy Pushing For More Excellence - washingtonpost.com

Deasy’s plans taking root

Yahoo! Groups

County gets $6M to track performance beyond test scores, reward teachers - Examiner.com

[lscalder]

Originally Posted by KRB97

As a teacher in PG county, I can say that so far, not much has been done to fix the system, although our new superintendent is certainly trying. There just isn't enough money being spent in the right places to keep scores up. THe population in the area I teach is so transient, that even though most of the teachers in our school are really great, the kids we teach to do well move and do well for another school by the time they get to a testing grade. Last year there were 6 children out of 600 that graduated from our elementary school that had been there since Kindergarten. Also, PG needs to STOP hiring people who haven't been trained to teach just because they have a bachelors degree. THey put tons of teachers in schools just to have a warm body with degrees in other fields and pay for them to get their education degree, which will be good in a few years when they have learned how to teach, but does nothing for their students while they are first learning. Also, when schools are in improvement, as soon as they get their scores up, they immediately remove money for the programs that got them out of improvement, causing them to go right back in!

Change does not happen overnight.

I am happy the County officials have realize that the school systems do need improvements and have made positive changes to improve the school system.

Your school might be one of the schools in the county that need improvements but the Elementary Mattaponi in my community is a wonderful school in PG county. I only hear positive things coming from the parents.

[September7bride]

I'd like to hear more. As someone who grew up in the PG County School system, I never knew that it was so bad. I grew up hearing that "school was what you make it" and my parents taught us well outside the school system.

Now that I'm a parent I'd like to know that my child will be getting the best education possible and I'd rather not shuttle them to another school district to make that happen.

What I am doing as a parent? Research and I hope this forum will be helpful, talking to other parents, students and teachers. I'm also not leaving it all up to the teachers or the school districts. I want to have a good hand in my child's education.

[RoadTripGurl]

Hey, PG County schools back in the day weren't so bad. We had afterschool programs, willing and eager teachers but it was a different time back then. Today, there needs to be more money, more people and more people willing to WORK TOGETHER. Money isn't doing anything if people aren't working together. it's going to a long hard road for Deasey. but I think he will accomplish something very positive. As for right now, the schools are not up to par. It seem like half the kids they feel they can't teach they want to retain them, which I think is unfair. There's a LOT of problems with the system and sadly, the children are suffering. I went to Suitland, which really wasn't a bad school more than a decade ago. It had many programs, and many of my friends exceled after high school in college and after. Now, not so sure if I'd want my kids going there... Just my honest opinion...

[Zippy7fo]

1. Quit treating the kids like kids...get them part time jobs and get them exposed early and often to work or managing a business...make wealth creation the initiative and not education. Focus on creation and entrepeneurship from day one.

2. Pay higher teacher salaries..make it one of the most sought after careers...high salary, good benefits, and so on.

3. Make exercise hour a day mandatory..tire these kids out so they won't run the street

4. turn the video games off....

5. Make the teachers take acting/circus training classes. We need entertainers who can grab attention and be different..

[lscalder]

I see so one have read any of the links I have posted.

Did you read the Link that the county will or might already have increased teachers pay and will give incentive/achievement rewards to teachers who deserves it.

I see no one is reading about the improvements everyone is just degrading or pointing fingers but are not paying attention to the improvements going on in the schools.

I posted links please read them before making judgements.

[Giantone]

Originally Posted by Zippy7fo

1. Quit treating the kids like kids...get them part time jobs and get them exposed early and often to work or managing a business...make wealth creation the initiative and not education. Focus on creation and entrepeneurship from day one.

2. Pay higher teacher salaries..make it one of the most sought after careers...high salary, good benefits, and so on.

3. Make exercise hour a day mandatory..tire these kids out so they won't run the street

4. turn the video games off....

5. Make the teachers take acting/circus training classes. We need entertainers who can grab attention and be different..

I agree with all you have said but the sad fact is that PG is crime infested and until that gets cleaned up the school system will refelck it.

[KRB97]

Believe me, they have not raised our salaries or given any incentives yet to teachers in schools who have raised test scores. Also, all of the extra activities we do that they offer to pay us for (for example mentoring other teachers and sponsoring leadership activities)? Well, they give us a check at the end of the year, and for some reason tax us 40% of it, which I don't understand at all. And they are still hiring untrained, lousy teachers that want to do little to no work, leave as soon as the bell rings for the kids, and the county seems to punish bad teachers and principals by transferring them to jobs that are at a higher pay and are less work. And those are just the problems in schools without focusing on our students. John Deasy has a long road ahead, and while change doesn't happen overnight, let's just say it will be YEARS before they even make a dent in the school system. And of COURSE, that doesn't mean there are NO good schools in PG, there are many nice neighborhoods and good schools in the area. Unfortunately there more more bad areas than good, where schools are concerned.