One of Superintendent Dr. Thomas Taylor’s promises when he was sworn in was to create an equitable environment across MCPS, helping promote a level playing field and addressing some of the disparities that exist within the county. In theory, this idea was a step in the right direction towards a more equitable school system. However, as MCPS has tried to put this into action, from its changing of curricula to its discussions of special programs and boundary studies, a reality of ignorance and looming detrimental effects has been revealed.
With the proposed academic programs, MCPS will be broken up into six regions consisting of four to five schools each. Each school within its region will have an individual specialty, with WJ having a focus on languages, public service and humanities. Students will be able to elect certain schools within their cluster based on their interest in the different disciplines offered by the schools.
Because of this, schools will lose their close-knit community feel. Schools will be made up of students from six different standardized schools within each cluster, threatening MCPS’s school-specific diversity. Students will all flock to a certain school, filling up the limit of allowed transfer students, while other schools will be left depleted, losing students. MCPS has already tried a similar model with its consortium program, which takes six schools in the county and groups them into two clusters where each school within that cluster has a specialization. The Northeast consortium, consisting of Blake, Paint Branch and Springbook, has failed massively as it has led to segregation and further disparities at the hands of the county. The regional model is a valiant effort to make MCPS more career-oriented and accessible; however, in practice, this plan is being rushed and, if the consortium model is any indication, it simply will not work. MCPS is ruining the traditional, neighborhood high school experience.
MCPS also recently announced further steps to its boundary studies, particularly pertaining to the soon-to-be-open Woodward and Crown High Schools. The study is third-party sourced and has shown promise, taking a considerable amount of time with MCPS putting in an effort to take feedback. However, even still, the four possible boundaries for Woodward break up close-knit neighborhoods, causing long commutes and leaving people scratching their heads at what MCPS is doing.
The root problem is a lack of planning and care. MCPS is trying to do too many things at once. While taking the boundary study slowly, it is rushing the regional model and it isn’t able to fully give adequate attention to each individual program’s curriculum while trying to do all these other actions.
In trying to please everyone, MCPS is pleasing close to no one. MCPS must figure out who they are first and foremost, and how they can benefit the students, before trying to rush this grand plan. It’s up to MCPS to communicate with the people of the community and take feedback to grow in the right direction, step by step.
