FritoBandito
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On the article Denying Transportation Could Place Transfer Students in Academic Bind
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On the article Three New Restaurants Announced for Towson Square
FritoBandito
9:47 am on Friday, January 18, 2013
ReplyTowson Square? I call it the Towson Alleyway! Too try and shove that much building on such a tiny parcel seems like a recipe for disaster. It isn't particularly accessible by foot unless they plan on doing a pedestrian bridge over Joppa Road, linking it to the mall parking areas. We know from the experience with Towson Commons, that people do not really like parking garages (although a mall parking garage may be the exception).
I'd be very interested in seeing the Patch detail the proposed ingress and egress of Towson Square and what the traffic count projections are for the site. It wasn't until the circle was built, that the Dulaney Valley, Joppa intersection was lifted out of failing..and even now traffic isn't a picnic near there.
Oh, and Mr. Kamenetz, if you would like to be like Bethesda, you are going to have to pour significant money into infrastructure improvements and figure out a way to lure independent, innovative eateries to Towson. Chain eateries are not the draw in Bethesda, the one-of-a-kind, (particularly ethnic) restaurants are! -
On the article Denying Transportation Could Place Transfer Students in Academic Bind
FritoBandito
9:37 am on Friday, January 18, 2013
Reply"Reinhard said a primary reason the state asked for the No Child Left Behind waiver is so it no longer has to abide by the Adequate Yearly Progress standard. Instead, the state is requiring every school to reduce the percentage of students who didn't pass standardized tests in half by 2017. These new target goals are called Annual Measurable Objectives.
"The standards [of No Child Left Behind] were just not realistic," he said."
So, the State opts of NCLB because we can't meet standards, thus cutting off a funding source to help lift children out of failing schools.The County knows it has a significant number of failing schools, and yet they are still stating they will only pay for one more year to send children to non-failing schools, where, if the data is accurate, most of those children previously suffering and underperforming in failing schools, now thrive. Hmmm, does anyone else see the complete and utter ridiculousness in this. For spokesperson Herndon to insinuate that these children will do just fine back in a failing school is ludicrous and fallacious thinking and not supported by any data whatsoever.
Unfortunately, it was these types of battles that forced me to pull my own child out of the public school system and into private school; at a great financial burden to my family. I was running out of time fighting with a dysfunctional school system; our childrens time in school goes by too fast.
FritoBandito
10:46 am on Friday, January 18, 2013
No, I absolutely do not think it is realistic! But, I also do not think it is realistic to expect a child to continue to be "educated" in a failing school because it is easier and cheaper (in the short term) for the County.
I admit to only making a cursury read of the new AMO guidelines, but I did not see any penalty or incentive to the County to actually meet the requirement that schools are to reduce the percentage of students who didn't pass standardized tests in half by 2017. So, while the schools struggle with even this difficult mandate, students will be "stuck" in failing schools. And please, don't go down the path of, "a parent can always move, or a parent can put their child in private school" we know that those are just statements to draw away from the fact that we have schools in Baltimore County that are failing their students. Instead we should be concentrating on doing what we know we can do: transport to better schools while the failing school is being brought up to standards.