Is English now “Honors for All” at mcps high schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC told me that a teacher told them that years ago, there was such a thing as on level, and Honors English, and that they were two distinct classes.

But one day, the higher ups saw that the on level classes were made up of mostly URM, and the honors classes weren't.

In the name of social equity and engineering, they got rid of on level classes, pushed the URM to honors, then dumbed down the curriculum. This caused more of the higher achieving kids to take AP English.

So "honors" classes in MCPS are a joke. It's more like on level, or maybe even below for some kids.

If you want your kid to get any kind of challenge, have them take AP English when they can.

If this is the case at all of the high schools, why do they still have both on-level and honors English 9, 10, 11, and 12 courses listed in the bulletin?

[Anonymous]

I don't think the curriculum has been changed significantly, I just think there is a lot more "for completion" grading, peer feedback exercises rather than teachers reviewing assignments, and very little teacher feedback on writing assignments.

My English teachers in HS marked every grammar mistake in a paper (short or long) and you lost a .5 of a point for each mistake. They also provided feedback about structure and content.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC told me that a teacher told them that years ago, there was such a thing as on level, and Honors English, and that they were two distinct classes.

But one day, the higher ups saw that the on level classes were made up of mostly URM, and the honors classes weren't.

In the name of social equity and engineering, they got rid of on level classes, pushed the URM to honors, then dumbed down the curriculum. This caused more of the higher achieving kids to take AP English.

So "honors" classes in MCPS are a joke. It's more like on level, or maybe even below for some kids.

If you want your kid to get any kind of challenge, have them take AP English when they can.

What does URM mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the curriculum has been changed significantly, I just think there is a lot more "for completion" grading, peer feedback exercises rather than teachers reviewing assignments, and very little teacher feedback on writing assignments.

My English teachers in HS marked every grammar mistake in a paper (short or long) and you lost a .5 of a point for each mistake. They also provided feedback about structure and content.

If you are old enough to have grammar mistakes marked, then the curriculum has changed dramatically since then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC told me that a teacher told them that years ago, there was such a thing as on level, and Honors English, and that they were two distinct classes.

But one day, the higher ups saw that the on level classes were made up of mostly URM, and the honors classes weren't.

In the name of social equity and engineering, they got rid of on level classes, pushed the URM to honors, then dumbed down the curriculum. This caused more of the higher achieving kids to take AP English.

So "honors" classes in MCPS are a joke. It's more like on level, or maybe even below for some kids.

If you want your kid to get any kind of challenge, have them take AP English when they can.

What does URM mean?

"Under Represented Minorities".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC told me that a teacher told them that years ago, there was such a thing as on level, and Honors English, and that they were two distinct classes.

But one day, the higher ups saw that the on level classes were made up of mostly URM, and the honors classes weren't.

In the name of social equity and engineering, they got rid of on level classes, pushed the URM to honors, then dumbed down the curriculum. This caused more of the higher achieving kids to take AP English.

So "honors" classes in MCPS are a joke. It's more like on level, or maybe even below for some kids.

If you want your kid to get any kind of challenge, have them take AP English when they can.

If this is the case at all of the high schools, why do they still have both on-level and honors English 9, 10, 11, and 12 courses listed in the bulletin?

which schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC told me that a teacher told them that years ago, there was such a thing as on level, and Honors English, and that they were two distinct classes.

But one day, the higher ups saw that the on level classes were made up of mostly URM, and the honors classes weren't.

In the name of social equity and engineering, they got rid of on level classes, pushed the URM to honors, then dumbed down the curriculum. This caused more of the higher achieving kids to take AP English.

So "honors" classes in MCPS are a joke. It's more like on level, or maybe even below for some kids.

If you want your kid to get any kind of challenge, have them take AP English when they can.

If this is the case at all of the high schools, why do they still have both on-level and honors English 9, 10, 11, and 12 courses listed in the bulletin?

which schools?

The MCPS high school course bulletin.

http://coursebulletin.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/publications/HSCourseBulletin2024.pdf

[Anonymous]

It just means they are too lazy to update the bulletin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the curriculum has been changed significantly, I just think there is a lot more "for completion" grading, peer feedback exercises rather than teachers reviewing assignments, and very little teacher feedback on writing assignments.

My English teachers in HS marked every grammar mistake in a paper (short or long) and you lost a .5 of a point for each mistake. They also provided feedback about structure and content.

If you are old enough to have grammar mistakes marked, then the curriculum has changed dramatically since then.

This

[Anonymous]

Is there any organized effort to push back at this among parents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC told me that a teacher told them that years ago, there was such a thing as on level, and Honors English, and that they were two distinct classes.

But one day, the higher ups saw that the on level classes were made up of mostly URM, and the honors classes weren't.

In the name of social equity and engineering, they got rid of on level classes, pushed the URM to honors, then dumbed down the curriculum. This caused more of the higher achieving kids to take AP English.

So "honors" classes in MCPS are a joke. It's more like on level, or maybe even below for some kids.

If you want your kid to get any kind of challenge, have them take AP English when they can.

If this is the case at all of the high schools, why do they still have both on-level and honors English 9, 10, 11, and 12 courses listed in the bulletin?

which schools?

The MCPS high school course bulletin.

http://coursebulletin.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/publications/HSCourseBulletin2024.pdf

You have to look at each individual HS website for the school course bulletin. This course bulletin you have linked to is just a comprehensive list of "approved" courses that a school could offer. I don't know why MCPS doesn't provide a centralized place to look at which HS's actually offer a course. My cynical view is that it would be too easy for parent's to compare information, organize, and complain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC told me that a teacher told them that years ago, there was such a thing as on level, and Honors English, and that they were two distinct classes.

But one day, the higher ups saw that the on level classes were made up of mostly URM, and the honors classes weren't.

In the name of social equity and engineering, they got rid of on level classes, pushed the URM to honors, then dumbed down the curriculum. This caused more of the higher achieving kids to take AP English.

So "honors" classes in MCPS are a joke. It's more like on level, or maybe even below for some kids.

If you want your kid to get any kind of challenge, have them take AP English when they can.

If this is the case at all of the high schools, why do they still have both on-level and honors English 9, 10, 11, and 12 courses listed in the bulletin?

which schools?

The MCPS high school course bulletin.

http://coursebulletin.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/publications/HSCourseBulletin2024.pdf

You have to look at each individual HS website for the school course bulletin. This course bulletin you have linked to is just a comprehensive list of "approved" courses that a school could offer. I don't know why MCPS doesn't provide a centralized place to look at which HS's actually offer a course. My cynical view is that it would be too easy for parent's to compare information, organize, and complain.

But isn't that the question: since we can see that MCPS has approved on-level English as a course a school could offer, why are apparently none of the schools offering it? And are they being told they cannot offer an MCPS-approved course? On what grounds?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC told me that a teacher told them that years ago, there was such a thing as on level, and Honors English, and that they were two distinct classes.

But one day, the higher ups saw that the on level classes were made up of mostly URM, and the honors classes weren't.

In the name of social equity and engineering, they got rid of on level classes, pushed the URM to honors, then dumbed down the curriculum. This caused more of the higher achieving kids to take AP English.

So "honors" classes in MCPS are a joke. It's more like on level, or maybe even below for some kids.

If you want your kid to get any kind of challenge, have them take AP English when they can.

If this is the case at all of the high schools, why do they still have both on-level and honors English 9, 10, 11, and 12 courses listed in the bulletin?

which schools?

The MCPS high school course bulletin.

http://coursebulletin.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/publications/HSCourseBulletin2024.pdf

You have to look at each individual HS website for the school course bulletin. This course bulletin you have linked to is just a comprehensive list of "approved" courses that a school could offer. I don't know why MCPS doesn't provide a centralized place to look at which HS's actually offer a course. My cynical view is that it would be too easy for parent's to compare information, organize, and complain.

But isn't that the question: since we can see that MCPS has approved on-level English as a course a school could offer, why are apparently none of the schools offering it? And are they being told they cannot offer an MCPS-approved course? On what grounds?

dp.. IDK, but I know that my kids' HS doesn't offer non-honors English.

Maybe someone here can tell us if there is a HS that does offer it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any organized effort to push back at this among parents?

My guess is that no one wants to publicly admit that their child w/o SN can’t handle Honors English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious as to how much writing students are doing in 9th grade. I pulled my kid out of MCPS for HS and she is reading Jane Eyre right now. She is required to do significant analytical essays on chosen subject matter from the book. It's such a very long book. I can't imagine a typical public school kid having the attention span to read it in its entirety. Her private only has one level for English in 9th grade. Not sure about the other grades.

more back door private recruiting!