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

[Anonymous]

My Einstein HS 9th grader registered for next year’s classes today and told me — surprise to her — the school is taking away “Pre-IB English” and is getting rid of regular English — so everyone, regardless of ability or motivation, will be grouped together in classes dubiously named “Honors English.” Einstein has an International Baccalaureate program in 11th & 12th and the pre-IB classes (a step up from honors) were supposed to prepare students for IB.

Honors for All in Middle School was a disaster. Does anyone know about this? Is this a new MCPS policy?

[Anonymous]

That sucks for your IB kid.

RMIB has a separate English class for 9th and 10th grade magnet students, as you say, to prepare students for IB english.

But the rest take "Honors" English. This leads to GPA inflation. It's a joke.

[Anonymous]

No idea. More grade inflation.

[Anonymous]

B-CC uses an honors for all model. No Pre-IB option for English. The only non-honors classes offered are for math and science. It's a complete joke.

[Anonymous]

Did Einstein used to have both pre IB English in both month and tenth? My daughter who took IB English in eleventh and did not do well took pre IB in tenth but just honors in ninth. I thought pre IB was only offered in tenth but it would be interesting if she could have taken pre IB in ninth because her tenth grade English was much harder for her than ninth grade: I felt like she wasn’t well prepared for t here grade pre IN or IB. they barely did any writing seventh thru ninth and then all of a sudden they were expected to know how to write. So if they aren’t offering pre IB in tenth anymore that seems crazy to me because they are going to be even less prepared for IB.

IME writing instruction at Einstein and probably MCPS generally totally sucks

[Anonymous]

Op, is your daughter currently in ninth grade pre IB English (if such a thing exists) and was hoping to also take pre IB in tenth? Or is she in honors ninth grade English now and hoping to take pre IB in tenth?

[Anonymous]

That’s why I laughed at “honors health” from a couple threads ago.
Ridiculous.

Is honors really just grade level now? If not how is the school helping kids who need grade level courses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That’s why I laughed at “honors health” from a couple threads ago.
Ridiculous.

Is honors really just grade level now? If not how is the school helping kids who need grade level courses?

I think it is except for math and science - those still differentiate. But eveyrthing else is just on-grade level, and the only differentiation that will happen is in AP/IB courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That’s why I laughed at “honors health” from a couple threads ago.
Ridiculous.

Is honors really just grade level now? If not how is the school helping kids who need grade level courses?

It's all about self esteem. Also, it's much easier to lower the bar than to get everyone to cross a high bar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did Einstein used to have both pre IB English in both month and tenth? My daughter who took IB English in eleventh and did not do well took pre IB in tenth but just honors in ninth. I thought pre IB was only offered in tenth but it would be interesting if she could have taken pre IB in ninth because her tenth grade English was much harder for her than ninth grade: I felt like she wasn’t well prepared for t here grade pre IN or IB. they barely did any writing seventh thru ninth and then all of a sudden they were expected to know how to write. So if they aren’t offering pre IB in tenth anymore that seems crazy to me because they are going to be even less prepared for IB.

IME writing instruction at Einstein and probably MCPS generally totally sucks

Yeah Pre-IB English is offered in 9th this year at Einstein. My daughter is currently in honors 9. I’m worried as she has all As, finishes her work quickly and then spend the rest of her time watching cooking shows & sports on her phone during class. Any further dumbing-down and I’m convinced I’m just sending her to school to surf the internet all day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s why I laughed at “honors health” from a couple threads ago.
Ridiculous.

Is honors really just grade level now? If not how is the school helping kids who need grade level courses?

It's all about self esteem. Also, it's much easier to lower the bar than to get everyone to cross a high bar.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did Einstein used to have both pre IB English in both month and tenth? My daughter who took IB English in eleventh and did not do well took pre IB in tenth but just honors in ninth. I thought pre IB was only offered in tenth but it would be interesting if she could have taken pre IB in ninth because her tenth grade English was much harder for her than ninth grade: I felt like she wasn’t well prepared for t here grade pre IN or IB. they barely did any writing seventh thru ninth and then all of a sudden they were expected to know how to write. So if they aren’t offering pre IB in tenth anymore that seems crazy to me because they are going to be even less prepared for IB.

IME writing instruction at Einstein and probably MCPS generally totally sucks

MS in MCPS in general is a complete joke and does not prepare kids who want to take advanced classes in HS.

MCPS wants MS to focus on "social emotional" learning, but that comes at the expense of academic learning, which causes the achievement gap in HS to grow even more. Way to shoot themselves (and the kids) in the foot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did Einstein used to have both pre IB English in both month and tenth? My daughter who took IB English in eleventh and did not do well took pre IB in tenth but just honors in ninth. I thought pre IB was only offered in tenth but it would be interesting if she could have taken pre IB in ninth because her tenth grade English was much harder for her than ninth grade: I felt like she wasn’t well prepared for t here grade pre IN or IB. they barely did any writing seventh thru ninth and then all of a sudden they were expected to know how to write. So if they aren’t offering pre IB in tenth anymore that seems crazy to me because they are going to be even less prepared for IB.

IME writing instruction at Einstein and probably MCPS generally totally sucks

Yeah Pre-IB English is offered in 9th this year at Einstein. My daughter is currently in honors 9. I’m worried as she has all As, finishes her work quickly and then spend the rest of her time watching cooking shows & sports on her phone during class. Any further dumbing-down and I’m convinced I’m just sending her to school to surf the internet all day.

Einstein used to offer both Pre-IB English 9 and 10, but my understanding is that they are not permitted by central office to do so anymore, because IB classes are only available to 11th and 12 graders, and Einstein does not have the MYP IB program which covers 9th and 10th graders. I think at a PTSA meeting it was stated (perhaps by a parent) that the students who had registered for Pre-IB 9 for this year were placed into cohorted Honors English 9 classes instead. (Everyone is in Honors English 9.) I don't know what the expectation is for next year.

[Anonymous]

Been this way for a while already at many HS (non-IB)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did Einstein used to have both pre IB English in both month and tenth? My daughter who took IB English in eleventh and did not do well took pre IB in tenth but just honors in ninth. I thought pre IB was only offered in tenth but it would be interesting if she could have taken pre IB in ninth because her tenth grade English was much harder for her than ninth grade: I felt like she wasn’t well prepared for t here grade pre IN or IB. they barely did any writing seventh thru ninth and then all of a sudden they were expected to know how to write. So if they aren’t offering pre IB in tenth anymore that seems crazy to me because they are going to be even less prepared for IB.

IME writing instruction at Einstein and probably MCPS generally totally sucks

MS in MCPS in general is a complete joke and does not prepare kids who want to take advanced classes in HS.

MCPS wants MS to focus on "social emotional" learning, but that comes at the expense of academic learning, which causes the achievement gap in HS to grow even more. Way to shoot themselves (and the kids) in the foot.

I completely disagree.