How happy are you with MCPS elementary curriculum?
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Anonymous
| First time MCPS parent here (kindergartener), curious about your experiences. I'm happy with some things about my son's school, but I am disappointed in the curriculum thus far - seems like many mindless worksheets, repetition of topics that he's already expressed some boredom about, and lots of screen time for the age. I know part of it is about developing foundational school skills. Thoughts, experiences at your ES? Is this just the way it is across the county? DH and are especially intrigued about College Gardens' use of the IB curriculum. |
Anonymous
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There will be a new ELA curriculum next yeah which should help.
Eureka is a little slow but it builds such great math sense, so it’s worth hanging in there. |
Anonymous
Way too slow, unchallenging, boring |
Anonymous
| No, they don’t teach the basics. |
Anonymous
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I've been pretty happy with it. We have a second grader, so that's what we've seen so far. She didn't go into school reading, but she's an excellent reader now. She didn't come in with a great sense of phonics, and she's developed that from the Really Great Reading program they use. Benchmark is more hit or miss, but it's on the way out, and it hasn't been awful, just kind of bland.
Eureka is slow, but she's great at math and I think the constant repetition in Eureka has helped with that. She does get enrichment (at school) in math, which started this year and I think helps there. The only way I can really judge the curriculum is how well it's worked, and for us it has worked great for reading and math; our kid is doing great in those areas and enjoys them. Science or social studies get short shrift, which I don't like, but that's the trend for most public schools these days. |
Anonymous
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I think early ES is just going to be boring for a lot of well-prepared kids, and there's no way around that. Public schools need to teach every kid who arrives, and in K-2 that's going to include a huge variety of preK experiences, from kids who went to academically rigorous preschools, to kids who watched the Bold and the Beautiful with their Nana all day, to kids whose preK was entirely about wandering the woods.
By third grade, things start to even out and there will be some options for differentiation once MCPS deals with the kids who came in without literacy and numeracy skills. In the meantime, I'd caution against pushing your kid ahead too far at home unless you are prepared to do that for the next 12 years. Better to focus on other skills and on building good habits - so, learning a language, an instrument, a sport, whatever your child wants to do. |
Anonymous
Eureka math is the worst. Completely waste of time learning very basic stuff |
Anonymous
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I can promise you that private and public curricula are ALL incredibly boring at the elementary level. What you need to do is teach what you want at home, no matter how strenuously teachers ask you not to teach math differently. Most children of educated parents are ready to do more, and should do more, to be better prepared for advanced tracks in middle and high school. My kids are in high school and college now. This is what we did. |
Anonymous
They focus mainly on the bottom 20%, so for any kid who is average or higher, it's a bit slow. |
Anonymous
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It's tough to assess the curriculum at the ES level - particularly in early elementary. I think its very much teacher dependent. For example, both my kids had teachers during the benchmark curriculum time frame that created reading groups anyway and challenged the kids in ways they thought were necessary. In 4th they will differentiate for both math and literacy and I found my kids to be more engaged at that point for sure.
If your kid is prepared and had several years of a solid pre-k curriculum then K won't likely teach much new material. That's ok, because K is really not about academics its about expectations in the classroom, socialization etc. and learning to enjoy school. |
Anonymous
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I’ve been pretty unhappy with kindergarten. Long, boring day with too many screens. DD adored preschool and no longer likes school, although she reads well and is generally doing fine.
I’m no expert on elementary curriculum though. |
Anonymous
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OP here, thanks for the insights. I guess I also meant the activities they do, not just the curriculum itself - I don't need him learning rocket science yet, I just want learning activities to foster exploration and curiosity, not just be about cutting and coloring worksheets or playing games on the laptop. Is that very teacher-dependent?
That said, I'm super curious about the Benchmark and RGR discussions - I don't see either yet, but maybe because it starts in grade 1? Are all Moco elementary schools moving to RGR next year? I don't mind what I see from the Eureka workbook thus far. Again, I just hope it's being supplemented in class with something other than additional worksheets. |
Anonymous
Very teacher dependent but they no longer teach spelling, vocabulary, math facts, etc. so plan to supplement at home. |
Anonymous
My kid gets spelling tests every week. |
Anonymous
| Also have a K student (as well as an older one). I like Eureka and the phonics curriculum. Can’t wait for the new ELA curriculum next year because Benchmark really is not engaging. |