MCPS has Plans!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Build relationships and engage the community - This will NEVER happen till face to face meetings with parents and families take place. You can grocery shop now without a mask but a parent cannot give in person testimony at a Board of Education meeting. There’s no longer a Maryland state of emergency but parents still can only meet for IEP meetings online. MCPS is loosing credibility with their bs to exclude families from the conversations that affect their children.

Even with face to face meetings, how does that help if they will not work with families and kids to actually create an IEP to meet the kids actual needs and diagnosis (vs. their educational diagnosis) and implement the plans. People are acting like these are new issues and it as no different than pre-covid in person. I would have preferred an online IEP meeting as we weren't allow any input and the IEP didn't reflect my child's needs. Face to face vs. online isn't going to change anything. Them hiring more special education teachers, more SLP's, OT's, PT's and paraprofessionals with the extra money is what is needed.

Tell me this - When did MCPS stop writing the IEP at an IEP meeting? That seems like that should be the actual point of the meeting, to collaborate, discuss, and actually write the IEP. This year, we met and had a discussion in which everything we wanted was shut down and no explanation as to why. The document that came home afterwards might as well have been locked in before the IEP meeting.

We have asked the State of Maryland to investigate because even the PWN paperwork doesn’t match the IEP. There also was a rushed to deny ESY and Compensatory Services. In our opinion problems for students with disabilities have been bad in the past but MCPS this year hit an all time low when students with disabilities needed support the most.

Where MCPS puts funding will show Dr. McNight’s priorities. Special education deserves more attention to help kids recover from a lost year that many will never fully recover.

That is completely normal and nothing to do with covid. Ours were written the day before. Our original one made zero sense and was clearly recycled from another child as it had another child's first name on it as well. They always shut down everything we said and refused to do things like speak with our private providers and work with us on things like sending the work home that doesn't get done in school if child needs extra help. Really simple things. So, for us, online was better as we could monitor things and provide the needed support. Everyone keeps blaming covid for special education issues but it has nothing to do with covid except with covid and kids home you can now see the flaws in it vs at school you couldn't see it. Even when you go back in person, it isn't going to be any better and if you have a child with SN you either have to hire an advocate and stay on top of it to make sure your child is getting what they need, or pay for private tutors, evaluations and therapists (and supplement yourself) or both. Don't wait for MCPS to help your child as they aren't going to except in rare situations and its on you as a parent to do it. In ES, we only had one decent teacher who actually tried to support and understand our child. That's pretty sad.

Dr. McNight haas many issues to fix. Even if she makes it a priority, its not going to happen overnight.

Oh, should say they NEVER write the IEP at the IEP meeting. They write it in advanced, send it to you if you are lucky the day before, and expect you to 100% agree. Or, that was our experience. We never signed ours as we never agreed and nothing was done to fix it or work with us.

Would you mind saying the school? I just thought our Special Education Resource Teacher was incompetent at reading a calendar. Documents are supposed to arrive to parents 5 business days before the IEP meeting. Ours doesn’t put it into the mail until then so of course we receive them late.

With all the shell games to exclude parents from participating in IEP process, it makes me worry how my child will be treated during in person instruction. Mean, nasty, deceitful, and liars don’t make good role models for children. It doesn’t build trust with community members.

Not comfortable saying what school but thank goodness we are done with that school. Even in person, it isn't going to change. Depending on your child's needs, get them outside help. You cannot count on them to meet your child's needs in person. The only difference with in person is they are better able to cover it up except if you have a very articulate child who can tell you what's going on (I didn't). They used to email ours and if we were lucky the night before or even an hour or two before. We never cared as the meetings were just a formality and they refused to work with us, private providers or our child and we'd just leave frustrated. My other advice is don't sign it if you don't agree with it and if you child has a lot of needs hire an advocate now. I regret not hiring an advocate but we decided the money was better spent given our child's needs on private services vs. fighting the school (and it was).

[Anonymous]

You were smart to put the money towards your child. The judges who rule on these cases nearly always decide against parents - something like 80% of the time in Maryland. It’s a shame for the children trapped in the system who don’t have parents who can pay. What is disturbing is how much of our money goes to outside counsel to fight these families simply trying to help their children. Millions of dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You were smart to put the money towards your child. The judges who rule on these cases nearly always decide against parents - something like 80% of the time in Maryland. It’s a shame for the children trapped in the system who don’t have parents who can pay. What is disturbing is how much of our money goes to outside counsel to fight these families simply trying to help their children. Millions of dollars.

+1 Outside counsel does not come out of the school system budget. It comes out of the Montgomery County Government budget. Until MCPS has to use their own budgetary dollars they will choose legal fights instead of paying for Special Education services.

MCPS is a broken system of inequity for students with disabilities. Educating kids with disabilities is not a priority. Dr. Smith gutted Special Education. Hopefully Dr. McKnight will hire more staff including special education teachers, school psychologists, and para educators. To hire more, MCPS needs to pay more. The proof is how long positions remain vacant.

[Anonymous]

There needs to be an renewed commitment to ethics and honesty when dealing with students and families. When an IEP team tells the following lies to families and refuse to show amendments to an IEP at an IEP meeting, the school team seriously damages collaboration with the family and denies educational opportunities for students with disabilities. Things we have been told at IEP meetings that weren’t true:

Children with passing grades don’t qualify for an IEP.

Appendix D says if a child doesn’t have a disability that impacts decoding, then a child doesn’t qualify for text to speech as a classroom accommodation. (Appendix D only is for the Maryland State English Language Assessment).

IEP meetings can’t take place over the summer.

Your child can’t take an AP class because support is only offered in a non-Honors and non-AP class.

Your child is not disabled if he can earn As and Bs in an Honors/AP class.

Accommodations don’t have to be provided if a child doesn’t advocate for them in class.

Synergy is the most up to date grade book and the only one that counts since that is the report card grade. Ignore the data points in Canvas.

We don’t believe a disability exists so we are not going to evaluate your child. We will offer interventions as come back to look at the data. (aka Response to Intervention - not an appropriate method for many disabilities).

Finally, the PWN that comes after the meeting doesn’t reflect the discussion that took place. Parent comments are misrepresented or absent altogether. There’s no MCPS process for amending records.

Rebuilding trust and collaboration will need a major mindset change in how Special Education is managed in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

How about using the proper language? Your child has dyslexia....rather than a ‘de-coding’ issue? How about using the more rigorous neuro-psych exam rather than the cheapest? How about having a trained professional rather than a ‘resource teacher’ or a paraprofessional - which is an oxymoron. Some struggle with the English language. Utterly morally bankrupt. Dr. McKnight came from the system... do you honestly think she will change anything?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS should realize that parents and teachers are tired of their marketing bs. There is no amount of spin that will undo the disservice that was done to teachers and students this abysmal year.

Quit the spin. Invest more money into the people who actually work with students - the teachers. More teachers will have the greatest impact. Stop the new programming because Social Emotional Learning programs will mean nothing when 40% of the math curriculum was dropped in FY21. Focus on getting students caught up in core subjects before adding fluff.

MCPS has a surplus from this past year of $24 million dollars. This was due to state and federal COVID grants. The BOE should prioritize that the funds go to getting class size smaller vs. even more Central Office staff. However, the BOE are morons who rubber stamp anything MCPS wants to do.

Agree. I don't want my kids getting social emotional learning from them. Just give them an education and we will handle being parents.

What does "an education" entail?

With MCPS, we don't have high expectations so we supplement at home and with private school summer programs.

Any decent parent does this. It was always true and necessary.

We do this, but I think it stinks. And it makes the Achievement Gap even worse.

I was a poor child of immigrant parents. My parents made education a priority but never paid for a tutor or private programs. Ever.

I got a fantastic education from my public school AND public college. I learned how to write well enough and got a strong Science/Math education that led me to a good career. I feel super fortunate but I think it’s sad that our public schools can’t offer this.

The writing education at my kids ES and MS has been pretty abysmal. And Math? Ugh.

It hasn't changed at all. In MCPS and any school system you will always have a group of high achievers, kids in the middle/average and kid struggling. You don't need to pay for tutors. We never have. K-5th we did workbooks with ours and in later years we did supplement with private summer school but only due to covid and not doing anything in person still. I spent maybe $15-30 a year on workbooks.

I’m the PP. We did the same. I never did tutoring in ES. Just workbooks. But wait until you get to higher level Math classes. If you want your kid to actually understand the material, it will require a little more investment. If you don’t care about Math, that’s fine and your kid can make it through. But, especially this year, where they simply cut our part of the Math curriculum, we were basically required to pay if we wanted out kids to get the actual class material.

And yes, it absolutely HAS changed. I never even did any workbooks as a kid. And so never needed any addition classes outside of school. Not for Algenra or Calculus or Physics or anything. I just had some fantastic teachers that took the time to explain the material.

I got excellent feedback on each writing assignment so that I could improve my writing skills. My kids’ writing assignments are checked for completion and given an A, with very little feedback.

We’re in a nonW cluster, so maybe the W schools have better feedback, etc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about using the proper language? Your child has dyslexia....rather than a ‘de-coding’ issue? How about using the more rigorous neuro-psych exam rather than the cheapest? How about having a trained professional rather than a ‘resource teacher’ or a paraprofessional - which is an oxymoron. Some struggle with the English language. Utterly morally bankrupt. Dr. McKnight came from the system... do you honestly think she will change anything?

"Dyslexia" is pretty meaningless by itself as there are so many ways a person can be dyslexic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS should realize that parents and teachers are tired of their marketing bs. There is no amount of spin that will undo the disservice that was done to teachers and students this abysmal year.

Quit the spin. Invest more money into the people who actually work with students - the teachers. More teachers will have the greatest impact. Stop the new programming because Social Emotional Learning programs will mean nothing when 40% of the math curriculum was dropped in FY21. Focus on getting students caught up in core subjects before adding fluff.

MCPS has a surplus from this past year of $24 million dollars. This was due to state and federal COVID grants. The BOE should prioritize that the funds go to getting class size smaller vs. even more Central Office staff. However, the BOE are morons who rubber stamp anything MCPS wants to do.

Agree. I don't want my kids getting social emotional learning from them. Just give them an education and we will handle being parents.

What does "an education" entail?

With MCPS, we don't have high expectations so we supplement at home and with private school summer programs.

Any decent parent does this. It was always true and necessary.

We do this, but I think it stinks. And it makes the Achievement Gap even worse.

I was a poor child of immigrant parents. My parents made education a priority but never paid for a tutor or private programs. Ever.

I got a fantastic education from my public school AND public college. I learned how to write well enough and got a strong Science/Math education that led me to a good career. I feel super fortunate but I think it’s sad that our public schools can’t offer this.

The writing education at my kids ES and MS has been pretty abysmal. And Math? Ugh.

It hasn't changed at all. In MCPS and any school system you will always have a group of high achievers, kids in the middle/average and kid struggling. You don't need to pay for tutors. We never have. K-5th we did workbooks with ours and in later years we did supplement with private summer school but only due to covid and not doing anything in person still. I spent maybe $15-30 a year on workbooks.

I’m the PP. We did the same. I never did tutoring in ES. Just workbooks. But wait until you get to higher level Math classes. If you want your kid to actually understand the material, it will require a little more investment. If you don’t care about Math, that’s fine and your kid can make it through. But, especially this year, where they simply cut our part of the Math curriculum, we were basically required to pay if we wanted out kids to get the actual class material.

And yes, it absolutely HAS changed. I never even did any workbooks as a kid. And so never needed any addition classes outside of school. Not for Algenra or Calculus or Physics or anything. I just had some fantastic teachers that took the time to explain the material.

I got excellent feedback on each writing assignment so that I could improve my writing skills. My kids’ writing assignments are checked for completion and given an A, with very little feedback.

We’re in a nonW cluster, so maybe the W schools have better feedback, etc?

No better at my child’s W school. We rarely even get assignments back so there’s 0 feedback on real work. Everything gets bumped up to an A so it’s hard to know if my child is just being passed along this year. Not too many parents are going look beyond the A on a report card but I do question whether my child has skills to be successful beyond MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS should realize that parents and teachers are tired of their marketing bs. There is no amount of spin that will undo the disservice that was done to teachers and students this abysmal year.

Quit the spin. Invest more money into the people who actually work with students - the teachers. More teachers will have the greatest impact. Stop the new programming because Social Emotional Learning programs will mean nothing when 40% of the math curriculum was dropped in FY21. Focus on getting students caught up in core subjects before adding fluff.

MCPS has a surplus from this past year of $24 million dollars. This was due to state and federal COVID grants. The BOE should prioritize that the funds go to getting class size smaller vs. even more Central Office staff. However, the BOE are morons who rubber stamp anything MCPS wants to do.

Agree. I don't want my kids getting social emotional learning from them. Just give them an education and we will handle being parents.

What does "an education" entail?

With MCPS, we don't have high expectations so we supplement at home and with private school summer programs.

Any decent parent does this. It was always true and necessary.

We do this, but I think it stinks. And it makes the Achievement Gap even worse.

I was a poor child of immigrant parents. My parents made education a priority but never paid for a tutor or private programs. Ever.

I got a fantastic education from my public school AND public college. I learned how to write well enough and got a strong Science/Math education that led me to a good career. I feel super fortunate but I think it’s sad that our public schools can’t offer this.

The writing education at my kids ES and MS has been pretty abysmal. And Math? Ugh.

It hasn't changed at all. In MCPS and any school system you will always have a group of high achievers, kids in the middle/average and kid struggling. You don't need to pay for tutors. We never have. K-5th we did workbooks with ours and in later years we did supplement with private summer school but only due to covid and not doing anything in person still. I spent maybe $15-30 a year on workbooks.

I’m the PP. We did the same. I never did tutoring in ES. Just workbooks. But wait until you get to higher level Math classes. If you want your kid to actually understand the material, it will require a little more investment. If you don’t care about Math, that’s fine and your kid can make it through. But, especially this year, where they simply cut our part of the Math curriculum, we were basically required to pay if we wanted out kids to get the actual class material.

And yes, it absolutely HAS changed. I never even did any workbooks as a kid. And so never needed any addition classes outside of school. Not for Algenra or Calculus or Physics or anything. I just had some fantastic teachers that took the time to explain the material.

I got excellent feedback on each writing assignment so that I could improve my writing skills. My kids’ writing assignments are checked for completion and given an A, with very little feedback.

We’re in a nonW cluster, so maybe the W schools have better feedback, etc?

No better at my child’s W school. We rarely even get assignments back so there’s 0 feedback on real work. Everything gets bumped up to an A so it’s hard to know if my child is just being passed along this year. Not too many parents are going look beyond the A on a report card but I do question whether my child has skills to be successful beyond MCPS.

I have looked at the English assignments my 8th grader was getting As on last year. They were okay, but not great. She definitely would have benefitted from some basic feedback.

I guess it’s better writing than the kids who are below level (year still in Advanced English) so her teacher just gave her As for completing the work in a decent enough matter. I know the teacher spent a quarter of class time just trying to get kids to complete the assignment.

I would chalk it up to Covid, except that my kid has rarely received good feedback on her writing.

Finally decided to do a Writing class this summer to help her get ready for high school.

MCPS has been pretty sad for my child with regards to becoming a solid writer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS should realize that parents and teachers are tired of their marketing bs. There is no amount of spin that will undo the disservice that was done to teachers and students this abysmal year.

Quit the spin. Invest more money into the people who actually work with students - the teachers. More teachers will have the greatest impact. Stop the new programming because Social Emotional Learning programs will mean nothing when 40% of the math curriculum was dropped in FY21. Focus on getting students caught up in core subjects before adding fluff.

MCPS has a surplus from this past year of $24 million dollars. This was due to state and federal COVID grants. The BOE should prioritize that the funds go to getting class size smaller vs. even more Central Office staff. However, the BOE are morons who rubber stamp anything MCPS wants to do.

Agree. I don't want my kids getting social emotional learning from them. Just give them an education and we will handle being parents.

What does "an education" entail?

With MCPS, we don't have high expectations so we supplement at home and with private school summer programs.

Any decent parent does this. It was always true and necessary.

We do this, but I think it stinks. And it makes the Achievement Gap even worse.

I was a poor child of immigrant parents. My parents made education a priority but never paid for a tutor or private programs. Ever.

I got a fantastic education from my public school AND public college. I learned how to write well enough and got a strong Science/Math education that led me to a good career. I feel super fortunate but I think it’s sad that our public schools can’t offer this.

The writing education at my kids ES and MS has been pretty abysmal. And Math? Ugh.

It hasn't changed at all. In MCPS and any school system you will always have a group of high achievers, kids in the middle/average and kid struggling. You don't need to pay for tutors. We never have. K-5th we did workbooks with ours and in later years we did supplement with private summer school but only due to covid and not doing anything in person still. I spent maybe $15-30 a year on workbooks.

I’m the PP. We did the same. I never did tutoring in ES. Just workbooks. But wait until you get to higher level Math classes. If you want your kid to actually understand the material, it will require a little more investment. If you don’t care about Math, that’s fine and your kid can make it through. But, especially this year, where they simply cut our part of the Math curriculum, we were basically required to pay if we wanted out kids to get the actual class material.

And yes, it absolutely HAS changed. I never even did any workbooks as a kid. And so never needed any addition classes outside of school. Not for Algenra or Calculus or Physics or anything. I just had some fantastic teachers that took the time to explain the material.

I got excellent feedback on each writing assignment so that I could improve my writing skills. My kids’ writing assignments are checked for completion and given an A, with very little feedback.

We’re in a nonW cluster, so maybe the W schools have better feedback, etc?

We are at school people openly bash here and would never send their kids. We had a decent experience DL. Far better than anything we had in person. It depend ons the school and principal.

Wait for what. Our child is in higher level math. We are doing summer classes, but only due to covid and no camps this year. We don't reply on MCPS for math. We have one parent who can do the higher level math so its not an issue in our home.

But, for most families, at least in ES, which is the biggest issue where you need that good foundation, workbooks are fine until the kids surpass what the parents can do on their own.

Our school did a big focus on writing this year and surprisingly the teachers actually graded the work and gave feedback. But, they didn't do any literature, not even one book.

Not much has changed with MCPS since I went. Its very easy to get lost as an average student in MCPS given how large the classes/school are and no individual attention, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS should realize that parents and teachers are tired of their marketing bs. There is no amount of spin that will undo the disservice that was done to teachers and students this abysmal year.

Quit the spin. Invest more money into the people who actually work with students - the teachers. More teachers will have the greatest impact. Stop the new programming because Social Emotional Learning programs will mean nothing when 40% of the math curriculum was dropped in FY21. Focus on getting students caught up in core subjects before adding fluff.

MCPS has a surplus from this past year of $24 million dollars. This was due to state and federal COVID grants. The BOE should prioritize that the funds go to getting class size smaller vs. even more Central Office staff. However, the BOE are morons who rubber stamp anything MCPS wants to do.

Agree. I don't want my kids getting social emotional learning from them. Just give them an education and we will handle being parents.

What does "an education" entail?

With MCPS, we don't have high expectations so we supplement at home and with private school summer programs.

Any decent parent does this. It was always true and necessary.

We do this, but I think it stinks. And it makes the Achievement Gap even worse.

I was a poor child of immigrant parents. My parents made education a priority but never paid for a tutor or private programs. Ever.

I got a fantastic education from my public school AND public college. I learned how to write well enough and got a strong Science/Math education that led me to a good career. I feel super fortunate but I think it’s sad that our public schools can’t offer this.

The writing education at my kids ES and MS has been pretty abysmal. And Math? Ugh.

It hasn't changed at all. In MCPS and any school system you will always have a group of high achievers, kids in the middle/average and kid struggling. You don't need to pay for tutors. We never have. K-5th we did workbooks with ours and in later years we did supplement with private summer school but only due to covid and not doing anything in person still. I spent maybe $15-30 a year on workbooks.

I’m the PP. We did the same. I never did tutoring in ES. Just workbooks. But wait until you get to higher level Math classes. If you want your kid to actually understand the material, it will require a little more investment. If you don’t care about Math, that’s fine and your kid can make it through. But, especially this year, where they simply cut our part of the Math curriculum, we were basically required to pay if we wanted out kids to get the actual class material.

And yes, it absolutely HAS changed. I never even did any workbooks as a kid. And so never needed any addition classes outside of school. Not for Algenra or Calculus or Physics or anything. I just had some fantastic teachers that took the time to explain the material.

I got excellent feedback on each writing assignment so that I could improve my writing skills. My kids’ writing assignments are checked for completion and given an A, with very little feedback.

We’re in a nonW cluster, so maybe the W schools have better feedback, etc?

We are at school people openly bash here and would never send their kids. We had a decent experience DL. Far better than anything we had in person. It depend ons the school and principal.

Wait for what. Our child is in higher level math. We are doing summer classes, but only due to covid and no camps this year. We don't reply on MCPS for math. We have one parent who can do the higher level math so its not an issue in our home.

But, for most families, at least in ES, which is the biggest issue where you need that good foundation, workbooks are fine until the kids surpass what the parents can do on their own.

Our school did a big focus on writing this year and surprisingly the teachers actually graded the work and gave feedback. But, they didn't do any literature, not even one book.

Not much has changed with MCPS since I went. Its very easy to get lost as an average student in MCPS given how large the classes/school are and no individual attention, etc.

I agree that a parent cannot rely on MCPS to teach Math.

THAT is my point. IMO, that should be unacceptable.

I got a super strong math education in my public school system back in the 1980s. And it helped me succeed.

MCPS pretends to care about lower-income students, but it provides such a subpar education to all students (especially in Math and Science and Language Arts), that unless a kid is fortunate enough to have knowledgeable parents, that kid is SOL.

That is a travesty. Montgomery County kids deserve better. A solid curriculum and smaller class sizes would be a much welcomed start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re in a nonW cluster, so maybe the W schools have better feedback, etc?

No better at my child’s W school. We rarely even get assignments back so there’s 0 feedback on real work. Everything gets bumped up to an A so it’s hard to know if my child is just being passed along this year. Not too many parents are going look beyond the A on a report card but I do question whether my child has skills to be successful beyond MCPS.

Also in a W, and there is zero feedback, and not much handed back. It is pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Lowering the curriculum didn’t help any student in MCPS. Loosing a whole teaching day really hurt students.

Those with means in Montgomery County supplement. Those who don’t, fall further behind. There’s nothing special about the teaching at the W schools. W schools often have higher class sizes than the Title I schools. The difference is that W parents can afford private resources when MCPS is falling short. This has been the problem in Montgomery County for at least 40 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lowering the curriculum didn’t help any student in MCPS. Loosing a whole teaching day really hurt students.

Those with means in Montgomery County supplement. Those who don’t, fall further behind. There’s nothing special about the teaching at the W schools. W schools often have higher class sizes than the Title I schools. The difference is that W parents can afford private resources when MCPS is falling short. This has been the problem in Montgomery County for at least 40 years.

This is received wisdom on DCUM, but I am not at all convinced that it's true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lowering the curriculum didn’t help any student in MCPS. Loosing a whole teaching day really hurt students.

Those with means in Montgomery County supplement. Those who don’t, fall further behind. There’s nothing special about the teaching at the W schools. W schools often have higher class sizes than the Title I schools. The difference is that W parents can afford private resources when MCPS is falling short. This has been the problem in Montgomery County for at least 40 years.

Agree. There was no reason we didn't have Wednesday instruction and for us in MS, only having two hours a week of live instruction and no homework assignments really hurt our child, especially in math. There was teaching but no practice and practice is just as important as teaching. The class sizes are only relevant in K-3/4 and then the class sizes go back to regular. We are at aa non-W low income middle school and classes are 30-35 kids, some have a few more than that. Its impossible for teachers to be teaching 150 students to give any attention let alone the kids struggling and really needing that boost.

We really need to spend way more more in K-3 to reduce class sizes and make sure every child is reading, writing and basic math on grade level prior to 4th when things start to ramp up. Early intervention works. Giving kids what they need early helps prevent issues later on. Every grade at every school should have a reading specialist if not 2-3 to 1-1 work with the kids. And, they should screen every child for dyslexia and other learning disabilities, not just when parents ask.