New curriculum for FCPS - dumbing down school?

[Anonymous]

Was talking with a few other parents and they were complaining about how FCPS’s new curriculum has been dumbed down and how their 5th grader hasn’t even written any papers yet and are doing very rudimentary work. Has this been your experience as well?

[Anonymous]

That is kind of the point of it.

They are trying to close the post covid achievement gap. The easiest way is top down.

[Anonymous]

The new LA curriculum is actually the opposite of dumbing down - and the 5th graders have written plenty of papers already. Have you checked google drive?

[Anonymous]

We’ve got a first grader in FCPS, was just talking with DW about how much time our DC will be missing over the next couple of weeks and we realized that she’ll learn a lot more at home with us during that time than she would in school.

Disappointing to hear it doesn’t sound much better in fifth grade. I wish they would focus on academics, not equity at the exclusion of all else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The new LA curriculum is actually the opposite of dumbing down - and the 5th graders have written plenty of papers already. Have you checked google drive?

No they probably haven’t

I’m always fascinated by parents complaining about things but you questions like

1. Have you talked to your student?
2. Have you asked to see their paper and electronic work?
3. Have you reviewed those assignments with your child?
4. If you have concerns that your child can’t address have you written them down and reached out to the teacher?
5. If you haven’t heard from the teacher with 3-4 days, did you reach back out again?
6. Have you escalated to counselor if the teacher still hasn’t responded and have you requested a parent teacher conference to discuss concerns you have
7. Have you escalated to assistant or school principal if counselor has been unresponsive?

It’s funny to how so many parents go from “I have an issue” to number 7, skipping steps 1-6.

So then the principal forwards the message to the assistant principal and teacher

Then the teacher has to answer them and the counselor so that the principal can then answer the parent

The principal probably ends up recommending a conference because it’s always easier to discuss in person

So we’ve essentially done steps 4-7, by starting at step 7 making the principal have to explain what the teacher explained and notice so in this process

We still haven’t done the part where the parent actually talks and reviews things with their child

So obviously it’s the teacher sucks, the curriculum is bad, my angel is perfect, and fcps sucks donkey nuts

[Anonymous]

Then there’s this recent thread about the new LA curriculum and many of the posts address the added levels of rigor.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1196875.page

[Anonymous]

How new is new? My current 7th grader didn't write anything that could have been called a paper until the end of the year when in 5th. That was the GATP project, and it was a group essay in web form where they were supposed to have a thesis and prove it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How new is new? My current 7th grader didn't write anything that could have been called a paper until the end of the year when in 5th. That was the GATP project, and it was a group essay in web form where they were supposed to have a thesis and prove it.

The new K-6 curriculum started this fall. So your DC would not have had it last year.

[Anonymous]

The LA curriculum actually seems pretty intense now. My 5th grader is diagramming sentences, something I didn't do until 8th grade English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How new is new? My current 7th grader didn't write anything that could have been called a paper until the end of the year when in 5th. That was the GATP project, and it was a group essay in web form where they were supposed to have a thesis and prove it.

The new K-6 curriculum started this fall. So your DC would not have had it last year.

Well that's my point. OP is saying 5th graders haven't written any essays. And I'm saying 2 years ago they would not have written any essays by this point in the school year either. So if the "dumbing down" is Benchmark, then no, FCPS isn't dumbing down from where they were.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was talking with a few other parents and they were complaining about how FCPS’s new curriculum has been dumbed down and how their 5th grader hasn’t even written any papers yet and are doing very rudimentary work. Has this been your experience as well?

My 5th grader wrote a very boring paper about corn. So I wouldn't say they haven't been writing. Is it engaging? Not in the slightest, but I don't think it's been dumbed down.

[Anonymous]

It's actually the opposite. The new language arts curriculum is much more rigorous than last year. They are building up to writing essays, etc., it's still early in the school year and in the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

There is already an extensive thread on this: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1196875.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How new is new? My current 7th grader didn't write anything that could have been called a paper until the end of the year when in 5th. That was the GATP project, and it was a group essay in web form where they were supposed to have a thesis and prove it.

The new K-6 curriculum started this fall. So your DC would not have had it last year.

Well that's my point. OP is saying 5th graders haven't written any essays. And I'm saying 2 years ago they would not have written any essays by this point in the school year either. So if the "dumbing down" is Benchmark, then no, FCPS isn't dumbing down from where they were.

Agreed. I had a fifth grader three years ago and even back then people were complaining about the lack of grammar, editing, definitely no essays being written. Everything was a Google Slides project. The new curriculum is much better. They write on paper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was talking with a few other parents and they were complaining about how FCPS’s new curriculum has been dumbed down and how their 5th grader hasn’t even written any papers yet and are doing very rudimentary work. Has this been your experience as well?

What? Every unit includes a lot of writing. 5th grade should have written an essay after Unit 1 and had several short answer opportunities. They should be writing something different for Unit 2 now. Not sure you are getting correct info.