Looks like ELC is gone

[Anonymous]

New video on central review is up, see 2:06 where they talked about ELC in past years. Now it talks about "differentiated activities" during the language arts block or during the FIT/WIN time. Very disappointing.

https://youtu.be/Jk1xycuU5Gs?si=GvaDU3n3GX7-RXG9

[Anonymous]

That video is fantastic!

Going on and on about a huge list of brag points and "Harvard" programs (lol), after saying thatat home school your teacher will figure something out, maybe, if she has time.

The secret, though, is that the only thing special about CES is the smart kids filling the classroom. It's impossible to replicate for a single smart kid somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That video is fantastic!

Going on and on about a huge list of brag points and "Harvard" programs (lol), after saying that at home school your teacher will figure something out, maybe, if she has time.

The secret, though, is that the only thing special about CES is the smart kids filling the classroom. It's impossible to replicate for a single smart kid somewhere else.

Gotta love MCPS's idea of a solution and a plan.

[Anonymous]

Wow. So unless you win the CES lottery you get a handful of enriched opportunities a week in ES that may or may not be delivered (there’s no mechanism to ensure delivery). And if you don’t win the much smaller middle school humanities lottery, you get no ELA enrichment in grades 6-8, and also nothing in grades 9-10 outside of magnets.

So if you’d like to attend your zoned school (or don’t win a random lottery), you essentially need to wait until junior year of high school for any meaningful differentiation. It’s amazing to me that they are required by law to meet the needs of gifted and talented students and they continue to find ways to try to force them to languish with curriculum that is unsuitable for their needs.

[Anonymous]

Man, the PTA gifted committee worked so hard to get ELC everywhere and now apparently MCPS is getting rid of it just a few years later. Does that committee even do anything anymore? You would think they'd be more active in trying to fight this...

[Anonymous]

Of course, can't have smart kids who don't luck into the watered down lottery getting ahead of anyone else!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Man, the PTA gifted committee worked so hard to get ELC everywhere and now apparently MCPS is getting rid of it just a few years later. Does that committee even do anything anymore? You would think they'd be more active in trying to fight this...

I think it's mainly a Facebook mom social club. They aren't serious about engaging with the community or recruiting help or executing projects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Man, the PTA gifted committee worked so hard to get ELC everywhere and now apparently MCPS is getting rid of it just a few years later. Does that committee even do anything anymore? You would think they'd be more active in trying to fight this...

Omg F off. Why the F does PTA even need to work on this? Are they employees of MCPS? Why can't the system recognize there are students who need higher level curriculum and provide that level while still tending to students who need more assistance in meeting "standards."?

[Anonymous]

I don’t see the point of central review for so few seats.

Teachers “may use” differentiated activities for those identified by central review is as hollow as that line in the report card that promises that “your child consistently receives enrichment in mathematics.”

I would not hold my breath that teachers will exercise that option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. So unless you win the CES lottery you get a handful of enriched opportunities a week in ES that may or may not be delivered (there’s no mechanism to ensure delivery). And if you don’t win the much smaller middle school humanities lottery, you get no ELA enrichment in grades 6-8, and also nothing in grades 9-10 outside of magnets.

So if you’d like to attend your zoned school (or don’t win a random lottery), you essentially need to wait until junior year of high school for any meaningful differentiation. It’s amazing to me that they are required by law to meet the needs of gifted and talented students and they continue to find ways to try to force them to languish with curriculum that is unsuitable for their needs.

There was no real enrichment. Still don't know what that enrichment actually entailed in the many years at MCPS.

[Anonymous]

CES is going to be (more) rabid this year

[Anonymous]

Why can’t MCPS use clear language to say they are cutting ELC? Why must they highlight, in ambiguous and fake terms, what they will provide without acknowledging an actual curricular change?

[Anonymous]

Do we know whether schools that want to keep ELC will be given that option? Has anyone emailed [e-mail] or [e-mail] to ask?

[Anonymous]

On the timeline slide, it says "Students identified for enrichment in the Central Review participate in ELC at their local school OR at a regional CES program."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Man, the PTA gifted committee worked so hard to get ELC everywhere and now apparently MCPS is getting rid of it just a few years later. Does that committee even do anything anymore? You would think they'd be more active in trying to fight this...

I think it's mainly a Facebook mom social club. They aren't serious about engaging with the community or recruiting help or executing projects.

I have not volunteered (shame on me) but I see them recruiting all the time. They begged folks to get involved in the question of differentiating ELA at the MS and early HS levels and I'm not sure anyone ever did.

They are also the only reason we know the "tiers" of schools in CES and magnet MS evaluations, and the cut-offs for each at least for one year.

The problem with an initiative led by parents, though, is that kids grow up or jobs change and people have less time than they used to, and if a new generation of activists doesn't step in, initiatives die.