MCPS boasts about 54.9% 3rd ELA proficiency rate in latest MCAP results

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been in elementary education for 22 years and here's my take on why kids are performing so poorly...
1) We haven't been teaching using the research behind the science of reading until very recently. As a country, we've spent decades teaching kids to read incorrectly despite there being 40+ years of scientific research to prove how to do it correctly. For whatever reason, school systems across America banded together and adopted the "balanced literacy approach" which is not how kids learn to read.
2) The Common Core State Standards are just too rigorous and developmentally inappropriate for the primary grades. Teachers have to shove so much content into kids because the bar is so high. There's no time to build a solid foundation in the basics before layering in harder concepts. So for the younger kids, we're basically trying to build a sand castle at high tide.
3) The assessments are ridiculously tough. I believe kids can do very hard things but since we're so test-driven, we don't let kids learn and demonstrate their understanding in ways that capitalize on all of their unique strengths. Multiple-choice and written response questions don't capture the genius of all of our awesome kids.
4) Our society has changed. I help get kids in the cars every afternoon during dismissal and I'm always saddened to see how many parents barely acknowledge their kids as they get in the car because they're so engrossed in their cell phones. I have caught myself a time or two on my phone and not giving my own kids my undivided attention but I think we underestimate how much screen time has had an impact on our kids overall development.

Common core standards are fine. Many parents are working from home. My spouse takes calls in the car to pick up our kids as there is no mcps bus. What other option is there? You assume parents don’t spend time with their kids based off that?

Common core standards were developed specifically to counter the effects of unearned white privilege.

Man, people will just say absolutely anything on the internet. None of that is true. https://specialedresource.com/resource-center/origin-common-core-standards#:~:text=The%20Standards%20and%20Accountability%20Movement,children%20were%20meeting%20the%20norm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been in elementary education for 22 years and here's my take on why kids are performing so poorly...
1) We haven't been teaching using the research behind the science of reading until very recently. As a country, we've spent decades teaching kids to read incorrectly despite there being 40+ years of scientific research to prove how to do it correctly. For whatever reason, school systems across America banded together and adopted the "balanced literacy approach" which is not how kids learn to read.
2) The Common Core State Standards are just too rigorous and developmentally inappropriate for the primary grades. Teachers have to shove so much content into kids because the bar is so high. There's no time to build a solid foundation in the basics before layering in harder concepts. So for the younger kids, we're basically trying to build a sand castle at high tide.
3) The assessments are ridiculously tough. I believe kids can do very hard things but since we're so test-driven, we don't let kids learn and demonstrate their understanding in ways that capitalize on all of their unique strengths. Multiple-choice and written response questions don't capture the genius of all of our awesome kids.
4) Our society has changed. I help get kids in the cars every afternoon during dismissal and I'm always saddened to see how many parents barely acknowledge their kids as they get in the car because they're so engrossed in their cell phones. I have caught myself a time or two on my phone and not giving my own kids my undivided attention but I think we underestimate how much screen time has had an impact on our kids overall development.

Common core standards are fine. Many parents are working from home. My spouse takes calls in the car to pick up our kids as there is no mcps bus. What other option is there? You assume parents don’t spend time with their kids based off that?

Common core standards were developed specifically to counter the effects of unearned white privilege.

Man, people will just say absolutely anything on the internet. None of that is true. https://specialedresource.com/resource-center/origin-common-core-standards#:~:text=The%20Standards%20and%20Accountability%20Movement,children%20were%20meeting%20the%20norm.

The standards are not now nor have they ever been the problem. Yes, a few at the lower level should be tweaked, but overall the standards are fine. The problem was the rush to buy curriculum “aligned” to the standards and testing that was then tied to teacher performance and funding. Essentially implementation of the standards was a clusterF that led to teaching to the test. Additionally, US investment in education is low for all that it requires and purports to want to do. You can’t mandate that districts educate whoever shows up so long as they have residence in the school zone and then expect they can do that with their budget yo-yoing around every year and politicians making up things as they go along.

What needed to happen (and honestly still needs to happen to a degree) is Content Specialist/Administrators need to sit down and really understand what each standard is trying to get at and where it is trying to lead students. Then they could determine at what intervals testing is really warranted to ensure students are on track, what training Teachers need to be able to plan and evaluate student progress, and what type of curricular materials are needed. Further, teacher preparation programs need to be greatly improved to address the foundational knowledge that teachers should have in given content areas. Yes, teachers need to understand child development and education theory, but they also need to have a true grasp of the content they are teaching, because not all of their students will “get it” when taught the way they understand. Teachers and content specialist need mastery of material (and yes many are lacking this).

AND American parents need to be more involved and present. Sure Kindergarten teachers can teach kids the alphabet, but in 2024, 90% should already be showing up with the knowledge in hand. Unfortunately that’s not happening. Gentle parenting has become freedom to do whatever kids want. And attention spans and ability to follow simple directions is low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yawn.

We have compulsory universal education. Why would you expect everyone to be at the same grade level standard?

Yawn? That's your response to these results?

I want a more nuanced breakdown by racial and economic demographics. I don't see how this bulk average for any diverse area is all that meaningful.

MCPS is capable of slicing and dicing this data down. They have the MCAP data by school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another look at MCAP results from another source: https://wtop.com/maryland/2024/08/maryland-test-results-show-small-gains-nagging-achievement-gaps-among-demographic-groups/

MCPS claims we're beating state averages, which I guess might be true, but when you roll up all the grade levels and the results, here's how things shake out by Math:



Carroll, Worcester and Howard County Public Schools outperformed MCPS in math.



For ELA, it's worse. Harford, Queen Anne's, Frederick, Calvert, Howard, Carroll, Worcester all outperformed MCPS in ELA.

Considering how much wealthier mcps is than the counties outperforming it there are some serious questions to be raised.

[Anonymous]

The other counties are more WHITE or WHITE/ASIAN. Duh let's stop trying to walk around the subject of race + SES.