Can achievement gap be closed with extra tutoring?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which is it, PP? Either preschool is ineffective, or it isn't. Or are you saying that preschool is effective for non-poor kids but ineffective for poor kids?

Funny thing is that I just read this article today and completely agree with it. K teachers need kids with self-regulation and the ability to learn. I don't think preschool has as much to do with it as it just gets the kids socializing and learning behaviors at an earlier age. Play based preschool is best for under performing with frazzled parents, as well as high performing kids from tiger parents.

http://www.lovewhatmatters.com/why-free-play-is-the-best-summer-school/

Yes, so long as the play is screen-free. When my kids are forced to play with no screens, they are imaginative, happier and more confident about their abilities. But, even this kind of "unstructured" play time needs adult supervision to keep the play going. Tools of the Mind says that you have to gently bring the kids back to the play they started in order for their executive function skills to improve. The term "unstructured play" is misleading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Is it possible to make the Saturday School mandatory for low performing students. Maybe MCPS can pay for the fees?

The ones from affluent families, too?

Of course! MCPS should stop removing any rigor or chance of failure from the system. Kids need to pass tests to move to the next grade level or acceleration program. If you fail then you must attend Saturday school and/or summer school.

No more gate keeping on acceleration programs but no dumbing it down either. You want to be in GT/Magnet Level XYZ - no problem. If you earn lower than a C in the first semester you are out. Can't pass the Algebra final exam. OK - your butt is in summer school five days a week until you can pass.

Its easier to solve problems if you aren't spending all your time trying to hide the problem.

This would be glorious! And vastly improve actual learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Is it possible to make the Saturday School mandatory for low performing students. Maybe MCPS can pay for the fees?

The ones from affluent families, too?

Of course! MCPS should stop removing any rigor or chance of failure from the system. Kids need to pass tests to move to the next grade level or acceleration program. If you fail then you must attend Saturday school and/or summer school.

No more gate keeping on acceleration programs but no dumbing it down either. You want to be in GT/Magnet Level XYZ - no problem. If you earn lower than a C in the first semester you are out. Can't pass the Algebra final exam. OK - your butt is in summer school five days a week until you can pass.

Its easier to solve problems if you aren't spending all your time trying to hide the problem.

This would be glorious! And vastly improve actual learning.

Does "No Child Left Behind" means that you cannot fail kids and hold them back a year? No other country in the world does that! LOLz

[Anonymous]

I just had this discussion with my MS student. He believes that when we talk too much about achievement gap most students just quit trying. Low performing students most often are not of low intelligence. Many a times they are just not trying or do not care. He said that most of the students do not even turn in homework that gets graded for completion. They understand concepts and how to solve problems easily enough but no one is riding them to do homework or finish tests. Most of the time they are bored in the classrooms and see sitting in the classroom as a chore. This was interesting perspective from a student who is not URM but goes to a very diverse school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just had this discussion with my MS student. He believes that when we talk too much about achievement gap most students just quit trying. Low performing students most often are not of low intelligence. Many a times they are just not trying or do not care. He said that most of the students do not even turn in homework that gets graded for completion. They understand concepts and how to solve problems easily enough but no one is riding them to do homework or finish tests. Most of the time they are bored in the classrooms and see sitting in the classroom as a chore. This was interesting perspective from a student who is not URM but goes to a very diverse school.

Great case for grades homework being a part of composites grades.
Great case for class participation being a part of composite grades.
Great case for final exams to demonstrate mastery of material not just short term quizzes only.
Great case for HIGHER expecatations from teachers and students alike.
Great case for more delineated grades and numerical grades on a 100 point scale. Grade is the usual cutoffs, NO rounding up BS (where two Bs and one As equals an A and a third of the class has a 4.0 despite this wide range of actual scores).

[Anonymous]

Only thing MCPS Hs teaches is do the bare minimum.

I’d love to see what naviance shows MCPS hS Grads doing in college and gpa’s. Do they just continue this “learn to game the grade or test” and consider it learning?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only thing MCPS Hs teaches is do the bare minimum.

I’d love to see what naviance shows MCPS hS Grads doing in college and gpa’s. Do they just continue this “learn to game the grade or test” and consider it learning?

It's not just MCPS. My son learned that the bare minimum was "fine" and he got mostly As in another MD public school district. His work was B work as best IMO. Now he is in private school and getting a real education in what it takes to earn good grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Does "No Child Left Behind" means that you cannot fail kids and hold them back a year? No other country in the world does that! LOLz

The No Child Left Behind Act was superseded 3 years ago by the Every Student Succeeds Act.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible to make the Saturday School mandatory for low performing students. Maybe MCPS can pay for the fees?

The reality is that it's still up to the parents to get them there. No one can force them to do that even if it's mandatory. School is mandatory, but many parents of low performing students treat it as optional. That's a part of the problem. It takes a LOT of absences for there to be any repercussions and even then the worst that happens is that letters are sent and eventually the parents have to attend a meeting and form a plan but that's about it. We have a lot of kids out when the weather is bad (meaning, not perfectly 70 degrees and sunny). If it rains then that's a reason to keep kids home. Unfortunately I'm being 100% serious. --teacher

[Anonymous]

NOPE, NADA - that is an American way of thinking. Rest of world knows better. Think you drank that poison coolage. God speed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which is it, PP? Either preschool is ineffective, or it isn't. Or are you saying that preschool is effective for non-poor kids but ineffective for poor kids?

Funny thing is that I just read this article today and completely agree with it. K teachers need kids with self-regulation and the ability to learn. I don't think preschool has as much to do with it as it just gets the kids socializing and learning behaviors at an earlier age. Play based preschool is best for under performing with frazzled parents, as well as high performing kids from tiger parents.

http://www.lovewhatmatters.com/why-free-play-is-the-best-summer-school/

Yes, so long as the play is screen-free. When my kids are forced to play with no screens, they are imaginative, happier and more confident about their abilities. But, even this kind of "unstructured" play time needs adult supervision to keep the play going. Tools of the Mind says that you have to gently bring the kids back to the play they started in order for their executive function skills to improve. The term "unstructured play" is misleading.

No it isn’t. Sending them outside all day doesn’t involve screens. My kids go out and bike all day with friends. They go watch soccer games, go to playgrounds. Hike in the woods behind the houses. Sometimes play capture the flag in the cul de sac. There are no need for screens or any structure when you have friends. That is the part parents seem to forget. The hours of endless fun you had with friends. Learning to be yourself instead of a robot on a parent schedule. My son is 9 this year and is old enough to bike to the pool on his own with friends. 8 is the youngest for our pool, but most parents won’t let them go that young. This year he has 3 other friends allowed. So excited for him!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only thing MCPS Hs teaches is do the bare minimum.

I’d love to see what naviance shows MCPS hS Grads doing in college and gpa’s. Do they just continue this “learn to game the grade or test” and consider it learning?

Sadly, MCPS inflates grades so bad, has removed finals because so many failed, and basically honors courses that give an entire 1 point GPA bump is considered “not remedial.” that colleges have to recalculate grades. It sucks. Whitman college matriculation were really weak this year. They need to do more for these advanced kids instead of hoping everyone is in the same math or English. Kids struggle at high end colleges for sure. No more 79.5 and 89.5 = a 5.0 GPA.

Do you know the goal for EVERY 4/5th grade student is in compacted math and they all take IM in 6th? That can’t happen because the spread is so high. So the only way to do this is to dumb down compacted math. Just another “advanced” class, not really advanced so everyone can play. It is a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand the reasons why MCPS moved to change the disciplinary code. From an equity perspective, it is hard to look at all of the data around disproportionate punishment against kids of color and continue business as usual.

HOWEVER, I think MCPS went too far in the wrong direction. As a parent in a racially and economically diverse school, I often see a tiny handful of kids derail a whole classroom.

So, you have a class of 20. Two kids are routinely disruptive, to the point that neither they nor their peers are learning.

The middle class kids? They self-advocate and ask to wear earphones or to take their book to the library and finish a project there.

It is the poor and working class kids that end up having their learning disrupted, either because their own cultural backgrounds don't stress children advocating for their own interests with adults or because the teachers lump them in with the disruptive kids.

It is also often the poor and working class kids who bear the brunt of bullying from the very small minority of kids who are acting out.

If MCPS wants to close the gap, the first thing they need to do is protect poor kids, and kids of color, by giving teachers some "sticks" to deal with children who are acting out.

So what if it is the poor kids of color that are disrupting? Minority kids can no longer be disciplined.

Almost. The problem is that NO ONE can be disciplined, regardless of background. But the origin of the policy is almost certainly that the previous system disproportionately disciplined kids of color because racism is pernicious and systemic.

The result is that the new policy helps no one. Kids who need boundaries aren't getting them AND their classmates are having their learning disrupted as a result. That is most true for poor kids and kids of color because they don't have the resources to leave the classroom and because they are disproportionately the targets of those badly behaved kids.

Basically, if MCPS wants to close the achievement gap (the subject of this chain), they need to do more to support the "regular" Black and Latinx kids who want to learn but whose learning is being disrupted by a handful of kids that need either better boundaries or a more restrictive placement.

Wait, you are saying white kids days aren’t disrupted? Most teachers don’t allow any kids to leave the classroom. I volunteer all the time. The disruptive kids disrupt EVERYONE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only thing MCPS Hs teaches is do the bare minimum.

I’d love to see what naviance shows MCPS hS Grads doing in college and gpa’s. Do they just continue this “learn to game the grade or test” and consider it learning?

Sadly, MCPS inflates grades so bad, has removed finals because so many failed, and basically honors courses that give an entire 1 point GPA bump is considered “not remedial.” that colleges have to recalculate grades. It sucks. Whitman college matriculation were really weak this year. They need to do more for these advanced kids instead of hoping everyone is in the same math or English. Kids struggle at high end colleges for sure. No more 79.5 and 89.5 = a 5.0 GPA.

Do you know the goal for EVERY 4/5th grade student is in compacted math and they all take IM in 6th? That can’t happen because the spread is so high. So the only way to do this is to dumb down compacted math. Just another “advanced” class, not really advanced so everyone can play. It is a joke.

They did that this year in some schools already. All kids in College Gardens were placed in Compacted Math this year.

[Anonymous]

When I was in high-school in the 80s in a class of 500, only 35 had a 3.5 or better to get into the NHS. That's roughly 7% of the class had an A average. Things have changed.