Arlington Co. Schools receive sobering report on student literacy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What can be done? I have a second grader who is at the lowest bar of the graph. Very below goal or something like that. Can can hardly write, and his reading has improved a lot this year form nothing to something. The teacher is trying to catch him up, and he’s not alone. He missed the most important part of K and all of first.

This is so tragic but the school will not help you. You can’t depend on them. You need to teach him yourself or hire somebody to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It isn't all bad:

On a positive note, the report showed an increase in student proficiency among Title I schools. Elementary ELA Supervisor Sarah Cruise says that added proficiency will eliminate the opportunity gap for those students later on. Black and Hispanic students in kindergarten and first grade have also seen a 5-7% increase in their writing proficiency.

Though many of the numbers may seem pessimistic, there have been marginal improvements. With the exception of fourth-grade students, the report states the total number of EL learners in the red “at risk” category has actually decreased since the last reporting period.

Oh that’s great. I missed that. Thank you for commenting!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a way to find results from particular schools? We are trying to evaluate local schools near us.

Keep in mind that some schools are going to have better test results regardless of instruction in school. Some kids come into K reading b/c they were either at a preschool that taught reading or had a caregver who worked with the child at home.

The make up of our community didn't suddenly change in the last two years. These are comparisons to APS's prior results, not some unachievable goal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What can be done? I have a second grader who is at the lowest bar of the graph. Very below goal or something like that. Can can hardly write, and his reading has improved a lot this year form nothing to something. The teacher is trying to catch him up, and he’s not alone. He missed the most important part of K and all of first.

Have you been working with him at home? I bought a home school curriculum and worked with my kids at home every evening after work since virtual learning was so useless.

If you need guidance on what to do, there's lots of info on the internet or you can hire a tutor. But a once a week tutoring session won't be enough. You'll need to work with him every single day all summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This outcome was completely predictable. Young kids (K-3) needed to be in person at school during this critical developmental phase. It was an urgent issue. Virtual school for this group was completely inappropriate and it didn't take an education degree to see this and know this from early on. .....

I only quoted the part I agreed with b/c some of this is definitely true. Reading/literacy instruction was nearly impossible for that age group. Unless a classroom had a 2nd adult assigned to them, small group or one on one time was very difficult. Yes, the teacher could assign work for one group while working with another, but that also meant that one group was not being watched. It was a nightmare. Add in the lack of supervision at home (which was unavoidable in some cases) and every time a teacher tried to help a student who needed extra help, others were left on their own. There was nothing the teacher could do about it w/o extra help and that extra help was not necessarily available. It sucked. Trust me.

Now some of those kids need help catching up, but I don't see how APS can do it w/o separating classes my reading ability. They don't have more staff, so the differentiation in class model just can't work. If my kid was behind, I wouldn't wait for the school to figure it out. Read to them every night. Get outside help if you can. Don't let summer slide get even worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This outcome was completely predictable. Young kids (K-3) needed to be in person at school during this critical developmental phase. It was an urgent issue. Virtual school for this group was completely inappropriate and it didn't take an education degree to see this and know this from early on. .....

I only quoted the part I agreed with b/c some of this is definitely true. Reading/literacy instruction was nearly impossible for that age group. Unless a classroom had a 2nd adult assigned to them, small group or one on one time was very difficult. Yes, the teacher could assign work for one group while working with another, but that also meant that one group was not being watched. It was a nightmare. Add in the lack of supervision at home (which was unavoidable in some cases) and every time a teacher tried to help a student who needed extra help, others were left on their own. There was nothing the teacher could do about it w/o extra help and that extra help was not necessarily available. It sucked. Trust me.

Now some of those kids need help catching up, but I don't see how APS can do it w/o separating classes my reading ability. They don't have more staff, so the differentiation in class model just can't work. If my kid was behind, I wouldn't wait for the school to figure it out. Read to them every night. Get outside help if you can. Don't let summer slide get even worse.

ESs often bring in second adults (reading specialist, sped, assistants) into the classrooms to help with ELA.

[Anonymous]

Now some of those kids need help catching up, but I don't see how APS can do it w/o separating classes my reading ability. They don't have more staff, so the differentiation in class model just can't work. If my kid was behind, I wouldn't wait for the school to figure it out. Read to them every night. Get outside help if you can. Don't let summer slide get even worse.

In my daughter's third grade they've basically set up an hour of the day as a study hall/extra help period. The kids who are ahead can do Lexia, finish assignments or read independently. The students who need help are getting extra help during this time.

My understanding is that this time was much shorter in prior years and more time was available for activities in science and social studies. This year those subject have been compressed. I don't know what they're doing in older years where there's an SOL on those topics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What can be done? I have a second grader who is at the lowest bar of the graph. Very below goal or something like that. Can can hardly write, and his reading has improved a lot this year forming nothing to something. The teacher is trying to catch him up, and he’s not alone. He missed the most important part of K and all of first.

What are you doing at home? Over summer? My APS is the same grade and with a late summer birthday, one of the youngest in his class. He could barely read a few sight words when school shut down in March 2020. I used “how to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons” and BOB books to teach him at home. He muddled through virtual first with a teacher who didn’t make him finish anything. We had to be involved, checking SeeSaw every day and helping him on our own for 20-30 min every night.
If a year of in-person school hasn’t helped, you need to line up a tutor for summer or research ways to help him yourself. Unfortunately APS alone will not fix this for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's like everyone already knew it was bad before this came out so it's not even worth discussing.

Hahahaha

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What can be done? I have a second grader who is at the lowest bar of the graph. Very below goal or something like that. Can can hardly write, and his reading has improved a lot this year form nothing to something. The teacher is trying to catch him up, and he’s not alone. He missed the most important part of K and all of first.

This is so tragic but the school will not help you. You can’t depend on them. You need to teach him yourself or hire somebody to do it.

I agree completely. I totally feel for you but you are on your own. I wrote a letter to the SB in the spring of 2020 telling them how my autistic (ES school-age) son was suffering from the complete termination of school. They did respond to the letter, but just to tell me how awesome they were doing. There is no incentive for the people in charge of APS to ever question that they are doing anything wrong.

So, definitely, if your child is behind, teach him or her yourself or hire a tutor. It's a little late now for the fall, but you might want to start looking at Catholic or private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What can be done? I have a second grader who is at the lowest bar of the graph. Very below goal or something like that. Can can hardly write, and his reading has improved a lot this year forming nothing to something. The teacher is trying to catch him up, and he’s not alone. He missed the most important part of K and all of first.

What are you doing at home? Over summer? My APS is the same grade and with a late summer birthday, one of the youngest in his class. He could barely read a few sight words when school shut down in March 2020. I used “how to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons” and BOB books to teach him at home. He muddled through virtual first with a teacher who didn’t make him finish anything. We had to be involved, checking SeeSaw every day and helping him on our own for 20-30 min every night.
If a year of in-person school hasn’t helped, you need to line up a tutor for summer or research ways to help him yourself. Unfortunately APS alone will not fix this for you.

Recommend all of the above plus looking at homeschool curriculum to supplement. Also highly recommend Hoot Reading for one on one reading tutoring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What can be done? I have a second grader who is at the lowest bar of the graph. Very below goal or something like that. Can can hardly write, and his reading has improved a lot this year form nothing to something. The teacher is trying to catch him up, and he’s not alone. He missed the most important part of K and all of first.

Have you been working with him at home? I bought a home school curriculum and worked with my kids at home every evening after work since virtual learning was so useless.

If you need guidance on what to do, there's lots of info on the internet or you can hire a tutor. But a once a week tutoring session won't be enough. You'll need to work with him every single day all summer.

+1. Don't wait around for the school to do this for you. Either you do it yourself or you hire a tutor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a way to find results from particular schools? We are trying to evaluate local schools near us.

Keep in mind that some schools are going to have better test results regardless of instruction in school. Some kids come into K reading b/c they were either at a preschool that taught reading or had a caregver who worked with the child at home.

The make up of our community didn't suddenly change in the last two years. These are comparisons to APS's prior results, not some unachievable goal.

Ok. And?

The pandemic really sucked and now we need to remediate. What’s you point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a way to find results from particular schools? We are trying to evaluate local schools near us.

Keep in mind that some schools are going to have better test results regardless of instruction in school. Some kids come into K reading b/c they were either at a preschool that taught reading or had a caregver who worked with the child at home.

The make up of our community didn't suddenly change in the last two years. These are comparisons to APS's prior results, not some unachievable goal.

Ok. And?

The pandemic really sucked and now we need to remediate. What’s you point?

Perhaps a conversation on what's been working this year and areas where APS is failing? What should we be doing to get back to where we were? And why aren't we doing those things?

If you'd rather stick your fingers in your ears, close your eyes, and pretend these gaps aren't real, you're welcome to go sit next to Dr. Duran and Bridget Loft.

[Anonymous]

Great. Meanwhile, APS keeps hiring more Chief Executive Equity Officers instead of investing in our students.