What the heck is happening to DCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 2nd grader at a charter school just learned a song that helps them to ask people for their pronouns which is great. They've also learned the phonics, continents, multiplication and the basics of plate tectonics (when they learned about the continents, they learned how the continents got their shape - it was apparently a very exciting lesson because they came home and showed me how various mountain ranges around the world were formed).

Your second grader gets multiplication! I'm jealous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids didn’t have math or reading today due to delay but they engaged in some sort of activity to talk about their emotions which led my DC to be in tears the rest of the day.

Report cards were super generic and said nothing of value.

My kid seems to know what every letter of LGBTQ stands for and what it means (which is fine) but could not name the seven continents and doesn’t know what continent we live in (which is not fine imho)

Teachers seem checked out. I guess I don’t blame them really.

Sigh. It seems like things are falling off a cliff. Just me? Hopefully, it’s just me.

You haven't taught that to your kid on your own? Do you not travel? Talk about international news? A globe is relatively inexpensive and makes a fun gift / focal point.

No need to insult. OP was just asking a question. Depending on the grade level it's a reasonable ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, how old is your kid? Upper elementary grades? We're equally fed up in 5th grade, 8 years into our DCPS journey. This fall, we've been hiring a math tutor twice a week, hiring a writing tutor twice a week, teaching social studies at home. Music, science and PE good in a DCPS program with 5% poor kids, that's about it. Kid's pandemic learning loss was worse than we understood before having them tested privately. At least kid has been happy at school since in-person learning resumed. Moving on to parochial middle school.

OP here. Thanks for allowing me a midnight vent and for sharing your experience. I feel much the same. We do a lot to enrich and supplement at home (which is how I even came to discover that DC didn’t know geography). We have decided that this is what we will do until DC goes to MS. I think some of the things the schools are trying to do to help with mental health are well-intentioned. I’m just not sure how effective it has been in the execution (First, Do No Harm). Are people at the schools qualified to discuss student mental health and big emotions at the young ages? Do they even want to? I would be afraid to open that can of worms without the requisite training. It seems teachers already have a lot on their plate. Anyway, thanks again for listening and sharing. Helps to know that it’s not just me.

To answer some of the others, I’m not a troll. Just a concerned parent who was up too late last night. We are in Ward 3 public, DC is in 5th grade.

Ignore the smartasses on here. There are always a few. I think we all intend to make DCPS better, and it's frustrating. We moved from another country for first grade and were appalled at how behind the pace of learning is/was. We are pretty involved and have spoken to all of the teachers about it and they share the same frustration. It's a vicious cycle - over-reliance on assessment (which, ironically, many marry themselves to here). We found out gifted and talented had flaws b/c of bias and misidentification... the problem is, we threw out the whole baby with the bathwater. Schools are stuck on a curriculum design from central offices and worse.. have gaslighted parents into believing it's efficacious (e.g., the over-reliance on teaching phonics too long instead of reading practice and comprehension more). If you have 10 students in a class, with 5 who are advanced, 3 average, and two who are chronically behind. The two kids that are behind will punish the school's outward rating more (which we shouldn't hurt schools for working with students who have more challenges). But until this changes, we can expect teachers to HAVE TO teach to the middle.

I'm concerned with a far more basic issue-- school maintenance. In Ward 4 at least, we are engaged parents and over half of our time has been wasted on advocacy for new building and plumbing issues vs. bringing other assets to the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 2nd grader at a charter school just learned a song that helps them to ask people for their pronouns which is great. They've also learned the phonics, continents, multiplication and the basics of plate tectonics (when they learned about the continents, they learned how the continents got their shape - it was apparently a very exciting lesson because they came home and showed me how various mountain ranges around the world were formed).

In the SECOND grade? Are you kidding me?

I mean pronouns are a pretty standard aspect of grammar. First grade focuses more on nouns and verbs, but by second grade they've moved on to pronouns, adverbs, and even prepositions!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 2nd grader at a charter school just learned a song that helps them to ask people for their pronouns which is great. They've also learned the phonics, continents, multiplication and the basics of plate tectonics (when they learned about the continents, they learned how the continents got their shape - it was apparently a very exciting lesson because they came home and showed me how various mountain ranges around the world were formed).

In the SECOND grade? Are you kidding me?

2nd grade standard is repeated addition aka 2+2+2=2*3

[Anonymous]

My first grader knows continents by singing a song they learned at school. They’re at Shepherd, fwiw.

[Anonymous]

Weird. This was nothing like our experience but my kids went to Shepherd. My oldest has excellent geography knowledge (like beyond countries and cities but rivers and mountains). We do absolutely no supplemental stuff. Honestly, I don’t even know what people are referring to when they say they supplement.., kumon for geography?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 2nd grader at a charter school just learned a song that helps them to ask people for their pronouns which is great. They've also learned the phonics, continents, multiplication and the basics of plate tectonics (when they learned about the continents, they learned how the continents got their shape - it was apparently a very exciting lesson because they came home and showed me how various mountain ranges around the world were formed).

In the SECOND grade? Are you kidding me?

2nd grade standard is repeated addition aka 2+2+2=2*3

In our HRCS, multiplication was introduced towards the end of second grade. But now in 3rd, they should have mastered it and have moved on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 2nd grader at a charter school just learned a song that helps them to ask people for their pronouns which is great. They've also learned the phonics, continents, multiplication and the basics of plate tectonics (when they learned about the continents, they learned how the continents got their shape - it was apparently a very exciting lesson because they came home and showed me how various mountain ranges around the world were formed).

In the SECOND grade? Are you kidding me?

2nd grade standard is repeated addition aka 2+2+2=2*3

In our HRCS, multiplication was introduced towards the end of second grade. But now in 3rd, they should have mastered it and have moved on.

Seriously guys - there is no such thing as HRCS anymore - move on - its kind of sickening...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 2nd grader at a charter school just learned a song that helps them to ask people for their pronouns which is great. They've also learned the phonics, continents, multiplication and the basics of plate tectonics (when they learned about the continents, they learned how the continents got their shape - it was apparently a very exciting lesson because they came home and showed me how various mountain ranges around the world were formed).

I have to know what school this is, or the lyrics to the song.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 2nd grader at a charter school just learned a song that helps them to ask people for their pronouns which is great. They've also learned the phonics, continents, multiplication and the basics of plate tectonics (when they learned about the continents, they learned how the continents got their shape - it was apparently a very exciting lesson because they came home and showed me how various mountain ranges around the world were formed).

I have to know what school this is, or the lyrics to the song.

Yes, please, so do I!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 2nd grader at a charter school just learned a song that helps them to ask people for their pronouns which is great. They've also learned the phonics, continents, multiplication and the basics of plate tectonics (when they learned about the continents, they learned how the continents got their shape - it was apparently a very exciting lesson because they came home and showed me how various mountain ranges around the world were formed).

I have to know what school this is, or the lyrics to the song.

Yes, please, so do I!

Oh-I don't care what school it is, I just want the lyrics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 2nd grader at a charter school just learned a song that helps them to ask people for their pronouns which is great. They've also learned the phonics, continents, multiplication and the basics of plate tectonics (when they learned about the continents, they learned how the continents got their shape - it was apparently a very exciting lesson because they came home and showed me how various mountain ranges around the world were formed).

I have to know what school this is, or the lyrics to the song.

Yes, please, so do I!

Oh-I don't care what school it is, I just want the lyrics.

I'm PP, here's the song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R-OEHd9ags

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 2nd grader at a charter school just learned a song that helps them to ask people for their pronouns which is great. They've also learned the phonics, continents, multiplication and the basics of plate tectonics (when they learned about the continents, they learned how the continents got their shape - it was apparently a very exciting lesson because they came home and showed me how various mountain ranges around the world were formed).

I have to know what school this is, or the lyrics to the song.

Yes, please, so do I!

Oh-I don't care what school it is, I just want the lyrics.

I'm PP, here's the song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R-OEHd9ags

This is awesome - thank you! I'll try to start doing this myself as an adult, tbh...

[Anonymous]

We left DCPS when I realized my DC did not reliably know multiplication facts by the end of 4th grade. Or spelling.