Ela Enrichment and acceleration in elementary school

[Anonymous]

Yes, it doesn’t make much sense.

[Anonymous]

There are way more seats in high school magnet programs than middle school magnet programs, so a lot, if not most, CES kids end up back in high school magnets. I have no idea why there are so few seats at the middle school level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are way more seats in high school magnet programs than middle school magnet programs, so a lot, if not most, CES kids end up back in high school magnets. I have no idea why there are so few seats at the middle school level.

I'm not sure about that. It would be interesting if they have data on this, in any case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They do it to appease the high-maintenance tiger parents.

OP here- I think you are right!

No. Most of the Tiger parents want an actual challenge for their kid. Because their kids aren’t getting challenged, they end up looking outside of school for language arts enrichment.

It’s actually called Advanced English to make it seem as if MCPS has magically closed the Achievement Gap. Now ALL the kids, of all races are Advanced. When MCPS offered actual enrichment (way back when) there were not enough Black and Brown students in the classes and that was not good optics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS, if they don’t already, should provide more options than “advanced” english in MS and “honors” English 9 and 10 which sound generic and underwhelming.

My kids are still in ES so I don’t know what ELA offerings there are beyond. But at my HS, some of my favorite classes were Irish literature, science fiction, and European literature. So if MCPS is unwilling or unable to offer accelerated ELA in MS, and anything other than AP for HS, maybe focus on developing the love of letters instead with rich course offerings.

4th grade CES is much more challenging than MS English

Can you elaborate on this? How difficult is that? I want my kid to be in 4th grade ces for math and English. We are at one of the ES with local ces program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS, if they don’t already, should provide more options than “advanced” english in MS and “honors” English 9 and 10 which sound generic and underwhelming.

My kids are still in ES so I don’t know what ELA offerings there are beyond. But at my HS, some of my favorite classes were Irish literature, science fiction, and European literature. So if MCPS is unwilling or unable to offer accelerated ELA in MS, and anything other than AP for HS, maybe focus on developing the love of letters instead with rich course offerings.

4th grade CES is much more challenging than MS English

Can you elaborate on this? How difficult is that? I want my kid to be in 4th grade ces for math and English. We are at one of the ES with local ces program.

CES is not a math program; not all CES kids are in math 4/5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS, if they don’t already, should provide more options than “advanced” english in MS and “honors” English 9 and 10 which sound generic and underwhelming.

My kids are still in ES so I don’t know what ELA offerings there are beyond. But at my HS, some of my favorite classes were Irish literature, science fiction, and European literature. So if MCPS is unwilling or unable to offer accelerated ELA in MS, and anything other than AP for HS, maybe focus on developing the love of letters instead with rich course offerings.

4th grade CES is much more challenging than MS English

OP here- I am aware. My kid went to CES but now at a regular middle school. Which is why I am wondering if it was worth it for him to go to CES in the first place. I think his transition was very hard because he saw what education could look like and now he is so disappointed.

This thread caught my eye because we literally just accepted our CES spot for my DD. I've heard such great things about CES but hadn't thought about the transition back to middle school. I'm sorry it's been hard on your son. Do you think he regrets doing CES?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS, if they don’t already, should provide more options than “advanced” english in MS and “honors” English 9 and 10 which sound generic and underwhelming.

My kids are still in ES so I don’t know what ELA offerings there are beyond. But at my HS, some of my favorite classes were Irish literature, science fiction, and European literature. So if MCPS is unwilling or unable to offer accelerated ELA in MS, and anything other than AP for HS, maybe focus on developing the love of letters instead with rich course offerings.

4th grade CES is much more challenging than MS English

Can you elaborate on this? How difficult is that? I want my kid to be in 4th grade ces for math and English. We are at one of the ES with local ces program.

CES is not a math program; not all CES kids are in math 4/5.

That may be true, but in our CES, they are all placed in 4/5 for 4th. I know of one child who was set to go into Math 4 at the home school but was placed in 4/5 once admitted to the CES program because all students take it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS, if they don’t already, should provide more options than “advanced” english in MS and “honors” English 9 and 10 which sound generic and underwhelming.

My kids are still in ES so I don’t know what ELA offerings there are beyond. But at my HS, some of my favorite classes were Irish literature, science fiction, and European literature. So if MCPS is unwilling or unable to offer accelerated ELA in MS, and anything other than AP for HS, maybe focus on developing the love of letters instead with rich course offerings.

4th grade CES is much more challenging than MS English

Can you elaborate on this? How difficult is that? I want my kid to be in 4th grade ces for math and English. We are at one of the ES with local ces program.

There is no CES for math. It's an ELA program. Rigor varies by the school or, more accurately, by the teacher. For example, my kid's 4th grade teacher assigned a lot of projects that were memorable but time-consuming. They learned almost as much from their 5th grade CES teacher but had a fraction of the homework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS, if they don’t already, should provide more options than “advanced” english in MS and “honors” English 9 and 10 which sound generic and underwhelming.

My kids are still in ES so I don’t know what ELA offerings there are beyond. But at my HS, some of my favorite classes were Irish literature, science fiction, and European literature. So if MCPS is unwilling or unable to offer accelerated ELA in MS, and anything other than AP for HS, maybe focus on developing the love of letters instead with rich course offerings.

4th grade CES is much more challenging than MS English

OP here- I am aware. My kid went to CES but now at a regular middle school. Which is why I am wondering if it was worth it for him to go to CES in the first place. I think his transition was very hard because he saw what education could look like and now he is so disappointed.

This thread caught my eye because we literally just accepted our CES spot for my DD. I've heard such great things about CES but hadn't thought about the transition back to middle school. I'm sorry it's been hard on your son. Do you think he regrets doing CES?

MS English has been a bit disappointing, but I don't regret that my kids went to CES. I feel it helped them learn and grow more than they would've without it. Also, they enjoyed being with the other kids a lot too.

[Anonymous]

Np, and I'm actually left wondering what is the point of ces to begin with? Not because of OP's reasons, but because we just received our mcap results for my 5th grader (from 4th). The school's results are *very* close to Chevy Chase Elementary's (which is a CCES), posted in a previous thread.
Except our school doesn't have a CES nor are we high income in Bethesda/Potomac.
Kinda makes you wonder about the efficacy of these magnets anyway.

[Anonymous]

OP here- I think enrichment or acceleration is all to satisfy parents egos. Parents want to be able to say their kid is gifted/enriched etc. But in the long run it doesn’t really matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Np, and I'm actually left wondering what is the point of ces to begin with? Not because of OP's reasons, but because we just received our mcap results for my 5th grader (from 4th). The school's results are *very* close to Chevy Chase Elementary's (which is a CCES), posted in a previous thread.
Except our school doesn't have a CES nor are we high income in Bethesda/Potomac.
Kinda makes you wonder about the efficacy of these magnets anyway.

Just pointing out that half of the 4th grade classes at CCES are not CES, and the school has a FARMS rate of 21%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Np, and I'm actually left wondering what is the point of ces to begin with? Not because of OP's reasons, but because we just received our mcap results for my 5th grader (from 4th). The school's results are *very* close to Chevy Chase Elementary's (which is a CCES), posted in a previous thread.
Except our school doesn't have a CES nor are we high income in Bethesda/Potomac.
Kinda makes you wonder about the efficacy of these magnets anyway.

Just pointing out that half of the 4th grade classes at CCES are not CES, and the school has a FARMS rate of 21%.

pp you are responding to. We have a similar farms rate. and actually we are far less white. anyhow, our mcap scores are similar across the board.
If a school without any special programs and isn't particularly high SES performs similarly what exactly is the point ?
I'm not questioning the need for enrichment - i'm just questioning the value/worth of these particular programs in achieving meaningful differences in outcomes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Np, and I'm actually left wondering what is the point of ces to begin with? Not because of OP's reasons, but because we just received our mcap results for my 5th grader (from 4th). The school's results are *very* close to Chevy Chase Elementary's (which is a CCES), posted in a previous thread.
Except our school doesn't have a CES nor are we high income in Bethesda/Potomac.
Kinda makes you wonder about the efficacy of these magnets anyway.

Just pointing out that half of the 4th grade classes at CCES are not CES, and the school has a FARMS rate of 21%.

pp you are responding to. We have a similar farms rate. and actually we are far less white. anyhow, our mcap scores are similar across the board.
If a school without any special programs and isn't particularly high SES performs similarly what exactly is the point ?
I'm not questioning the need for enrichment - i'm just questioning the value/worth of these particular programs in achieving meaningful differences in outcomes.

NP. What school, and what are the average scores for the school for 5th for MCAP ELA, math, and subscores? Would be helpful to compare with the scores from the other thread for CCES.