Update on Mcps literacy levels

[Anonymous]

It truly boggles the mind how any public school employee that approved the purchase of Benchmark materials is still employed.

Matthew Burns, a University of Florida special education professor who conducted the first peer-reviewed study of the BAS, said that until he decided to try, the test had never been independently validated to see how closely its results aligned with other assessments of early reading.

One of his studies showed that the BAS was able to distinguish between proficient and struggling readers only about half the time; the odds were little better than chance.

"So I could buy this test, train all my teachers to give it, take about 30 minutes per kid,” Burns said. “Or really just have a teacher flip a coin for every kid, and they'll get it right just as often."

https://www.apmreports.org/story/2023/12/11/benchmark-assessment-system-reading-test-often-wrong

[Anonymous]

"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When are these f$cker5 going to apologize for their incompetence? Any staff that blames parents for this travesty should be fired immediately and investigated for bribery.

The Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) is one of the most popular measures of early reading ability in American elementary schools. Teachers are supposed to use it as a checkup to see how students are progressing throughout the year. But researchers who’ve studied it say the BAS is wrong far too often to be useful. It is also more expensive for the schools and more time-consuming for the teachers to administer, according to an analysis comparing it to other tests. One professor who analyzed the BAS said it was worse at identifying struggling readers than any assessment he had ever seen. That means struggling readers might be less likely to get the help they need before they fall even further behind their classmates.

And by the way, our MCPS school is STILL sending BS Benchmark books home. Yes, in fall 2024. Instead of finding something useful to do with them, like burning them to heat buildings, they are sending them home to further inculcate bad reading habits.

Staff are blaming parents for kid’s behavior. Behavior that is making the learning environment untenable for all. It doesn’t matter what curriculum or strategies are being used now if teachers are spending more time managing behaviors than teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When are these f$cker5 going to apologize for their incompetence? Any staff that blames parents for this travesty should be fired immediately and investigated for bribery.

The Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) is one of the most popular measures of early reading ability in American elementary schools. Teachers are supposed to use it as a checkup to see how students are progressing throughout the year. But researchers who’ve studied it say the BAS is wrong far too often to be useful. It is also more expensive for the schools and more time-consuming for the teachers to administer, according to an analysis comparing it to other tests. One professor who analyzed the BAS said it was worse at identifying struggling readers than any assessment he had ever seen. That means struggling readers might be less likely to get the help they need before they fall even further behind their classmates.

And by the way, our MCPS school is STILL sending BS Benchmark books home. Yes, in fall 2024. Instead of finding something useful to do with them, like burning them to heat buildings, they are sending them home to further inculcate bad reading habits.

Staff are blaming parents for kid’s behavior. Behavior that is making the learning environment untenable for all. It doesn’t matter what curriculum or strategies are being used now if teachers are spending more time managing behaviors than teaching.

Omg, EVERYTHING is somebody else's fault in MCPS. Jfc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When are these f$cker5 going to apologize for their incompetence? Any staff that blames parents for this travesty should be fired immediately and investigated for bribery.

The Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) is one of the most popular measures of early reading ability in American elementary schools. Teachers are supposed to use it as a checkup to see how students are progressing throughout the year. But researchers who’ve studied it say the BAS is wrong far too often to be useful. It is also more expensive for the schools and more time-consuming for the teachers to administer, according to an analysis comparing it to other tests. One professor who analyzed the BAS said it was worse at identifying struggling readers than any assessment he had ever seen. That means struggling readers might be less likely to get the help they need before they fall even further behind their classmates.

And by the way, our MCPS school is STILL sending BS Benchmark books home. Yes, in fall 2024. Instead of finding something useful to do with them, like burning them to heat buildings, they are sending them home to further inculcate bad reading habits.

Staff are blaming parents for kid’s behavior. Behavior that is making the learning environment untenable for all. It doesn’t matter what curriculum or strategies are being used now if teachers are spending more time managing behaviors than teaching.

Omg, EVERYTHING is somebody else's fault in MCPS. Jfc

Is behavior not a parent issue?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When are these f$cker5 going to apologize for their incompetence? Any staff that blames parents for this travesty should be fired immediately and investigated for bribery.

The Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) is one of the most popular measures of early reading ability in American elementary schools. Teachers are supposed to use it as a checkup to see how students are progressing throughout the year. But researchers who’ve studied it say the BAS is wrong far too often to be useful. It is also more expensive for the schools and more time-consuming for the teachers to administer, according to an analysis comparing it to other tests. One professor who analyzed the BAS said it was worse at identifying struggling readers than any assessment he had ever seen. That means struggling readers might be less likely to get the help they need before they fall even further behind their classmates.

And by the way, our MCPS school is STILL sending BS Benchmark books home. Yes, in fall 2024. Instead of finding something useful to do with them, like burning them to heat buildings, they are sending them home to further inculcate bad reading habits.

Staff are blaming parents for kid’s behavior. Behavior that is making the learning environment untenable for all. It doesn’t matter what curriculum or strategies are being used now if teachers are spending more time managing behaviors than teaching.

Omg, EVERYTHING is somebody else's fault in MCPS. Jfc

I’m an ESOL teacher so I’m in a lot of classrooms in ES. The teachers ARE teaching. There is so much content to cover. Kids’ attention spans are shot—even the good kids are constantly talking, and it’s not due to lack of behavior management tools and effort from teachers. They are up against iPad kids who truly don’t have attention span anymore because of that immediate gratification and lack of boredom that has trained their brains away from focus. I see it at all socio economic levels. We just had parent teacher conferences and at my school the students can come. Almost every kid I saw in the hallways waiting or in an actual conference was handed a phone. I know that is to attempt to keep them quiet, but at what cost? We used to have other ways to keep kids quiet and since it’s defaulted to the screen, kids everywhere are being harmed.

And yes, I think schools use too many screens as well—it’s coming from both school and home and it’s bringing down the intelligence and focus of the future generation. The screens have got to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As they should. Many parents haven't gotten the message that schools are not doing their basic jobs.

It all starts with the parents. If they did their jobs, schools would be empowered to do theirs. Unfortunately too many these days expect the state to raise their children.

Agreed. As an example, chronic absenteeism is a nightmare for schools.

My DS had excellent attendance at his MCPS elementary. But he was dyslexic, and he never learned to read until after we hired a tutor halfway through 3rd grade. Two things can be true at once: parents need to do their jobs and schools need to do theirs.

For more info about what schools should be doing, watch this documentary, "The Right to Read". Kareem Weaver, who features in the film, has worked in settings with black, brown, and impoverished students. He's pushing for research-based school changes and he is not waiting for parents to "do their jobs." https://www.therighttoreadfilm.org

Thank you!! MCPS has moved to the Science of Reading, changed the elementary ELA curriculum, gotten an audit from CAL and are working to implement their recommendations, using Dibels, and targeting particular students for interventions/tutoring/Summer school, invested in Reading Specialist for every ES. Do I think given the number of students that more people resources are needed, Yes.

But I’ve yet to hear folks on here addressing the work that parents need to do.

Central office has entered the conversation.

lol - yep after YEARS of neglect for dyslexic students a press briefing post is just about right for MCPS.

[Anonymous]

I feel bad for the teachers. They are put in a terrible position. They have no say in what curriculum is used, little say in how they teach it. They are not allowed to over identify kids as needing extra help and have to be super careful not to over identify POC. They can't really discipline behavior but yet have to deal with it They aren't really supposed to send kids to the office anymore and if heavens forbid they have a chair thrower, they have to evacuate their class. They are held responsible for their kids test scores while many of these kids are just learning English.
My DD goes to a title 1 school. At the parent teacher conference the teacher told me only 6 parents out of 21 signed up to have a conference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When are these f$cker5 going to apologize for their incompetence? Any staff that blames parents for this travesty should be fired immediately and investigated for bribery.

The Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) is one of the most popular measures of early reading ability in American elementary schools. Teachers are supposed to use it as a checkup to see how students are progressing throughout the year. But researchers who’ve studied it say the BAS is wrong far too often to be useful. It is also more expensive for the schools and more time-consuming for the teachers to administer, according to an analysis comparing it to other tests. One professor who analyzed the BAS said it was worse at identifying struggling readers than any assessment he had ever seen. That means struggling readers might be less likely to get the help they need before they fall even further behind their classmates.

And by the way, our MCPS school is STILL sending BS Benchmark books home. Yes, in fall 2024. Instead of finding something useful to do with them, like burning them to heat buildings, they are sending them home to further inculcate bad reading habits.

Staff are blaming parents for kid’s behavior. Behavior that is making the learning environment untenable for all. It doesn’t matter what curriculum or strategies are being used now if teachers are spending more time managing behaviors than teaching.

Omg, EVERYTHING is somebody else's fault in MCPS. Jfc

I’m an ESOL teacher so I’m in a lot of classrooms in ES. The teachers ARE teaching. There is so much content to cover. Kids’ attention spans are shot—even the good kids are constantly talking, and it’s not due to lack of behavior management tools and effort from teachers. They are up against iPad kids who truly don’t have attention span anymore because of that immediate gratification and lack of boredom that has trained their brains away from focus. I see it at all socio economic levels. We just had parent teacher conferences and at my school the students can come. Almost every kid I saw in the hallways waiting or in an actual conference was handed a phone. I know that is to attempt to keep them quiet, but at what cost? We used to have other ways to keep kids quiet and since it’s defaulted to the screen, kids everywhere are being harmed.

And yes, I think schools use too many screens as well—it’s coming from both school and home and it’s bringing down the intelligence and focus of the future generation. The screens have got to go.

MCPS just this year introduced a curriculum that isn't total BS. Stop pretending MCPS has nothing to do with low literacy rates.

Btw are you a parent? Nobody I know has their kids watching videos all the time. I watched a ton of TV as a kid in the 90s. I think you are desperate to blame parents but there is something else going on here.

[Anonymous]

Another teacher here. I wish we had that many parents come to our conferences. Some years we have zero. Most years we have 1-2 parents out of 23-25. It’s sad. We also offer them on Zoom or on the phone. We also offer them at other times/days.

I dread going back to school next week because kids will be exhausted, cranky, argumentative, etc. Five days of unlimited phone use really does a number on them. Most parents who answer our BOY questionnaire write that their child has their own phone/tablet that they don’t share and that they can use it for as long as they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

You think a parent who doesn't know their own kid whinthry live with can't read, never reads with their kid and uses YouTube as childcare gives a hoot about a Dibels?

This isn't about your AuDHD dyslexic child who gets weekly private therapy.
It's about the 50% of students who don't live in a family and community culture where literacy matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

You think a parent who doesn't know their own kid whinthry live with can't read, never reads with their kid and uses YouTube as childcare gives a hoot about a Dibels?

This isn't about your AuDHD dyslexic child who gets weekly private therapy.
It's about the 50% of students who don't live in a family and community culture where literacy matters.

The question is do you think kids who have parents that aren't fully literate (in their own languages) deserve to learn to read? It sounds like you don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When are these f$cker5 going to apologize for their incompetence? Any staff that blames parents for this travesty should be fired immediately and investigated for bribery.

The Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) is one of the most popular measures of early reading ability in American elementary schools. Teachers are supposed to use it as a checkup to see how students are progressing throughout the year. But researchers who’ve studied it say the BAS is wrong far too often to be useful. It is also more expensive for the schools and more time-consuming for the teachers to administer, according to an analysis comparing it to other tests. One professor who analyzed the BAS said it was worse at identifying struggling readers than any assessment he had ever seen. That means struggling readers might be less likely to get the help they need before they fall even further behind their classmates.

And by the way, our MCPS school is STILL sending BS Benchmark books home. Yes, in fall 2024. Instead of finding something useful to do with them, like burning them to heat buildings, they are sending them home to further inculcate bad reading habits.

Staff are blaming parents for kid’s behavior. Behavior that is making the learning environment untenable for all. It doesn’t matter what curriculum or strategies are being used now if teachers are spending more time managing behaviors than teaching.

Omg, EVERYTHING is somebody else's fault in MCPS. Jfc

I’m an ESOL teacher so I’m in a lot of classrooms in ES. The teachers ARE teaching. There is so much content to cover. Kids’ attention spans are shot—even the good kids are constantly talking, and it’s not due to lack of behavior management tools and effort from teachers. They are up against iPad kids who truly don’t have attention span anymore because of that immediate gratification and lack of boredom that has trained their brains away from focus. I see it at all socio economic levels. We just had parent teacher conferences and at my school the students can come. Almost every kid I saw in the hallways waiting or in an actual conference was handed a phone. I know that is to attempt to keep them quiet, but at what cost? We used to have other ways to keep kids quiet and since it’s defaulted to the screen, kids everywhere are being harmed.

And yes, I think schools use too many screens as well—it’s coming from both school and home and it’s bringing down the intelligence and focus of the future generation. The screens have got to go.

MCPS just this year introduced a curriculum that isn't total BS. Stop pretending MCPS has nothing to do with low literacy rates.

Btw are you a parent? Nobody I know has their kids watching videos all the time. I watched a ton of TV as a kid in the 90s. I think you are desperate to blame parents but there is something else going on here.

I’m not the teacher PP but am a parent. TV is not the same as iPads and the constant games and tv input from the likes of YouTube. And as a parent I have witnessed first hand the amount of kids at restaurants or shops on iPads or cellphones. Please believe that teachers aren’t the only people that talk about kids inability to focus or do things for themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

You think a parent who doesn't know their own kid whinthry live with can't read, never reads with their kid and uses YouTube as childcare gives a hoot about a Dibels?

This isn't about your AuDHD dyslexic child who gets weekly private therapy.
It's about the 50% of students who don't live in a family and community culture where literacy matters.

The question is do you think kids who have parents that aren't fully literate (in their own languages) deserve to learn to read? It sounds like you don't.

It’s not whether they deserve to read its honest dialogue about if the importance of reading will then be reinforced at home. Or that if a kid is struggling and getting intervention f they will have support at home for reinforcing lessons and helping with learning skills.