8th Grade Science/CAPE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS MS Science teacher here. Amplify is terrible. Tons of additional testing. So much screen time, much of it in place of labs and hands-on demos. Kids hate it. DCPS has presented no data supporting it other than "some magazines said it was the best." I'm hoping that when it rolls into 8th grade next year, more people will start talking about it. Parents need to be calling principals and instructional superintendents. No one listens to teachers.

FWIW, several charter schools use it too. Science isn't as valued citywide as ELA and Math are - otherwise, there would be uproar.

This feels like the most important and alarming thing ive ever read on this site! As a middle school parent.

They didn’t release the interim MAP scores this year to teachers. My guess is because they’re so much lower.

[Anonymous]

Another action item: Ask the principals and instructional sups if they’ve read the progress build and assessment questions. They are terribly long, repetitive and lacking in vocab. There’s no differentiation. Families with IEPs could easily sue.

At the science teacher meeting earlier this year, the Dcps headquarters representative hid in the hallway during the meeting to avoid our critiques.

The Genetics unit only ever mentions DNA in a homework. It also uses hemophilia as their main example of inheritance, which is a terrible choice. Why would you pick something sex-linked to “teach” genes?

The Ecology units’ food chains don’t start with producers.

[Anonymous]

OP here: Thank you all for the feedback. This is deeply alarming and terrifying! I had no idea about any of this happening in the background.
We certainly need to mobilize, but first it is important to understand more Amplify and collect evidence. It seems that the examples you gave are more grade 7 curriculum? Are there any parents here with students in grade 6 or 7 who can give feedback about their experiences/children with Amplify? Any material/documents that reflect the flaws?
I saw that a NSF-funded project evaluated Amplify and got all the “green lights” as a curriculum. This is all very contradictory. https://www.wested.org/resource/curriculum-materials-for-ngss/
Is DCPS using this analysis to support the adoption of Amplify?