Report Cards - ugh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

(I don't get people who teach their kids math at home and then complain that their kids are bored and not learning anything in math at school.)

But do you get school systems that test. assess, and evaluate their incoming students then place them in appropriate classes for math comensurate with their assessment and ability?

Perhaps you still don't get that either?

Nope. I don't get it. You seem to think that if you teach your child above-grade-level math, and then your child is bored in grade-level math, the school has a responsibility to fix the problem. Why? The school didn't cause the problem. You caused the problem. And you should solve it: either stop teaching your child above-grade-level math, or accept that your child will be bored in grade-level math, or take your child out of public school.

Again, not the PP, but does your kid play basketball? My kid loves it. He can make baskets with the hoop at 6 ft. Based on your reasoning, I shouldn't complain if the coach isn't challenging him and keeps the hoop set at 3 feet. That would be crazy.

Why can't PP expect that the school system challenge her kid?

[Anonymous]

The reports cards are so dumbed-down. It is elementary school. They only care how your kids do in standardized testing. If they are reading above grade level, who cares what it says. Everything is useless but the teacher comments - which to me are ridiculously short. 3 sentences? Way to put some effort in there teachers. 1 seven minute conference 1st quarter, 3 sentences the 2nd quarter. Whew, they must work hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reports cards are so dumbed-down. It is elementary school. They only care how your kids do in standardized testing. If they are reading above grade level, who cares what it says. Everything is useless but the teacher comments - which to me are ridiculously short. 3 sentences? Way to put some effort in there teachers. 1 seven minute conference 1st quarter, 3 sentences the 2nd quarter. Whew, they must work hard.

I actually think DD's teacher cares very much how the students are doing. I don't think your comment applies to every school/teacher in the county....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

(I don't get people who teach their kids math at home and then complain that their kids are bored and not learning anything in math at school.)

But do you get school systems that test. assess, and evaluate their incoming students then place them in appropriate classes for math comensurate with their assessment and ability?

Perhaps you still don't get that either?

Nope. I don't get it. You seem to think that if you teach your child above-grade-level math, and then your child is bored in grade-level math, the school has a responsibility to fix the problem. Why? The school didn't cause the problem. You caused the problem. And you should solve it: either stop teaching your child above-grade-level math, or accept that your child will be bored in grade-level math, or take your child out of public school.

Again, not the PP, but does your kid play basketball? My kid loves it. He can make baskets with the hoop at 6 ft. Based on your reasoning, I shouldn't complain if the coach isn't challenging him and keeps the hoop set at 3 feet. That would be crazy.

Why can't PP expect that the school system challenge her kid?

No, based on my reasoning, you shouldn't complain if the instrumental music teacher at school has your kid playing the same piece as the rest of the class, even though your kid is more advanced, and the reason your kid is more advanced is that you pay for private lessons.

The school system would be challenging the PP's kid in math, if the PP weren't teaching the kid math at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reports cards are so dumbed-down. It is elementary school. They only care how your kids do in standardized testing. If they are reading above grade level, who cares what it says. Everything is useless but the teacher comments - which to me are ridiculously short. 3 sentences? Way to put some effort in there teachers. 1 seven minute conference 1st quarter, 3 sentences the 2nd quarter. Whew, they must work hard.

I infer that your children do not have good teachers. I am sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reports cards are so dumbed-down. It is elementary school. They only care how your kids do in standardized testing. If they are reading above grade level, who cares what it says. Everything is useless but the teacher comments - which to me are ridiculously short. 3 sentences? Way to put some effort in there teachers. 1 seven minute conference 1st quarter, 3 sentences the 2nd quarter. Whew, they must work hard.

I actually think DD's teacher cares very much how the students are doing. I don't think your comment applies to every school/teacher in the county....

Not the PP, and I agree that some teachers DO care.

However, there are so many other factors at play. Schools
need to show that all the kids are meeting standards. That is their priority. For better or worse, public schools are designed to educate as many kids as possible, to a certain level. Teachers have to work within that construct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

(I don't get people who teach their kids math at home and then complain that their kids are bored and not learning anything in math at school.)

But do you get school systems that test. assess, and evaluate their incoming students then place them in appropriate classes for math comensurate with their assessment and ability?

Perhaps you still don't get that either?

Nope. I don't get it. You seem to think that if you teach your child above-grade-level math, and then your child is bored in grade-level math, the school has a responsibility to fix the problem. Why? The school didn't cause the problem. You caused the problem. And you should solve it: either stop teaching your child above-grade-level math, or accept that your child will be bored in grade-level math, or take your child out of public school.

Again, not the PP, but does your kid play basketball? My kid loves it. He can make baskets with the hoop at 6 ft. Based on your reasoning, I shouldn't complain if the coach isn't challenging him and keeps the hoop set at 3 feet. That would be crazy.

Why can't PP expect that the school system challenge her kid?

No, based on my reasoning, you shouldn't complain if the instrumental music teacher at school has your kid playing the same piece as the rest of the class, even though your kid is more advanced, and the reason your kid is more advanced is that you pay for private lessons.

The school system would be challenging the PP's kid in math, if the PP weren't teaching the kid math at home.

We definitely disagree about a fundamental point.

I DO believe the kid should get a more difficult piece of music. Why not? Only private schools should challenge kids? That does such a disservice to all the bright kids who can't afford private.

[Anonymous]

I would welcome harder grading as it can make kids work harder and reach their potential. What is happening though is inconsistency not harder grading. The teachers are really struggling with this thing. The only I my son received was on an assignment that almost every kid got an I on (confirmed by the teacher and the parents). Well it turns out that the teacher didn't explain to the kids what she expected. Since it was different than what she expected on every other assignment the kids just did the same thing.

If you have a kid who is coming home with a range of Is, Ps and ESs grades you have a teacher who is struggling to communicate what she is looking for from the students. Its not her fault as this system is really fucked up.

On math, parents have to supplement at home. At this point, its irresponsible not to do it. Math is not a subject that you will catch back up in later on in high school or college. If they don't learn the foundational skills and build strong math understanding now, they will not get it later. You're shutting the door on many potential fields for your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
No, based on my reasoning, you shouldn't complain if the instrumental music teacher at school has your kid playing the same piece as the rest of the class, even though your kid is more advanced, and the reason your kid is more advanced is that you pay for private lessons.

The school system would be challenging the PP's kid in math, if the PP weren't teaching the kid math at home.

We definitely disagree about a fundamental point.

I DO believe the kid should get a more difficult piece of music. Why not? Only private schools should challenge kids? That does such a disservice to all the bright kids who can't afford private.

Why not? Because it is Montgomery County Public Schools, not Montgomery County Special Individual Instruction.

In a perfect world, maybe it would be Montgomery County Special Individual Instruction. How much more in taxes are you willing to pay for that?

Meanwhile, the PP should advocate for the PP's child; the PP should continue to teach the PP's child at home (if that's what they want to do); and the PP should understand that there are 151,288 other students whose needs MCPS also has to serve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
On math, parents have to supplement at home. At this point, its irresponsible not to do it. Math is not a subject that you will catch back up in later on in high school or college. If they don't learn the foundational skills and build strong math understanding now, they will not get it later. You're shutting the door on many potential fields for your child.

Oddly enough, I found that I had to supplement at home for math under the previous curriculum. Under this curriculum, I don't have to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would welcome harder grading as it can make kids work harder and reach their potential. What is happening though is inconsistency not harder grading. The teachers are really struggling with this thing. The only I my son received was on an assignment that almost every kid got an I on (confirmed by the teacher and the parents). Well it turns out that the teacher didn't explain to the kids what she expected. Since it was different than what she expected on every other assignment the kids just did the same thing.

If you have a kid who is coming home with a range of Is, Ps and ESs grades you have a teacher who is struggling to communicate what she is looking for from the students. Its not her fault as this system is really fucked up.

On math, parents have to supplement at home. At this point, its irresponsible not to do it. Math is not a subject that you will catch back up in later on in high school or college. If they don't learn the foundational skills and build strong math understanding now, they will not get it later. You're shutting the door on many potential fields for your child.

Don't some students just naturally get a variety of grades? Is it all a communication problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
No, based on my reasoning, you shouldn't complain if the instrumental music teacher at school has your kid playing the same piece as the rest of the class, even though your kid is more advanced, and the reason your kid is more advanced is that you pay for private lessons.

The school system would be challenging the PP's kid in math, if the PP weren't teaching the kid math at home.

We definitely disagree about a fundamental point.

I DO believe the kid should get a more difficult piece of music. Why not? Only private schools should challenge kids? That does such a disservice to all the bright kids who can't afford private.

Why not? Because it is Montgomery County Public Schools, not Montgomery County Special Individual Instruction.

In a perfect world, maybe it would be Montgomery County Special Individual Instruction. How much more in taxes are you willing to pay for that?

Meanwhile, the PP should advocate for the PP's child; the PP should continue to teach the PP's child at home (if that's what they want to do); and the PP should understand that there are 151,288 other students whose needs MCPS also has to serve.

PP uses the public school system and should understand that funds are limited? That's the argument?

So only wealthy kids, who can afford private should be challenged. Ugh, that is so wrong on so many levels.

[Anonymous]

Don't some students just naturally get a variety of grades? Is it all a communication problem?

Only if you are being very inconsistent. There are outliers with kids who have special needs but that far a range -if they applying the scale correctly- is cause for concern.

As far as I can tell MCPS is not assessing knowledge in any way. They are assign writing and reading comprehension across all subjects. I've seen ES grades when DD wrote more even though the ideas were not very good. I've seen Ps when her ideas are very good, showed great understanding of the subject and deeper understanding but she didn't write as much volume so its a P.

If you are seeing ES and I grades its just an another indicator that something is off. Your child isn't getting good instruction or being held to any consistent standard.

[Anonymous]

Oddly at our school we've been told that one P on an assignment even if there were mostly ES grades will also result in a P on the report card. However, there can be multiple Is on an assignment and then the final grade can be P. I guess this is 2.0 math.

The reality is what is happening is that this grading system is a construct from the MCPS curriculum department, the biggest bunch of idiots on the planet. They are so far behind in even finishing this awful curriculum that they provide no support to teachers. Honestly, it probably wouldn't help but still they leave the teachers hanging. The teachers are falling back on the only approach they known....bell curving. ES is rare so it only goes to the 1-2 kids at the top of the class. The bar moves so that it can only be a few. This is why an ES kid can go to a P quickly the next year or a P only kid can jump to an ES as it depends on who is in what home room. The Is are sprinkled in to counter the everyone is getting a P problem but they are given to kids who actually are proficient in the subject.

Special needs kids get Ps where the same product from a non-special needs kid would be an I. The schools do not want to give services or create any documentation that would result on a deeper drain to their already stretched resources. The PP who noted that her teacher said she gave her son an I because she knew he could do better is a great example of this. I guarantee you that she is giving the kid on a 504 a P for doing lower quality work so the 504 doesn't become an IEP.

MCPS is fast becoming one of the biggest examples of public education gone bad.

[Anonymous]

Why not? Because it is Montgomery County Public Schools, not Montgomery County Special Individual Instruction.

In a perfect world, maybe it would be Montgomery County Special Individual Instruction. How much more in taxes are you willing to pay for that?

It doesn't require more money. It requires driving out the old guard. Entrenchment not resources is the problem.

1. Leverage what the parents who are supplementing are doing rather than fight it.
2. Use cheaper, self paced technologies to let students move at their own pace.
3. Stop the teachers union from disallowing more lower paid assistance in the classrooms. Interns and other lower paid positions can be used to increase small group learning. This is what tutoring centers do. It doesn't take a masters in bull shit to help a small group of kids improve.
4. Hold the system accountable. Teachers and schools should be evaluated and retained/let go based on individual student progress. If a student tested at the exact same level in the beginning of the year as the end of the year then that student was robbed of a year of learning.
5. Admit mistakes and get rid of them. You can't drive change or improvement without honest self assessment. The majority of the central office needs to go starting with the superintendent.