75% of Maryland 8th grade students and 69 percent of 4th grade students are at or below

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no doubt that there is a loss of learning due to the pandemic and virtual learning. Im just curious as to what some of you would have done differently? I mean going virtual was the only option at a time. Our kids are alive. Not saying they didn’t pay a price, of course, but what’s here is here .

Kids were never in danger of mass casualties from Covid or we would have seen it happen elsewhere in the country where schools never closed.

Schools never closed. And, it wasn't about the kids, it was about the adults in the community. How do you not get that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes disaggregation would be helpful. But I imagine the stats will reflect similar results. Meanwhile the teachers were telling us how everything was fine and virtual school and students loved it better than virtual. 🙄

Many of us knew all along this would happen.

Virtual school was fine for kids who had parents who cared enough to make sure the kids were getting what they needed.

Except they only presented 80% of the content, even to your super-smart, well-behaved DC. So no, your kid isn't 'fine."

At least at our school the teachers went above and beyond to present the full curriculum. Just saying that isn't really true even though it's a popular thing to repeat.

If this happened, it would be extremely rare, and I probably don't believe it.

DP

I definitely don’t believe it. My kid did Algebra during Covid Virtual School. Virtual Algebra met twice for less time every week than it would have if the class was in person. The teachers simply did not have the time to cover everything.

We signed DD up for an online Algebra class and compared the syllabus. There were definitely things that the MCPS Algebra class overlooked that were covered in the online class.

MCPS simply would not have had the time to even cover everything when they were doing Asynchronous Wednesdays, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no doubt that there is a loss of learning due to the pandemic and virtual learning. Im just curious as to what some of you would have done differently? I mean going virtual was the only option at a time. Our kids are alive. Not saying they didn’t pay a price, of course, but what’s here is here .

Kids were never in danger of mass casualties from Covid or we would have seen it happen elsewhere in the country where schools never closed.

Schools never closed. And, it wasn't about the kids, it was about the adults in the community. How do you not get that.

Closing school buildings did not actually save the lives of any adults. We have data that proves it. Areas that closed schools had the same Covid deaths per capita when compared to areas that allowed school buildings to stay open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no doubt that there is a loss of learning due to the pandemic and virtual learning. Im just curious as to what some of you would have done differently? I mean going virtual was the only option at a time. Our kids are alive. Not saying they didn’t pay a price, of course, but what’s here is here .

Kids were never in danger of mass casualties from Covid or we would have seen it happen elsewhere in the country where schools never closed.

Schools never closed. And, it wasn't about the kids, it was about the adults in the community. How do you not get that.

Agreed, it wasn't about the kids...and that's the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no doubt that there is a loss of learning due to the pandemic and virtual learning. Im just curious as to what some of you would have done differently? I mean going virtual was the only option at a time. Our kids are alive. Not saying they didn’t pay a price, of course, but what’s here is here .

Kids were never in danger of mass casualties from Covid or we would have seen it happen elsewhere in the country where schools never closed.

Schools never closed. And, it wasn't about the kids, it was about the adults in the community. How do you not get that.

Closing school buildings did not actually save the lives of any adults. We have data that proves it. Areas that closed schools had the same Covid deaths per capita when compared to areas that allowed school buildings to stay open.

Can you link to the study please?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For some reason Asian kids did fine during the pandemic. Their scores, including SAT scores, just keep going up. Why is that?

The article says that the downward trend was from 2013. Asian-Americans have already figured out that there are a lot of weaknesses in American education system and so they have been supplementing and teaching their kids at home.

Mostly the Asian-American parents (and specifically the moms) are very well-educated and can teach Math to their children so the children are coming out ahead in STEM. Culturally, there is a huge emphasis on education within families and the community as a whole. Finally, most Asian-Americans first gen were highly educated people from their countries who came to the US. They are not the poorest of the poor, uneducated migrants.

The weaknesses in American education system that most Asians notice and try to overcome are -
1) Shortened school year
2) Lack of textbooks
3) Lack of final exams
4) Lack of discipline in classrooms. Disruptive students are tolerated. Parents are not responsible.
5) Lack of a well defined curriculum, syllabus that is shared with students and parents. Textbooks and units of study that are mapped to the syllabus and curriculum.
6) Not failing any students in any grade and holding them back
7) Grade inflation. Students earn grades for doing homework.
8) Graded assignments and tests are not returned back to students and parents.
9) No comprehensive, standardized curriculum, syallabus, textbooks, testing and school year nationally for all grades and all subjects. Even SAT is going away.

What the US does extremely well -
1) Free education for everybody
2) Free transportation for coming and going to school
3) Free meals
4) Free school supplies.

+1

I agree with most of this, which is why the academic success of Asian-American students should not be used to argue why what we are doing now is just fine for any family that cares about their kids' education. If you can only succeed through extensive supplementation, there is a problem. The lack of textbooks and defined syllabus are a huge part of why it is hard for parents to help their kids - it takes independent work to provide that support, which may don't have.

+1. I was reading through the exhaustive list of what needs to be overcome, it's no wonder parents are daunted. My dad used to read my textbooks to help me with math. My kids have no textbooks! Not to mention that the way kids teach math is different from when I was a kid.

I also just don't understand how parents find all this time for extra supplementation and have kids willing to sit and do it after a full day of school plus homework. Are no one else's kids exhausted at the end of the day?

There is no exhaustive list to overcome. There is no extensive supplementation. It is normal daily teaching at home so that the kids are able to review what they learned at school and if there are any lack of comprehension the parents can clarify for the child.

The parents need to priortize their kid's education above all. The school system is already giving free schooling, meals, supplies and transportation. Sometimes they are also giving free after and before care. They cannot do much more than this. Maybe they can give textbooks.

Parents need to step up and make sure that their kids are studying at home every day. 1 hour of daily review at home in the ES and MS years is all that is needed. However, only 40% of White Americans are college educated. Can you imagine that? Most parents are incapable of teaching their children because they are also basically uneducated. Never mind the URM and low SES households.

You do need textbooks and that is one thing that parents can do for their children. Get them textbooks before school opens. Buy the textbooks second hand from Amazon and use that to guide your children.

Are the kids exhausted from being in school? Sure. My kids are. But, they are expected to do all homework at school during lunch break and during the bus-ride home. The daily teaching happens when my husband or I get back from work and it happens for an hour or so every day. Weekends and holidays also include an hour or so of studying daily. Summer will also include vacation travel, some fun camps and some academic camps. Of course, this also means that the lives of parents revolve around the kids and their education.

Ultimately, parents are responsible if their kids are at or below grade.

I feel like you are illustrating part of the problem though- how do you do a daily review at home when they are provided so little materials to bring home? Oh, you're buying textbooks that used to be provided by the school. So now parents have to figure out WHICH textbook to buy and then pay for them. Textbooks aren't cheap, even used ones, and then what if you make a poor selection that doesn't jive with what is being taught in class?

Also, just because someone is college educated doesn't make them a good teacher. But it's great that you are and I'm sure your kids are high achievers because of it.

Ignore the textbook harpy. They're simply misguided and attached to 19th century teaching methods. MCPS has everything online. If they knew how to use a computer, they'd realize what a waste of time that nonsense is. I'm glad I live in a county that doesn't spend $$$ on making kids lug those vestiges of old times around and helps them learn how things get done today.

Research on reading comprehension, etc. does not support your position. Having all of the information in the world on the Internet does not make for effective learning. - Teacher

You don’t sound like an up to date teacher. Are you close to retirement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:\
Idiot, they are talking about the state of Maryland, not MCPS. The NAEP is mostly administered to a few students in the Baltimore area.

Exactly, this isn't relevant to any discussion of MCPS since it wasn't given in here to anyone.

so why are we discussing this in the mcps forum?

[Anonymous]

MCPS received federal funding to help provide educational resources to combat the pandemic learning losses. Has there been accountability for how MCPS utilized the funds and how much money remains?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no doubt that there is a loss of learning due to the pandemic and virtual learning. Im just curious as to what some of you would have done differently? I mean going virtual was the only option at a time. Our kids are alive. Not saying they didn’t pay a price, of course, but what’s here is here .

Kids were never in danger of mass casualties from Covid or we would have seen it happen elsewhere in the country where schools never closed.

Schools never closed. And, it wasn't about the kids, it was about the adults in the community. How do you not get that.

Why is this going unchallenged? Schools closed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For some reason Asian kids did fine during the pandemic. Their scores, including SAT scores, just keep going up. Why is that?

The article says that the downward trend was from 2013. Asian-Americans have already figured out that there are a lot of weaknesses in American education system and so they have been supplementing and teaching their kids at home.

Mostly the Asian-American parents (and specifically the moms) are very well-educated and can teach Math to their children so the children are coming out ahead in STEM. Culturally, there is a huge emphasis on education within families and the community as a whole. Finally, most Asian-Americans first gen were highly educated people from their countries who came to the US. They are not the poorest of the poor, uneducated migrants.

The weaknesses in American education system that most Asians notice and try to overcome are -
1) Shortened school year
2) Lack of textbooks
3) Lack of final exams
4) Lack of discipline in classrooms. Disruptive students are tolerated. Parents are not responsible.
5) Lack of a well defined curriculum, syllabus that is shared with students and parents. Textbooks and units of study that are mapped to the syllabus and curriculum.
6) Not failing any students in any grade and holding them back
7) Grade inflation. Students earn grades for doing homework.
8) Graded assignments and tests are not returned back to students and parents.
9) No comprehensive, standardized curriculum, syallabus, textbooks, testing and school year nationally for all grades and all subjects. Even SAT is going away.

What the US does extremely well -
1) Free education for everybody
2) Free transportation for coming and going to school
3) Free meals
4) Free school supplies.

+1

I agree with most of this, which is why the academic success of Asian-American students should not be used to argue why what we are doing now is just fine for any family that cares about their kids' education. If you can only succeed through extensive supplementation, there is a problem. The lack of textbooks and defined syllabus are a huge part of why it is hard for parents to help their kids - it takes independent work to provide that support, which may don't have.

+1. I was reading through the exhaustive list of what needs to be overcome, it's no wonder parents are daunted. My dad used to read my textbooks to help me with math. My kids have no textbooks! Not to mention that the way kids teach math is different from when I was a kid.

I also just don't understand how parents find all this time for extra supplementation and have kids willing to sit and do it after a full day of school plus homework. Are no one else's kids exhausted at the end of the day?

There is no exhaustive list to overcome. There is no extensive supplementation. It is normal daily teaching at home so that the kids are able to review what they learned at school and if there are any lack of comprehension the parents can clarify for the child.

The parents need to priortize their kid's education above all. The school system is already giving free schooling, meals, supplies and transportation. Sometimes they are also giving free after and before care. They cannot do much more than this. Maybe they can give textbooks.

Parents need to step up and make sure that their kids are studying at home every day. 1 hour of daily review at home in the ES and MS years is all that is needed. However, only 40% of White Americans are college educated. Can you imagine that? Most parents are incapable of teaching their children because they are also basically uneducated. Never mind the URM and low SES households.

You do need textbooks and that is one thing that parents can do for their children. Get them textbooks before school opens. Buy the textbooks second hand from Amazon and use that to guide your children.

Are the kids exhausted from being in school? Sure. My kids are. But, they are expected to do all homework at school during lunch break and during the bus-ride home. The daily teaching happens when my husband or I get back from work and it happens for an hour or so every day. Weekends and holidays also include an hour or so of studying daily. Summer will also include vacation travel, some fun camps and some academic camps. Of course, this also means that the lives of parents revolve around the kids and their education.

Ultimately, parents are responsible if their kids are at or below grade.

I feel like you are illustrating part of the problem though- how do you do a daily review at home when they are provided so little materials to bring home? Oh, you're buying textbooks that used to be provided by the school. So now parents have to figure out WHICH textbook to buy and then pay for them. Textbooks aren't cheap, even used ones, and then what if you make a poor selection that doesn't jive with what is being taught in class?

Also, just because someone is college educated doesn't make them a good teacher. But it's great that you are and I'm sure your kids are high achievers because of it.

Ignore the textbook harpy. They're simply misguided and attached to 19th century teaching methods. MCPS has everything online. If they knew how to use a computer, they'd realize what a waste of time that nonsense is. I'm glad I live in a county that doesn't spend $$$ on making kids lug those vestiges of old times around and helps them learn how things get done today.

LOL. MCPS is doing poorly than in the 19th century teaching method, aren't they? They cannot get their scores up and they now have an assembly line that is producing idiots. You live in a county where the achievement gap is growing wider each year and where everyone is doing poorly. Isn't that this whole thread about?

None of the parents here are able to teach from these online resources because...well, where are these online resources?? Oh yeah, only the student (who is effing failing) can log on to some site and access that. So the parents contribution is ZERO.

Why don't you screenshot the page of the one online textbook for 8th grade Geometry from the online resource and post it here?

You can log into your child's account. We do. MCPS also offers free tutoring which we use to fill in some gaps. Parents have to be proactive when the schools are not.

So then no kid should have had any loss of learning, amirite? Why is this thread even in existence? MCPS is doing just great. Lalalalalalalalalalllll

Correct. Not if their parents actually made an effort and didn’t just throw tantrums.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no doubt that there is a loss of learning due to the pandemic and virtual learning. Im just curious as to what some of you would have done differently? I mean going virtual was the only option at a time. Our kids are alive. Not saying they didn’t pay a price, of course, but what’s here is here .

What a joke.

Relocated to a southern state. Schools were open. Kids excelled.

That I doubt. Southern states’ public schools generally lag way behind the rest of the nation.

+1,000. If you’re actually comparing to the bulk of “Southern states’ public schools” and not cherry picking my the wealthiest suburbs in Texas or Florida.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well gee we had a global pandemic, a president that would rather let people die than tell the truth, a republican party spewing lies and misinformation and you all are thinking the schools are the problem??

OMG Parents are the problem.

Any idiot in the US that voted for Republicans because of schools is a literal idiot.

If your kid lost education during that time it is on you, not the teachers not the administrators. YOU

+ 1 million. But unfortunately things will only get worse and worse because fewer and fewer parents accept that responsibility. There’s no changing a culture that doesn’ty value education. I grew up in Germany and it is night and day.

So true!

Oh? Does Germany have the level of ethnic/cultural diversity that the US does? Does Germany welcome undocumented immigrants and offer them all asylum, as the US (and more locally, Montgomery County) does?

Demographic changes have most definitely had an effect on public schools in the US. And in MCPS.

Comparing Montgomery County to Germany is disingenuous.

NP. Can't tell if you're trolling. Germany is consistently in the top 10 countries internationally for taking in refugees. E.g., https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/refugees-asylum-seekers-and-migrants/global-refugee-crisis-statistics-and-facts/

Clearly you and the PP are trolling.

What percentage of the German population is not white? Compare that to the population of Montgomery County.

Are you really arguing that Germany is as diverse as the US/Montgomery County? Not a chance.

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/largest-ethnic-groups-in-germany.html

Why does it matter if they're white?

Because the changing demographics of Montgomery County and Maryland have had an effect on test scores. We have had an influx of non-English speakers, many of whose parents are not educated.

OK, if it's about percentage of non-English speakers, then definitely makes sense to compare to a (West) Germany model. Their non-German speaking immigrant population is comparable. I don't know the numbers on education level though.

Personally, I find it more helpful to learn from other countries than to start with the premise that the US and MoCo are exceptional. Our family has had few complaints with MCPS but no harm in trying to do things better.

DP. Americans are not ready to accept the German system, because it is inherently discriminatory. If a child is not a high performer (and disproportionately, this perception is linked to the national origin of the parents) they are simply placed in the hauptschule track and graduate into the apprenticeship world.

You cannot compare the scores of 11th grade Germans and Americans and make meaningful conclusions because the lower performing German children have been kicked out into the working world.

Maybe we will eventually adopt this system, but your comparison is ill informed.

They get kicked out in primary school? That’s why German kids in the younger grades still outperform their American counterparts? They don’t even start learning to read until a couple years after American kids, the early years are pretty laid back.

But yeah, we should be steering more students towards trades in high schools. Maybe we wouldnt have so many kids flunking out of college and then trying to pay back student loans while bagging groceries.

After elementary school, they are put into tracks. Lower performing kids are put into the hauptschule track and graduate at age 14 or 15.

They do start reading around the same at school but there is no push for literacy before grade school.

I agree that there are many benedits of the German system. But the idea that the scores of high schooler in Germany and in the US are an apples to apples comparison is just a complete misread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no doubt that there is a loss of learning due to the pandemic and virtual learning. Im just curious as to what some of you would have done differently? I mean going virtual was the only option at a time. Our kids are alive. Not saying they didn’t pay a price, of course, but what’s here is here .

No. Actually, it’s possible we lost more kids due to school buildings being shut down from the pandemic. There has been a huge increase in mental health issues and suicides amongst kids since Covid began.

Zero kids age 0-17 have died of Covid in Montgomery County as a result of Covid. ZERO. That was with schools open/schools closed, prior to the Covid shot/after the Covid shot.

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/case-counts.html#deaths-age

We did not ‘save kids’ lives’ by keeping schools closed. Not at all.

That huge increase in suicides during the closure of school has already been debunked.

Correct. Suicides were DOWN in 2020.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no doubt that there is a loss of learning due to the pandemic and virtual learning. Im just curious as to what some of you would have done differently? I mean going virtual was the only option at a time. Our kids are alive. Not saying they didn’t pay a price, of course, but what’s here is here .

What a joke.

Relocated to a southern state. Schools were open. Kids excelled.

That I doubt. Southern states’ public schools generally lag way behind the rest of the nation.

+1,000. If you’re actually comparing to the bulk of “Southern states’ public schools” and not cherry picking my the wealthiest suburbs in Texas or Florida.

DP but when DC people move south, we go to the rich areas. Other, poorer school systems are as relevant as Baltimore is to you. We moved south and the schools are much better, by all objective measures. The fact that the schools in backwater Arkansas suck is irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:\
Idiot, they are talking about the state of Maryland, not MCPS. The NAEP is mostly administered to a few students in the Baltimore area.

Exactly, this isn't relevant to any discussion of MCPS since it wasn't given in here to anyone.

so why are we discussing this in the mcps forum?

Because the OP of this thread and the majority of people who posted on this thread are idiots and clueless.