Amplify Science is terrible...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:STEMscopes was also bad and yet, I don't remember people complaining about it much. But yes, go on with your campaign.

The stakes are higher in middle school. Bc middle schoolers in other cities and in private schools are getting a very solid foundation in biology/chemistry/physics/earth science. So these kids will be permanently behind their peers.

Also STEMscopes is good.

[Anonymous]

Our MS is planning to spend PTA money and teacher time to supplement Amplify so maybe the students will learn something. Why can't DCPS just get it right?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:STEMscopes was also bad and yet, I don't remember people complaining about it much. But yes, go on with your campaign.

The stakes are higher in middle school. Bc middle schoolers in other cities and in private schools are getting a very solid foundation in biology/chemistry/physics/earth science. So these kids will be permanently behind their peers.

Also STEMscopes is good.

STEMscopes is not good and if it was so good, why were the science scores so bad (and obviously still are) when it was used for YEARS across many schools?

[Anonymous]

There are many schools where science teachers are told to support math or English instead.

[Anonymous]

I've used STEMscopes for years. I'm fine with it and the structure. I really like the hands on experiments. For elementary students it is perfect.

With regards to the scores, as a teacher I've never received student scores or even standards-based scores. NEVER.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's bizarre -- and yet perhaps typical -- is that DCPS knows how bad Amplify science is, and still they remain wedded to it.

Oh well. It's not so important that they actually educate students. It's enough that they checked the "have science class" box.

Definitely something weird and possibly corrupt going on. How I wish a reporter would investigate this.

Consider contacting like the local Channel 5 fox news or NBC 4 for an investigational report. They love that stuff and can way deeper than what's in the DCPS "contracts" with XYZ school curriculum company.

[Anonymous]

Amplify cost DCPS over a million dollars in 2024. They’ve already spent $680,000 on it this year. And this is for a program which says that continental plates are floating on water and doesn’t mention DNA in Genetics except for in optional homeworks. Who approved this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Amplify cost DCPS over a million dollars in 2024. They’ve already spent $680,000 on it this year. And this is for a program which says that continental plates are floating on water and doesn’t mention DNA in Genetics except for in optional homeworks. Who approved this?

Oh my god.

[Anonymous]

On one of the rcts that downtown chose (on purpose) there were 12 multiple questions. Two of them had no correct answer.

[Anonymous]

DCPS makes one poor decision after another in area after area. In the private sector, the head of DCPS would have been fired ages ago.

[Anonymous]

Who is in charge of buying these programs? Are they being given gifts and entertainment by these companies to sway their decisions? Amplify, CommonLit, and the list goes on and on.

The common thread with all these programs is to make it "easier" for the teachers to create a curriculum and provides them with out of the box classwork, homework and related materials.But this is not the answer- we need interesting and rigorous curriculum that ensures students are reading, understanding the material, intertwines projects and classwork and homework that solidifies that knowledge, and gets the kids engaged in the subject matter.

I keep hearing parents say things like: "I had to read so much more when I was in school" or "I had so much more homework" or "My teachers expected so much more". This is coming from parents who grew up in different states around the country. It is clear that our education standards have been lowered because we keep making the curriculum easier on the kids and the teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who is in charge of buying these programs? Are they being given gifts and entertainment by these companies to sway their decisions? Amplify, CommonLit, and the list goes on and on.

The common thread with all these programs is to make it "easier" for the teachers to create a curriculum and provides them with out of the box classwork, homework and related materials.But this is not the answer- we need interesting and rigorous curriculum that ensures students are reading, understanding the material, intertwines projects and classwork and homework that solidifies that knowledge, and gets the kids engaged in the subject matter.

I keep hearing parents say things like: "I had to read so much more when I was in school" or "I had so much more homework" or "My teachers expected so much more". This is coming from parents who grew up in different states around the country. It is clear that our education standards have been lowered because we keep making the curriculum easier on the kids and the teachers.

You have to wonder. It's hard to understand otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is in charge of buying these programs? Are they being given gifts and entertainment by these companies to sway their decisions? Amplify, CommonLit, and the list goes on and on.

The common thread with all these programs is to make it "easier" for the teachers to create a curriculum and provides them with out of the box classwork, homework and related materials.But this is not the answer- we need interesting and rigorous curriculum that ensures students are reading, understanding the material, intertwines projects and classwork and homework that solidifies that knowledge, and gets the kids engaged in the subject matter.

I keep hearing parents say things like: "I had to read so much more when I was in school" or "I had so much more homework" or "My teachers expected so much more". This is coming from parents who grew up in different states around the country. It is clear that our education standards have been lowered because we keep making the curriculum easier on the kids and the teachers.

You have to wonder. It's hard to understand otherwise.

Yes someone seriously needs to investigate this.

[Anonymous]

This week amplify has more terrible questions. How hard is it to write 12 decent, specific questions? If your kid is a dcps middle schooler, you should be able to see the questions via clever this week because Halloween is a major deadline for the rcts. Please raise a stink with the chancellor and mayor.

The 7th grade questions ask about circulatory, respiratory, and digestive systems yet mention no organs, tissues or specific cells. This is amplify‘s “human body” test but doesn’t even mention the nervous or excretory systems. The nervous system is its own standard in ngss so I don’t know how they can say this program is “teaching” the standards.

The diagram of the heart in their “sim” (online lab) for this unit shows an empty box. If you select “choking” in the sim, it blocks the digestive system rather than the respiratory. I’d say esophagus vs trachea but neither of those parts are labeled/included. The “human” cell is shown as a rectangle without a nucleus. It’s malpractice to require all kids to be in this program.

$680,000 was spent this year for this? $1,000,000 last year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This week amplify has more terrible questions. How hard is it to write 12 decent, specific questions? If your kid is a dcps middle schooler, you should be able to see the questions via clever this week because Halloween is a major deadline for the rcts. Please raise a stink with the chancellor and mayor.

The 7th grade questions ask about circulatory, respiratory, and digestive systems yet mention no organs, tissues or specific cells. This is amplify‘s “human body” test but doesn’t even mention the nervous or excretory systems. The nervous system is its own standard in ngss so I don’t know how they can say this program is “teaching” the standards.

The diagram of the heart in their “sim” (online lab) for this unit shows an empty box. If you select “choking” in the sim, it blocks the digestive system rather than the respiratory. I’d say esophagus vs trachea but neither of those parts are labeled/included. The “human” cell is shown as a rectangle without a nucleus. It’s malpractice to require all kids to be in this program.

$680,000 was spent this year for this? $1,000,000 last year?

Was this made by AI? Seriously so strange.

These poor kids. It is malpractice to lay an incorrect foundation in science to every single DCPS middle schooler. What happens if they want to go into a STEM field later on and are competing with peers who learned properly (at privates and many charters)?