Is English now “Honors for All” at mcps high schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Einstein parent here. I can confirm this. My 9th grader was told a month ago by her English teacher that she should be in pre-ib english next year. There is no pre-ib 10th grade english. Apparently the teachers weren't aware of this change either.

Is she currently in ninth grade pre IB English?

No. She was supposed to be moved once we discovered in October that there actually was a pre-ib english section in 9th but the counselor never made the switch and wasn't responsive so I gave up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s why I laughed at “honors health” from a couple threads ago.
Ridiculous.

Is honors really just grade level now? If not how is the school helping kids who need grade level courses?

It's all about self esteem. Also, it's much easier to lower the bar than to get everyone to cross a high bar.

This. Incredibly frustrating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is someting that MCCPTA curriculum committee should take on. There should be differentiation for all academic courses in high school. (Middle school too ideally, but in high school it is a greater priority.)

YES.

Unfortunately, the MCCPTA is a corrupt organization that wastes money on ridiculous initiatives.

Nobody is advocating for our kids’ actual education needs. Plenty of special interest groups advocating loudly for their own agendas. But education has fallen by the wayside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no way every kid is bright enough to take honors anything. Not helping those kids work towards a future job,

Its not honors. It is grade level but parents are happier if it is called honors and kids GPAs are helped by the extra point...but really MCPS is out of 5 not 4 and hte collleges can see that.,

Yep. Same idea as why everyone is in Advanced English in Middle School. The class is a joke and there is no differentiation. The soft bigotry of low expectations is depressing and serves no one.

[Anonymous]

My Einstein 10th grader registered for Pre-IB Engloghtvthus year, after taking it in 9th. Come August, they were out in Honors English. But counselors and teachers confirmed that if you registered for Pre-IB English, you were indeed placed in a pre-IB section of Honors English. And kid has confirmed that non-IB friends are doing different things in their Honors English classes, although the basic curriculum is the same.

So that’s the situation for *this* year. Essentially, MCPS told Einstein they couldn’t use the Pre-IB designation for classes that weren’t officially associated with the International Baccalaureate organization.

Whether they’ll do something similarly unofficial for next year, I don’t know. But I guess if there isn’t a pre-IB section offered for registration, they must be phasing it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did Einstein used to have both pre IB English in both month and tenth? My daughter who took IB English in eleventh and did not do well took pre IB in tenth but just honors in ninth. I thought pre IB was only offered in tenth but it would be interesting if she could have taken pre IB in ninth because her tenth grade English was much harder for her than ninth grade: I felt like she wasn’t well prepared for t here grade pre IN or IB. they barely did any writing seventh thru ninth and then all of a sudden they were expected to know how to write. So if they aren’t offering pre IB in tenth anymore that seems crazy to me because they are going to be even less prepared for IB.

IME writing instruction at Einstein and probably MCPS generally totally sucks

MS in MCPS in general is a complete joke and does not prepare kids who want to take advanced classes in HS.

MCPS wants MS to focus on "social emotional" learning, but that comes at the expense of academic learning, which causes the achievement gap in HS to grow even more. Way to shoot themselves (and the kids) in the foot.

ALL true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone on this thread just stop.

MCPS is a great school system and if you don't like it move to private. Every school system has it's challenges including private.

When kids go to college from MCPS they do not fail out because they were unprepared. FACT.

You want schools like MO, AZ, AR, MS, Ohio, Florida move!

We're trying to understand why specific courses are no longer offered and why courses our kids are recommended to take by teachers don't exist. I don't understand why no one from central office who oversees curriculum can comminicate these changes to teachers, parents and students before course registration time. That's all.

+1 Why do they make changes and keep them secret from the people they affect?!! This is a systemic issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone on this thread just stop.

MCPS is a great school system and if you don't like it move to private. Every school system has it's challenges including private.

When kids go to college from MCPS they do not fail out because they were unprepared. FACT.

You want schools like MO, AZ, AR, MS, Ohio, Florida move!

We're trying to understand why specific courses are no longer offered and why courses our kids are recommended to take by teachers don't exist. I don't understand why no one from central office who oversees curriculum can comminicate these changes to teachers, parents and students before course registration time. That's all.

+1 Why do they make changes and keep them secret from the people they affect?!! This is a systemic issue.

I'm an Einstein parent, and they did communicate that only Honors English is available in 9th and 10th. The principal sent links to the course registration documents in the past few weekly newsletters, and this is the one for English:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jOWTaPw0LNvxcxAPddVUrmGhilNYN_6c8ZVRfMTkos4/mobilepresent?slide=id.gf90bdacb78_0_0

I don't particularly like this situation, but it wasn't kept a secret. My kid and I both knew that these were the classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My Einstein HS 9th grader registered for next year’s classes today and told me — surprise to her — the school is taking away “Pre-IB English” and is getting rid of regular English — so everyone, regardless of ability or motivation, will be grouped together in classes dubiously named “Honors English.” Einstein has an International Baccalaureate program in 11th & 12th and the pre-IB classes (a step up from honors) were supposed to prepare students for IB.

Honors for All in Middle School was a disaster. Does anyone know about this? Is this a new MCPS policy?

It's so wonderful to see this true vision of equity realized where all students are advanced!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That’s why I laughed at “honors health” from a couple threads ago.
Ridiculous.

Is honors really just grade level now? If not how is the school helping kids who need grade level courses?

Yes, the eliminated honors and just rebranded regular English honors so people wouldn't complain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did Einstein used to have both pre IB English in both month and tenth? My daughter who took IB English in eleventh and did not do well took pre IB in tenth but just honors in ninth. I thought pre IB was only offered in tenth but it would be interesting if she could have taken pre IB in ninth because her tenth grade English was much harder for her than ninth grade: I felt like she wasn’t well prepared for t here grade pre IN or IB. they barely did any writing seventh thru ninth and then all of a sudden they were expected to know how to write. So if they aren’t offering pre IB in tenth anymore that seems crazy to me because they are going to be even less prepared for IB.

IME writing instruction at Einstein and probably MCPS generally totally sucks

MS in MCPS in general is a complete joke and does not prepare kids who want to take advanced classes in HS.

MCPS wants MS to focus on "social emotional" learning, but that comes at the expense of academic learning, which causes the achievement gap in HS to grow even more. Way to shoot themselves (and the kids) in the foot.

I completely disagree.

New poster here. What do you disagree with? As a parent of a MSer and HSer, I think the jump between 8 grade and 9 grade is too significant and should be remedied at the MS level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone on this thread just stop.

MCPS is a great school system and if you don't like it move to private. Every school system has it's challenges including private.

When kids go to college from MCPS they do not fail out because they were unprepared. FACT.

You want schools like MO, AZ, AR, MS, Ohio, Florida move!

We're trying to understand why specific courses are no longer offered and why courses our kids are recommended to take by teachers don't exist. I don't understand why no one from central office who oversees curriculum can comminicate these changes to teachers, parents and students before course registration time. That's all.

Well, you can't talk about equity seriously if you keep offering differentiated courses. For all outcomes to be equal we need to put everyone in remedial English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Einstein parent here. I can confirm this. My 9th grader was told a month ago by her English teacher that she should be in pre-ib english next year. There is no pre-ib 10th grade english. Apparently the teachers weren't aware of this change either.

Is she currently in ninth grade pre IB English?

No. She was supposed to be moved once we discovered in October that there actually was a pre-ib english section in 9th but the counselor never made the switch and wasn't responsive so I gave up.

Yeah I asked because my kid was in tenth grade pre IB but we didn’t even know ninth grade pre IB existed till my kid was in eleventh

[Anonymous]

Are some of these “Honors English” classes co-taught? What are they supposed to do with kids who have IEPs or learning disabilities?

[Anonymous]

It's the same thing with biology - only honors biology for 9th graders. And my kid is bored in it. Yet for 10th grade, Einstein will have both regular and honors chemistry. It's confusing.