Update on Mcps literacy levels

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

You think a parent who doesn't know their own kid whinthry live with can't read, never reads with their kid and uses YouTube as childcare gives a hoot about a Dibels?

This isn't about your AuDHD dyslexic child who gets weekly private therapy.
It's about the 50% of students who don't live in a family and community culture where literacy matters.

The question is do you think kids who have parents that aren't fully literate (in their own languages) deserve to learn to read? It sounds like you don't.

It’s not whether they deserve to read its honest dialogue about if the importance of reading will then be reinforced at home. Or that if a kid is struggling and getting intervention f they will have support at home for reinforcing lessons and helping with learning skills.

Well what are you doing to support reinforcement at home by parents who aren't literate in any language? If the answer is "we can't" then the question is are you ready to be the one to teach kids to read? If not, then wtf are you doing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

This describes the problem perfectly. How can a parent know how their child is doing when the report card contradicts the DIBELS score?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

This describes the problem perfectly. How can a parent know how their child is doing when the report card contradicts the DIBELS score?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

This describes the problem perfectly. How can a parent know how their child is doing when the report card contradicts the DIBELS score?

I always put the DIBELS score on the report card along with the child's grades even if they contradict. I send home the parent connect from the DIBELS reports three times per year. As teachers, we have been telling our admin and anyone who will listen about this disconnect. DIBELS is the one assessment that is pretty accurate IMO. It's given one-on-one by a teacher who knows the student. It isn't a computer based assessment that kids click through just to get done.

Parents should ask their kids' teachers for the DIBELS scores three times per year. The parent connect breaks down each subtests and gives parents simple activities for improvement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

This describes the problem perfectly. How can a parent know how their child is doing when the report card contradicts the DIBELS score?

I always put the DIBELS score on the report card along with the child's grades even if they contradict. I send home the parent connect from the DIBELS reports three times per year. As teachers, we have been telling our admin and anyone who will listen about this disconnect. DIBELS is the one assessment that is pretty accurate IMO. It's given one-on-one by a teacher who knows the student. It isn't a computer based assessment that kids click through just to get done.

Parents should ask their kids' teachers for the DIBELS scores three times per year. The parent connect breaks down each subtests and gives parents simple activities for improvement.

The disconnect definitely needs to be resolved. I’m all for kids working towards mastery but that doesn’t mean that individual grades should be updated each time because it then misrepresents student ability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

You think a parent who doesn't know their own kid whinthry live with can't read, never reads with their kid and uses YouTube as childcare gives a hoot about a Dibels?

This isn't about your AuDHD dyslexic child who gets weekly private therapy.
It's about the 50% of students who don't live in a family and community culture where literacy matters.

The question is do you think kids who have parents that aren't fully literate (in their own languages) deserve to learn to read? It sounds like you don't.

If their culture doesn't care about it and they don't want to attempt any assimilation then I mean maybe yea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

You think a parent who doesn't know their own kid whinthry live with can't read, never reads with their kid and uses YouTube as childcare gives a hoot about a Dibels?

This isn't about your AuDHD dyslexic child who gets weekly private therapy.
It's about the 50% of students who don't live in a family and community culture where literacy matters.

The question is do you think kids who have parents that aren't fully literate (in their own languages) deserve to learn to read? It sounds like you don't.

If their culture doesn't care about it and they don't want to attempt any assimilation then I mean maybe yea.

Doesn't it feel a little pathetic to be an educator who can only teach kids to read if the parents can actually do the heavy lifting of providing explicit reading instruction? My mom was an immigrant who never even read books to me. You think kids can't learn to read unless their parents teach them? That means you haven't actually been teaching reading. Which tracks with the fact that MCPS was using Benchmark which does not explicitly teach kids how to read (it does explicitly teach bad habits)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

You think a parent who doesn't know their own kid whinthry live with can't read, never reads with their kid and uses YouTube as childcare gives a hoot about a Dibels?

This isn't about your AuDHD dyslexic child who gets weekly private therapy.
It's about the 50% of students who don't live in a family and community culture where literacy matters.

The question is do you think kids who have parents that aren't fully literate (in their own languages) deserve to learn to read? It sounds like you don't.

If their culture doesn't care about it and they don't want to attempt any assimilation then I mean maybe yea.

Doesn't it feel a little pathetic to be an educator who can only teach kids to read if the parents can actually do the heavy lifting of providing explicit reading instruction? My mom was an immigrant who never even read books to me. You think kids can't learn to read unless their parents teach them? That means you haven't actually been teaching reading. Which tracks with the fact that MCPS was using Benchmark which does not explicitly teach kids how to read (it does explicitly teach bad habits)

Educators can teach kids without at home support to read, it will just be more difficult given current circumstances. There are a lot more EML students, students with special needs, and just average unprepared students showing up in classrooms. Not to mention class sizes are bigger. This means teachers have little time to work work with individual students or student groups. Throw in problematic behaviors and it upends everything that use to happen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

You think a parent who doesn't know their own kid whinthry live with can't read, never reads with their kid and uses YouTube as childcare gives a hoot about a Dibels?

This isn't about your AuDHD dyslexic child who gets weekly private therapy.
It's about the 50% of students who don't live in a family and community culture where literacy matters.

The question is do you think kids who have parents that aren't fully literate (in their own languages) deserve to learn to read? It sounds like you don't.

If their culture doesn't care about it and they don't want to attempt any assimilation then I mean maybe yea.

Doesn't it feel a little pathetic to be an educator who can only teach kids to read if the parents can actually do the heavy lifting of providing explicit reading instruction? My mom was an immigrant who never even read books to me. You think kids can't learn to read unless their parents teach them? That means you haven't actually been teaching reading. Which tracks with the fact that MCPS was using Benchmark which does not explicitly teach kids how to read (it does explicitly teach bad habits)

Educators can teach kids without at home support to read, it will just be more difficult given current circumstances. There are a lot more EML students, students with special needs, and just average unprepared students showing up in classrooms. Not to mention class sizes are bigger. This means teachers have little time to work work with individual students or student groups. Throw in problematic behaviors and it upends everything that use to happen

So it's the students' fault now? Jfc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

You think a parent who doesn't know their own kid whinthry live with can't read, never reads with their kid and uses YouTube as childcare gives a hoot about a Dibels?

This isn't about your AuDHD dyslexic child who gets weekly private therapy.
It's about the 50% of students who don't live in a family and community culture where literacy matters.

The question is do you think kids who have parents that aren't fully literate (in their own languages) deserve to learn to read? It sounds like you don't.

If their culture doesn't care about it and they don't want to attempt any assimilation then I mean maybe yea.

Doesn't it feel a little pathetic to be an educator who can only teach kids to read if the parents can actually do the heavy lifting of providing explicit reading instruction? My mom was an immigrant who never even read books to me. You think kids can't learn to read unless their parents teach them? That means you haven't actually been teaching reading. Which tracks with the fact that MCPS was using Benchmark which does not explicitly teach kids how to read (it does explicitly teach bad habits)

Educators can teach kids without at home support to read, it will just be more difficult given current circumstances. There are a lot more EML students, students with special needs, and just average unprepared students showing up in classrooms. Not to mention class sizes are bigger. This means teachers have little time to work work with individual students or student groups. Throw in problematic behaviors and it upends everything that use to happen

So it's the students' fault now? Jfc

Where did the pp say it’s the student’s fault? They mentioned special needs, EmL status, class sizes…and yes problematic behaviors that are largely due to parenting issues, not the students fault.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

You think a parent who doesn't know their own kid whinthry live with can't read, never reads with their kid and uses YouTube as childcare gives a hoot about a Dibels?

This isn't about your AuDHD dyslexic child who gets weekly private therapy.
It's about the 50% of students who don't live in a family and community culture where literacy matters.

The question is do you think kids who have parents that aren't fully literate (in their own languages) deserve to learn to read? It sounds like you don't.

If their culture doesn't care about it and they don't want to attempt any assimilation then I mean maybe yea.

Doesn't it feel a little pathetic to be an educator who can only teach kids to read if the parents can actually do the heavy lifting of providing explicit reading instruction? My mom was an immigrant who never even read books to me. You think kids can't learn to read unless their parents teach them? That means you haven't actually been teaching reading. Which tracks with the fact that MCPS was using Benchmark which does not explicitly teach kids how to read (it does explicitly teach bad habits)

Educators can teach kids without at home support to read, it will just be more difficult given current circumstances. There are a lot more EML students, students with special needs, and just average unprepared students showing up in classrooms. Not to mention class sizes are bigger. This means teachers have little time to work work with individual students or student groups. Throw in problematic behaviors and it upends everything that use to happen

So it's the students' fault now? Jfc

Where did the pp say it’s the student’s fault? They mentioned special needs, EmL status, class sizes…and yes problematic behaviors that are largely due to parenting issues, not the students fault.

Anything to distract from MCPS's decision to gaslight parents while not to teaching kids to read

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

You think a parent who doesn't know their own kid whinthry live with can't read, never reads with their kid and uses YouTube as childcare gives a hoot about a Dibels?

This isn't about your AuDHD dyslexic child who gets weekly private therapy.
It's about the 50% of students who don't live in a family and community culture where literacy matters.

The question is do you think kids who have parents that aren't fully literate (in their own languages) deserve to learn to read? It sounds like you don't.

If their culture doesn't care about it and they don't want to attempt any assimilation then I mean maybe yea.

Doesn't it feel a little pathetic to be an educator who can only teach kids to read if the parents can actually do the heavy lifting of providing explicit reading instruction? My mom was an immigrant who never even read books to me. You think kids can't learn to read unless their parents teach them? That means you haven't actually been teaching reading. Which tracks with the fact that MCPS was using Benchmark which does not explicitly teach kids how to read (it does explicitly teach bad habits)

Educators can teach kids without at home support to read, it will just be more difficult given current circumstances. There are a lot more EML students, students with special needs, and just average unprepared students showing up in classrooms. Not to mention class sizes are bigger. This means teachers have little time to work work with individual students or student groups. Throw in problematic behaviors and it upends everything that use to happen

So it's the students' fault now? Jfc

Where did the pp say it’s the student’s fault? They mentioned special needs, EmL status, class sizes…and yes problematic behaviors that are largely due to parenting issues, not the students fault.

Thank you. I’m a teacher and I’m trying not to think of this in terms of whose fault it is at all. But I’ve been doing this for many years, and something major has changed. They’re not the same. Classroom management tools and teaching strategies I’ve used for years don’t work. And the kids are getting further and further behind. I am planning to leave because whatever I’m doing doesn’t work. Best of luck to the next teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When are these f$cker5 going to apologize for their incompetence? Any staff that blames parents for this travesty should be fired immediately and investigated for bribery.

The Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) is one of the most popular measures of early reading ability in American elementary schools. Teachers are supposed to use it as a checkup to see how students are progressing throughout the year. But researchers who’ve studied it say the BAS is wrong far too often to be useful. It is also more expensive for the schools and more time-consuming for the teachers to administer, according to an analysis comparing it to other tests. One professor who analyzed the BAS said it was worse at identifying struggling readers than any assessment he had ever seen. That means struggling readers might be less likely to get the help they need before they fall even further behind their classmates.

And by the way, our MCPS school is STILL sending BS Benchmark books home. Yes, in fall 2024. Instead of finding something useful to do with them, like burning them to heat buildings, they are sending them home to further inculcate bad reading habits.

Staff are blaming parents for kid’s behavior. Behavior that is making the learning environment untenable for all. It doesn’t matter what curriculum or strategies are being used now if teachers are spending more time managing behaviors than teaching.

Omg, EVERYTHING is somebody else's fault in MCPS. Jfc

I’m an ESOL teacher so I’m in a lot of classrooms in ES. The teachers ARE teaching. There is so much content to cover. Kids’ attention spans are shot—even the good kids are constantly talking, and it’s not due to lack of behavior management tools and effort from teachers. They are up against iPad kids who truly don’t have attention span anymore because of that immediate gratification and lack of boredom that has trained their brains away from focus. I see it at all socio economic levels. We just had parent teacher conferences and at my school the students can come. Almost every kid I saw in the hallways waiting or in an actual conference was handed a phone. I know that is to attempt to keep them quiet, but at what cost? We used to have other ways to keep kids quiet and since it’s defaulted to the screen, kids everywhere are being harmed.

And yes, I think schools use too many screens as well—it’s coming from both school and home and it’s bringing down the intelligence and focus of the future generation. The screens have got to go.

MCPS just this year introduced a curriculum that isn't total BS. Stop pretending MCPS has nothing to do with low literacy rates.

Btw are you a parent? Nobody I know has their kids watching videos all the time. I watched a ton of TV as a kid in the 90s. I think you are desperate to blame parents but there is something else going on here.

Do you ever go out in public and look around?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The first thing that we want these efforts to accomplish is to alert parents that there’s a problem. A very simple, culturally competent, easy to understand sheet of paper that says your child has a problem,” said Black and Brown Coalition Co-Founder Diego Uriburu."

I don't think this person understands the problem.

Parents who don't care about their children being able to read aren't interested in a "culturally competent" lecture about it from the school.

No, they understand the problem and are proposing a document to help alleviate. The problem is that parents don’t clearly understand how their kids are doing because there is conflicting information. Grades saying A or B, and Dibels saying not on level but teachers saying everything is fine. This goes on for awhile and then suddenly kids need intervention.

It’s the same problem that is seen across students grades vs district assessments vs external assessments.

You think a parent who doesn't know their own kid whinthry live with can't read, never reads with their kid and uses YouTube as childcare gives a hoot about a Dibels?

This isn't about your AuDHD dyslexic child who gets weekly private therapy.
It's about the 50% of students who don't live in a family and community culture where literacy matters.

The question is do you think kids who have parents that aren't fully literate (in their own languages) deserve to learn to read? It sounds like you don't.

If their culture doesn't care about it and they don't want to attempt any assimilation then I mean maybe yea.

Doesn't it feel a little pathetic to be an educator who can only teach kids to read if the parents can actually do the heavy lifting of providing explicit reading instruction? My mom was an immigrant who never even read books to me. You think kids can't learn to read unless their parents teach them? That means you haven't actually been teaching reading. Which tracks with the fact that MCPS was using Benchmark which does not explicitly teach kids how to read (it does explicitly teach bad habits)

Parents have other ways of supporting school work, like sending the kids to school every day and expecting good behavior. No one expects them to do all of the teaching, but they should fulfill their own role.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When are these f$cker5 going to apologize for their incompetence? Any staff that blames parents for this travesty should be fired immediately and investigated for bribery.

The Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) is one of the most popular measures of early reading ability in American elementary schools. Teachers are supposed to use it as a checkup to see how students are progressing throughout the year. But researchers who’ve studied it say the BAS is wrong far too often to be useful. It is also more expensive for the schools and more time-consuming for the teachers to administer, according to an analysis comparing it to other tests. One professor who analyzed the BAS said it was worse at identifying struggling readers than any assessment he had ever seen. That means struggling readers might be less likely to get the help they need before they fall even further behind their classmates.

And by the way, our MCPS school is STILL sending BS Benchmark books home. Yes, in fall 2024. Instead of finding something useful to do with them, like burning them to heat buildings, they are sending them home to further inculcate bad reading habits.

Staff are blaming parents for kid’s behavior. Behavior that is making the learning environment untenable for all. It doesn’t matter what curriculum or strategies are being used now if teachers are spending more time managing behaviors than teaching.

Omg, EVERYTHING is somebody else's fault in MCPS. Jfc

I’m an ESOL teacher so I’m in a lot of classrooms in ES. The teachers ARE teaching. There is so much content to cover. Kids’ attention spans are shot—even the good kids are constantly talking, and it’s not due to lack of behavior management tools and effort from teachers. They are up against iPad kids who truly don’t have attention span anymore because of that immediate gratification and lack of boredom that has trained their brains away from focus. I see it at all socio economic levels. We just had parent teacher conferences and at my school the students can come. Almost every kid I saw in the hallways waiting or in an actual conference was handed a phone. I know that is to attempt to keep them quiet, but at what cost? We used to have other ways to keep kids quiet and since it’s defaulted to the screen, kids everywhere are being harmed.

And yes, I think schools use too many screens as well—it’s coming from both school and home and it’s bringing down the intelligence and focus of the future generation. The screens have got to go.

MCPS just this year introduced a curriculum that isn't total BS. Stop pretending MCPS has nothing to do with low literacy rates.

Btw are you a parent? Nobody I know has their kids watching videos all the time. I watched a ton of TV as a kid in the 90s. I think you are desperate to blame parents but there is something else going on here.

Do you ever go out in public and look around?

Yes and I see what multiple studies have shown which is that parents are constantly playing with and engaging their kids. Much more than our our parents' generation did.

My parents were barely involved in my education besides sending me to school. I never had help with homework and they certainly didn't teach me to read. The expectations on parents have vastly increased during this time. Now it is the parents' job to teach kids to read, not the teachers' job since they have been using a useless curriculum.