Second grader got a lot of 2s on final report card

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd investigate and get tutoring. Nothing to panic about, but this is something to work on. I'm a teacher. The early years are really important. Figure out where his weaknesses are and work on them, not just over the summer, keep going with tutoring throughout the school year too.

What can people do if they can't afford tutoring? $75-100/hour seems the norm around here and that's a lot of $$ over a year. If 2s on a report card are that concerning, shouldn't the child be offered summer school or other remediation?

When I had a kid who needed extra help, I worked with her myself at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd investigate and get tutoring. Nothing to panic about, but this is something to work on. I'm a teacher. The early years are really important. Figure out where his weaknesses are and work on them, not just over the summer, keep going with tutoring throughout the school year too.

What can people do if they can't afford tutoring? $75-100/hour seems the norm around here and that's a lot of $$ over a year. If 2s on a report card are that concerning, shouldn't the child be offered summer school or other remediation?

When I had a kid who needed extra help, I worked with her myself at home.

I don’t really understand the 3’s to 2’s. As an APS elem teacher it doesn’t make sense. We were told to grade to the year end standard so unless there was a regression once a kid reaches a 3 they stay there unless something very concerning happens. I would be interested to know how this school was grading.

There is no elementary APS summer school this year except for English learner newcomers or low-functioning special education students.

What were your students’ end of year MAP score percentiles?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd investigate and get tutoring. Nothing to panic about, but this is something to work on. I'm a teacher. The early years are really important. Figure out where his weaknesses are and work on them, not just over the summer, keep going with tutoring throughout the school year too.

What can people do if they can't afford tutoring? $75-100/hour seems the norm around here and that's a lot of $$ over a year. If 2s on a report card are that concerning, shouldn't the child be offered summer school or other remediation?

When I had a kid who needed extra help, I worked with her myself at home.

I don’t really understand the 3’s to 2’s. As an APS elem teacher it doesn’t make sense. We were told to grade to the year end standard so unless there was a regression once a kid reaches a 3 they stay there unless something very concerning happens. I would be interested to know how this school was grading.

There is no elementary APS summer school this year except for English learner newcomers or low-functioning special education students.

What were your students’ end of year MAP score percentiles?

Just a bit shocked that any teacher would use the VERY out of date description "low-functioning special education students". I know this isn't how the rest of Arlington views students with disabilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd investigate and get tutoring. Nothing to panic about, but this is something to work on. I'm a teacher. The early years are really important. Figure out where his weaknesses are and work on them, not just over the summer, keep going with tutoring throughout the school year too.

What can people do if they can't afford tutoring? $75-100/hour seems the norm around here and that's a lot of $$ over a year. If 2s on a report card are that concerning, shouldn't the child be offered summer school or other remediation?

When I had a kid who needed extra help, I worked with her myself at home.

I don’t really understand the 3’s to 2’s. As an APS elem teacher it doesn’t make sense. We were told to grade to the year end standard so unless there was a regression once a kid reaches a 3 they stay there unless something very concerning happens. I would be interested to know how this school was grading.

There is no elementary APS summer school this year except for English learner newcomers or low-functioning special education students.

What were your students’ end of year MAP score percentiles?

Just a bit shocked that any teacher would use the VERY out of date description "low-functioning special education students". I know this isn't how the rest of Arlington views students with disabilities.

Settle down. I don't think the comment was meant to refer in a derogative way to all sped students. The teacher is surely referring to Extended School Year services, but these are not automatically available to all sped students. I may not use the term low functioning to describe this cohort, but it's a rough description of the students who would qualify.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My second grader got a significant number of 2s on final report card. In almost every case, the "grade" in those areas was a 3 last quarter, so this was a surprise. The teacher hasn't said anything to me about what's going on. And now the year is over. How alarmed should I be by year-end 2s?

I don't know if all of the schools use the same grading system. This is at Campbell, and the kids get a score from 1-4 on lots of different competencies.

My son got 1 2 in the first quarter and I freaked out. I would think any 2 should be communicated by the teacher prior to receiving the report card. My son ended up with all 4 and two 3. Email the teacher and get your child up to grade level, how is the child’s behavior?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd investigate and get tutoring. Nothing to panic about, but this is something to work on. I'm a teacher. The early years are really important. Figure out where his weaknesses are and work on them, not just over the summer, keep going with tutoring throughout the school year too.

What can people do if they can't afford tutoring? $75-100/hour seems the norm around here and that's a lot of $$ over a year. If 2s on a report card are that concerning, shouldn't the child be offered summer school or other remediation?

When I had a kid who needed extra help, I worked with her myself at home.

I don’t really understand the 3’s to 2’s. As an APS elem teacher it doesn’t make sense. We were told to grade to the year end standard so unless there was a regression once a kid reaches a 3 they stay there unless something very concerning happens. I would be interested to know how this school was grading.

There is no elementary APS summer school this year except for English learner newcomers or low-functioning special education students.

What were your students’ end of year MAP score percentiles?

Just a bit shocked that any teacher would use the VERY out of date description "low-functioning special education students". I know this isn't how the rest of Arlington views students with disabilities.

Settle down. I don't think the comment was meant to refer in a derogative way to all sped students. The teacher is surely referring to Extended School Year services, but these are not automatically available to all sped students. I may not use the term low functioning to describe this cohort, but it's a rough description of the students who would qualify.

I apologize for offending. ESY is generally reserved for students who are working on critical life skills towards independence. Activities of daily living. Or, they show a marked regression over short breaks of taught skills and a lengthy instructional period needed to make up those skills. Hope this makes sense. Students who are not typically in the general education setting for the majority of the day.

Very few students are being offered any sort of summer programming in APS at the elementary level in particular. It’s been reducing in size each year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My second grader got a significant number of 2s on final report card. In almost every case, the "grade" in those areas was a 3 last quarter, so this was a surprise. The teacher hasn't said anything to me about what's going on. And now the year is over. How alarmed should I be by year-end 2s?

I don't know if all of the schools use the same grading system. This is at Campbell, and the kids get a score from 1-4 on lots of different competencies.

My son got 1 2 in the first quarter and I freaked out. I would think any 2 should be communicated by the teacher prior to receiving the report card. My son ended up with all 4 and two 3. Email the teacher and get your child up to grade level, how is the child’s behavior?

Again I’m so confused as an APS teacher. We were literally told by the county to give pretty much all 2’s in ELA in Q1 as those are all yearlong standards and we hadn’t yet taught the curriculum to even have data on who would be a 3 or 4. Different for math as those are standalone units. So that’s what we did.

*Note that this is changing for next year and will be indicated in the report card that each quarter’s grades reflect the work done in that specific quarter. But that was not the directive this year.

[Anonymous]

Also don’t expect the teacher to respond over the summer. She/he may not even receive the email until August.

[Anonymous]

I'm getting the sense that teachers weren't consistently applying the new standards, due to unclear or insufficient communication about how to do it. My kid had a couple of categories where the grades went: NT 3 2 4. That seems especially odd if the standards were supposed to be year-end as opposed to in-quarter, but kind of an odd pattern regardless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm getting the sense that teachers weren't consistently applying the new standards, due to unclear or insufficient communication about how to do it. My kid had a couple of categories where the grades went: NT 3 2 4. That seems especially odd if the standards were supposed to be year-end as opposed to in-quarter, but kind of an odd pattern regardless.

My 4th grader got a bunch of 2's. Although he passed the SOL, I think the teacher used how he performed on the SOL to fill in the numbers. Areas he didn't "pass" got a 2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My second grader got a significant number of 2s on final report card. In almost every case, the "grade" in those areas was a 3 last quarter, so this was a surprise. The teacher hasn't said anything to me about what's going on. And now the year is over. How alarmed should I be by year-end 2s?

I don't know if all of the schools use the same grading system. This is at Campbell, and the kids get a score from 1-4 on lots of different competencies.

My son got 1 2 in the first quarter and I freaked out. I would think any 2 should be communicated by the teacher prior to receiving the report card. My son ended up with all 4 and two 3. Email the teacher and get your child up to grade level, how is the child’s behavior?

Again I’m so confused as an APS teacher. We were literally told by the county to give pretty much all 2’s in ELA in Q1 as those are all yearlong standards and we hadn’t yet taught the curriculum to even have data on who would be a 3 or 4. Different for math as those are standalone units. So that’s what we did.

*Note that this is changing for next year and will be indicated in the report card that each quarter’s grades reflect the work done in that specific quarter. But that was not the directive this year.

Thank you for explaining this. Can you help me understand how a parent can tell if their child is on track or not when everyone gets a 2?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My second grader got a significant number of 2s on final report card. In almost every case, the "grade" in those areas was a 3 last quarter, so this was a surprise. The teacher hasn't said anything to me about what's going on. And now the year is over. How alarmed should I be by year-end 2s?

I don't know if all of the schools use the same grading system. This is at Campbell, and the kids get a score from 1-4 on lots of different competencies.

My son got 1 2 in the first quarter and I freaked out. I would think any 2 should be communicated by the teacher prior to receiving the report card. My son ended up with all 4 and two 3. Email the teacher and get your child up to grade level, how is the child’s behavior?

Again I’m so confused as an APS teacher. We were literally told by the county to give pretty much all 2’s in ELA in Q1 as those are all yearlong standards and we hadn’t yet taught the curriculum to even have data on who would be a 3 or 4. Different for math as those are standalone units. So that’s what we did.

*Note that this is changing for next year and will be indicated in the report card that each quarter’s grades reflect the work done in that specific quarter. But that was not the directive this year.

Thank you for explaining this. Can you help me understand how a parent can tell if their child is on track or not when everyone gets a 2?

By the end of year your child should have a 3 across the board which is meeting the grade level expectations.

A 2 at the beginning of the year in a standard that is taught in all 4 quarters can start at a 2 and then should reach a 3 later in the year. We added a comment that said the student was on track and met expectations for the quarter in the beginning of the year in this case. APS royally screwed up with their instructions for the new report card roll-out.

[Anonymous]

I have never seen that comment about being on track. Were teachers all supposed to include it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never seen that comment about being on track. Were teachers all supposed to include it?

No, we were told it was a way to let parents know since the grades wild seem like they weren’t. Please believe me when I say teachers hated this whole thing.

On a good note, they did have a group of teachers meet and work on improvements and the #1 request that was honored was to implement reporting on current quarterly progress for next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never seen that comment about being on track. Were teachers all supposed to include it?

No, we were told it was a way to let parents know since the grades wild seem like they weren’t. Please believe me when I say teachers hated this whole thing.

On a good note, they did have a group of teachers meet and work on improvements and the #1 request that was honored was to implement reporting on current quarterly progress for next year.

Appreciate your candor. Parents hated it too! It was impossible to tell if your kid was on track until it was too late.