Article— “MCPS isn’t failing kids: honestly that’s the problem”

[Anonymous]

There are some schools that have remedial reading programs. I’ve heard not all have them. But that’s an alternative to holding kids back. Reading is such an important life skill that we need to do better.

There are some kids that aren’t going to be high performers. But we need to get them through school somehow unless we want a lot of unemployed people.

[Anonymous]

I would add to the list... allow parents and other adults to participate as classroom volunteers who can spend 1:1 time with a child. We have thousands of very educated people in our community who would be willing to volunteer in this way.

[Anonymous]

It's amazing reading these comments ... some of you clearly have no idea what it is like inside of a classroom at all. Teachers work their butts off to get these kids what they need. I didn't read the post with any idea that kids should be held back to simply do things the same way again. It's about making sure kids don't progress until they're ready!

[Anonymous]

If we’re going to continue social promotion, can we at last have multiple levels for English in 9th grade so that the 9th graders who read at a 3rd grade level aren’t forced into the same class as the on-level and advanced readers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's amazing reading these comments ... some of you clearly have no idea what it is like inside of a classroom at all. Teachers work their butts off to get these kids what they need. I didn't read the post with any idea that kids should be held back to simply do things the same way again. It's about making sure kids don't progress until they're ready!

Some teachers do, some don’t. But, if a kid hits hs and is not reading, many failed that child. Some kids need intensive support, it’s not just about waiting till they are ready. With learning disabilities, that will not fix itself when they are ready. This attitude is why kids fail. Ignore and hope they catch up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If we’re going to continue social promotion, can we at last have multiple levels for English in 9th grade so that the 9th graders who read at a 3rd grade level aren’t forced into the same class as the on-level and advanced readers?

There are at some hs. They have more remedial classes than advanced.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't want a lot of parents in my classes. While some are great others are overly pushy or aggressive or entirely fail to understand school dynamics / rules / etc. That way leads to misunderstandings or lawsuits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bad article. Kids who cannot read were failed by many people. Holding back is not the fix. Evaluating, remediating and providing supports. This teacher is part of the problem, not the solution. The curriculum, teaching methods and so much more are the issue. They can blame parents but parents are not at fault for learning disabilities and need support and training to help their kids as not everyone can afford to pay privately.

Agreed!!

[Anonymous]

Get ready for more folks. The state and MCPS will soon be partially grading high schools based on how many minorities are in APs.

It’s hard on those students, staff and peers when there are students in APs who are not ready to be there. APs don’t really have the time to scaffold or slow things down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't want a lot of parents in my classes. While some are great others are overly pushy or aggressive or entirely fail to understand school dynamics / rules / etc. That way leads to misunderstandings or lawsuits.

Parents can be a problem but it also makes me wonder whats going on when schools are shut to parents as its ripe for abuse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get ready for more folks. The state and MCPS will soon be partially grading high schools based on how many minorities are in APs.

It’s hard on those students, staff and peers when there are students in APs who are not ready to be there. APs don’t really have the time to scaffold or slow things down.

Good, our school discourages a lot of AP's so maybe they will stop that and support more students taking them.

[Anonymous]

My K kid had 27! Kids in her class this year. One teacher. Before they got a part time sub to help kid year. There is no way to meet the needs of all those kids especially ones that need more attention. It's a failure from the onset and funds are mismanaged and spent on central office staff and useless things. The county continuously fails to hold developers accountable and get more funding from them for new multi unit housing. We don't have enough classrooms and teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My K kid had 27! Kids in her class this year. One teacher. Before they got a part time sub to help kid year. There is no way to meet the needs of all those kids especially ones that need more attention. It's a failure from the onset and funds are mismanaged and spent on central office staff and useless things. The county continuously fails to hold developers accountable and get more funding from them for new multi unit housing. We don't have enough classrooms and teachers.

Thats a normal sized classroom. Parents need to work with kids at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My K kid had 27! Kids in her class this year. One teacher. Before they got a part time sub to help kid year. There is no way to meet the needs of all those kids especially ones that need more attention. It's a failure from the onset and funds are mismanaged and spent on central office staff and useless things. The county continuously fails to hold developers accountable and get more funding from them for new multi unit housing. We don't have enough classrooms and teachers.

Thats a normal sized classroom. Parents need to work with kids at home.

It shouldn't be a normal sized classroom! That's nuts. And unfortunately the reading curicullum was TERRIBLE for years so it's really no wonder that a lot of middle schoolers, who went through ES before RGR was used, can't read properly. If parents need to work with their kids so much at home to learn to read, than MCPS needs to provide the scaffolding to do so. Simply telling them to "have your kids read to you 20 minutes per day" isn't enough, especcially for parents for whom English is not their first language. Maybe this is better now but when my oldest was in kindergarten I asked their teacher how to support them and was told they should memorize sight words.