4th grade "too easy"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Imagine what it would do to the real estate market in Montgomery County if more people realized that "good schools" is not synonymous with "schools with small percentages of kids classified as FARMS, Hispanic, and black".

Yep. Mcps will drive everything into the ground, starting with the curriculum, ending with the property values.

I think you misunderstood what I said.

There are people who think that schools with low percentages of kids classified as FARMS, Hispanic, and black are good schools, and schools with higher percentages of kids classified as FARMS, Hispanic, and black are bad schools. These people are wrong. There are schools with low percentages of kids classified as FARMS, Hispanic, and black that are not good schools. There are schools with higher percentages of kids classified as FARMS, Hispanic, and black that are good schools.

If more people realized this, then yes, property values in the "W"-school zones would probably go down. But property values in the rest of the county would go up.

And yes, the 205 school giant beast called MoCoPS has way more than a handful of "good schools."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I read a study recently that was done on/for Montgomery county, and it showed that once the FARMs percentage went above 20% the performance of lower income students stagnated. It didn't say what happened to the performance of the higher income kids though. This suggests that there is a point where school effectiveness is impacted by the % of FARMs kids.

Here: http://tcf.org/assets/downloads/tcf-Schwartz.pdf

I'm the PP, and yes, I agree completely. But there are a lot of schools that aren't Burning Tree ES (<5% FARMS) but also aren't Wheaton Woods ES (81.1% FARMS). (I picked those elementary schools at random; I don't know a thing about them other than what's on the school-at-a-glance report.) And what's more, if the affluent people were less concentrated in certain parts of the county, the FARMS percentages would go down in the schools in the rest of the county. Which would be good for everybody (except possibly the people who paid a lot extra to live in a "W" zone).

True. Unfortunately close to 35% of the kids in MoCo are FARMs, so it would be impossible to spread it out to meet this 20% threshold. Affluent people are going to congregate together, that's just a fact of life. They pay money to be in safer areas with better schools, and honestly why shouldn't they? When it comes to my child, I'm going to do the best I can for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I read a study recently that was done on/for Montgomery county, and it showed that once the FARMs percentage went above 20% the performance of lower income students stagnated. It didn't say what happened to the performance of the higher income kids though. This suggests that there is a point where school effectiveness is impacted by the % of FARMs kids.

Here: http://tcf.org/assets/downloads/tcf-Schwartz.pdf

I'm the PP, and yes, I agree completely. But there are a lot of schools that aren't Burning Tree ES (<5% FARMS) but also aren't Wheaton Woods ES (81.1% FARMS). (I picked those elementary schools at random; I don't know a thing about them other than what's on the school-at-a-glance report.) And what's more, if the affluent people were less concentrated in certain parts of the county, the FARMS percentages would go down in the schools in the rest of the county. Which would be good for everybody (except possibly the people who paid a lot extra to live in a "W" zone).

Damn those W people who went to college, grad school, then worked and saved and bought in good school districts with shorter commutes to downtown. Damn them all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Damn those W people who went to college, grad school, then worked and saved and bought in good school districts with shorter commutes to downtown. Damn them all.

This is not about you. This is about schools.

Are there good schools in MCPS that are not in the "W" zones? Yes.

Are all of the schools in the "W" zones good schools? No.

[Anonymous]

Money attracts money, honey.

These people in the W clusters had and will ALWAYS have connections.

That's what's unfair b/c it's hard to break into "the club."

not that I want to, btw - as I'm happy with our local school
But when you compare a school in Bethesda to one in downtown SS, the differences in poverty level, resources and progress are horrifying. Is that fair?

So damn you, PP!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I read a study recently that was done on/for Montgomery county, and it showed that once the FARMs percentage went above 20% the performance of lower income students stagnated. It didn't say what happened to the performance of the higher income kids though. This suggests that there is a point where school effectiveness is impacted by the % of FARMs kids.

Here: http://tcf.org/assets/downloads/tcf-Schwartz.pdf

I'm the PP, and yes, I agree completely. But there are a lot of schools that aren't Burning Tree ES (<5% FARMS) but also aren't Wheaton Woods ES (81.1% FARMS). (I picked those elementary schools at random; I don't know a thing about them other than what's on the school-at-a-glance report.) And what's more, if the affluent people were less concentrated in certain parts of the county, the FARMS percentages would go down in the schools in the rest of the county. Which would be good for everybody (except possibly the people who paid a lot extra to live in a "W" zone).

Damn those W people who went to college, grad school, then worked and saved and bought in good school districts with shorter commutes to downtown. Damn them all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
"I don't know. My kid is in third grade and this weeks' spelling list includes the words mischief, insincere and mischievous. He has to write an essay every week about a book he's reading. They have substantial math homework every night, plus cursive 2x each week. Interesting work on the constitution and the bill of rights seems to be happening in social studies. They just did two science experiments on gravity. The coursework seems appropriately challenging."

PP, fess up! What school is this? My DS has the same spelling words but would love the rest as well. I'd like to explain to his math!/science teacher that yes, other schools manage to teach science as well. And we've heard nothing about the Constitution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hmm, I have a 4th grader in MCPS and he has weekly spelling tests, not biweekly. This week's list includes "tayac," "sinew," "dogbane" and "excavate." I believe about half the words correspond to work they are doing in social studies. I'm sure my child could be challenged more, but I think the OP's complaints sound outside the norm for MCPS.

Wow - For 4th grade, our school dropped spelling lists entirely. I thought the curriculum was supposed to be more standardized throughout MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
"I don't know. My kid is in third grade and this weeks' spelling list includes the words mischief, insincere and mischievous. He has to write an essay every week about a book he's reading. They have substantial math homework every night, plus cursive 2x each week. Interesting work on the constitution and the bill of rights seems to be happening in social studies. They just did two science experiments on gravity. The coursework seems appropriately challenging."

PP, fess up! What school is this? My DS has the same spelling words but would love the rest as well. I'd like to explain to his math!/science teacher that yes, other schools manage to teach science as well. And we've heard nothing about the Constitution.

My child doesn't have homework in 4th grade - no math, no social studies, no reading, and NO cursive (??? we were told that was specifically not in the curriculum when a parent asked about cursive at Back to School night). How can schools in the same system be so different in instruction?

[Anonymous]

I am the parent of the third grader mentioned above. Our school is Bells Mill Elementary and they do a great job.

[Anonymous]

We were told no more spelling under 2.0.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were told no more spelling under 2.0.

Odd. Because there's spelling at my kid's school.

[Anonymous]

Our kid just started spelling this week.

[Anonymous]

We have spelling although its kind of strange because the kids come up with their own words. This is 3rd grade. Had spelling last year too in 2nd.

[Anonymous]

Spelling has never been standardized throughout the county-pre-2.0 or 2.0. It's always varied by school/teacher.

[Anonymous]

Which school is the 4th grader listed above at?