My average/somewhat slacker 6th grader got straight As...WTH???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad that they have dumbed down the education in MCPS. It used to be a great school district.

I'm a teacher in MCPS. The dumbing down has occurred in response to rampant parent pressure to crank out those As at all costs. My older child was able to get an excellent education in this system, but we felt we had to put the younger one in private school.

Thanks for the insight. Again, it's sad that parents think an A is all that matters. These kids are going to struggle when they get to college.

They'll struggle when they get to HS, too, my experience is expectations pick up significantly.
I witnessed exactly this when a teacher went out on long term leave. The sub started actually grading the kids on the material they should have been learning and a cabal of parents and students had her replaced in no time and the admin arbitrarily added a 10% bump to everyone's grade.

Ugh. That's horrible PP.

My DS never struggled in school but was never really a completely straight A student either (usually all As and a B...). In 6th grade, he pulled down straight As with barely a nod to homework. I didn't understand it. Now, in 7th, he's getting his butt kicked. It's as though they pushed the kids through 6th to make the transition to MS easier and, now, the ones in higher level classes (advanced or honors) are really getting nailed. I hear parents yelling about grades constantly now where last year they were bragging about their childrens' intelligence.

Frankly, I'm glad DS is facing some rigor prior to high school. We were seriously considering going to private but if the rigor keeps up, we'll reassess.

Interesting that you mention honors and advanced courses. In our MCPS middle school, there are no honors classes and all classes are taught at the "advanced" level. I wonder if the "advanced" part of the class is being dumbed down since now all kids have to take the advanced class.

[Anonymous]

zero effort - all As in "advanced" classes. Looks like you get an A for actually doing the work and turning it in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Homework only counts for 10%

Then how did my kid end up with straight As after blowing tests and written summatives???

I think As are the new Ps for the 2.0 guinea pigs.

You really need to ask your child's teachers that question, not DCUM.

[Anonymous]

My kids Spanish teacher isn't giving out easy A grades. She is very hard to get an A grade. It's nice to hear how other teachers at other schools are padding the grades and everyone is getting A grades. This is why it is so disgusting that MCPS is getting rid of county provided semester exams. Without the uniform exams, kids with easy A teschers/schools will have higher grades than kids taking the same course title with harder teachers and no uniform exam to show reality. It's like all the kids that got A grades in Algebra and then bombed the county exam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad that they have dumbed down the education in MCPS. It used to be a great school district.

I'm a teacher in MCPS. The dumbing down has occurred in response to rampant parent pressure to crank out those As at all costs. My older child was able to get an excellent education in this system, but we felt we had to put the younger one in private school.

Thanks for the insight. Again, it's sad that parents think an A is all that matters. These kids are going to struggle when they get to college.

They'll struggle when they get to HS, too, my experience is expectations pick up significantly.
I witnessed exactly this when a teacher went out on long term leave. The sub started actually grading the kids on the material they should have been learning and a cabal of parents and students had her replaced in no time and the admin arbitrarily added a 10% bump to everyone's grade.

Ugh. That's horrible PP.

My DS never struggled in school but was never really a completely straight A student either (usually all As and a B...). In 6th grade, he pulled down straight As with barely a nod to homework. I didn't understand it. Now, in 7th, he's getting his butt kicked. It's as though they pushed the kids through 6th to make the transition to MS easier and, now, the ones in higher level classes (advanced or honors) are really getting nailed. I hear parents yelling about grades constantly now where last year they were bragging about their childrens' intelligence.

Frankly, I'm glad DS is facing some rigor prior to high school. We were seriously considering going to private but if the rigor keeps up, we'll reassess.

Interesting that you mention honors and advanced courses. In our MCPS middle school, there are no honors classes and all classes are taught at the "advanced" level. I wonder if the "advanced" part of the class is being dumbed down since now all kids have to take the advanced class.

At our MS there is Honors geometry and GT Advanced English in all grades (maybe languages are honors, I forget). Beyond that all world studies and english classes are labelled "Advanced" and it means they use the MCPS advanced curriculum--no idea when that was created or where the non-advanced one is/was taught. But now "Advanced" is the standard on grade curriculum. Beyond being silly to label everyone advanced, it does cause problems. For example, many do not realize there are a couple sections of GT Advanced English and it's not indicated on the schedule so it's hard to confirm they are in the right section. Given scheduling errors do happen, this would be nice to catch before school actually starts. At our school there is only one level in Science/World Studies classes and the expectation levels seem very low. Mostly work sheets and writing prompts that don't expect students to be able to form a sentence much less a paragraph without guidance.

[Anonymous]

Our MS says they teach everyone using the advanced curriculum but with in each class you have kids with are taking advanced SS or on-level SS so I think there is some confusion between the advanced curriculum and the advanced classwork/tests.

[Anonymous]

Here is what is really insane these Advanced English and Advanced World Studies that the entire school takes on the report card are listed as GT --- check the left symbols on your kids report card - what a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our MS says they teach everyone using the advanced curriculum but with in each class you have kids with are taking advanced SS or on-level SS so I think there is some confusion between the advanced curriculum and the advanced classwork/tests.

Yes, advanced curriculum is just the name, and I'm pretty sure the only one used in the county. Perhaps someone can clarify if that's wrong.

[Anonymous]

My youngest at TPMS (Magnet) got shocking High As in English and WS. That is big surprise since child has significant issues with writing... Child got much harder A in Health....
My oldest in 8th grade now barely got A in English. This is first year for oldest to have real English after HGC in ES...
Child is extremely good at creative writing (and does it for fun in free time ) but now terrible at regular writing assignments...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is what is really insane these Advanced English and Advanced World Studies that the entire school takes on the report card are listed as GT --- check the left symbols on your kids report card - what a joke.

You're right I hadn't noticed before. DDs report card last year, Eng/hist/science are all listed as GT, French and Geometry Honors. The history and science were not GT, the English was a GT section, but there's no additional way to indicate that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad that they have dumbed down the education in MCPS. It used to be a great school district.

I'm a teacher in MCPS. The dumbing down has occurred in response to rampant parent pressure to crank out those As at all costs. My older child was able to get an excellent education in this system, but we felt we had to put the younger one in private school.

Thanks for the insight. Again, it's sad that parents think an A is all that matters. These kids are going to struggle when they get to college.

They'll struggle when they get to HS, too, my experience is expectations pick up significantly.
I witnessed exactly this when a teacher went out on long term leave. The sub started actually grading the kids on the material they should have been learning and a cabal of parents and students had her replaced in no time and the admin arbitrarily added a 10% bump to everyone's grade.

Ugh. That's horrible PP.

My DS never struggled in school but was never really a completely straight A student either (usually all As and a B...). In 6th grade, he pulled down straight As with barely a nod to homework. I didn't understand it. Now, in 7th, he's getting his butt kicked. It's as though they pushed the kids through 6th to make the transition to MS easier and, now, the ones in higher level classes (advanced or honors) are really getting nailed. I hear parents yelling about grades constantly now where last year they were bragging about their childrens' intelligence.

Frankly, I'm glad DS is facing some rigor prior to high school. We were seriously considering going to private but if the rigor keeps up, we'll reassess.

Interesting that you mention honors and advanced courses. In our MCPS middle school, there are no honors classes and all classes are taught at the "advanced" level. I wonder if the "advanced" part of the class is being dumbed down since now all kids have to take the advanced class.

I'm the PP whose son is getting his butt kicked. We are in Maryland, but not MCPS. We have differentiated classes, although not as many as I'd like (it would be nice to have some in Science / SS also). I didn't realize that MCPS calls its entire curriculum "advanced." That explains a lot!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm the PP whose son is getting his butt kicked. We are in Maryland, but not MCPS. We have differentiated classes, although not as many as I'd like (it would be nice to have some in Science / SS also). I didn't realize that MCPS calls its entire curriculum "advanced." That explains a lot!

MCPS doesn't. Some of the schools in the fancy-pants areas of Montgomery County have decided to do this, presumably because in Lake Fancy-Pants Montgomery County, all of the children are above average.

[Anonymous]

There has to be a reason why MCPS is listing those classes as GT, I wonder if they have to give a certain amount of classes at an advanced level? This may be a way to put a big checkmark in the right box.

Doesn't surprise me that they got rid of the final exam. If there is a problem in MCPS they just gets rid of it instead of fixing it. Remember when there was a problem with the Algebra exams, they just got rid of them. If it's broke, they don't fix it, they just get rid of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There has to be a reason why MCPS is listing those classes as GT, I wonder if they have to give a certain amount of classes at an advanced level? This may be a way to put a big checkmark in the right box.

Doesn't surprise me that they got rid of the final exam. If there is a problem in MCPS they just gets rid of it instead of fixing it. Remember when there was a problem with the Algebra exams, they just got rid of them. If it's broke, they don't fix it, they just get rid of it.

No, I don't remember this, because it didn't happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm the PP whose son is getting his butt kicked. We are in Maryland, but not MCPS. We have differentiated classes, although not as many as I'd like (it would be nice to have some in Science / SS also). I didn't realize that MCPS calls its entire curriculum "advanced." That explains a lot!

MCPS doesn't. Some of the schools in the fancy-pants areas of Montgomery County have decided to do this, presumably because in Lake Fancy-Pants Montgomery County, all of the children are above average.

Our home middle school offers regular classes as well as advanced. So does the magnet my child attends. It does seem to be by school.