PARCC monitoring student's social media, wants schools to "punish" them

[Anonymous]

^Some might say that it is the percentage of your population that can access health care and benefits because they are legal citizens or there is a legal mechanism to care for them because they have a legal status.

[Anonymous]

Many people judge a country on how the most vulnerable members of its population are treated.

Standardized testing and high stakes testing are not ways of treating children well. These children are not going to remember that they had a great childhood because they had standardized tests. They will remember the stress of their teachers and the boredom forced upon them. How the teachers are treated affects the children directly. Teachers being threatened with firing is not a good recipe for a happy, healthy classroom environment.

Suffer the children.

But I did love that "Here comes the monkey" pep rally in the link above. It says it all about the testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is "emergent reader" defined?

In MCPS, it's Text Level 4. You can find examples here: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/info/grading/EndOfYearReading-ParentGuide.pdf

Looking at this, it's a 1st grade reader in my day, No way was I doing this in kindergarten.

Epic fail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes this is why in some Northern European countries they don't even teach much about letters and numbers until age 6 or so. Someone once told me that countries that start teaching literacy later have fewer problems with dyslexia because children's brains are more mature and ready to handle the complex tasks involved in reading (including auditory processing).

Which Northern European countries? Could you please provide links to their pre-primary curricula?

Sorry I don't speak Danish or Swedish. Do you? You hear this stuff by talking go people. I ask because I'm interested. Look it up if you want to expand your own wisdom. And how would they study it. They don't see the need of teaching these things earlier so who would be their comparison. I had a Danish neighbor with a 3 year old visiting for a year while her husband worked at a prestigious research institute. She told me they don't teach letters or numbers till 6 or even 7. They focus on outdoor play before then. She was in fact guarding her kid against learning these things until the appropriate time. She said at 7 they learn quickly. Maybe Finland too. Norway. Some of the richest countries.

[Anonymous]

http://letstalkbooksandpolitics.blogspot.com/2011/12/education-in-finland-are-we-pushing.html

This is a blog by a man who has seen a study about Finland. I have looked for studies online, but the originals seem hard to come by. I did find a site that sells them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is "emergent reader" defined?

In MCPS, it's Text Level 4. You can find examples here: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/info/grading/EndOfYearReading-ParentGuide.pdf

Looking at this, it's a 1st grade reader in my day, No way was I doing this in kindergarten.

Epic fail.

Epic fail, why? 90% of kindergarteners in MCPS are doing this. Or did you mean that your kindergarten was an epic fail?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes this is why in some Northern European countries they don't even teach much about letters and numbers until age 6 or so. Someone once told me that countries that start teaching literacy later have fewer problems with dyslexia because children's brains are more mature and ready to handle the complex tasks involved in reading (including auditory processing).

Which Northern European countries? Could you please provide links to their pre-primary curricula?

Sorry I don't speak Danish or Swedish. Do you? You hear this stuff by talking go people. I ask because I'm interested. Look it up if you want to expand your own wisdom. And how would they study it. They don't see the need of teaching these things earlier so who would be their comparison. I had a Danish neighbor with a 3 year old visiting for a year while her husband worked at a prestigious research institute. She told me they don't teach letters or numbers till 6 or even 7. They focus on outdoor play before then. She was in fact guarding her kid against learning these things until the appropriate time. She said at 7 they learn quickly. Maybe Finland too. Norway. Some of the richest countries.

The Scandinavian countries are very obliging and put up a lot of stuff in English.

I also hear a lot of stuff by talking to people, but a lot of the stuff that I hear is not based in fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


Another interesting country is Germany. They do not have uber high test scores on the international tests, but look at the success of their economy! Who cares about the flipping tests? The measure of success is not the tests!

What is the measure of success?

It certainly depends on who you are and what your values are. Some people think it is test scores. Others might say it is the percentage of homeless people on the streets (far fewer in Germany). Others might say it is the national debt (none in Germany---in fact they have surplus). Some might say it is the number of students with college debt 10 years after college (none in many countries). Some might say it is the number of people able to sleep at night knowing they have health care covered. Some might say success means you have the ability to "bail out" others who need help. Some might say it is lots of things. I'm just saying that it is not the standardized tests. That is way too narrow of a definition of success. America does quite well at many things, but what do we do? Beat ourselves up over test scores that probably don't mean as much as other measures.

What is the measure of success IN EDUCATION? (Capital letters for emphasis, not shouting.)

[Anonymous]

Who evaluates whether the K kid is reading the emergent text?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who evaluates whether the K kid is reading the emergent text?

In MCPS, the classroom teacher or the reading specialist assess the child's reading level.

[Anonymous]

Compulsory Starting School Ages


http://www.bbc.com/news/education-24058227

In Northern Ireland, the statutory age of entry to school is four.

In England, Scotland, Wales, Cyprus and Malta, the age is five.

The statutory age is six in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey.

The age is seven in Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia and Sweden

(Figures from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER))

[Anonymous]

Who evaluates whether the K kid is reading the emergent text?


In MCPS, the classroom teacher or the reading specialist assess the child's reading level.

Maybe that explains the percentages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Who evaluates whether the K kid is reading the emergent text?


In MCPS, the classroom teacher or the reading specialist assess the child's reading level.

Maybe that explains the percentages.

Darn it, I can never remember if I'm supposed to trust teachers or not. I guess I'm supposed to trust teachers when teachers say stuff I agree with but distrust teachers when teachers say stuff I disagree with?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Compulsory Starting School Ages


http://www.bbc.com/news/education-24058227

In Northern Ireland, the statutory age of entry to school is four.

In England, Scotland, Wales, Cyprus and Malta, the age is five.

The statutory age is six in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey.

The age is seven in Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia and Sweden

(Figures from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER))

That's incomplete and misleading, though, since many (if not all) of those countries have basically universal preschool.

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/report/2013/05/02/62054/the-united-states-is-far-behind-other-countries-on-pre-k/

[Anonymous]

Darn it, I can never remember if I'm supposed to trust teachers or not. I guess I'm supposed to trust teachers when teachers say stuff I agree with but distrust teachers when teachers say stuff I disagree with?

Actually, a little common sense goes a long way when looking at scores.