So disappointed in MCPS

[Anonymous]

I'm looking through the things my ES student brought home. Its incredibly disappointing how remedial the curriculum is for K-1 grade kids. Hoping 2nd will be better but I hear its more of the same. DC did more interesting work in preschool.

My older child went through MCPS. This wasn't his experience. It looks like they dropped their standards by YEARS.

[Anonymous]

Like what stuff are you shaking your head at? I agree that my kid could have handled more math this year than she got but they initiated addition and I don't recall doing that in K as a kid at all.

[Anonymous]

I remember that my older kid was doing much more math in K-1 pre-2.0. In K, they introduced adding a number to itself multiple times and counting the total in different groups/sets. This is basic multiplication and I understand that this now doesn't get introduced until the end of 2nd.

The writing and other work is bad too. Not one comment on anything. Random correction of spellings sometimes. Sometimes a P or an ES no explanation. The P and ES work doesn't look any different. DC could do much better. I compared DC's home journal to DC's in class writing. For home journal, early on I worked with DC to remind her to add details, adjectives, and other simple things. She started doing this on her own. Her in class writing isn't as good because she knows the expectations are lower. If the teacher had asked for more, she would have done more. I guess since 2.0 doesn't require it, learning to improve isn't important.

[Anonymous]

My 3 year old started Montessori this year and I have a 1st grader in MCPS. At the M parent night, they showed us what 3 year olds do. One activity was the sound game. They have a stack of pictures and they match them to the sound/letter or letter blend. Its the beginning of phonics and makes sense. 3 year old loved it, mastered it quickly and then moved on to learn something else.

I am not kidding but at my 1st grader's observation day, his class was doing the same thing! The only difference was that the kids were not working independently with their own stack. The teacher was showing pictures on the smart board and asking for student volunteers to match the sound/letters. To my knowledge, there was never any assessment of mastering the phonics. No one could move on if they knew it. If anyone didn't know it, no idea what happened to them.

[Anonymous]

At BFES, we are doing amazing things. My first grader is working on pre-calc, and has written several 10 page papers.

[Anonymous]

Please keep in mind that a lot of what gets sent home is just the filling-time seat work that pads out the day or is used to keep kids busy while the teacher does more meaningful work with a small group. Sheet work often doesn't represent the level of difficulty throughout the whole day/focused group times.

-parent/ former teacher

[Anonymous]

Same here. My older DC looped back and "learned" things in math this year that he actually learned two or three years ago, when they were pulling kids out in groups. It's sad.

[Anonymous]

Have to wonder if this is really because of 2.0 or is there something else going on. Are large class sizes the problem? Seems that would limit the time the teacher has to challenge kids on their own levels. Honestly, I'm just guessing.

[Anonymous]

Under the old system we complained because acceleration caused them to miss whole concepts like long division or fractions because they skipped 2nd grade math..and then they skipped 4th grade math 1 year later. Let's not go back there again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At BFES, we are doing amazing things. My first grader is working on pre-calc, and has written several 10 page papers.

[Anonymous]

It ramps up quickly. Your child does not need to be doing more advanced work. The curriculum is being baselined and the kids are working in Kindergarten more on actually dealing with being a classroom more than anything else. Additionally, foundational work may seem below grade level but it's not. It's starting them to get used to the teaching style. Now, if your child is actually advanced, the school will see that and start to deal with that. If it's a good school, of course.

It is looking at this point as if my daughter is LD. She has some things she picks up immediately and others that seem simpler are very difficult. I get that this is an anonymous site, so you should feel free here to say whatever you want. BUT, please be careful what you say to your friends with kids the same age. Having people say the work is easy when she is struggling is awful. The school needs to figure out what the level of each child is in reality. It might frustrate you for now, but over time it will shake out. They are teaching to a "standard", not to your particular child.

[Anonymous]

The high school teachers would tell you that all of your kids who are supposedly bored and ready for more challenge are really getting a better math basis than the ones who came before. They went faster and certainly had more challenge but when they got to upper math they were not always so strong. Have you read the recent posts about kids needing to repeat algebra and geometry when they switched to private? I know many will probably chime in to say that their child got all A's in higher math..but an MCPS A isn't always that outstanding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The high school teachers would tell you that all of your kids who are supposedly bored and ready for more challenge are really getting a better math basis than the ones who came before. They went faster and certainly had more challenge but when they got to upper math they were not always so strong. Have you read the recent posts about kids needing to repeat algebra and geometry when they switched to private? I know many will probably chime in to say that their child got all A's in higher math..but an MCPS A isn't always that outstanding.

Very true.
--an MCPS teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember that my older kid was doing much more math in K-1 pre-2.0. In K, they introduced adding a number to itself multiple times and counting the total in different groups/sets. This is basic multiplication and I understand that this now doesn't get introduced until the end of 2nd.

The writing and other work is bad too. Not one comment on anything. Random correction of spellings sometimes. Sometimes a P or an ES no explanation. The P and ES work doesn't look any different. DC could do much better. I compared DC's home journal to DC's in class writing. For home journal, early on I worked with DC to remind her to add details, adjectives, and other simple things. She started doing this on her own. Her in class writing isn't as good because she knows the expectations are lower. If the teacher had asked for more, she would have done more. I guess since 2.0 doesn't require it, learning to improve isn't important.

Lack of comments is a teacher specific problem. The way they teach writing revolves specific areas of learning. When they are concentrating on narrative they are not correcting for spelling. When they are focused on pulling facts from the text, they are not correcting grammar. I not that crazy about that, but I get it. I went to a great public school, and I was not learning how to write a book and concentrating on so many areas of writing in the 3rd grade. So there is that. If u want more feedback talk to the teacher, nothing in the curriculum says they cannot give feedback.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The high school teachers would tell you that all of your kids who are supposedly bored and ready for more challenge are really getting a better math basis than the ones who came before. They went faster and certainly had more challenge but when they got to upper math they were not always so strong. Have you read the recent posts about kids needing to repeat algebra and geometry when they switched to private? I know many will probably chime in to say that their child got all A's in higher math..but an MCPS A isn't always that outstanding.

don't be so sure that was because the child didn't know the concepts....because many privates don't allow acceleration, leading kids to have to repeat just to fit into the private math track