Comparing MCPS levels of rigor between ESs

[Anonymous]

DD is at a borderline Title 1 MCPS ES. We have actually been happy with her time there so far - and so has DD - but I will also admit that it's possible I don't know what we're missing. How do you compare needier schools to "higher performing" (i.e. lower FARM rate) schools at the ES level?

For point of reference this is what our experience was...is this below what other middle class families are seeing from their experiences in schools with lower FARM rates? Trying to figure out how to compare based on what DD is actually experiencing vs. the school's overall test scores that are driven by other things. To date disruptiveness has not been an issue in DD's classes and most classmates do speak English.

- By end of 1st grade DD was on J and at least a handful of others in her class were around there or just under. Believe a few kids in other class are higher than that from talking with a neighbor. (Norm though is that most kids are closer to grade level at end of 1st.)

- DD did a weekly HW journal 1 night a week of X sentences (started at like 4 and went up to 11) on any topic. Teacher would correct word wall words and other persistent misspellings but no where near all the mistakes. There did not appear to me to be teaching of spelling rules - mostly reliant on words of the week (5 at a time) to install spelling improvements.

- For math by the end they had worked on double digit adding/subtracting - the grouping of numbers into 10s groups and dealing with the remainders. They practiced Math Facts, but DD was encouraged to work on them over the summer so I don't think it was expected that all knew their Math Facts cold by end of the year. DD could be pushed more in math, but I gather from DCUM that this is a county-wide problem perhaps not a school-specific one?

Honestly trying to see if it's possible to figure out whether the school is a nice place but not keeping pace with other ESs with different SES make-ups. Or if this is on par with elsewhere that's not Title 1/Focus. This is as we contemplate a move due to MS/HS concerns, so not just comparisons for the sake of being competitive.

[Anonymous]

It sounds fine.

[Anonymous]

OP - oops... Correction I think she ended 1st at P. (Have not focused on it that much obviously.)
J level was where I think she ended K.

[Anonymous]

The curriculum is county-wide.

There is also individual stuff that varies from school to school, like cursive, math facts tests, or spelling. However, in my anecdotal experience, it doesn't vary by SES of the student body.

Also anecdotally, the most parents on DCUM with the most complaints seem to be the parents of kids in elementary schools in Bethesda and Potomac.

[Anonymous]

Sounds completely on par with our experience at a non-Title I elementary school in W Cluster. In fact yours sounds better if the disciplinary issues are low and you have smaller class sizes.

[Anonymous]

We are in a Whitman feeder ES and what you described sounds like what we do, but the writing is done in school and HW in 1st grade was voluntary

[Anonymous]

Interestingly - we have friends in a title I school and their experience seems vastly different than ours. Their DD brought home only a few reading books all year and had no spelling tests (this was first grade). Our DD brought home a book a week and had weekly spelling tests. I can't speak to every aspect of their DD's education but it sounded kind of lax to me. The only thing they had better (or so it sounded) was the class size. Their's was in the teens while ours was approaching high 20s....

[Anonymous]

OH MY GOD OP LIGHTEN UP.

[Anonymous]

We're at a MCPS focus school and my kids seem to be doing pretty much exactly the same work as students at a more
"desirable" (richer, whiter) school nearby. I think the homework load at our school is slightly higher, which might be a coincidence or it might be a sense that the families in our school will do what the school tells them to do but not necessarily more.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PPs. Re: reading books - DD brought home only a few (definitely less than 10) all year but told me they do not always send the new books she does in class home.

To the "relax" pp - hunh? Obviously I am not hyper concerned as we send her to a school many on this board would likely write off immediately due to test scores. But 2 years in and still happy I am trying to take a reality check and see if our experience is similar to what she would get in other schools or instead watered down in a way I should be taking more seriously as she gets into higher ES grades.

OP

[Anonymous]

I work in a Title 1 school (not in this area) and we have to follow the same curriculum county/district wide. Our students are expected to meet the same standards as everywhere else. It's just a lot harder to do so with uninvolved/absent parents, low levels of literacy prior to starting school, attendance issues, you name it. Our school doesn't have too many behavior issues but there is a lot of other considerations that affect student performance. We are expected to perform miracles though and get everyone up to grade level no matter where they start from. So while every school has the same standards, not all students start in the same place. Our students make good progress during the school year if they regularly attend school and attend the after-school program where they have homework time. Then they go home in the summer and many of them end up starting all over again in late August. I had kindergarteners reading on grade level in June (level D) and then when they come back in late August, they are back to below a level A.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OH MY GOD OP LIGHTEN UP.

Maybe if your parents cared a little more, you'd know how to turn off the caps lock key and know how to apply proper punctuation.

[Anonymous]

Your daughter sounds like she is happy and thriving. She's at a school you both like, and she feels safe and is learning. That's a huge win. Don't go borrowing trouble.

[Anonymous]

A little tightly wound are we?

[Anonymous]

Sounds similar to my kids' WJ feeder ES.

When I used to compare DD's K experience to my friend's DD's K experience at a Title 1 school, I found the differences in the social activities and peer groups more than the academics. Also in her daughter's case, she found it difficult to find a group of intellectual peers in her K class of only 15-16 kids. Her daughter went into K reading and writing and was taken out for those activities. She had 3 years of preK before entering K while several of her classmates had not so she was more ready for K than the average. In my daughter's class of 25, she had no difficulty finding her peer group (she was probably below average in or ES-she was not reading or writing).

I do understand your concern but if you go to the MoCty website and look at the curriculum, you can see for yourself what is expected at each grade, by quarter. This is county-wide, so as long as your child is getting that curriculum, the academics are probably comparable.