Question about middle school English differentiation

[Anonymous]

Related question- what books are your kids assigned right now in "Advanced English" and "HIGH" if not at Eastern or MLK?
My 6th grader has Belle Prader's Boy. HiGH has A Long Walk to Water.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid took AP lit last year and only read one book.

Spark Notes for the win!

Terrible...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here, thank you for the responses. I assumed they would still group the kids according to ability, but I guess not. This doesn’t seem to be good for anyone but the middle.

It is not good for the middle, either, because they get stuck with a lot of kids who aren’t paying attention. (Either because it is too easy boring, or because they don’t care)

Yeah, I was thinking this also. It’s not good for any student.

But MCPS dislikes differentiation in ES and MS because it doesn’t help close the Achievement Gap and it racially discriminatory. So, basically, now kids of ALL races are left to suffer because nobody gets any quality writing instruction in MS.

My kid’s “advanced English” class seems to be comprised of about 2/3 non-native speakers. Some of them can barely spell or write a sentence correctly. Calling this class “advanced” is not fooling anyone and is a great disservice to everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here, thank you for the responses. I assumed they would still group the kids according to ability, but I guess not. This doesn’t seem to be good for anyone but the middle.

It is not good for the middle, either, because they get stuck with a lot of kids who aren’t paying attention. (Either because it is too easy boring, or because they don’t care)

Yeah, I was thinking this also. It’s not good for any student.

But MCPS dislikes differentiation in ES and MS because it doesn’t help close the Achievement Gap and it racially discriminatory. So, basically, now kids of ALL races are left to suffer because nobody gets any quality writing instruction in MS.

My kid’s “advanced English” class seems to be comprised of about 2/3 non-native speakers. Some of them can barely spell or write a sentence correctly. Calling this class “advanced” is not fooling anyone and is a great disservice to everyone.

Same for mine.

Agree it’s a disservice to all. The non-native speakers should be in a separate class where they can get up to speed. Instead, our MS just prints all the assignments in English and Spanish. Which I guess is good exposure for my English-speaking kid?

And not a chance it’s Advanced anything since it would be impossible for the teacher to teach all the kids at one level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Related question- what books are your kids assigned right now in "Advanced English" and "HIGH" if not at Eastern or MLK?
My 6th grader has Belle Prader's Boy. HiGH has A Long Walk to Water.

7th. No book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here, thank you for the responses. I assumed they would still group the kids according to ability, but I guess not. This doesn’t seem to be good for anyone but the middle.

It is not good for the middle, either, because they get stuck with a lot of kids who aren’t paying attention. (Either because it is too easy boring, or because they don’t care)

Yeah, I was thinking this also. It’s not good for any student.

But MCPS dislikes differentiation in ES and MS because it doesn’t help close the Achievement Gap and it racially discriminatory. So, basically, now kids of ALL races are left to suffer because nobody gets any quality writing instruction in MS.

My kid’s “advanced English” class seems to be comprised of about 2/3 non-native speakers. Some of them can barely spell or write a sentence correctly. Calling this class “advanced” is not fooling anyone and is a great disservice to everyone.

Same for mine.

Agree it’s a disservice to all. The non-native speakers should be in a separate class where they can get up to speed. Instead, our MS just prints all the assignments in English and Spanish. Which I guess is good exposure for my English-speaking kid?

And not a chance it’s Advanced anything since it would be impossible for the teacher to teach all the kids at one level.

Ummm this is horrible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here, thank you for the responses. I assumed they would still group the kids according to ability, but I guess not. This doesn’t seem to be good for anyone but the middle.

It is not good for the middle, either, because they get stuck with a lot of kids who aren’t paying attention. (Either because it is too easy boring, or because they don’t care)

Yeah, I was thinking this also. It’s not good for any student.

But MCPS dislikes differentiation in ES and MS because it doesn’t help close the Achievement Gap and it racially discriminatory. So, basically, now kids of ALL races are left to suffer because nobody gets any quality writing instruction in MS.

My kid’s “advanced English” class seems to be comprised of about 2/3 non-native speakers. Some of them can barely spell or write a sentence correctly. Calling this class “advanced” is not fooling anyone and is a great disservice to everyone.

Same for mine.

Agree it’s a disservice to all. The non-native speakers should be in a separate class where they can get up to speed. Instead, our MS just prints all the assignments in English and Spanish. Which I guess is good exposure for my English-speaking kid?

And not a chance it’s Advanced anything since it would be impossible for the teacher to teach all the kids at one level.

Ummm this is horrible

Interestingly, my kid’s HIGH assignments are even all posted in both Spanish and English. I find this strange because I would doubt that a kid is in HIGH that doesn’t have a strong grasp of English.

Maybe it is an MCPS requirement that all assignments are translated in Spanish?

[Anonymous]

Honestly I’d have to say that some of the students’ work was remedial, at best. Probably most of them had limited English skills. I’m talking about the inability to write a complete sentence or spell common basic words. Very very low level — what you might expect from a kindergartener or first grader with not much imagination or interest. These students need more intensive help at their English proficiency level or capability. And students who have advanced skills need something different. MCPS tracks for math starting in ES. Why are they doing this? Some sort of attempt at “equity”? This makes no sense and benefits no one.

[Anonymous]

My SSIMS 6th-grader is halfway through his first class-assigned novel. He was given a choice of 3 books (and chose the one he hadn’t read yet, sweet kid 😂).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly I’d have to say that some of the students’ work was remedial, at best. Probably most of them had limited English skills. I’m talking about the inability to write a complete sentence or spell common basic words. Very very low level — what you might expect from a kindergartener or first grader with not much imagination or interest. These students need more intensive help at their English proficiency level or capability. And students who have advanced skills need something different. MCPS tracks for math starting in ES. Why are they doing this? Some sort of attempt at “equity”? This makes no sense and benefits no one.

This. If they differentiate in MS, you basically have a segregated school with kids separated by race.

This way, MCPS can say 100% of kids are in Advanced English by 6th grade.

MCPS cares about optics, and positive press, first and foremost. Not about what is best for our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly I’d have to say that some of the students’ work was remedial, at best. Probably most of them had limited English skills. I’m talking about the inability to write a complete sentence or spell common basic words. Very very low level — what you might expect from a kindergartener or first grader with not much imagination or interest. These students need more intensive help at their English proficiency level or capability. And students who have advanced skills need something different. MCPS tracks for math starting in ES. Why are they doing this? Some sort of attempt at “equity”? This makes no sense and benefits no one.

This. If they differentiate in MS, you basically have a segregated school with kids separated by race.

This way, MCPS can say 100% of kids are in Advanced English by 6th grade.

MCPS cares about optics, and positive press, first and foremost. Not about what is best for our kids.

Can you show us where they have ever said that...?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly I’d have to say that some of the students’ work was remedial, at best. Probably most of them had limited English skills. I’m talking about the inability to write a complete sentence or spell common basic words. Very very low level — what you might expect from a kindergartener or first grader with not much imagination or interest. These students need more intensive help at their English proficiency level or capability. And students who have advanced skills need something different. MCPS tracks for math starting in ES. Why are they doing this? Some sort of attempt at “equity”? This makes no sense and benefits no one.

This. If they differentiate in MS, you basically have a segregated school with kids separated by race.

This way, MCPS can say 100% of kids are in Advanced English by 6th grade.

MCPS cares about optics, and positive press, first and foremost. Not about what is best for our kids.

Can you show us where they have ever said that...?

Can you give us one good reason why 6th grade English is called Advanced English, when there is no other (non-advanced) option for 6th graders?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly I’d have to say that some of the students’ work was remedial, at best. Probably most of them had limited English skills. I’m talking about the inability to write a complete sentence or spell common basic words. Very very low level — what you might expect from a kindergartener or first grader with not much imagination or interest. These students need more intensive help at their English proficiency level or capability. And students who have advanced skills need something different. MCPS tracks for math starting in ES. Why are they doing this? Some sort of attempt at “equity”? This makes no sense and benefits no one.

This. If they differentiate in MS, you basically have a segregated school with kids separated by race.

This way, MCPS can say 100% of kids are in Advanced English by 6th grade.

MCPS cares about optics, and positive press, first and foremost. Not about what is best for our kids.

Can you show us where they have ever said that...?

Can you give us one good reason why 6th grade English is called Advanced English, when there is no other (non-advanced) option for 6th graders?

There are two different classes:
Grade 6 English (ENG1009)
Grade 6 Adv English (ENG1010)

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/middleschool/grade6.aspx

You'll have to ask your principal or your school's English resource teacher why both are not offered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly I’d have to say that some of the students’ work was remedial, at best. Probably most of them had limited English skills. I’m talking about the inability to write a complete sentence or spell common basic words. Very very low level — what you might expect from a kindergartener or first grader with not much imagination or interest. These students need more intensive help at their English proficiency level or capability. And students who have advanced skills need something different. MCPS tracks for math starting in ES. Why are they doing this? Some sort of attempt at “equity”? This makes no sense and benefits no one.

This. If they differentiate in MS, you basically have a segregated school with kids separated by race.

This way, MCPS can say 100% of kids are in Advanced English by 6th grade.

MCPS cares about optics, and positive press, first and foremost. Not about what is best for our kids.

Can you show us where they have ever said that...?

Can you give us one good reason why 6th grade English is called Advanced English, when there is no other (non-advanced) option for 6th graders?

There are two different classes:
Grade 6 English (ENG1009)
Grade 6 Adv English (ENG1010)

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/middleschool/grade6.aspx

You'll have to ask your principal or your school's English resource teacher why both are not offered.

Yep. And how many MSs in MCPS offer ENG1009?

I don’t need to ask why. It is pretty clear why ENG1009 is not offered at my kids’ high FARMS/high ESOL MS.

[Anonymous]

MS kids class is currently doing Tell Tale Heart and using it for carious ELA skills along with other text from Study Sync.