Chevy Chase CES Parents -- How's it going?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ELC schools are listed at the bottom of this page. They are pretty evenly split across the county and yet still not in nearly enough schools. MCPS needs to expand to all schools. https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/enriched/programs/elc.aspx

I'm counting 6 of the CCES CES feeder ESes on the ELC list. It is a great program and puts both Benchmark and StudySync to shame. They should have a continuation for MS. HIGH is good, but it is not literature.

Agree -- they should expand ELC to all schools. Enriched Benchmark is a joke. They still use Benchmark as the core texts.

It was obvious from the preview prior to the selection of Benchmark that the curriculum was not suited to advanced students. There were not enough challenging texts available. They received those comments from the whole G/T crowd before they selected Benchmark. Like many institutions, they purchase a COTS product, and think it will be easy to modify and adapt to their particular needs. This is a mistake in most instances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It covers Whitman, WJ and BCC clusters….I’m guessing the ELC adoption rate in those clusters is somewhat higher than MCPS average. Just a guess. Also even without ELC, they are all pretty good schools—so if the peer group isn’t going to be markedly different and the social stuff and bus schedule are going to be a pain…my guess is a lot of the seats will end up going to the CCES neighborhood kids.

This is not going to be a popular opinion but I think the way this particular CES is heading I think it should be shut down or moved to a different part of the county. This makes no sense as a lottery because every single school in the catchment area is high performing. MCPS made sure of this a few years ago when they redistricted with Barnsley so that the wealthy schools were only competing with the wealthy schools.

With it being so random now and nearly everyone in these areas qualifying (was told it was more than 80 percent of kids in our elementary making the lottery cut off) they should be using those resources elsewhere.

I'm this PP and my child did get in randomly but after looking at who else got in DC was like why would I want to drive there to go to school with Johnny and Larla who are average students when. the top students are staying at my school with my friends? DC is an average student just like Johnny and Larla and with none of the top students going it did not make any sense. If DC had gotten in in previous years which probably wouldn't have happened we would have sent DC in a heartbeat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It covers Whitman, WJ and BCC clusters….I’m guessing the ELC adoption rate in those clusters is somewhat higher than MCPS average. Just a guess. Also even without ELC, they are all pretty good schools—so if the peer group isn’t going to be markedly different and the social stuff and bus schedule are going to be a pain…my guess is a lot of the seats will end up going to the CCES neighborhood kids.

This is not going to be a popular opinion but I think the way this particular CES is heading I think it should be shut down or moved to a different part of the county. This makes no sense as a lottery because every single school in the catchment area is high performing. MCPS made sure of this a few years ago when they redistricted with Barnsley so that the wealthy schools were only competing with the wealthy schools.

With it being so random now and nearly everyone in these areas qualifying (was told it was more than 80 percent of kids in our elementary making the lottery cut off) they should be using those resources elsewhere.

I think you’ve just discovered the whole point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It covers Whitman, WJ and BCC clusters….I’m guessing the ELC adoption rate in those clusters is somewhat higher than MCPS average. Just a guess. Also even without ELC, they are all pretty good schools—so if the peer group isn’t going to be markedly different and the social stuff and bus schedule are going to be a pain…my guess is a lot of the seats will end up going to the CCES neighborhood kids.

This is not going to be a popular opinion but I think the way this particular CES is heading I think it should be shut down or moved to a different part of the county. This makes no sense as a lottery because every single school in the catchment area is high performing. MCPS made sure of this a few years ago when they redistricted with Barnsley so that the wealthy schools were only competing with the wealthy schools.

With it being so random now and nearly everyone in these areas qualifying (was told it was more than 80 percent of kids in our elementary making the lottery cut off) they should be using those resources elsewhere.

I'm this PP and my child did get in randomly but after looking at who else got in DC was like why would I want to drive there to go to school with Johnny and Larla who are average students when. the top students are staying at my school with my friends? DC is an average student just like Johnny and Larla and with none of the top students going it did not make any sense. If DC had gotten in in previous years which probably wouldn't have happened we would have sent DC in a heartbeat.

Every year there's a parent who makes this post trying to convince others to drop out so more spots will open up.

[Anonymous]

You sure do have a negative view of humans don't you.

[Anonymous]

This is what is frustrating. If my home ES offered ELC, I will be fine if DS doesn't get in the CES, but they don't. I emailed our principal asking if they can bring ELC to the school (it is up to the principal's discretion). She gave me some political response about how Benchmark advance is the way they enrich advanced readers, blah blah blah.

[Anonymous]

Get together with some other parents and ask again. Bring in the PTA. That works much better than individual parents asking. Good luck PP. That's what we did at DD's school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is what is frustrating. If my home ES offered ELC, I will be fine if DS doesn't get in the CES, but they don't. I emailed our principal asking if they can bring ELC to the school (it is up to the principal's discretion). She gave me some political response about how Benchmark advance is the way they enrich advanced readers, blah blah blah.

Agree. Our home school also doesn't offer ELC, so everyone is clamoring for a CES spot because Benchmark is terrible, even with the optional enrichment added. ELC has moved beyond the pilot stage now that it has been along for a number of years and has data showing increased achievement--at this point MCPS should be offering it at all schools, particularly given that CES is a lottery so the kids who "need" it the most may be left behind at their home school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get together with some other parents and ask again. Bring in the PTA. That works much better than individual parents asking. Good luck PP. That's what we did at DD's school.

Did that work? What did you do? Have lot of people call or sign a letter? Or was it led by the PTA? How long from start to finish to get it implemented?

[Anonymous]

Can anyone post the data showing ELC increases achievement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get together with some other parents and ask again. Bring in the PTA. That works much better than individual parents asking. Good luck PP. That's what we did at DD's school.

Did that work? What did you do? Have lot of people call or sign a letter? Or was it led by the PTA? How long from start to finish to get it implemented?

Meeting with parents with PTA leadership present to try to come up with solutions for high achieving students not going to the CES. Meetings started in spring and the curriculum was implemented in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Can anyone post the data showing ELC increases achievement?

The data were included in the Powerpoint the MCCPTA Gifted Education Committee circulated on CES. I don't think I've seen it online - just by email.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Can anyone post the data showing ELC increases achievement?

The data were included in the Powerpoint the MCCPTA Gifted Education Committee circulated on CES. I don't think I've seen it online - just by email.

Thank you. I knew I had read that they had done a study, but I couldn't for the life of me recall where I had read it.

[Anonymous]

I think the teachers and the education qualify is much higher than our home school, which is a top school already. Really night and day. The principal is terrible though, I can’t stand her politics. She should be fired.

My kid is in the upper 90s and has remarked that she doesn’t think her classmates are that smart, so she’s noticed the variance probably due to lottery’s. I’d say try it because if you kid doesn’t like it in a few weeks you can always pull them out.

[Anonymous]

Here's the link to the MCCPTA Gifted Education Committee slides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17y29FNwBDwKN64Q7ExBch_CAWkFgSeXZ/preview