How much grade inflation is there in elementary schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I switched my kids in elementary school from public to private for similar reasons- no HW, teaching to standardized tests and overall dumbed down curriculum. Complaints to MCPS got me no where. Took a while for them to catch up at Catholic school - which was much more rigorous education.

There is a forum for private schools. Why are you posting here???

Backdoor private recruiting again, of course!

They must be desperate. This is the third time this week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grade inflation happens at all levels in MCPS, especially for children with disabilities.

We have found this to be the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I personally think my kids' teachers are hard graders, especially in writing. And in math, my second grader gets marked down to a B if she doesn't put a line through the number when borrowing in subtraction, even though everything is done correctly.

They don’t use traditional algorithm to subtract in second grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grade inflation happens at all levels in MCPS, especially for children with disabilities.

We have found this to be the case.

+1 My child cannot turn in assignments on time and falls behind every marking period but with exemptions he still has As and Bs. The IEP is a joke and they aren’t teaching him the skills he needs to meet his goals and objectives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grade inflation happens at all levels in MCPS, especially for children with disabilities.

We have found this to be the case.

+1 My child cannot turn in assignments on time and falls behind every marking period but with exemptions he still has As and Bs. The IEP is a joke and they aren’t teaching him the skills he needs to meet his goals and objectives.

My youngest gets P++ on everything!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grade inflation happens at all levels in MCPS, especially for children with disabilities.

We have found this to be the case.

+1 My child cannot turn in assignments on time and falls behind every marking period but with exemptions he still has As and Bs. The IEP is a joke and they aren’t teaching him the skills he needs to meet his goals and objectives.

My youngest gets P++ on everything!!

When I was going through the evaluation process with my oldest child, her teacher told me after school that the principal was threatening her job if she didn’t fill out the teacher report in such a way so the school could deny educational impact. She was sorry but thought the only way to get my daughter through the process was an outside evaluation and private services. The teacher transferred the following year.

The top priority in MCPS is not educating students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grade inflation happens at all levels in MCPS, especially for children with disabilities.

We have found this to be the case.

+1 My child cannot turn in assignments on time and falls behind every marking period but with exemptions he still has As and Bs. The IEP is a joke and they aren’t teaching him the skills he needs to meet his goals and objectives.

What are you doing to make sure assignments get done and turned in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I switched my kids in elementary school from public to private for similar reasons- no HW, teaching to standardized tests and overall dumbed down curriculum. Complaints to MCPS got me no where. Took a while for them to catch up at Catholic school - which was much more rigorous education.

There is a forum for private schools. Why are you posting here???

Backdoor private recruiting again, of course!

They must be desperate. This is the third time this week.

Not desperate. Record applications again at privates this year. Those who can afford to leave MCPS are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grade inflation happens at all levels in MCPS, especially for children with disabilities.

We have found this to be the case.

+1 My child cannot turn in assignments on time and falls behind every marking period but with exemptions he still has As and Bs. The IEP is a joke and they aren’t teaching him the skills he needs to meet his goals and objectives.

What are you doing to make sure assignments get done and turned in?

Students have no incentive to turn in work on time. There’s no penalty for late work. MCPS is not preparing students for life beyond high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child cannot write a grammatical, non-run-on, punctuated complete sentence. And they get almost all A's. Grades being used to try to get rid of IEP. 4th grade. Honestly I don't know if anything is even being graded as we never see anything come back home.

This you should discuss with your kids teacher,AP, and principal, as this is not the same across all MCPS schools. I’ve seen work come home every week in ES. That makes this a school level problem not a district level problem.

Or, maybe this poster's kids needed a tutor or parents to supplement at home. The ES curriculum is poor but those of us who worked with our kids, aren' having these issues. This poster should be working for 10-15 minutes a day with their kids to work on these things. MCPS does not teach grammar or punctuation so its up to the parents. Kumon has good workbooks.

Then this IS a district problem. A school district that doesn't teach the fundamentals of writing to young children is providing a sub-par education. The fact that they cover that up with high grades just adds to the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I switched my kids in elementary school from public to private for similar reasons- no HW, teaching to standardized tests and overall dumbed down curriculum. Complaints to MCPS got me no where. Took a while for them to catch up at Catholic school - which was much more rigorous education.

There is a forum for private schools. Why are you posting here???

NP - EVERYONE is allowed to care about the quality of public education. It is called a public good, so it impacts many issues in society and it is funded by our taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I switched my kids in elementary school from public to private for similar reasons- no HW, teaching to standardized tests and overall dumbed down curriculum. Complaints to MCPS got me no where. Took a while for them to catch up at Catholic school - which was much more rigorous education.

There is a forum for private schools. Why are you posting here???

NP - EVERYONE is allowed to care about the quality of public education. It is called a public good, so it impacts many issues in society and it is funded by our taxes.

The incessant comparisons to privates are the tireless efforts to recruit here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child cannot write a grammatical, non-run-on, punctuated complete sentence. And they get almost all A's. Grades being used to try to get rid of IEP. 4th grade. Honestly I don't know if anything is even being graded as we never see anything come back home.

This you should discuss with your kids teacher,AP, and principal, as this is not the same across all MCPS schools. I’ve seen work come home every week in ES. That makes this a school level problem not a district level problem.

Or, maybe this poster's kids needed a tutor or parents to supplement at home. The ES curriculum is poor but those of us who worked with our kids, aren' having these issues. This poster should be working for 10-15 minutes a day with their kids to work on these things. MCPS does not teach grammar or punctuation so its up to the parents. Kumon has good workbooks.

Then this IS a district problem. A school district that doesn't teach the fundamentals of writing to young children is providing a sub-par education. The fact that they cover that up with high grades just adds to the problem.

No it IS a school level(school or teacher) problem. The district is not advocating not teaching grammar or not correcting kids for incorrect use of punctuation and grammar. In fact, every writing rubric for ES I’ve seen and even the report card has a “Use of Language” section. If you’re reading your kids papers and notice that they are not being given feedback/correction on spelling and grammar, why are you not starting with discussing this issue with your kids teacher and the school AP/Principal.

Instead ya’ll complain on here, only to find out that in fact there are teachers and schools in the district where this is happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child cannot write a grammatical, non-run-on, punctuated complete sentence. And they get almost all A's. Grades being used to try to get rid of IEP. 4th grade. Honestly I don't know if anything is even being graded as we never see anything come back home.

This you should discuss with your kids teacher,AP, and principal, as this is not the same across all MCPS schools. I’ve seen work come home every week in ES. That makes this a school level problem not a district level problem.

Or, maybe this poster's kids needed a tutor or parents to supplement at home. The ES curriculum is poor but those of us who worked with our kids, aren' having these issues. This poster should be working for 10-15 minutes a day with their kids to work on these things. MCPS does not teach grammar or punctuation so its up to the parents. Kumon has good workbooks.

Then this IS a district problem. A school district that doesn't teach the fundamentals of writing to young children is providing a sub-par education. The fact that they cover that up with high grades just adds to the problem.

No it IS a school level(school or teacher) problem. The district is not advocating not teaching grammar or not correcting kids for incorrect use of punctuation and grammar. In fact, every writing rubric for ES I’ve seen and even the report card has a “Use of Language” section. If you’re reading your kids papers and notice that they are not being given feedback/correction on spelling and grammar, why are you not starting with discussing this issue with your kids teacher and the school AP/Principal.

Instead ya’ll complain on here, only to find out that in fact there are teachers and schools in the district where this is happening.

NO, it is a district problem. Teachers often compensate because they know kids need grammar, but that has not been the official MCPS position. Pre 2.0, I was on the curriculum committee for elementary school. They explicitly told is that teachers are instructed not to correct everything that’s incorrect, because it is too discouraging to the student. Instead, teachers are supposed to focus on one or two areas per assignment to correct. Maybe this paper they’ll correct capitalization and next paper they’ll correct punctuation, etc. (Incidentally, they felt that there were many great ways to learn vocabulary. The only way they said didn’t work was to use a dictionary. They were particularly enamored of students learning by acting out words, including words like “contemplation”. )

Every year at Back to School Night, I would specifically ask their teacher, “Do you teach grammar?” and the teachers’ responses generally reflected that they taught grammar because they personally felt it was important (often giving the impression that they could find themselves in an uncomfortable position if the district discovered their focus on grammar). I particularly remember the teacher who used the grammar curriculum from the private school her daughter attended to instruct my child’s class. I am desperately hoping that the new curriculum will teach grammar in an explicit and systematic fashion. However, I encourage everybody to specifically ask their child’s teacher about grammar instruction. I think the responses given, and the manner in which they’re given, would surprise many. Specifically inquiring about grammar instruction also lets the teacher know that it matters to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child cannot write a grammatical, non-run-on, punctuated complete sentence. And they get almost all A's. Grades being used to try to get rid of IEP. 4th grade. Honestly I don't know if anything is even being graded as we never see anything come back home.

This you should discuss with your kids teacher,AP, and principal, as this is not the same across all MCPS schools. I’ve seen work come home every week in ES. That makes this a school level problem not a district level problem.

Or, maybe this poster's kids needed a tutor or parents to supplement at home. The ES curriculum is poor but those of us who worked with our kids, aren' having these issues. This poster should be working for 10-15 minutes a day with their kids to work on these things. MCPS does not teach grammar or punctuation so its up to the parents. Kumon has good workbooks.

Then this IS a district problem. A school district that doesn't teach the fundamentals of writing to young children is providing a sub-par education. The fact that they cover that up with high grades just adds to the problem.

No it IS a school level(school or teacher) problem. The district is not advocating not teaching grammar or not correcting kids for incorrect use of punctuation and grammar. In fact, every writing rubric for ES I’ve seen and even the report card has a “Use of Language” section. If you’re reading your kids papers and notice that they are not being given feedback/correction on spelling and grammar, why are you not starting with discussing this issue with your kids teacher and the school AP/Principal.

Instead ya’ll complain on here, only to find out that in fact there are teachers and schools in the district where this is happening.

NO, it is a district problem. Teachers often compensate because they know kids need grammar, but that has not been the official MCPS position. Pre 2.0, I was on the curriculum committee for elementary school. They explicitly told is that teachers are instructed not to correct everything that’s incorrect, because it is too discouraging to the student. Instead, teachers are supposed to focus on one or two areas per assignment to correct. Maybe this paper they’ll correct capitalization and next paper they’ll correct punctuation, etc. (Incidentally, they felt that there were many great ways to learn vocabulary. The only way they said didn’t work was to use a dictionary. They were particularly enamored of students learning by acting out words, including words like “contemplation”. )

Every year at Back to School Night, I would specifically ask their teacher, “Do you teach grammar?” and the teachers’ responses generally reflected that they taught grammar because they personally felt it was important (often giving the impression that they could find themselves in an uncomfortable position if the district discovered their focus on grammar). I particularly remember the teacher who used the grammar curriculum from the private school her daughter attended to instruct my child’s class. I am desperately hoping that the new curriculum will teach grammar in an explicit and systematic fashion. However, I encourage everybody to specifically ask their child’s teacher about grammar instruction. I think the responses given, and the manner in which they’re given, would surprise many. Specifically inquiring about grammar instruction also lets the teacher know that it matters to you.

Pre 2.0…So more than 15 years ago???