75% of Maryland 8th grade students and 69 percent of 4th grade students are at or below

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's with all of the comments about what Asians do in this post? Can you start another thread?

They are not Asians. They are Asian-Americans. A group of Americans that did not have any learning loss during the pandemic. So lets look at why they did not suffer learning loss during the pandemic? Or why their SAT scores actually went up?

Lets look at if these students were attending virtual classrooms? Did they switch on their cameras? Were they participating? Were they submitting their homework in time? Were they showing up for tests? How often were they raising their hands and asking questions? How involved were their parents in making sure that these kids were up, fed, dressed and ready to learn?

[Anonymous]

Why the hand-wringing over year-old data. Obviously if another once in a lifetime pandemic comes, we probably won’t close schools again.

But I work at an elementary and kids have been growing tremendously in the past year. This old data is a lagging indicator.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no doubt that there is a loss of learning due to the pandemic and virtual learning. Im just curious as to what some of you would have done differently? I mean going virtual was the only option at a time. Our kids are alive. Not saying they didn’t pay a price, of course, but what’s here is here .

What a joke.

Relocated to a southern state. Schools were open. Kids excelled.

Well, excelling in the South is different than excelling in the North.

Not at all. That’s your own bias shining through.

My kid does a Math program that attracts kids from all over the world. You should see how many high-flyers there are that come from Texas and Florida. Lots of extremely bright kids all over the country.

Well, there are a lot of extremely bright Asian-American kids in Texas and Florida. I know of several high achiever Indian-Americans who live in Alabama.

Oh, I agree! Just commenting in response to the poster who said there are no smart kids ‘excelling’ in the southern part of the US - such a dumb thing to say.

Asian-American kids are exceling everywhere. It is due to their home culture which includes highly educated parents and emphasis on education. No school can overcome a home culture that does not value or prioritize education. Whichever school or district will have a lot of Asian-American students, their academic scores and academic achievements will be higher. However, the groups that are typically behind academically - Blacks, Hispanics, rural areas, ESOL, FARMS and poor SES families - will remain behind. The big issue is what can schools do to bring up the academic achievements of these groups up? Free schooling, free transportation, free meals, after care, before care, free school supplies and free tutoring are already in place so what else??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no doubt that there is a loss of learning due to the pandemic and virtual learning. Im just curious as to what some of you would have done differently? I mean going virtual was the only option at a time. Our kids are alive. Not saying they didn’t pay a price, of course, but what’s here is here .

No. Actually, it’s possible we lost more kids due to school buildings being shut down from the pandemic. There has been a huge increase in mental health issues and suicides amongst kids since Covid began.

Zero kids age 0-17 have died of Covid in Montgomery County as a result of Covid. ZERO. That was with schools open/schools closed, prior to the Covid shot/after the Covid shot.

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/case-counts.html#deaths-age

We did not ‘save kids’ lives’ by keeping schools closed. Not at all.

Agree with the second poster. Some people cannot face what a wrong headed decision this was. Private schools were open. Public schools in red-leaning areas were open. Schools in other countries were open. C'mon, it's 2022, we can open our eyes and admit that we absolutely failed the kids.

Yes to this. Admit it was a mistake and let’s try to fix it.

The death rate of teachers in FLA does not point to it being “a mistake”.

What it was was a terrible situation .. a pandemic, that has caused setbacks everywhere in the US.

Btw 68% of students are at or above the national standard, there are 10-20% that will always be below so we really need to help the other 20%.

Not to minimize death, but where are you getting your statistics? I found this report about the deaths of Florida educators in the 2020-21 school year.

https://feaweb.org/covid19/fea-safe-schools-report/

It mentions 46 deaths of educators, including teachers, bus drivers, custodians, etc. If you look at the articles, some of them mention contracting COVID outside of school while on vacation or break.

In addition, schools here would never have opened without masks, as was the case in Florida.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no doubt that there is a loss of learning due to the pandemic and virtual learning. Im just curious as to what some of you would have done differently? I mean going virtual was the only option at a time. Our kids are alive. Not saying they didn’t pay a price, of course, but what’s here is here .

What a joke.

Relocated to a southern state. Schools were open. Kids excelled.

Standards are so low at southern states that my kid is excelling there even without being enrolled there! lol

Which is why Texas has districts ranked in the top 10. Which is, by the way, way ahead of mcps which ranks far below.

Yes. Lots of Asian-Americans in Sugarland, Texas. These kids do very well! Y'all know why MCPS is doing poorly. Fake equity based on lowering the bar to rigerous programs that attracted the best students, removal of final exams so there is grade inflation, removal of textbooks etc so that kids who are doing poorly feel that they are doing well. LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For some reason Asian kids did fine during the pandemic. Their scores, including SAT scores, just keep going up. Why is that?

The article says that the downward trend was from 2013. Asian-Americans have already figured out that there are a lot of weaknesses in American education system and so they have been supplementing and teaching their kids at home.

Mostly the Asian-American parents (and specifically the moms) are very well-educated and can teach Math to their children so the children are coming out ahead in STEM. Culturally, there is a huge emphasis on education within families and the community as a whole. Finally, most Asian-Americans first gen were highly educated people from their countries who came to the US. They are not the poorest of the poor, uneducated migrants.

The weaknesses in American education system that most Asians notice and try to overcome are -
1) Shortened school year
2) Lack of textbooks
3) Lack of final exams
4) Lack of discipline in classrooms. Disruptive students are tolerated. Parents are not responsible.
5) Lack of a well defined curriculum, syllabus that is shared with students and parents. Textbooks and units of study that are mapped to the syllabus and curriculum.
6) Not failing any students in any grade and holding them back
7) Grade inflation. Students earn grades for doing homework.
8) Graded assignments and tests are not returned back to students and parents.
9) No comprehensive, standardized curriculum, syallabus, textbooks, testing and school year nationally for all grades and all subjects. Even SAT is going away.

What the US does extremely well -
1) Free education for everybody
2) Free transportation for coming and going to school
3) Free meals
4) Free school supplies.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's with all of the comments about what Asians do in this post? Can you start another thread?

They are not Asians. They are Asian-Americans. A group of Americans that did not have any learning loss during the pandemic. So lets look at why they did not suffer learning loss during the pandemic? Or why their SAT scores actually went up?

Lets look at if these students were attending virtual classrooms? Did they switch on their cameras? Were they participating? Were they submitting their homework in time? Were they showing up for tests? How often were they raising their hands and asking questions? How involved were their parents in making sure that these kids were up, fed, dressed and ready to learn?

As has been repeatedly pointed out, virtual learning wasn't the problem. The same learning loss occurred in Southern states that remained open. The difference is this group showed an interest in learning more consistently than others. Any kid that wanted to l earn did fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For some reason Asian kids did fine during the pandemic. Their scores, including SAT scores, just keep going up. Why is that?

The article says that the downward trend was from 2013. Asian-Americans have already figured out that there are a lot of weaknesses in American education system and so they have been supplementing and teaching their kids at home.

Mostly the Asian-American parents (and specifically the moms) are very well-educated and can teach Math to their children so the children are coming out ahead in STEM. Culturally, there is a huge emphasis on education within families and the community as a whole. Finally, most Asian-Americans first gen were highly educated people from their countries who came to the US. They are not the poorest of the poor, uneducated migrants.

The weaknesses in American education system that most Asians notice and try to overcome are -
1) Shortened school year
2) Lack of textbooks
3) Lack of final exams
4) Lack of discipline in classrooms. Disruptive students are tolerated. Parents are not responsible.
5) Lack of a well defined curriculum, syllabus that is shared with students and parents. Textbooks and units of study that are mapped to the syllabus and curriculum.
6) Not failing any students in any grade and holding them back
7) Grade inflation. Students earn grades for doing homework.
8) Graded assignments and tests are not returned back to students and parents.
9) No comprehensive, standardized curriculum, syallabus, textbooks, testing and school year nationally for all grades and all subjects. Even SAT is going away.

What the US does extremely well -
1) Free education for everybody
2) Free transportation for coming and going to school
3) Free meals
4) Free school supplies.

+1

I agree with most of this, which is why the academic success of Asian-American students should not be used to argue why what we are doing now is just fine for any family that cares about their kids' education. If you can only succeed through extensive supplementation, there is a problem. The lack of textbooks and defined syllabus are a huge part of why it is hard for parents to help their kids - it takes independent work to provide that support, which may don't have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For some reason Asian kids did fine during the pandemic. Their scores, including SAT scores, just keep going up. Why is that?

The article says that the downward trend was from 2013. Asian-Americans have already figured out that there are a lot of weaknesses in American education system and so they have been supplementing and teaching their kids at home.

Mostly the Asian-American parents (and specifically the moms) are very well-educated and can teach Math to their children so the children are coming out ahead in STEM. Culturally, there is a huge emphasis on education within families and the community as a whole. Finally, most Asian-Americans first gen were highly educated people from their countries who came to the US. They are not the poorest of the poor, uneducated migrants.

The weaknesses in American education system that most Asians notice and try to overcome are -
1) Shortened school year
2) Lack of textbooks
3) Lack of final exams
4) Lack of discipline in classrooms. Disruptive students are tolerated. Parents are not responsible.
5) Lack of a well defined curriculum, syllabus that is shared with students and parents. Textbooks and units of study that are mapped to the syllabus and curriculum.
6) Not failing any students in any grade and holding them back
7) Grade inflation. Students earn grades for doing homework.
8) Graded assignments and tests are not returned back to students and parents.
9) No comprehensive, standardized curriculum, syallabus, textbooks, testing and school year nationally for all grades and all subjects. Even SAT is going away.

What the US does extremely well -
1) Free education for everybody
2) Free transportation for coming and going to school
3) Free meals
4) Free school supplies.

+1

Would agree with some of this but textbooks are kind of a 19th century idea. There are many less traditional sources like Wikipedia or Khan Academy that are wonderful. People just need to stop looking for excuses and adapt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For some reason Asian kids did fine during the pandemic. Their scores, including SAT scores, just keep going up. Why is that?

The article says that the downward trend was from 2013. Asian-Americans have already figured out that there are a lot of weaknesses in American education system and so they have been supplementing and teaching their kids at home.

Mostly the Asian-American parents (and specifically the moms) are very well-educated and can teach Math to their children so the children are coming out ahead in STEM. Culturally, there is a huge emphasis on education within families and the community as a whole. Finally, most Asian-Americans first gen were highly educated people from their countries who came to the US. They are not the poorest of the poor, uneducated migrants.

The weaknesses in American education system that most Asians notice and try to overcome are -
1) Shortened school year
2) Lack of textbooks
3) Lack of final exams
4) Lack of discipline in classrooms. Disruptive students are tolerated. Parents are not responsible.
5) Lack of a well defined curriculum, syllabus that is shared with students and parents. Textbooks and units of study that are mapped to the syllabus and curriculum.
6) Not failing any students in any grade and holding them back
7) Grade inflation. Students earn grades for doing homework.
8) Graded assignments and tests are not returned back to students and parents.
9) No comprehensive, standardized curriculum, syallabus, textbooks, testing and school year nationally for all grades and all subjects. Even SAT is going away.

What the US does extremely well -
1) Free education for everybody
2) Free transportation for coming and going to school
3) Free meals
4) Free school supplies.

+1

Would agree with some of this but textbooks are kind of a 19th century idea. There are many less traditional sources like Wikipedia or Khan Academy that are wonderful. People just need to stop looking for excuses and adapt.

About half of what they listed makes sense the other half is misguided. They're more concerned with making school a punishment than actual learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For some reason Asian kids did fine during the pandemic. Their scores, including SAT scores, just keep going up. Why is that?

The article says that the downward trend was from 2013. Asian-Americans have already figured out that there are a lot of weaknesses in American education system and so they have been supplementing and teaching their kids at home.

Mostly the Asian-American parents (and specifically the moms) are very well-educated and can teach Math to their children so the children are coming out ahead in STEM. Culturally, there is a huge emphasis on education within families and the community as a whole. Finally, most Asian-Americans first gen were highly educated people from their countries who came to the US. They are not the poorest of the poor, uneducated migrants.

The weaknesses in American education system that most Asians notice and try to overcome are -
1) Shortened school year
2) Lack of textbooks
3) Lack of final exams
4) Lack of discipline in classrooms. Disruptive students are tolerated. Parents are not responsible.
5) Lack of a well defined curriculum, syllabus that is shared with students and parents. Textbooks and units of study that are mapped to the syllabus and curriculum.
6) Not failing any students in any grade and holding them back
7) Grade inflation. Students earn grades for doing homework.
8) Graded assignments and tests are not returned back to students and parents.
9) No comprehensive, standardized curriculum, syallabus, textbooks, testing and school year nationally for all grades and all subjects. Even SAT is going away.

What the US does extremely well -
1) Free education for everybody
2) Free transportation for coming and going to school
3) Free meals
4) Free school supplies.

+1

I agree with most of this, which is why the academic success of Asian-American students should not be used to argue why what we are doing now is just fine for any family that cares about their kids' education. If you can only succeed through extensive supplementation, there is a problem. The lack of textbooks and defined syllabus are a huge part of why it is hard for parents to help their kids - it takes independent work to provide that support, which may don't have.

+1. I was reading through the exhaustive list of what needs to be overcome, it's no wonder parents are daunted. My dad used to read my textbooks to help me with math. My kids have no textbooks! Not to mention that the way kids teach math is different from when I was a kid.

I also just don't understand how parents find all this time for extra supplementation and have kids willing to sit and do it after a full day of school plus homework. Are no one else's kids exhausted at the end of the day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For some reason Asian kids did fine during the pandemic. Their scores, including SAT scores, just keep going up. Why is that?

The article says that the downward trend was from 2013. Asian-Americans have already figured out that there are a lot of weaknesses in American education system and so they have been supplementing and teaching their kids at home.

Mostly the Asian-American parents (and specifically the moms) are very well-educated and can teach Math to their children so the children are coming out ahead in STEM. Culturally, there is a huge emphasis on education within families and the community as a whole. Finally, most Asian-Americans first gen were highly educated people from their countries who came to the US. They are not the poorest of the poor, uneducated migrants.

The weaknesses in American education system that most Asians notice and try to overcome are -
1) Shortened school year
2) Lack of textbooks
3) Lack of final exams
4) Lack of discipline in classrooms. Disruptive students are tolerated. Parents are not responsible.
5) Lack of a well defined curriculum, syllabus that is shared with students and parents. Textbooks and units of study that are mapped to the syllabus and curriculum.
6) Not failing any students in any grade and holding them back
7) Grade inflation. Students earn grades for doing homework.
8) Graded assignments and tests are not returned back to students and parents.
9) No comprehensive, standardized curriculum, syallabus, textbooks, testing and school year nationally for all grades and all subjects. Even SAT is going away.

What the US does extremely well -
1) Free education for everybody
2) Free transportation for coming and going to school
3) Free meals
4) Free school supplies.

+1

Would agree with some of this but textbooks are kind of a 19th century idea. There are many less traditional sources like Wikipedia or Khan Academy that are wonderful. People just need to stop looking for excuses and adapt.

Why Khan Academy specifically? Is it part of the MCPS curriculum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes disaggregation would be helpful. But I imagine the stats will reflect similar results. Meanwhile the teachers were telling us how everything was fine and virtual school and students loved it better than virtual. 🙄

Many of us knew all along this would happen.

Virtual school was fine for kids who had parents who cared enough to make sure the kids were getting what they needed.

Except they only presented 80% of the content, even to your super-smart, well-behaved DC. So no, your kid isn't 'fine."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d like to see what percentage are at vs below grade level. Despite popular belief in this area, being at grade level is fine. Additionally, we did what needed to be done at the time. We were aware of the consequences of virtual school but the risk outweighed the benefit. Sorry that is true.

No, it is not OK because the term is not "at grade level;" it is "at basic proficiency."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes disaggregation would be helpful. But I imagine the stats will reflect similar results. Meanwhile the teachers were telling us how everything was fine and virtual school and students loved it better than virtual. 🙄

Many of us knew all along this would happen.

Virtual school was fine for kids who had parents who cared enough to make sure the kids were getting what they needed.

Except they only presented 80% of the content, even to your super-smart, well-behaved DC. So no, your kid isn't 'fine."

At least at our school the teachers went above and beyond to present the full curriculum. Just saying that isn't really true even though it's a popular thing to repeat.