Mundo Verde experiences

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We got a spot for Pk4 at P St and were then dismayed to learn that they are adopting Amplify CKLA for language arts for K and up. It's an enormous time commitment and I have no idea how they will balance it with the school's other goals. I suspect that overall this will be good for the school's stats - Amplify is proven to improve test scores- but I don't like it for my kid, so we are staying put for now.

Not familiar with this curriculum and it’d be great if you could share more about how it will be more time intensive? (Relative to?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We got a spot for Pk4 at P St and were then dismayed to learn that they are adopting Amplify CKLA for language arts for K and up. It's an enormous time commitment and I have no idea how they will balance it with the school's other goals. I suspect that overall this will be good for the school's stats - Amplify is proven to improve test scores- but I don't like it for my kid, so we are staying put for now.

The MV test scores are very low, especially at P Street, so this makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Does MV have a “reaching to the test” culture?

Are the “low scores” because of demo or teacher quality?

Is it common for families to supplement with outside tutoring?

I’m trying to grasp what learning is actually like there – somewhere between the impressions of people already there or people who left and then making assumptions about the curriculum changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got a spot for Pk4 at P St and were then dismayed to learn that they are adopting Amplify CKLA for language arts for K and up. It's an enormous time commitment and I have no idea how they will balance it with the school's other goals. I suspect that overall this will be good for the school's stats - Amplify is proven to improve test scores- but I don't like it for my kid, so we are staying put for now.

The MV test scores are very low, especially at P Street, so this makes sense.

MV Calle Ocho scores are not low.

P St is lower because they have a higher at risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got a spot for Pk4 at P St and were then dismayed to learn that they are adopting Amplify CKLA for language arts for K and up. It's an enormous time commitment and I have no idea how they will balance it with the school's other goals. I suspect that overall this will be good for the school's stats - Amplify is proven to improve test scores- but I don't like it for my kid, so we are staying put for now.

The MV test scores are very low, especially at P Street, so this makes sense.

MV Calle Ocho scores are not low.

P St is lower because they have a higher at risk.

This is exactly right. P St test scores are actually better for white kids than Calle Ocho scores are, but worse for Hispanic kids. This could be a matter of demographics because P St has much higher at risk than Calle Ocho.

I actually think that the test scores are fine at MV perhaps in part because I think the testing we have is pretty imperfect and not always a great picture of what is happening. However, DCPS bilingual schools have made huge gains and if MV wants to fill all their new pk seats they need to be competitive for better or worse.

I forget how many hours per day/week they said Amplify requires but doing the math it seemed to be almost equal to hours of school after accounting for lunch and specials. Amplify is edTech, very prescriptive, and doesn't use full texts. They use it in Montgomery County and some charter schools around town. It is very science of reading, which is great, but might not be a great fit if your kid is more advanced with language skills and you don't like edTech. I'm relieved that DCPS made a different choice.

[Anonymous]

We are a long time Calle Ocho family. I didn’t observe any crazy culture of teaching to the test. It seemed to be a frenzy of pro test stuff immediately before but not all year. We did not supplement but know families that did in math, but that seems pretty common all over DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are a long time Calle Ocho family. I didn’t observe any crazy culture of teaching to the test. It seemed to be a frenzy of pro test stuff immediately before but not all year. We did not supplement but know families that did in math, but that seems pretty common all over DC.

CO family now at DCI. There was absolutely no teaching to the test at all. CAPE was an afterthought and we just got email with heads up that the kids would be doing CAPE testing and recommended good night sleep. That was it.

We did not supplement in anything, not even spanish, and we don’t speak any spanish. Kid did well in spanish and is in the highest tracks in math and spanish FWIW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a long time Calle Ocho family. I didn’t observe any crazy culture of teaching to the test. It seemed to be a frenzy of pro test stuff immediately before but not all year. We did not supplement but know families that did in math, but that seems pretty common all over DC.

CO family now at DCI. There was absolutely no teaching to the test at all. CAPE was an afterthought and we just got email with heads up that the kids would be doing CAPE testing and recommended good night sleep. That was it.

We did not supplement in anything, not even spanish, and we don’t speak any spanish. Kid did well in spanish and is in the highest tracks in math and spanish FWIW.

Forgot we did put DS in MV 4 week spanish summer camp which was so easy great, and reasonable. Part of school but was optional for kids and not required. Guess that might be considered supplementing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got a spot for Pk4 at P St and were then dismayed to learn that they are adopting Amplify CKLA for language arts for K and up. It's an enormous time commitment and I have no idea how they will balance it with the school's other goals. I suspect that overall this will be good for the school's stats - Amplify is proven to improve test scores- but I don't like it for my kid, so we are staying put for now.

The MV test scores are very low, especially at P Street, so this makes sense.

MV Calle Ocho scores are not low.

P St is lower because they have a higher at risk.

This is exactly right. P St test scores are actually better for white kids than Calle Ocho scores are, but worse for Hispanic kids. This could be a matter of demographics because P St has much higher at risk than Calle Ocho.

I actually think that the test scores are fine at MV perhaps in part because I think the testing we have is pretty imperfect and not always a great picture of what is happening. However, DCPS bilingual schools have made huge gains and if MV wants to fill all their new pk seats they need to be competitive for better or worse.

I forget how many hours per day/week they said Amplify requires but doing the math it seemed to be almost equal to hours of school after accounting for lunch and specials. Amplify is edTech, very prescriptive, and doesn't use full texts. They use it in Montgomery County and some charter schools around town. It is very science of reading, which is great, but might not be a great fit if your kid is more advanced with language skills and you don't like edTech. I'm relieved that DCPS made a different choice.

.

Anecdotally, but not representative of course, so many families I know are actively looking for more teacher-led interactions not more edtech. I’m not familiar with the ELA/CKLA from amplify but the science one has a terrible rep, so if that’s indicative of the company in general … I’m afraid MV will move in the opposite of competitive. Though of course families in NE and SE just don’t have as many options for dual language DCPS.