above grade level reading and math but still a P

[Anonymous]

Hey you can always go to the teacher for more feedback. We do.

[Anonymous]

Hey you can always go to the teacher for more feedback. We do.

I've had mixed results with this. Some teachers are great. They are more than happy to provide specifics. With teachers, I care less about the "P" system. I know where my child is not doing the work that he could because he isn't motivated. I know where my child is not doing something because he doesn't get it. I know where my child is really strong and moving ahead faster than she expects.

Other teachers just waste time telling you that a P is really good which isn't the point. They can't produce any advice on what your child is strong/weak on. They can't show any work. I've been tempted to ask if we all pledge allegiance to the P could we please get on with it and see some actual specifics on what my child is doing strongly and what my child is doing that could use improvement. I'm starting to get the impression that because they no longer need to assess and collect any data beyond P land, some teachers are not paying attention at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Would an O/S/I in Reading -- just Reading, no subcategories, no anything else -- have been more helpful? That's what the previous report card had.

Yes, it did. O/S/I correlated to the graded assignments and unit tests in reading, math, writing and other subjects. If your child received an I or S, the teacher could clearly show the work that led had deficiencies. The boundary between S/O was good for kids in the middle or upper middle who were not struggling but not performing as well as they could. It was clear what kids getting an S needed to do to earn an O and this produced better work for those kids. It also gave kids pride that they went from S to O. It sent the message that practice and working hard can lead to achievement.

The new system is basically P and I. You have a conflation of the measurement scale. Work that would have been an S in the past, is now a P. Better schools have teachers that send home lots of comments on work and share with parents off-line whether their child is earning what they consider a "low P" pr a "high P". Other schools or teachers are sending home hardly any graded assignments, sending an occasional P and not able to produce anything in the conferences.

MCPS has a strong anti-achievement perspective. Its about MCPS doing well not students actually learning anything or students achieving the best they can do.

We got lots of comments -- and an outline of our kid's strength's and weaknesses. This report card has way more areas of information. Now if the teacher is not commenting on classwork, projects and the report card -- that is a teacher problem, not a report card problem.
Frankly, I want to know more than how my kid is performing on a test, I want to know HOW my kid is learning as well as the content thereof. I got A,B, O, S's in elementary school, compared to my kid's report card -- it told parents exactly NOT MUCH!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Hey you can always go to the teacher for more feedback. We do.

I've had mixed results with this. Some teachers are great. They are more than happy to provide specifics. With teachers, I care less about the "P" system. I know where my child is not doing the work that he could because he isn't motivated. I know where my child is not doing something because he doesn't get it. I know where my child is really strong and moving ahead faster than she expects.

Other teachers just waste time telling you that a P is really good which isn't the point. They can't produce any advice on what your child is strong/weak on. They can't show any work. I've been tempted to ask if we all pledge allegiance to the P could we please get on with it and see some actual specifics on what my child is doing strongly and what my child is doing that could use improvement. I'm starting to get the impression that because they no longer need to assess and collect any data beyond P land, some teachers are not paying attention at all.

Then that is a teacher problem

[Anonymous]

could we please get on with it and see some actual specifics on what my child is doing strongly and what my child is doing that could use improvement. I'm starting to get the impression that because they no longer need to assess and collect any data beyond P land, some teachers are not paying attention at all

Were you at my last parent teacher conference? Seriously it was just like that, a whole bunch of "she's doing great", and if I brought anything up that I knew she was weak in, it was just brushed aside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

could we please get on with it and see some actual specifics on what my child is doing strongly and what my child is doing that could use improvement. I'm starting to get the impression that because they no longer need to assess and collect any data beyond P land, some teachers are not paying attention at all

Were you at my last parent teacher conference? Seriously it was just like that, a whole bunch of "she's doing great", and if I brought anything up that I knew she was weak in, it was just brushed aside.

I agree with the PP, that is a teacher problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

could we please get on with it and see some actual specifics on what my child is doing strongly and what my child is doing that could use improvement. I'm starting to get the impression that because they no longer need to assess and collect any data beyond P land, some teachers are not paying attention at all

Were you at my last parent teacher conference? Seriously it was just like that, a whole bunch of "she's doing great", and if I brought anything up that I knew she was weak in, it was just brushed aside.

I agree with the PP, that is a teacher problem.

yes-- definitely a teacher problem and i greatly empathize. I am the parent who got the printed out and detailed assessment. my girlfriend with a kid in the same school got nada. it was the luck of the draw on the teacher. there is no way to blame the curriculum or the report card for that. I do understand the instinct to go back to the old report card if this is your situation. At least you got some info you could understand, cursory tho it may be. Instead, I would encourage you to bug the teacher -- email -- say i need "deeper" info. I hope it works out for you.

[Anonymous]

But the new report card makes it very hard to get anything out of a teacher that doesn't give any feedback.

I think its true that S/O and probably some of the previous I work is now all P. When there was more differentiation in the grading, teachers had to record more to justify the granularity. The teachers had more to go on, made more comments, graded more equitably and consistently. Its just not necessary now for many of them. They don't have work or data to give you because to them it doesn't matter and they never collected it.

As a parent with older kids in MCPS, there were far fewer parents running into this problem before the report card. It used to be less probable that you would end up with a teacher that didn't give feedback. Now, you're lucky if you get a teacher who does gives feedback. I've also noticed that the teachers not giving any feedback aren't necessarily the all around bad ones. They seem just utterly unprepared. The ones giving good feedback seem to be embracing 2.0 less too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

As a parent with older kids in MCPS, there were far fewer parents running into this problem before the report card. It used to be less probable that you would end up with a teacher that didn't give feedback. Now, you're lucky if you get a teacher who does gives feedback. I've also noticed that the teachers not giving any feedback aren't necessarily the all around bad ones. They seem just utterly unprepared. The ones giving good feedback seem to be embracing 2.0 less too.

I don't think it's true that it used to be less of a problem. I think it used to be the same problem, except that people didn't recognize it, because the way the report card was, was the way it had always been. It took the change to the new report card for people to recognize that it was a problem. Going back to the old report card won't fix the problem.

And, in my experience, the teachers who gave more feedback pre-2.0 are the teachers who are still giving more feedback under 2.0.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

As a parent with older kids in MCPS, there were far fewer parents running into this problem before the report card. It used to be less probable that you would end up with a teacher that didn't give feedback. Now, you're lucky if you get a teacher who does gives feedback. I've also noticed that the teachers not giving any feedback aren't necessarily the all around bad ones. They seem just utterly unprepared. The ones giving good feedback seem to be embracing 2.0 less too.

I don't think it's true that it used to be less of a problem. I think it used to be the same problem, except that people didn't recognize it, because the way the report card was, was the way it had always been. It took the change to the new report card for people to recognize that it was a problem. Going back to the old report card won't fix the problem.

And, in my experience, the teachers who gave more feedback pre-2.0 are the teachers who are still giving more feedback under 2.0.

This exactly. I'm sorry, but the previous report cards had wayyy less info -- it's just that people were used to the grading system.
They knew that an "A"meant that their kid got 90-99% of the material. But, again I assert that I want to know more than that.

[Anonymous]

Teachers should be required to write up a narrative of each child's progress to accompany this horrid report card.

[Anonymous]

Yep - makes no sense. ES is up to teacher's discretion. Some don't give it. Others give a lot.
Being above grade level isn't enough apparently. Teacher really needs to assign additional work that is more challenging.

In my opinion, the ES a reflection of how much work the teacher will put in. Not getting a P doesn't mean your child didn't earn it. It means the teacher didn't have the time or interest. (When I say this, I know that many teachers really don't have the time to encourage ES work but the system really stinks in general for everyone).

[Anonymous]

I also find the report cards totally useless, and, although I think we have had good teachers for our child, I've never gotten any sort of written assessment of strengths/weakness. (I didn't even know this was possible!) My child is very motivated by positive rewards and challenges -- she LOVES pop quizzes. I do wish they had more of the "show what you know" type learning, as she would be a little more motivated. Some kids really need that little gold star for the external motivation. I don't really know if she's learning anything (since I see no grades or tests), but she feels like she isn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

could we please get on with it and see some actual specifics on what my child is doing strongly and what my child is doing that could use improvement. I'm starting to get the impression that because they no longer need to assess and collect any data beyond P land, some teachers are not paying attention at all

Were you at my last parent teacher conference? Seriously it was just like that, a whole bunch of "she's doing great", and if I brought anything up that I knew she was weak in, it was just brushed aside.

I agree with the PP, that is a teacher problem.

It may well be a teacher problem, in fact, it probably is a teacher problem. But here's the real issue: there have always been (and will always be) mediocre teachers. So, teacher problems will come up. However, with a more telling report card, a parent who's kid happens to have a mediocre (or even a bad) teacher could have some objective measures that could be a red flag to the parent to push more, or to ask more questions, to help the kid at night or to hire a tutor, etc. Yes, bad teachers can be a problem but it seems very callus to basically say "oh well, teacher problem let's just move along." Parents need tools - they especially need tools when there is a bad teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm also confused by this. DD is in second grade and her guided reading level is at a 5th grade level, and all Ps on report card. I don't understand what warrants an ES either...

the horror!

the horror!

ever heard of asking?