Honors Math classes being poorly taught (Churchill)

[Anonymous]

I have three kids at Blair and we live in the Silver Spring area (happens to be our home school). My DD is a sophomore in STEM program and I have twins in the junior year non magnet school. We have been very pleased with all teachers here. My DD's magnet teachers are outstanding, every teacher seems very motivated to teach in the very competitive magnet environment. However for my two other boys, who are into sports find the curriculum challenging as well. Have to say the teachers take genuine interest in the kids, although it is the largest school in the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, but how is this a Churchill specific issue? This is true in most good schools in the area. Many math teachers can't teach well enough, don't try due to overload, or just don't care. And luckily some are pretty good and do care, but unluckily they are probably in the minority.

From what I gathered at Back to School Night, as a department, Churchill writes the worksheets and writes the assessments prior to the county assessment. The problem is when the students have to take the county mandated test, there are gaps in concepts. My children have reported (including this year), there were problems on assessments that they had not been taught. If you are in an Honors class, the teacher has the line "Your in Honors. You are supposed to figure out the extensions on your own."

I can only speak to the Churchill experience. I don't know if math is being taught this way across the county. It seems there is no defined math curriculum right now so Churchill is struggling to come up with it's own and they are not professional curriculum writers. Perhaps this is a Central Office problem or Churchill is the rogue outlier. I don't know but whatever the issue, math sucks at Churchill. Tutoring is your only option for saving your child.

[Anonymous]

I'm curious, if many think that there's a specific problem in the math department at Churchill, were these things brought up at B2SN ? Weren't there a lot of parents voicing concerns?

My hunch is the whole MCPS math curriculum is discombobulated like this. It says a lot when there are no textbooks in many high school math courses in the county, since that means teachers have to find other resources or attempt to write them themselves (which most wouldn't be able to do).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, but how is this a Churchill specific issue? This is true in most good schools in the area. Many math teachers can't teach well enough, don't try due to overload, or just don't care. And luckily some are pretty good and do care, but unluckily they are probably in the minority.

From what I gathered at Back to School Night, as a department, Churchill writes the worksheets and writes the assessments prior to the county assessment. The problem is when the students have to take the county mandated test, there are gaps in concepts. My children have reported (including this year), there were problems on assessments that they had not been taught. If you are in an Honors class, the teacher has the line "Your in Honors. You are supposed to figure out the extensions on your own."

I can only speak to the Churchill experience. I don't know if math is being taught this way across the county. It seems there is no defined math curriculum right now so Churchill is struggling to come up with it's own and they are not professional curriculum writers. Perhaps this is a Central Office problem or Churchill is the rogue outlier. I don't know but whatever the issue, math sucks at Churchill. Tutoring is your only option for saving your child.

+1 Absolutely agree! Same experience with my kids.

[Anonymous]

It might be that my kids aren't that smart, but I noticed that my friends kids in other HSs do honors math classes and always get As. My kids who I assumed were of the same intelligence (as I said, I might be wrong), struggle to get Bs at Churchill. Also, it is the only class that they struggle in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It might be that my kids aren't that smart, but I noticed that my friends kids in other HSs do honors math classes and always get As. My kids who I assumed were of the same intelligence (as I said, I might be wrong), struggle to get Bs at Churchill. Also, it is the only class that they struggle in.

I have to agree with the poster above. Also, Churchill doesn't really offer grade level classes so kids who don't belong (i.e., struggle) in honors/AP classes have no option but to at least take the honors class.

[Anonymous]

My DD is in a magnet program (not SMCs) and from what I’ve been told the teachers don’t think the county guidelines prepare the kids for pre- Cal so they are introducing enhancements this year for Algebra II. They are making worksheets up as they go with no answer keys posted until right before the tests and it’s terrible. I feel like I need to teach my daughter this year math.

[Anonymous]

I mean no answer keys for homework.

[Anonymous]

This is a disaster.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I would like to find out how some of the kids are doing well. Are they being tutored?
The teachers are so often wrong about basic stuff. The tests are almost always harder than the homework. The worksheets are poorly written. They are trying to "craft" a curriculum with "full"understanding. Like they want the kids to be "literate" in math. That comes after the basic wrote understanding, which they have not achieved yet. They need to get real, this a large school system with tons of kids in each class. Get back to basics and use a textbook. ANY textbook.
I will just have to write off my kids being math majors in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, but how is this a Churchill specific issue? This is true in most good schools in the area. Many math teachers can't teach well enough, don't try due to overload, or just don't care. And luckily some are pretty good and do care, but unluckily they are probably in the minority.

From what I gathered at Back to School Night, as a department, Churchill writes the worksheets and writes the assessments prior to the county assessment. The problem is when the students have to take the county mandated test, there are gaps in concepts. My children have reported (including this year), there were problems on assessments that they had not been taught. If you are in an Honors class, the teacher has the line "Your in Honors. You are supposed to figure out the extensions on your own."

I can only speak to the Churchill experience. I don't know if math is being taught this way across the county. It seems there is no defined math curriculum right now so Churchill is struggling to come up with it's own and they are not professional curriculum writers. Perhaps this is a Central Office problem or Churchill is the rogue outlier. I don't know but whatever the issue, math sucks at Churchill. Tutoring is your only option for saving your child.

+1 Absolutely agree! Same experience with my kids.

+1 for me too. This is a big problem at the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I would like to find out how some of the kids are doing well. Are they being tutored?
The teachers are so often wrong about basic stuff. The tests are almost always harder than the homework. The worksheets are poorly written. They are trying to "craft" a curriculum with "full"understanding. Like they want the kids to be "literate" in math. That comes after the basic wrote understanding, which they have not achieved yet. They need to get real, this a large school system with tons of kids in each class. Get back to basics and use a textbook. ANY textbook.
I will just have to write off my kids being math majors in college.

It’s my understanding that the kids who are doing well are being tutored. But in some cases, having a tutor doesn’t necessarily prepare you for the quizzes in the honors classes. As one of the posters mentioned before, the questions on these quizzes sometimes come out of left field and the response is that this is an honors class and you should be able to figure it out,never having seen that type of problem before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I would like to find out how some of the kids are doing well. Are they being tutored?
The teachers are so often wrong about basic stuff. The tests are almost always harder than the homework. The worksheets are poorly written. They are trying to "craft" a curriculum with "full"understanding. Like they want the kids to be "literate" in math. That comes after the basic wrote understanding, which they have not achieved yet. They need to get real, this a large school system with tons of kids in each class. Get back to basics and use a textbook. ANY textbook.
I will just have to write off my kids being math majors in college.

It’s my understanding that the kids who are doing well are being tutored. But in some cases, having a tutor doesn’t necessarily prepare you for the quizzes in the honors classes. As one of the posters mentioned before, the questions on these quizzes sometimes come out of left field and the response is that this is an honors class and you should be able to figure it out,never having seen that type of problem before.

PP with kid in magnet program. Many parents are in stem fields including my husband. Both of us spent 3 hours helping our DD with math.

[Anonymous]

Posts like this are why people leave teaching. How would you like me to write anonymous diatribe about your work performance on a public web site and invite others to pile on?

Take it up with the principal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Posts like this are why people leave teaching. How would you like me to write anonymous diatribe about your work performance on a public web site and invite others to pile on?

Take it up with the principal.

I have deep respect for teachers. I think their job is difficult and critically important to our nation's future. I also think that the teacher's in MCPS are generally excellent. In fact I think they have compensated quite a bit for MCPS's failing curriculum.

However, there appears to be a problem with the Honors classes at Churchill that may or may not be reflective or larger problems in MCPS. I think parents have every right to talk about problematic situations. Discussion is the best way to identify problems and improve them. OP's post seemed calm and rational as opposed to yours.

As for someone writing "anonymous diatribe about your work performance on a public web site and invite others to pile on", I think that it's a fairly ubiquitous practice today. People review books, movies, restaurants, hotels, products, doctors, service people, etc. I think the number of things that aren't subject to some type of public review today are in the minority.