One easy thing to do to close the achievement gap

[Anonymous]

I live in a middle class neighborhood of single family homes. Last year, our neighborhood school bus-stop had five students (all boys) in the 3rd grade. They had grown up together, the moms were friends and occasionally had coffee together. Three of the students had got into the magnet HGC program, one was moving to another neighborhood and one was continuing on the home school. The home school student was Hispanic. The mom was feeling very sad that her son had not got into HGC program. She said that her son was getting all "P"s, just like every other student.

I told her that actually the "P" means nothing. It is a range of scores from 50-100% and that it is meaningless. She asked why would MCPS do that? She said that she would prefer that her son got home the correct measure of where he stood in all subjects. Not only a grade card that had A, B, C and D, but a grade card that gave his results in percentage.

Why would MCPS not consider that? The gap in knowledge is minimal in Elementary Schools. If MCPS was honest with the parents where exactly the students were behind in the elementary levels then it would be easy to fill those gaps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in a middle class neighborhood of single family homes. Last year, our neighborhood school bus-stop had five students (all boys) in the 3rd grade. They had grown up together, the moms were friends and occasionally had coffee together. Three of the students had got into the magnet HGC program, one was moving to another neighborhood and one was continuing on the home school. The home school student was Hispanic. The mom was feeling very sad that her son had not got into HGC program. She said that her son was getting all "P"s, just like every other student.

I told her that actually the "P" means nothing. It is a range of scores from 50-100% and that it is meaningless. She asked why would MCPS do that? She said that she would prefer that her son got home the correct measure of where he stood in all subjects. Not only a grade card that had A, B, C and D, but a grade card that gave his results in percentage.

Why would MCPS not consider that? The gap in knowledge is minimal in Elementary Schools. If MCPS was honest with the parents where exactly the students were behind in the elementary levels then it would be easy to fill those gaps.

This has nothing to do with closing the achievement gap. It's a simple poor grading system. Why would MCPS use such system? Who really knows... MCPS is beyond stupid.

[Anonymous]

Transparency on the part of MCPS would help parents help their children

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in a middle class neighborhood of single family homes. Last year, our neighborhood school bus-stop had five students (all boys) in the 3rd grade. They had grown up together, the moms were friends and occasionally had coffee together. Three of the students had got into the magnet HGC program, one was moving to another neighborhood and one was continuing on the home school. The home school student was Hispanic. The mom was feeling very sad that her son had not got into HGC program. She said that her son was getting all "P"s, just like every other student.

I told her that actually the "P" means nothing. It is a range of scores from 50-100% and that it is meaningless. She asked why would MCPS do that? She said that she would prefer that her son got home the correct measure of where he stood in all subjects. Not only a grade card that had A, B, C and D, but a grade card that gave his results in percentage.

Why would MCPS not consider that? The gap in knowledge is minimal in Elementary Schools. If MCPS was honest with the parents where exactly the students were behind in the elementary levels then it would be easy to fill those gaps.

MCPS has done away with this grading methodology. They are now back to doing A, B, C, D but these are still not percentage based. I'm okay with them going back to this method and I feel like between this and the communications I have with my kid's teacher, that I have a great grasp my child's performance. At the ES level, I don't need to know percentages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Transparency on the part of MCPS would help parents help their children

Do you not talk to your child's teacher or is the teacher completely unreachable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in a middle class neighborhood of single family homes. Last year, our neighborhood school bus-stop had five students (all boys) in the 3rd grade. They had grown up together, the moms were friends and occasionally had coffee together. Three of the students had got into the magnet HGC program, one was moving to another neighborhood and one was continuing on the home school. The home school student was Hispanic. The mom was feeling very sad that her son had not got into HGC program. She said that her son was getting all "P"s, just like every other student.

I told her that actually the "P" means nothing. It is a range of scores from 50-100% and that it is meaningless. She asked why would MCPS do that? She said that she would prefer that her son got home the correct measure of where he stood in all subjects. Not only a grade card that had A, B, C and D, but a grade card that gave his results in percentage.

Why would MCPS not consider that? The gap in knowledge is minimal in Elementary Schools. If MCPS was honest with the parents where exactly the students were behind in the elementary levels then it would be easy to fill those gaps.

This has nothing to do with closing the achievement gap. It's a simple poor grading system. Why would MCPS use such system? Who really knows... MCPS is beyond stupid.

Yes, it will shrink the achievement gap. Even parents without higher education can help their students at lower grades with homework and their studies. This can only happen if they are given accurate measurements of where their kids are. If they are thinking that their child is doing as well as the next child because they have a "P" like everyone else they will never intervene. If they know that the kid is at a 50% then they have an incentive to really help their child out. If the lament is always that the parents are not involved, then why make it harder for them to be involved and contribute while they have the ability to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Transparency on the part of MCPS would help parents help their children

Do you not talk to your child's teacher or is the teacher completely unreachable?

I have a PhD. I cannot understand the implication of most of what MCPS and teachers tell me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Transparency on the part of MCPS would help parents help their children

Do you not talk to your child's teacher or is the teacher completely unreachable?

I have a PhD. I cannot understand the implication of most of what MCPS and teachers tell me.

I'm still confused. So if you want to help your child, then naturally one would think you would go to the teacher to find out how you child is performing in school, where he/she needs help if anything. From my experience, it doesn't need to go beyond that. If it does, then you go to the principal. Are you saying that you have been unable to obtain information on how to help your children through any of these means?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Transparency on the part of MCPS would help parents help their children

Do you not talk to your child's teacher or is the teacher completely unreachable?

Teachers always say the student is on grade level. Seriously, there are tons of threads on here about people trying to get teachers to give them more feedback and it’s always the same “grade level” non-answers. Unless your kid is behind or has SN you’re not going to get real feedback from their teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Transparency on the part of MCPS would help parents help their children

Here is the kind of transparency that is required from the teachers to parents -

"Hi Mrs XYZ. Your child LMN is a delight in classroom. He is behind in learning about addition in the classroom. He was able to only answer 30 questions correctly out of 100 questions and the rest of the students are answering 90 questions correctly. Since he is bright and hardworking we can quickly get him up to speed.

Here are some worksheets that you need to get him to work on. Here are the answer key to the worksheets that you can use to check his work but do not share the answer key with him. Here is a detailed step by step method in English and Spanish for you to use to teach him at home. I need him to work for 30 minutes each night with you to do this work,

I will continue to work with him at school and you please work with him at home. We will talk again in 2 weeks time to see how much he has improved. I am very sure that he will catch up soon because he is a bright child.

- Mrs. GoodTeach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Transparency on the part of MCPS would help parents help their children

Here is the kind of transparency that is required from the teachers to parents -

"Hi Mrs XYZ. Your child LMN is a delight in classroom. He is behind in learning about addition in the classroom. He was able to only answer 30 questions correctly out of 100 questions and the rest of the students are answering 90 questions correctly. Since he is bright and hardworking we can quickly get him up to speed.

Here are some worksheets that you need to get him to work on. Here are the answer key to the worksheets that you can use to check his work but do not share the answer key with him. Here is a detailed step by step method in English and Spanish for you to use to teach him at home. I need him to work for 30 minutes each night with you to do this work,

I will continue to work with him at school and you please work with him at home. We will talk again in 2 weeks time to see how much he has improved. I am very sure that he will catch up soon because he is a bright child.

- Mrs. GoodTeach.

Another letter from Mrs. Goodteach.

"Hi Mrs ABC. Your child EFG is a delight in classroom. He is bit behind in learning about addition in the classroom. He was able to only answer 70 questions correctly out of 100 questions and the rest of the students are answering 90 questions correctly. Since he is bright and hardworking we can quickly get him up to speed.

Here are some worksheets that you need to get him to work on. Here are the answer key to the worksheets that you can use to check his work but do not share the answer key with him. Here is a detailed step by step method in English and Spanish for you to use to teach him at home. I need him to work for 30 minutes each night with you to do this work,

I will continue to work with him at school and you please work with him at home. We will talk again in 2 weeks time to see how much he has improved. I am very sure that he will catch up soon because he is a bright child.

- Mrs. GoodTeach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in a middle class neighborhood of single family homes. Last year, our neighborhood school bus-stop had five students (all boys) in the 3rd grade. They had grown up together, the moms were friends and occasionally had coffee together. Three of the students had got into the magnet HGC program, one was moving to another neighborhood and one was continuing on the home school. The home school student was Hispanic. The mom was feeling very sad that her son had not got into HGC program. She said that her son was getting all "P"s, just like every other student.

I told her that actually the "P" means nothing. It is a range of scores from 50-100% and that it is meaningless. She asked why would MCPS do that? She said that she would prefer that her son got home the correct measure of where he stood in all subjects. Not only a grade card that had A, B, C and D, but a grade card that gave his results in percentage.

Why would MCPS not consider that? The gap in knowledge is minimal in Elementary Schools. If MCPS was honest with the parents where exactly the students were behind in the elementary levels then it would be easy to fill those gaps.

The gap in knowledge is minimal in Elementary Schools.

Incorrect

[Anonymous]

Another letter from Mrs. Goodteach.

"Hi Mrs MNO. Your child PQR is a delight in classroom. He was able to answer 97 questions correctly out of 100 questions correctly. Since he is bright and hardworking we will give him some more advanced work.

Here are some worksheets that you need to get him to work on. Here are the answer key to the worksheets that you can use to check his work but do not share the answer key with him. Here is a detailed step by step method in English and Spanish for you to use to teach him at home. I need him to work for 30 minutes each night with you to do this work,

I will continue to work with him at school and you please work with him at home. We will talk again in 2 weeks time to see how much he has learned. We want to make sure that he is constantly challenged. d.

- Mrs. GoodTeach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Transparency on the part of MCPS would help parents help their children

Do you not talk to your child's teacher or is the teacher completely unreachable?

Teachers always say the student is on grade level. Seriously, there are tons of threads on here about people trying to get teachers to give them more feedback and it’s always the same “grade level” non-answers. Unless your kid is behind or has SN you’re not going to get real feedback from their teacher.

Not my experience at all. My kids teachers have sent home a sheet for Reading and another one for Math. Each sheet explains what my child is doing well in, where there's room for improvement, and a suggested plan on how to improve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in a middle class neighborhood of single family homes. Last year, our neighborhood school bus-stop had five students (all boys) in the 3rd grade. They had grown up together, the moms were friends and occasionally had coffee together. Three of the students had got into the magnet HGC program, one was moving to another neighborhood and one was continuing on the home school. The home school student was Hispanic. The mom was feeling very sad that her son had not got into HGC program. She said that her son was getting all "P"s, just like every other student.

I told her that actually the "P" means nothing. It is a range of scores from 50-100% and that it is meaningless. She asked why would MCPS do that? She said that she would prefer that her son got home the correct measure of where he stood in all subjects. Not only a grade card that had A, B, C and D, but a grade card that gave his results in percentage.

Why would MCPS not consider that? The gap in knowledge is minimal in Elementary Schools. If MCPS was honest with the parents where exactly the students were behind in the elementary levels then it would be easy to fill those gaps.

The gap in knowledge is minimal in Elementary Schools.

Incorrect

The achievement gap is minimal in Elementary schools as compared to MS, HS and College. Infact the achievement gap is easiest to fill in Kindergarten than in 8th grade.