Please tell me this means MCPS is getting rid of Benchmark for next year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they do get rid of Benchmark; it has better be for something significantly better. If they just need to do this again in 3 years, it will be more waste and teachers will have to go to hall learn a new curriculum.

I'd be shocked if they aren't doing this again in 3 years.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Benchmark is completely boring and uninspiring. My 5th grader, who generally loves reading and writing, lost it earlier this year when he spent a month learning about corn in Benchmark.

Our ES no longer teaches the corn unit. Not since the corn rebellion of 2021.

My kid would love to have participated in that rebellion!

Oh, the corn! I had (almost) forgotten about that in 2021!! My child would have also loved to participate in that rebellion.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I heard my principal say this week that they are definitely getting rid of Benchmark. Hooray!

Hooray? I just wasted the last three summers in Benchmark training. Now time to learn yet another new curriculum? Nope. MCPS is just continually failing both staff members and students.

Benchmark is awful. It never should have been selected. But given that MCPS did, and it has been awful, yes, hooray; it needs to go.

Why is Benchmark awful? Whats so bad about it? I am trying to understand aa my current 3rd grader has been doing Benchmark since K. What is Benchmark lacking?

Have you ever asked any of your child's teachers? Or the Reading Specialist at your school? They have direct experience implementing the curriculum and are a great resource. The reading specialist and teachers at our school have not had good things to say about Benchmark, for various reasons (the phonics component especially got the thumbs down from them and they are happy to be using RGR this year).

Ok but what about for older grades like 3rd and up? They don’t technically need a phonics component anymore. Whats terrible about it for higher grades?

DP. Well part of the problem is they didn't get that in K-2nd. There are a lot of struggling readers in 3rd-5th.

Also they don't read actual books. The Benchmark "books" and passages are terrible.

There is very little reading of books in middle school as well, so, don't worry!

That's not my 7th grader's experience so far - they've read several actual books this year.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard my principal say this week that they are definitely getting rid of Benchmark. Hooray!

Hooray? I just wasted the last three summers in Benchmark training. Now time to learn yet another new curriculum? Nope. MCPS is just continually failing both staff members and students.

Benchmark is awful. It never should have been selected. But given that MCPS did, and it has been awful, yes, hooray; it needs to go.

Why is Benchmark awful? Whats so bad about it? I am trying to understand aa my current 3rd grader has been doing Benchmark since K. What is Benchmark lacking?

Have you ever asked any of your child's teachers? Or the Reading Specialist at your school? They have direct experience implementing the curriculum and are a great resource. The reading specialist and teachers at our school have not had good things to say about Benchmark, for various reasons (the phonics component especially got the thumbs down from them and they are happy to be using RGR this year).

Ok but what about for older grades like 3rd and up? They don’t technically need a phonics component anymore. Whats terrible about it for higher grades?

DP. Well part of the problem is they didn't get that in K-2nd. There are a lot of struggling readers in 3rd-5th.

Also they don't read actual books. The Benchmark "books" and passages are terrible.

There is very little reading of books in middle school as well, so, don't worry!

That's not my 7th grader's experience so far - they've read several actual books this year.

According to MCPS, they are supposed to read at least one novel per quarter in middle school English.

[Anonymous]

Any updates on this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any updates on this?

According to the timeline on the website, the BoE will vote at the 3/28 meeting.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard my principal say this week that they are definitely getting rid of Benchmark. Hooray!

Hooray? I just wasted the last three summers in Benchmark training. Now time to learn yet another new curriculum? Nope. MCPS is just continually failing both staff members and students.

Benchmark is awful. It never should have been selected. But given that MCPS did, and it has been awful, yes, hooray; it needs to go.

Why is Benchmark awful? Whats so bad about it? I am trying to understand aa my current 3rd grader has been doing Benchmark since K. What is Benchmark lacking?

Have you ever asked any of your child's teachers? Or the Reading Specialist at your school? They have direct experience implementing the curriculum and are a great resource. The reading specialist and teachers at our school have not had good things to say about Benchmark, for various reasons (the phonics component especially got the thumbs down from them and they are happy to be using RGR this year).

Ok but what about for older grades like 3rd and up? They don’t technically need a phonics component anymore. Whats terrible about it for higher grades?

DP. Well part of the problem is they didn't get that in K-2nd. There are a lot of struggling readers in 3rd-5th.

Also they don't read actual books. The Benchmark "books" and passages are terrible.

There is very little reading of books in middle school as well, so, don't worry!

People wonder why kids fall out of love of reading in 5th/6th grade it's because we just suck all the joy out of ela by making kids boring passages and constantly work on annotating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wtf you love about RGR and phonics, every two thing you teach the kids you have to tell them but here is an exception. I think phonics is a terrible system to each spelling and kids just know how to sound it out without knowing the meaning.

Explicitly teaching phonics really helps kids systematically break down and understand words so they can read them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll chime in as another MCPS elementary teacher. I hope we get rid of Benchmark and keep Really Great Reading for K-2 for phonics. We'll still need something to replace Benchmark.

I'm also a MCPS teacher and agree with pp's about the distain for Benchmark but love of RGR. Unfortunately, I bet they try and choose a program that addresses all the components and we won't be able to continue using RGR. If you recall, Benchmark was chosen because it had a phonics component...which ended up being terrible.

I anticipate that as well. This is probably expensive to purchase rgr and benchmark

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Someone should be held accountable for the costly mistake with Benchmark.

The working group of educators who reviewed the various options did not support Benchmark. So who made the decision to go against the recommendation?

Big, expensive mistake that negatively impacted students.

Where’s the accountability?

It makes me wonder if someone got a kickback for selecting Benchmark because otherwise it makes no sense. Has anyone investigated this?

They essentially selected Benchmark because it had the most materials available in Spanish translation. They told this to the board at the time, explaining why they didn't choose a higher-rated curriculum.

I recall this too. Not really sure how they will navigate this because the ideal- a highly rated curriculum also available in Spanish, is a unicorn that doesn't exist. And now they are rolling out even more dual-immersion programs (which overall I think is a good thing! they just seem to have put the cart before the horse).

This seems so weird. How hard is it to translate a different curriculum into Spanish?

Why does it need to be the same? Somehow Spanish speaking countries teach kids to read with their own curriculums. Why don’t we get the best English reading curriculum for when we are teaching in English and the best Spanish reading curriculum for when we are teaching in Spanish? Having a curriculum that’s equally bad in both languages doesn’t seem to be an advantage.

Is MCPS considering this? Would make sense.

Wouldn't that be twice as expensive? Maybe just teach everyone in one language. I'm not into a tax hike to cover these extravagances.

You can’t “teach everyone” in a language they don’t speak, Trumper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Benchmark is completely boring and uninspiring. My 5th grader, who generally loves reading and writing, lost it earlier this year when he spent a month learning about corn in Benchmark.

Our ES no longer teaches the corn unit. Not since the corn rebellion of 2021.

My kid would love to have participated in that rebellion!

Dooooo you heeeear the peeeeople siiiiing…”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll chime in as another MCPS elementary teacher. I hope we get rid of Benchmark and keep Really Great Reading for K-2 for phonics. We'll still need something to replace Benchmark.

I'm also a MCPS teacher and agree with pp's about the distain for Benchmark but love of RGR. Unfortunately, I bet they try and choose a program that addresses all the components and we won't be able to continue using RGR. If you recall, Benchmark was chosen because it had a phonics component...which ended up being terrible.

I anticipate that as well. This is probably expensive to purchase rgr and benchmark

But don’t most of the schools have all the RGR materials already? That would be an incredible waste just to use them for one year!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll chime in as another MCPS elementary teacher. I hope we get rid of Benchmark and keep Really Great Reading for K-2 for phonics. We'll still need something to replace Benchmark.

I'm also a MCPS teacher and agree with pp's about the distain for Benchmark but love of RGR. Unfortunately, I bet they try and choose a program that addresses all the components and we won't be able to continue using RGR. If you recall, Benchmark was chosen because it had a phonics component...which ended up being terrible.

I anticipate that as well. This is probably expensive to purchase rgr and benchmark

But don’t most of the schools have all the RGR materials already? That would be an incredible waste just to use them for one year!

RGR only partially meets expectations. https://www.edreports.org/reports/overview/really-great-reading-2021

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll chime in as another MCPS elementary teacher. I hope we get rid of Benchmark and keep Really Great Reading for K-2 for phonics. We'll still need something to replace Benchmark.

I'm also a MCPS teacher and agree with pp's about the distain for Benchmark but love of RGR. Unfortunately, I bet they try and choose a program that addresses all the components and we won't be able to continue using RGR. If you recall, Benchmark was chosen because it had a phonics component...which ended up being terrible.

I anticipate that as well. This is probably expensive to purchase rgr and benchmark

But don’t most of the schools have all the RGR materials already? That would be an incredible waste just to use them for one year!

RGR only partially meets expectations. https://www.edreports.org/reports/overview/really-great-reading-2021

That is because it is not a comprehensive curriculum. A flaw of the Ed reports model.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll chime in as another MCPS elementary teacher. I hope we get rid of Benchmark and keep Really Great Reading for K-2 for phonics. We'll still need something to replace Benchmark.

I'm also a MCPS teacher and agree with pp's about the distain for Benchmark but love of RGR. Unfortunately, I bet they try and choose a program that addresses all the components and we won't be able to continue using RGR. If you recall, Benchmark was chosen because it had a phonics component...which ended up being terrible.

I anticipate that as well. This is probably expensive to purchase rgr and benchmark

But don’t most of the schools have all the RGR materials already? That would be an incredible waste just to use them for one year!

RGR only partially meets expectations. https://www.edreports.org/reports/overview/really-great-reading-2021

That is because it is not a comprehensive curriculum. A flaw of the Ed reports model.

From the product notes, that doesn't seem to be why it partially meets expectations. See below where it sounds like they missed the mark:
- No explicit instruction in letter formation
- No explicit instruciton in rate, accuracy, and expression
- Decodable passages do not align with the scope and frequency of high-frequency words