How to help MCPS' lowest performing students?

[Anonymous]

Don't be afraid to put rich entitled kids who have bad academics/ behavior in the dum dum class and don't be afraid to put poor kids in honors when they show the will to succeed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Public school cannot fix absent or uneducated parenting, OP. That is the main hurdle.

If you're going to pick ONE single act that will impact every child for the better, that would be smaller classroom sizes, so that every child receives more individual feedback from their teacher. Right now, at any grade level, you need to be pretty functional to follow instruction, just because the teacher cannot spend enough time with each student. Students fall through the cracks, especially if their parents don't know how to work the system, request 504s or IEPs, etc.

Of course, I know it's not one act. A lot of schools are overcrowded. It means building more schools, which is always a huge problem in MoCo. It means billions in expenditure that the County tells us we don't have.

Agree. But as original question asks, how do you "fix" "uneducated" parenting? How does the community help those parents, make a change so it helps the current students which could help next gen too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For meals, I’d like to see protein for breakfast - like some sort of egg dish. The kids eat pure sugar for breakfast and are starving two hours later, when a kindly teacher might give them a carb snack.

I’d limit the screen time in lower elementary and encourage parents to do the same. More time just reading a book to the class where they sit there and develop their listening and concentration skills.

I’d continually reinforce basic math facts - simple single digit addition, substitution, multiplication way longer than you’d think necessary.

Yes - identifying issues earlier, especially for kids whose parents can’t.

Encourage kids to do their multiplication flashcards at home and test them daily on it at the correct grade level.

Additional recess or outdoor time. Both a morning and afternoon recess or daily PE. Some hard exercise in the morning might really help the kids and lower the amount of time spent on classroom management.

THANK YOU!
Such great points!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we can help them by differentiating students based on where they are. That means no trying to do the impossible thing of SIMULTANEOUSLY keeping them on grade level when they're already behind and playing catch up.

Once a student is identified as being behind, MCPS needs to pull them out and focus on intensive 1:1 or small group work to help that child get up to standard. THEN when they are up to standard, you can look to reintegrate them. But MCPS cannot keep pushing kids who are behind grade level through grade level work and classes that they cannot comprehend or engage with.

We have demonized pull outs and differentiation and that needs to stop.

Agree. My oldest attended K-2 in MCPS while my youngest attended a British international school for early ES. There were a couple things that the international school did differently that I found so helpful. First, phonics was strongly emphasized (although I know that's since improved in MCPS) and the kids were evaluated and placed in the appropriate level phonics group. My DC was in one of the lower groups and went to a different class for phonics because they did not get that sort of instruction in preschool. They needed that to get caught up with the other kids. Second, the school provided resources for parents to help their kids practice at home- e.g., a presentation of how sounds were taught, weekly email of what sounds the kids were working on, and the kids brought home a few word cards to practice (and later decodable readers). There were many families attending who were non-native English speakers, but I found it exceedingly helpful as a native English speaker as well. Younger DC learned to read much more quickly than my oldest. Reading is foundational to other subjects and when that foundation isn't there students will struggle to be successful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tutoring seems to come up frequently here. What has or does McPS plan to do to increase number of QUaliFIED tutors? Are they being hired, or are schools counting on volunteers? Can para s tutor?

We have an extremely educated population and our schools could be using volunteers to provide individual support, but many teachers and/or admins ban parents in the classroom. Personally, I think this is malpractice. The kids who don’t know their colors? Or animals? Or left from right? Or up and down? Yeah, parents can help with that.

[Anonymous]

Ask the parents what dreams they have for their children.

We cannot be teaching calculus to a reluctant and disinterested child, if his real need is to learn how to run and modernize a small business.

[Anonymous]

MCPS lowest performing students are not predicted by rich or poor kids. It is predicted by race mainly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Public school cannot fix absent or uneducated parenting, OP. That is the main hurdle.

If you're going to pick ONE single act that will impact every child for the better, that would be smaller classroom sizes, so that every child receives more individual feedback from their teacher. Right now, at any grade level, you need to be pretty functional to follow instruction, just because the teacher cannot spend enough time with each student. Students fall through the cracks, especially if their parents don't know how to work the system, request 504s or IEPs, etc.

Of course, I know it's not one act. A lot of schools are overcrowded. It means building more schools, which is always a huge problem in MoCo. It means billions in expenditure that the County tells us we don't have.

Agree. But as original question asks, how do you "fix" "uneducated" parenting? How does the community help those parents, make a change so it helps the current students which could help next gen too.

The county can't reaise everyone's kids for them. There's a limit to what we can do and that's okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS lowest performing students are not predicted by rich or poor kids. It is predicted by race mainly.

which is correlated to rich and poor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Once a student is identified as being behind, MCPS needs to pull them out and focus on intensive 1:1 or small group work to help that child get up to standard. THEN when they are up to standard, you can look to reintegrate them. But MCPS cannot keep pushing kids who are behind grade level through grade level work and classes that they cannot comprehend or engage with.

We have demonized pull outs and differentiation and that needs to stop.

+1000

no, make that *1000

30% of the students will learn reading/math no matter which way you teach them, another 30 will do well the old fashioned way (phonics and flashcards)...so for the other 40%, try all your new fangled methods on them to see what sticks, but don't bring down the whole class with new fangled teaching and/or teaching them 3 ways to multiply hoping something sticks. They only need to learn 1-way, and!!!! a student can't continue to part B until part A sticks or you end up with kids in middle school who can't read past 3rd grade.

[Anonymous]

We have wasted enough money trying to fix cultural problems. It's time to re-prioritize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Once a student is identified as being behind, MCPS needs to pull them out and focus on intensive 1:1 or small group work to help that child get up to standard. THEN when they are up to standard, you can look to reintegrate them. But MCPS cannot keep pushing kids who are behind grade level through grade level work and classes that they cannot comprehend or engage with.

We have demonized pull outs and differentiation and that needs to stop.

+1000

no, make that *1000

30% of the students will learn reading/math no matter which way you teach them, another 30 will do well the old fashioned way (phonics and flashcards)...so for the other 40%, try all your new fangled methods on them to see what sticks, but don't bring down the whole class with new fangled teaching and/or teaching them 3 ways to multiply hoping something sticks. They only need to learn 1-way, and!!!! a student can't continue to part B until part A sticks or you end up with kids in middle school who can't read past 3rd grade.

This, you need to do different approaches. My kids learned by sight reading and us just reading and working with them, fun apps, workbooks, etc. They were taught phonics in preschool but it did not work for them. They were reading well by four. Starting early helps too. There is no one fit all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Public school cannot fix absent or uneducated parenting, OP. That is the main hurdle.

If you're going to pick ONE single act that will impact every child for the better, that would be smaller classroom sizes, so that every child receives more individual feedback from their teacher. Right now, at any grade level, you need to be pretty functional to follow instruction, just because the teacher cannot spend enough time with each student. Students fall through the cracks, especially if their parents don't know how to work the system, request 504s or IEPs, etc.

Of course, I know it's not one act. A lot of schools are overcrowded. It means building more schools, which is always a huge problem in MoCo. It means billions in expenditure that the County tells us we don't have.

Agree. But as original question asks, how do you "fix" "uneducated" parenting? How does the community help those parents, make a change so it helps the current students which could help next gen too.

The county can't reaise everyone's kids for them. There's a limit to what we can do and that's okay.

Parents need to be welcomed back into kids education and communicated with. Some are not interested but many are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For meals, I’d like to see protein for breakfast - like some sort of egg dish. The kids eat pure sugar for breakfast and are starving two hours later, when a kindly teacher might give them a carb snack.

I’d limit the screen time in lower elementary and encourage parents to do the same. More time just reading a book to the class where they sit there and develop their listening and concentration skills.

I’d continually reinforce basic math facts - simple single digit addition, substitution, multiplication way longer than you’d think necessary.

Yes - identifying issues earlier, especially for kids whose parents can’t.

Encourage kids to do their multiplication flashcards at home and test them daily on it at the correct grade level.

Additional recess or outdoor time. Both a morning and afternoon recess or daily PE. Some hard exercise in the morning might really help the kids and lower the amount of time spent on classroom management.

THANK YOU!
Such great points!!

Those are great points, but so many of those require Home support and that’s exactly what so many of these kids lack. some of these kids don’t have good parental oversight or involvement. Who is going to push them to do flashcards at home? some of these kids don’t have good parental oversight or involvement. Who is going to push them to do flashcards at home

[Anonymous]

For all the people asking about how to improve Home Life, let's STRENGTHEN and EMPOWER Child Protective Services to get in those homes and do more to hold bad parents accountable. We have child neglect and truancy laws on the books. It's a policy choice to not strongly and aggressively enforce them.