Curriculum 2.0
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Anonymous
I did my own research and found an Examiner and a Patch article. It seems like "an office error" is spreading through the Churchill-Wooton cluster!!!!! One school .... an error; two schools .... coincidence; three schools .... A PATTERN. |
Anonymous
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I find comments like run for school for board or vote for someone else to be very unhelpful. There seems to be no way where mainstraim parents can really put forward their voice. Most parents are not extremists and don't necessarily want to pick part apart the curriculum. We want basic common sense things that you would need with any curriculum.
1.) Hire more teacher aides. Bottom line, this resolves many issues. Struggling kids can get the extra assistance that they need and brilliant kids can accelerate in a meaningful way. Kids in the middle can get farther and find more satisfaction in what they are doing. Elementary school children, in particular, need more individualized and small group activities with a good teaching aide to lead them. 2.) Encourage and incentivize teachers to develop and share their creative approaches to teaching the curriculum. Teachers should get points for coming up with a neat science experiment, fun math game, or art project. Mentoring, training, and staff development needs to be funded and achievement needs to be rewarded. 3.) Focus on the whole child. Kids are at school 6 hours a day and are now learning more about social interaction through their peers than their parents. Schools, including elementary schools, should have anonymous student surveys gaging student levels of anxiety, perceived bully/exclusionary behavior, self esteem, empathy, leadership etc. School sponsored activities should be designed to teach ethics, empathy, leadership, courage, and inclusion. Recess aides should be trained on how to positively re-direct behavior in younger kids not just stand around letting them "work it out" until one kid ends up getting suspended. 4. )Stop selling crappy food in the schools. I am as far from organic and anti-cupcake as you can get but the food in MCPS is complete crap. On top of this, there is a constant and almost weekly treat of some sort in the classroom. Its sad when a school needs to sell treats at lunch time to make extra money to pay for the .5 staff development position that is left over. |
Anonymous
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Bravo 13:24!!!
+1. Your comments are common sense. When was the last time personnel from central office including the cluster supervisors on up actually visited a classroom unannounced to see the results of Curriculum 2.0? It would be great if they would touch base with reality before pushing a program that is not working. |
Anonymous
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I agree 100% with 13:24!!!!!
What can we do to get rid of this horrible 2.0? Seriously, should there be petitions, should we picket the schools/superintendent's office, what?? I believe this is a terrible experiment that is HARMING kids and turning them OFF to school. In our school, high achievers in math are bored to tears as they wait around to cover rudimentary material over and over and over again. This is a waste of their time and their abilities. I think that for some kids this curriculum is beyond sad (and the ramifications to their education may be irreparable). Please, does anyone have a solution? I am willing to make calls, complain loudly, march, whatever it takes. I did not move to a "good" suburban school district to watch my children wither under this curriculum! |
Anonymous
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For all the parents who are fed up with the problems of Curriculum 2.0, maybe try many different avenues. Something might eventually take off and work.
1) Try emailing the MCPS individuals from a previous post. 2) Email all the parents you know to log on to this blog and tell them to inform all the parents that they know. If there are enough posts, then maybe MCPS or news outlets will listen to the complaints. 3) Contact your school PTA administration and ask what is the PTA's stance and how are they addressing parent/teacher concerns regarding 2.0. How can we help the PTA? 4) Talk with your principal regarding your concerns. I have talked with parents at different schools in the county and the administration at the school greatly affects how the program is implemented. Some schools are differentiating classes and some aren't. Parents may be able to force change at their local school by collectively meeting with the principal at their school. Does any one else out there have any additional suggestions? |
Anonymous
| Facebook page, petitions, loudly and in large numbers going to BOE meetings and sending them e-mails until they take action. In general, forming a large, loud, cohesive group. |
Anonymous
| Hmmm. My 2nd grader is doing on-level 2.0 math ---- and so his his 1st grade cousin (at a Title I school). To clarify: my 1st grade nephew is doing the same math as my 2nd grader (different schools --- both with 2.0). So obviously the kids are being challenged. I'm probably in the minority of MoCo parents since I am willing to admit my kid is average when it comes to academics. The new curriculum is meant to ensure that all kids are taught on the appropriate level as opposed to the old MCPS days where they would push kids to quickly cover some random math gimmick and then move on without the kids really learning much of the basics. And to the PP who posted a sample 2nd grade math worksheet: Is your kid in a low math group? My totally average 2nd grader is doing triple digit addition and subtraction (as is my 1st grade nephew at a Title I school). And my son has begun multiplication. Multiplication in 2nd grade seems advanced to me --- I never did multiplication in 2nd grade in the private school I attended a million years ago. |
Anonymous
| To the 9:38 poster - I think your point is valid. But, there are some of us who have kids in 2nd grade who are multiplying triple digit numbers by double digit numbers (as one example) and who are appropriately challenged at that level. Why, should they have to switch to curriculum 2.0 (which will roll out next year at our school) next year and re-do "2nd grade" math without enrichment. It seems unfair to those students. Why can't we continue to challenge the kids who need it. |
Anonymous
I you surprised what second graders are doing today may seem advanced in comparison to the days of the cave woman? Progress does include the intellectual or mental variety. |
Anonymous
| 9:38 again. To the PP: Many folks criticized MCPS in the past for pushing kids along too quickly with math without teaching a solid foundation of the basics. So while a kid might be able to rattle off a few multiplication facts, they might not really understand the concept. That's one of the reasons they began 2.0. And my point is that even with 2.0, kids are still being challenged appropriately (ie: my first grade nephew who is doing 2nd grade math). And while I realize the education system has changed since I was a schoolgirl, I'm not sure it's necessarily changed for the better. I went to an old-school private with a very traditional curriculum and went on to very well in college and law school --- but I'm not as confident that my children will receive a better education than I did despite the "progress" that you say has been made. I'd much rather have my kids in MCPS spend a little less time on math and writing and MORE time on science and social studies. 2.0 claims they would do that --- but I'm not seeing it. |
Anonymous
I disagree on both fronts. Curriculum 2.0 is about raising the MSA test scores. The only assessment that accelerated kids were moving to quickly was from analyzing the standardized test results across the populations. Curriculum 2.0 tries to address this by significantly increasing the amount of repetition across all levels in hopes to raise test scores. The removal of acceleration is about money and test scores. Differenting in class requires teacher aides (costs money) or splits the teacher's focus. Without differention, the teacher can focus solely on bringing everyone up to the bar that the MSA requires. As long as the MSA is upheld as the only valid measurement of a teacher's success, the principal's success, and the school district's success then there is no incentive to do anything beyond focus on ways to raise the overall test scores. It does not matter if your child is challenged or not. Basic economic and human behavior shows that people will put their resources toward what propogates their own survival. I don't think that constant repetition is going to raise test scores in higher achieving students. It may raise some test scores for kids toward the bottom and middle as the teacher's attention would not be split. However, I suspect that MCPOS will find that repetition alone doesn't solve their initial problem. Many kids toward the bottom need more than just repetition and repeated instruction at the large group level. They need more individualized attention which 2.0 still doesn't address in any meaningful way. High achieving kids do worse with more repetition rather than better. You also have the dynamic that many high achieving kids may not test well as they speed through answers and make careless mistkaes. No amount of repetition or going slow is going to solve that issue, its about the fit between the test format and the individual being assessed. |
Anonymous
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9:38: I wholeheartedly agree with you that kids should be appropriately taught at their level and not pushed. BUT, I think what you are seeing with your nephew is not what most of us are seeing. Title 1 schools have more resources than most others. So, they can figure out how to teach the kids who need a challenge. What most parents in the county are seeing with 2.0 is not the acceleration that your nephew is getting, EVEN when some children really need it.
That's the issue I have. My son was begging to be taught something in math that he didn't already know. I've heard the same from others. When I send my child to school, I expect him to be taught. It's that simple. I actually have seen more science curriculum, which I am happy about. So far this year, there has been a unit on the moon, one on the ocean floor, one on dinosaurs, the class grew brine shrimp from the larval stage and are now doing a butterfly unit. |
Anonymous
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My son is in the 2nd grade also - seems like he's been doing double/triple addition since the beginning of the school year, not much more than that.
In science I know they've done the unit on the phases of the moon - which has been great - but haven't heard about the ocean floor, dinosaurs, growing brine shrimp or butterflies....I'll have to ask my son whether they've covered these other topics... |
Anonymous
| 20:37 again...actually, turns out my 2nd grader has studied the ocean floor, maybe even brine shrimp (he's in the Spanish immersion program, so he didn't know the word in English), butterflies are coming up. No dinosaurs, though... Since he never brings anything home about science, I didn't know any of that had been covered. |
Anonymous
| Science is integrated into the curriculum, meaning there is no science teacher? The classroom teacher handles science? |