Underachieving kids

[Anonymous]

OP, it sounds like your child has an attitude problem. The idea is for children to want to learn. He is telling you he is only going to do what is required at the basic level. I can't see why this is the school's fault.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]I have an 8th grader and they absolutely did not learn any grammar or vocabulary in elementary school[/b]. None. We moved her to private in 6th and she was so far behind on paragraph formation, grammar dissecting, writing skills, study skills, basic word understanding etc... It was really embarrassing. All she had from 1-5th grade was a spelling test (didn't have to know what the word meant) and comprehension of some reading group books. Far and few between was a written page about a book. When I was in 4th grade, I was diagramming sentences and writing simple stories (creative and non-fiction) and in 5th doing our own research papers. I was amazed at how little emphasis was place on writing in elementary at MCPS. I hope 2.0 is changing that.

Like private schools, publics need to have more emphasis on writing, presenting, speech, critical thinking, working with groups and leading them occasionally. MCPS can just not think outside of the box. Working a large group into standardized testing = boring academics. Nothing you can really do about it. My daughter is in 1st and we are just counting the days to move to private in 3rd.

So, this is not a 2.0 issue. To you, this is a public vs. private issue.

My kids do a lot of writing. 1st grader reads a book and has to write about what they liked best about the book, provide details and examples from the book. It's an exercise in opinion writing.

4th grader is writing very long opinion pieces as well, and just did a research paper on Native Americans (culture, technology, diet, etc.. ), and it was a collaborative effort.

2.0 actually has kids reading a lot more nonfiction than pre 2.0.

No it isn't. I am saying when I was in public, I learned grammar, writing, vocabulary, how to research, presentations. Kids in public get zero vocabulary or grammar tests. None these days. I am glad your 4th grader did a research paper. I can tell you my child did not. Never had one. Only spelling tests and math tests and a few projects. All 6 years.

[Anonymous]

2.0 is a disaster. Its a bunch of poorly hobbled together and disorganized mediocre interpretations of what MCPS thinks will be on PARCC. Its 100% about gaming the new test and they've done a pretty piss poor job in the process. Common Core is just a standard. How and what is taught is all on the idiots in MCPS. The poor teachers can barely get a lesson plan together from this junk much less figure out to work around and above it to provide appropriate level work to many of the kids in the system. They are just trying to survive.

[Anonymous]

Are people worried that scores will be lower with the new tests?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

No it isn't. I am saying when I was in public, I learned grammar, writing, vocabulary, how to research, presentations. Kids in public get zero vocabulary or grammar tests. None these days. I am glad your 4th grader did a research paper. I can tell you my child did not. Never had one. Only spelling tests and math tests and a few projects. All 6 years.

My child in third grade in MCPS has a vocabulary every other week (alternating with spelling). In first and second grade, she had grammar tests every week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2.0 is a disaster. Its a bunch of poorly hobbled together and disorganized mediocre interpretations of what MCPS thinks will be on PARCC. Its 100% about gaming the new test and they've done a pretty piss poor job in the process. Common Core is just a standard. How and what is taught is all on the idiots in MCPS. The poor teachers can barely get a lesson plan together from this junk much less figure out to work around and above it to provide appropriate level work to many of the kids in the system. They are just trying to survive.

I don't know how you can conclude that MCPS has done a bad job of gaming the PARCC test, when no child in MCPS has yet taken the PARCC test for anything other than field-testing the PARCC test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2.0 is a disaster. Its a bunch of poorly hobbled together and disorganized mediocre interpretations of what MCPS thinks will be on PARCC. Its 100% about gaming the new test and they've done a pretty piss poor job in the process. Common Core is just a standard. How and what is taught is all on the idiots in MCPS. The poor teachers can barely get a lesson plan together from this junk much less figure out to work around and above it to provide appropriate level work to many of the kids in the system. They are just trying to survive.

+ a million.

My child is in third in a green zone MCPS school, no vocabulary and no spelling tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2.0 is a disaster. Its a bunch of poorly hobbled together and disorganized mediocre interpretations of what MCPS thinks will be on PARCC. Its 100% about gaming the new test and they've done a pretty piss poor job in the process. Common Core is just a standard. How and what is taught is all on the idiots in MCPS. The poor teachers can barely get a lesson plan together from this junk much less figure out to work around and above it to provide appropriate level work to many of the kids in the system. They are just trying to survive.

+ a million.

My child is in third in a green zone MCPS school, no vocabulary and no spelling tests.

My child is in 1st grade in a green zone. I just got an email from the teacher about how they are getting ready for spelling tests. Again, this is a teacher problem, not a 2.0 problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2.0 is a disaster. Its a bunch of poorly hobbled together and disorganized mediocre interpretations of what MCPS thinks will be on PARCC. Its 100% about gaming the new test and they've done a pretty piss poor job in the process. Common Core is just a standard. How and what is taught is all on the idiots in MCPS. The poor teachers can barely get a lesson plan together from this junk much less figure out to work around and above it to provide appropriate level work to many of the kids in the system. They are just trying to survive.

+ a million.

My child is in third in a green zone MCPS school, no vocabulary and no spelling tests.

My first grader in green zone has spelling tests.

[Anonymous]

My 3rd grader in a green zone has weekly spelling tests and vocabulary.

[Anonymous]

2.0 is a disaster. Its a bunch of poorly hobbled together and disorganized mediocre interpretations of what MCPS thinks will be on PARCC. Its 100% about gaming the new test and they've done a pretty piss poor job in the process. Common Core is just a standard. How and what is taught is all on the idiots in MCPS. The poor teachers can barely get a lesson plan together from this junk much less figure out to work around and above it to provide appropriate level work to many of the kids in the system. They are just trying to survive.

2.0 is creating a generation of kids that are learning how not to achieve. These aren't traditional underachievers but normal and above average kids who if given even a little motivation in school or presented with an expectation to do more would be learning at a much deeper level. Its actually smart behavior to only expend the necessary energy to complete a mundane task. You're not going to use calligraphy to fill out your DMV form. Academic work in MCPS is the equivalent of filling out a DMV form nothing more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

2.0 is a disaster. Its a bunch of poorly hobbled together and disorganized mediocre interpretations of what MCPS thinks will be on PARCC. Its 100% about gaming the new test and they've done a pretty piss poor job in the process. Common Core is just a standard. How and what is taught is all on the idiots in MCPS. The poor teachers can barely get a lesson plan together from this junk much less figure out to work around and above it to provide appropriate level work to many of the kids in the system. They are just trying to survive.

2.0 is creating a generation of kids that are learning how not to achieve. These aren't traditional underachievers but normal and above average kids who if given even a little motivation in school or presented with an expectation to do more would be learning at a much deeper level. Its actually smart behavior to only expend the necessary energy to complete a mundane task. You're not going to use calligraphy to fill out your DMV form. Academic work in MCPS is the equivalent of filling out a DMV form nothing more.

Is that what you tell your child? "Eh, just do enough to get by. That's the economically rational thing to do." It's not what I tell mine.

[Anonymous]

It is sad to hear that so many elementary schoolers are only motivated by grades...especially since (according to DCUM) everyone only gets a P.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is sad to hear that so many elementary schoolers are only motivated by grades...especially since (according to DCUM) everyone only gets a P.

+1

The problem is the parent, not the kid, school or curriculum. It comes from the parent. Tell your kids to try your best even if you can't get an ES because that is the kind of person you want to be in school, in work, or anything else that's important. As they say, how well you do in life is more about how hard you are willing to work, not how smart you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is sad to hear that so many elementary schoolers are only motivated by grades...especially since (according to DCUM) everyone only gets a P.

+1

The problem is the parent, not the kid, school or curriculum. It comes from the parent. Tell your kids to try your best even if you can't get an ES because that is the kind of person you want to be in school, in work, or anything else that's important. As they say, how well you do in life is more about how hard you are willing to work, not how smart you are.

Besides the middle school report card is not like this. I am fine with this report card at the elem level