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DC Public and Public Charter Schools
So, where did Mayor Fenty's kids show up for school?
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Anonymous
The standards aren't a problem. They're just mediocre. |
Anonymous
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http://www.k12.dc.us/dcps/standards2005/standardsHome.htm
Standards and a curriculum are not the same thing; I think you might be conflating the two. An innocent mistake. |
Anonymous
So what is the DCPS curriculum? |
Anonymous
| They don't really provide one. Developing a curriculum is an incredibly sophisticated endeavor and should be tailored to the needs and goals of the school (by a curriculum developer). I fear if DC does invest here, it will be with more one size fits all. |
Anonymous
| In other words, the standards are the curriculum. |
Anonymous
| or perhaps there is no DCPS curriculum? |
Anonymous
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All DC public schools have to meet the standards - that is in fact what performance on standardized tests measures. The DC charter schools are free to develop, purchase, or use some combination of the two to implement their curriculum.
At Yu Ying, for example, the curriculum follow the International Baccalaureate PYP and integrates Mandarin instruction in an immersion environment. This is indeed a very sophisticated endeavor and requires a great deal of collaboration and planning between the English and Chinese classrooms. I really don't know if all DCPS schools employ the same curriculum (i.e., if it is handed down on high from the office of the Superintendent) but it's difficult for me to imagine that at least, say Oyster, doesn't have individually tailored elements. Similarly, I would suspect that a certain amount of funding that gets raised by the Mann PTA goes to curriculum enrichment materials. |
Anonymous
| It's really simple. The standards are the curriculum. That's it. There's nothing else there except for the textbooks, which are as bad as the standards. |
Anonymous
Did you read the post above? It does vary by school, you know. |
Anonymous
What varies is the culture and educational philosophy of the principal and faculty, the student demographic, and the facilities. With the exception of some bells and whistles (Reggio, Montessori, instrumental music, foreign language, foreign language immersion, reading and writing workshop, IB, and extra-curriculars) the core curriculum is the same throughout DCPS. It is determined by the DC standards, adopted textbooks, and DC-CAS. Even IB schools teach the DC standards, package with IB themes, attitudes, and learner profile. Parents can provide resources and support, but they cannot change or dramatically improve the curriculum. It is what it is. |
Anonymous
| The DC standards are among the most rigorous in the country. Sorry you had a bad experience. Glad we're not at your school. |
Anonymous
If saying this makes you feel good about your school choices, good for you. |
Anonymous
Don't feed the troll. |
Anonymous
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White public school students (another way of saying upper NW schools) in the District of Columbia have the highest math scores in the country as reflected by 4th grade standardized testing.
Must be the low quality curriculum... (rolling my eyes) http://www.schoolinfosystem.org/archives/2007/10/a_different_loo.php If it makes you feel good to pass inaccurate judgements about schools you know nothing about, then you need to educate yourself. You're flat out wrong. |
Anonymous
I'm so tired on this board of people saying that if white kids are doing well in DC public schools then DC must be a great system. Our own experience was that our DD was very far behind her peers in math when she transferred to a MCPS school. Why don't test scores reflect that? Because about half of the kids in her grade at school are actually doing the next grade's math. Many 4th graders take 5th grade math, etc. Test scores don't reveal this because they only test the age/grade. The curriculum she experienced at her upper NW DC elementary was far behind her MCPS elementary in math and reading. The DCPS offering was very narrow -- all kids worked on the same material even if their skills were far beyond. There science was extremely weak (they spent most of their time out on the playground drawing trees). And, there was literally no social studies. When I asked the teacher about it, she admitted that she didn't have time to teach social studies and still get in all that she was supposed to in math and reading, and so she just decided to drop social studies. It wasn't long after that we decided to drop DCPS. |