When will MCPS adopt an evidence-based early reading curriculum?

[Anonymous]

We are in the Whitman school district (so a “good” school) and my DC went to kindergarten not reading. I asked the teacher what I needed to do to support DC, and the teacher said - just read to her every night.

I check in at the parent teacher conference in Nov, teacher said DC is fine. I checked in again in March, teacher said DC is fine (DC still not reading). End of the year, the teacher said DC was at grade level, but barely reading Level A books at home.

We decided to move to a private school with a phonics based approach. DC started reading within 3 weeks of starting school and caught up to grade level by the end of first grade. No private tutoring needed.

We are educated, wealthy, involved parents whose child failed to learn to read under the MCPS curriculum and learned easily under a phonics based system. We have the resources for tutoring and private school, which not all families have. We are at a good school. I know lots of kids learn to read with the current system, but lots do not - even those who have a lot of privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2021/12/13/incoming-schools-chancellor-david-banks-on-why-so-many-black-brown-students-arent-reaching-proficiency-theyre-teaching-wrong/

Bravo to the new School Chancellor in NYC for his leadership! When is MCPS going to step up? Our elementary reading scores are dismal and there are huge disparities—and we know that the curriculum the system uses is the wrong way to teach reading.

This is key part of curriculum 3.0 which they're been developing.

PP are you connected to MCPS? What else do you know about this? Would be interested in more info.

OMG. That poster is TROLLING. They didn't get a bite the first time they mentioned it so they bumped their own comment. Don't fall for it.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:As a reading teacher in MCPS, I'm thrilled to see parents becoming more aware of how Benchmark does not follow the science of how children learn to read. The county does use some structured literacy intervention programs, such as Orton Gillingham lessons and programs such as Really Great Reading's BLAST and HD Word. Unfortunately, these programs are often only available to students who are significantly below grade-level and vary from school to school. I know of teachers who are asking to be trained in Orton Gillingham, but the county won't pay for their training. I decided to pay for the training out of pocket because I felt it was critical for helping struggling readers. I believe we could eliminate some students' reading difficulties and identify other students who need support earlier if we switched to a structured literacy curriculum.

Thanks for sharing. I know a few schools have moved the entire curriculum to OG but, as you say, those are the most struggling schools.

To the poster wondering about graft/kickbacks, I'd honestly look at cost before I look at a flawed procurement. Like any big organization, MCPS almost certainly approaches procurement from a "value for money" perspective.

So, Benchmark is a Honda Civic in this analogy. It will get the majority of kids from here to there, and is relatively cost effective.

OG is a Cadillac in this analogy. It will ALSO get the majority of kids from here to there, but is overkill for a lot of kids and much less cost effective.

So MCPS appears to have decided to buy a fleet of Civics and then a handful of Cadillacs. I'm not saying that's the right choice, but it does make sense to me as someone who does big procurements for a living. Sometimes we don't get the A+ solution. We get the "better than nothing" solution that is more cost effective.

Ok but reading is so important they should have bought the Cadillacs. They can buy unicycles for social studies and whatever for all I care.

I don't really understand this attitude, to be honest. Most kids can and do learn to read with the current approach. Some need a specialized approach, which MCPS seems to finally be ready to provide. I'm not mad that some kids are getting OG when my kids learned to read with 2.0. For the same reason, I'm not mad that some kids get a 1-to-1 aide or speech therapy. In a public education system, I think it is perfectly fine to use an approach (a Honda Civic) that works on the lower-needs kids, and to save the resource-intensive approaches (the Cadillacs) for kids who need something different.

I would agree that if they were identifying and providing more intervention to all kids that need it, but that’s not really what happens. A lot of kids fall through the cracks, those who dont learn under the current system but don’t get the benefit of the specialized instruction. There simply aren’t enough resources- our ES only has one reading specialist for 600+ kids.

I think advocating for more resources for the kids who are being missed is going to be far more effective and productive than advocating for every kid in the district to get a hyper-specialized, resource-intensive, reading curriculum designed for kids with learning differences.

One of these things is doable and the other is a distraction.

Nobody is proposing everyone gets real OG. Some general education curriculums are aligned with the science of reading. The biggest gap/ expense would be teacher training since so many only know the balanced literacy garbage.

+1. Benchmark was a poor choice for a general curriculum.

+1 We are asking for an evidence-based general curriculum for reading. Many other school districts and states are moving in this direction - MD and MCPS are lagging.

Also, I disagree with the Honda Civic analogy. A Civic still gets you from A to B. We have a curriculum now that leads to poor reading outcomes for a large share of students.

Yes. Benchmark is not a civic. It’s a lemon. Reading scores are in free fall. Also, MCPS will not give your child reading intervention unless they are REALLY REALLY doing poorly/behind. Our son is struggling but we were told he wasn’t bad enough to get the intervention so we are paying out the nose for private OG.

This might be a over generalized statements (may not). Parents definition of struggling vs what is truly appropriate for kids is not always the same. Its widely known that reading clicks for different kids at different times usually between ages 4-7. So just becuase some K kids are rapidly moving through it and others are not does not necessarily equate to struggling. Again, I can’t speak to your specific situation, but parental competition/fear does play a part in how some of this is perceived.

It’s December and my son cannot read at all, does not know many sounds letters make, and writes many letters backwards. I’m not a tiger mom. He’s clearly behind and his tutor agrees. I don’t think she was trying to sell me. She was genuinely concerned he wasn’t being assisted more at school.

The question is behind in comparison to what? For instance, assuming this is Kindergarten, is the comparison to his peers in K in this area, then yes your DC may be behind. However, if your K’er came in with little to no exposure to reading or writing this might be right on target. Many kids write letters backwards when first starting (for instance b, d, c, e, s). This is not necessarily a sign that something is wrong but just that additional practice is needed. Again, this is not to saying everything is fine as I’ve never meet you or your DC. This is also not to say that OG or another method won’t work better. its merely to note that depending on where your DC started they may not be behind for them.

Isn’t that what the test scores are for? My DC’s kindergarten teacher referred to those in our conference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2021/12/13/incoming-schools-chancellor-david-banks-on-why-so-many-black-brown-students-arent-reaching-proficiency-theyre-teaching-wrong/

Bravo to the new School Chancellor in NYC for his leadership! When is MCPS going to step up? Our elementary reading scores are dismal and there are huge disparities—and we know that the curriculum the system uses is the wrong way to teach reading.

This is key part of curriculum 3.0 which they're been developing.

PP are you connected to MCPS? What else do you know about this? Would be interested in more info.

OMG. That poster is TROLLING. They didn't get a bite the first time they mentioned it so they bumped their own comment. Don't fall for it.

Is 3.0 also being developed by Discovery?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in the Whitman school district (so a “good” school) and my DC went to kindergarten not reading. I asked the teacher what I needed to do to support DC, and the teacher said - just read to her every night.

I check in at the parent teacher conference in Nov, teacher said DC is fine. I checked in again in March, teacher said DC is fine (DC still not reading). End of the year, the teacher said DC was at grade level, but barely reading Level A books at home.

We decided to move to a private school with a phonics based approach. DC started reading within 3 weeks of starting school and caught up to grade level by the end of first grade. No private tutoring needed.

We are educated, wealthy, involved parents whose child failed to learn to read under the MCPS curriculum and learned easily under a phonics based system. We have the resources for tutoring and private school, which not all families have. We are at a good school. I know lots of kids learn to read with the current system, but lots do not - even those who have a lot of privilege.

Why didn’t you just work with her at home? Would have been a lot cheaper than private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in the Whitman school district (so a “good” school) and my DC went to kindergarten not reading. I asked the teacher what I needed to do to support DC, and the teacher said - just read to her every night.

I check in at the parent teacher conference in Nov, teacher said DC is fine. I checked in again in March, teacher said DC is fine (DC still not reading). End of the year, the teacher said DC was at grade level, but barely reading Level A books at home.

We decided to move to a private school with a phonics based approach. DC started reading within 3 weeks of starting school and caught up to grade level by the end of first grade. No private tutoring needed.

We are educated, wealthy, involved parents whose child failed to learn to read under the MCPS curriculum and learned easily under a phonics based system. We have the resources for tutoring and private school, which not all families have. We are at a good school. I know lots of kids learn to read with the current system, but lots do not - even those who have a lot of privilege.

Why didn’t you just work with her at home? Would have been a lot cheaper than private.

Why doesn’t MCPS offer a proven curriculum so that teachers can teach kids how to read AT school.

I taught my kids how to read at home (because yes, it is cheaper than private). I also taught her Math because MCPS math sucks.

But it is ridiculous that this schools system, with its many resources, can’t provide our kids with the basic services one would expect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in the Whitman school district (so a “good” school) and my DC went to kindergarten not reading. I asked the teacher what I needed to do to support DC, and the teacher said - just read to her every night.

I check in at the parent teacher conference in Nov, teacher said DC is fine. I checked in again in March, teacher said DC is fine (DC still not reading). End of the year, the teacher said DC was at grade level, but barely reading Level A books at home.

We decided to move to a private school with a phonics based approach. DC started reading within 3 weeks of starting school and caught up to grade level by the end of first grade. No private tutoring needed.

We are educated, wealthy, involved parents whose child failed to learn to read under the MCPS curriculum and learned easily under a phonics based system. We have the resources for tutoring and private school, which not all families have. We are at a good school. I know lots of kids learn to read with the current system, but lots do not - even those who have a lot of privilege.

Why didn’t you just work with her at home? Would have been a lot cheaper than private.

Why doesn’t MCPS offer a proven curriculum so that teachers can teach kids how to read AT school.

I taught my kids how to read at home (because yes, it is cheaper than private). I also taught her Math because MCPS math sucks.

But it is ridiculous that this schools system, with its many resources, can’t provide our kids with the basic services one would expect.

+1. Especially considering how long they are there every day. Sounds like the kids play games on chrome books more than anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in the Whitman school district (so a “good” school) and my DC went to kindergarten not reading. I asked the teacher what I needed to do to support DC, and the teacher said - just read to her every night.

I check in at the parent teacher conference in Nov, teacher said DC is fine. I checked in again in March, teacher said DC is fine (DC still not reading). End of the year, the teacher said DC was at grade level, but barely reading Level A books at home.

We decided to move to a private school with a phonics based approach. DC started reading within 3 weeks of starting school and caught up to grade level by the end of first grade. No private tutoring needed.

We are educated, wealthy, involved parents whose child failed to learn to read under the MCPS curriculum and learned easily under a phonics based system. We have the resources for tutoring and private school, which not all families have. We are at a good school. I know lots of kids learn to read with the current system, but lots do not - even those who have a lot of privilege.

Why didn’t you just work with her at home? Would have been a lot cheaper than private.

Why doesn’t MCPS offer a proven curriculum so that teachers can teach kids how to read AT school.

I taught my kids how to read at home (because yes, it is cheaper than private). I also taught her Math because MCPS math sucks.

But it is ridiculous that this schools system, with its many resources, can’t provide our kids with the basic services one would expect.

+1. Especially considering how long they are there every day. Sounds like the kids play games on chrome books more than anything else.

The Chromebook games are a useless waste of time. Ask your kids to show you what games they love playing. Only 1-5% of the games are actually educational. The rest are garbage.

Not to mention, our ES has slowly done away with physical books to be replaced by crap on Epic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in the Whitman school district (so a “good” school) and my DC went to kindergarten not reading. I asked the teacher what I needed to do to support DC, and the teacher said - just read to her every night.

I check in at the parent teacher conference in Nov, teacher said DC is fine. I checked in again in March, teacher said DC is fine (DC still not reading). End of the year, the teacher said DC was at grade level, but barely reading Level A books at home.

We decided to move to a private school with a phonics based approach. DC started reading within 3 weeks of starting school and caught up to grade level by the end of first grade. No private tutoring needed.

We are educated, wealthy, involved parents whose child failed to learn to read under the MCPS curriculum and learned easily under a phonics based system. We have the resources for tutoring and private school, which not all families have. We are at a good school. I know lots of kids learn to read with the current system, but lots do not - even those who have a lot of privilege.

While I’m for a phonics based curriculum, this post assumes that DC was not being taught phonics in K. It also assumes that the private school did something amazing in 3wks in 1st in spite of everything she learned in K and because she was developmentally ready. There’s no way to know that this child would have caught on as quick or at all in K with a different curriculum or teacher. The post assumes the K learning and time was irrelevant when it may have been completely relevant to the progress in 1st.

[Anonymous]

Curriculum 3.0 is not a thing. There's nothing in the works. The district has paid a ton of money for a contract with Benchmark. There are plans to pilot the 2022 Benchmark edition at some schools and eventually transition everyone over to the new version. Apparently it's supposed to be better for foundational skills in the younger grades. I guess we will see!
-MCPS employee

[Anonymous]

I don't know how reading is or isn't taught these days. All I know is that it felt like my Kindergartner was just spinning his wheels and not making much progress. I put him in a phonics-based reading program and within a month, he was ripping through words and books. I kept him going and by first grade, he was easily sounding out big words, would ask me what they meant, and now he "owned" a new word. He started reading relatively advanced (4th grade type) books by then. We started doing it with math as well, which just focused on memorization and repetition.

[Anonymous]

Yes, ugh, so frustrating to hear that my kindergartener is being taught to guess based on pictures rather than getting a solid foundation in phonics.

Does MCPS central office not understand the science of how kids learn to read, or what? Who would be the one(s) to change this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in the Whitman school district (so a “good” school) and my DC went to kindergarten not reading. I asked the teacher what I needed to do to support DC, and the teacher said - just read to her every night.

I check in at the parent teacher conference in Nov, teacher said DC is fine. I checked in again in March, teacher said DC is fine (DC still not reading). End of the year, the teacher said DC was at grade level, but barely reading Level A books at home.

We decided to move to a private school with a phonics based approach. DC started reading within 3 weeks of starting school and caught up to grade level by the end of first grade. No private tutoring needed.

We are educated, wealthy, involved parents whose child failed to learn to read under the MCPS curriculum and learned easily under a phonics based system. We have the resources for tutoring and private school, which not all families have. We are at a good school. I know lots of kids learn to read with the current system, but lots do not - even those who have a lot of privilege.

As educated, wealthy parents, its a bit shocking that you didn't start working with your child before K. More shocking that the preschool your child was at didn't work with them either.

We are educated, not wealthy and our kids were reading at age four or under. Why? We worked with them and taught them to read. Sometimes time is more important than money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, ugh, so frustrating to hear that my kindergartener is being taught to guess based on pictures rather than getting a solid foundation in phonics.

Does MCPS central office not understand the science of how kids learn to read, or what? Who would be the one(s) to change this?

Some kids learn better with pictures/sight words, some learn better with phonics. There is no one size fits all approach. Why don't you teach your kid via phonics? Nothing stopping you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, ugh, so frustrating to hear that my kindergartener is being taught to guess based on pictures rather than getting a solid foundation in phonics.

Does MCPS central office not understand the science of how kids learn to read, or what? Who would be the one(s) to change this?

Some kids learn better with pictures/sight words, some learn better with phonics. There is no one size fits all approach. Why don't you teach your kid via phonics? Nothing stopping you.

How does MCPS teach it? Do they do both?