2022 MSDE School Report Cards Are Out. How did your school do?
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Anonymous
My kid definitely has regular Eureka quizzes (“checks for understanding) and assessment (mid- and end-of-module assessments). They do a review the day before the tests. But you are right they aren’t taught how to study; that’s something I have had to work on with my kid. Benchmark does have quizzes (also called checks for understanding) and three-times-a-year unit tests. But there is no way for me to help my kid study because I don’t know when they are or what they cover. |
Anonymous
They do mixed abilities in high school too. It’s their “honors for all” model until APs/IB kicks in. |
Anonymous
Then advocate for all classes in ES to have paras or additional supports. People have no problem with the students who are behind getting additional help. No one wants them stigmatized or failing. Similarly they don’t want the students who are ahead to feel like they get little to no attention and are not allowed to continue progressing. The goal is not to close the gap between the students who are behind vs the students that are ahead. The goal is (or should be) to get everyone to on level or ahead. But that doesn’t means those who are ahead have to suffer nor does it mean the expectations are lessened. |
Anonymous
. It isn't the kids that do this. It is parents like you. If you really wanted to help your child you would want them in smaller environment with kids similar to him with extra teacher and para support so they can actually improve and learn and get up to the grade standards quickly. What you want to do is throw the struggling kids in with everyone so not to stigmatize them, but yet you are stunting them. Protecting them by making them look average but keep them far below average because they aren't getting enough help. And they see kids in their class succeeding easily. They see them barely in groups, getting done their busy work in 5 minutes what takes them the entire group break to do and if not, they see the teacher ask smart Joey to help them learn the work which is so humiliating. Joey rolls his eyes because he just wants to read his book at his desk. So instead they usually just quickly get done the work, throw it in the bin and not learn anything. Teacher is too overwhelmed to look over and realize how much kid is struggling. And each year kids like this slip through the cracks over and over again, but at least they weren't stigmatized. We just teach them to expect less, work average, and get more. |
Anonymous
BCC isn’t a W school! |
Anonymous
You know what is stigmatizing? Throwing the 7 and 8 year olds who can barely read and write into the same classes with kid who are above grade level. I volunteer in my kid’s classes often and the kids are ALWAYS comparing themselves to others. About everything. These kids need extra help and support. Put them in a class with fewer kids and an extra para. Don’t just throw them in with the higher-achieving kids and expect them to learn by osmosis. The opposite happens. They compare themselves to the kids in the top reading group and figure they can never do that. And they partially give up, and just okay games on the Chromebook. No, you are wrong. You mixed ability classes are not useful at all, for any kids. |
Anonymous
This is exactly what happens. EXACTLY. |
Anonymous
And MS is even worse. You think ES is stigmatizing? Wait until you get to MS and the kids in Honors English who have no grasp of grammar are comparing themselves to kids who have just come back to their home school from a CES. |
Anonymous
Maybe your child’s teacher just isn’t super strong in differentiating. Some are definitely better than others. I suggest you stop spending so much time judging children while you volunteer and stop gloating that your child is “ahead” and use your time to give the learners who need support the support you keep saying they don’t have. You are also hyper-fixated on “reading groups” which is not the only instruction that is going on during the day. It’s but one piece. I agree with you that MCPS in general leaves gifted students to languish and generally does not prioritize their learning needs appropriately at all. But I do not agree with tracking them starting in 1st grade. Not because of the self esteem of the kids, but because students come into school with greatly varied educational preparation and exposure, and I think it’s appropriate to spend time helping get everyone solid on the basics before sending them down a particular path. Furthermore, not all “advanced” kids are well behaved and vice versa, but I do think putting all the “struggling” kids together at age 6 (and making another 1st grade class extra large with 30 kids) is a recipe for difficult classrooms to manage. You must be aware that teachers are still reporting high levels of burn out/job dissatisfaction. |
Anonymous
I kind of agree with this. When I was in ES we shuffled around a bit for reading and math based on our levels. My 1st grader is very strong in math and bored to tears by how slow it's going, but reading is more of a struggle. It's gotten better using RGR this year (it was challenging to get him to try to sound out words at home when they were being taught to 3-cue in school), but he sees other kids in his class reading chapter books and it stresses him out. I think it would be more useful for him to be provided more challenge in math but reading instruction with kids that also need a bit more support. |
Anonymous
Correct! I don't see a W anywhere in the name: Bethesda-Chevy Chase. |
Anonymous
| It sounds like the proficiency scores in the reports reflect testing done during the pandemic, reflecting the learning losses that occurred due to extensive closures. I'm not sure that's particularly meaningful in terms of how well my kids will do in a school, as we were able to provide them with more resources to keep up with grade-level standards. That's why I'm not too concerned about their school's relatively low rating. |
Anonymous
“W”heaton is! 
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
My kid's 3rd grade schedule has almost 2 hours blocked off for Language Arts. They barely have any time scheduled for History/Science. It's basically a large Language Arts block an a large Math block. The kids have reading groups and math groups. One group meets with the teacher, while the other groups are given busy work at their desks, usually on their Chromebooks. And hour and a half of 'independent work' doesn't help any of the kids. Not the kids who are ahead, not the kids who are at grade level, and certainly not the kids who are below grade level. The 'struggling' kids are not necessarily difficult to manage. The class can be (should be) smaller, and they should have a para. Of course, teachers are reporting high levels of burn out. It's impossible to give meaningful instruction to kids when there are 5 (FIVE!) reading groups in one class, and the teacher has to choose books for all of those various reading levels, along with appropriate activities to go along with those books. |