MCPS gutting humanities MS magnets and replacing with CKLA? (Are CESes next?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently they are discussing this at the Board of Ed meeting on Thursday-- see slide 11: https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DMEQEB68EB75/$file/Curriculum%20Update%20251016%20PPT%20REV.pdf

Instead of having a truly advanced curriculum for the humanities magnets, they say they are going to do an RFP for an open-source grade-level MS English curriculum that "Includes extensions for highly-able learners.

As MCPS tries to claim that CKLA has robust embedded enrichment and thus is a totally fine replacement for the magnet humanities curriculum, folks should understand what that means. CKLA is all available online so you can see it for yourself. The way CKLA enrichment works is that for every unit, CKLA provides: 1) a handful of challenge questions to ask the class over the course of the 4-5 weeks of the unit, and 2) a list of fairly vague/general ideas for linked activities at the end. (Sometimes it also includes "have the kids read the entire book for enrichment because the main curriculum does not include the whole book.") If you go here and just select "Language Arts" and then the grade level, it'll pull up all the units and you can click through to see the teacher's guide and activity book for each unit.

For example, this is the teachers' guide for a 7th grade CKLA unit on Hello Universe (a book enriched literacy kids are reading during FIT time in 4th grade, by the way.) You can search for "challenge" throughout the text to get the challenge questions (like " Ask students to explain the symbolic meaning of the race Virgil describes on page 249" and "Ask students to find references to death on these pages")-- looks like there are 7 for this 25-day unit. And then page 188 has the list of ideas for enrichment activities, like "Ask students who enjoy Kaori’s character to research the history behind astrology and horoscopes. Where do zodiac signs come from? How long have people practiced astrology? Have students present their findings in a slideshow or multimedia presentation" and "Ask students to write an epilogue to Hello, Universe—three months, one year, or five years after the end of the story. Have students describe what the characters are doing now, what they have done since the end of the story, what they are like now, and what their relationships are." https://www.coreknowledge.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/CKLA_G7_U1_TG_Web.pdf

Link to search all units for all years here: https://www.coreknowledge.org/download-free-curriculum/

Thanks for sharing this! For Eastern and RC families, I think it would be powerful if you can list a few side-by-side examples in how a similar topic/project is approached currently in your magnet curriculum, and how it's treated in CKLA enrichment, and somewhere in that table needs to show also cost. MCPS didn't say their RFP will necessarily select CKLA enrichment, but that might likely happen. Stuff their mouths with evidences before that happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently they are discussing this at the Board of Ed meeting on Thursday-- see slide 11: https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DMEQEB68EB75/$file/Curriculum%20Update%20251016%20PPT%20REV.pdf

Instead of having a truly advanced curriculum for the humanities magnets, they say they are going to do an RFP for an open-source grade-level MS English curriculum that "Includes extensions for highly-able learners.

As MCPS tries to claim that CKLA has robust embedded enrichment and thus is a totally fine replacement for the magnet humanities curriculum, folks should understand what that means. CKLA is all available online so you can see it for yourself. The way CKLA enrichment works is that for every unit, CKLA provides: 1) a handful of challenge questions to ask the class over the course of the 4-5 weeks of the unit, and 2) a list of fairly vague/general ideas for linked activities at the end. (Sometimes it also includes "have the kids read the entire book for enrichment because the main curriculum does not include the whole book.") If you go here and just select "Language Arts" and then the grade level, it'll pull up all the units and you can click through to see the teacher's guide and activity book for each unit.

For example, this is the teachers' guide for a 7th grade CKLA unit on Hello Universe (a book enriched literacy kids are reading during FIT time in 4th grade, by the way.) You can search for "challenge" throughout the text to get the challenge questions (like " Ask students to explain the symbolic meaning of the race Virgil describes on page 249" and "Ask students to find references to death on these pages")-- looks like there are 7 for this 25-day unit. And then page 188 has the list of ideas for enrichment activities, like "Ask students who enjoy Kaori’s character to research the history behind astrology and horoscopes. Where do zodiac signs come from? How long have people practiced astrology? Have students present their findings in a slideshow or multimedia presentation" and "Ask students to write an epilogue to Hello, Universe—three months, one year, or five years after the end of the story. Have students describe what the characters are doing now, what they have done since the end of the story, what they are like now, and what their relationships are." https://www.coreknowledge.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/CKLA_G7_U1_TG_Web.pdf

This 8th grade unit appears to have the closest thing to a research paper I saw, although I might have missed something (they call it an "informative essay"): https://www.coreknowledge.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/CKLA_G8U6_TG_Web.pdf

Not entirely clear to me the length but I think it is basically a 5-paragraph essay, based on the student workbook (page 93): https://www.coreknowledge.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/CKLA_G8U6_AB_Web2.pdf

Challenge/enrichment related to this project: "CHALLENGE: Remind students that they have learned how to format quotations correctly and should look for places to add quotations to their essays" and "CHALLENGE: If students complete their revisions easily, encourage them to focus specifically on precise word choice, evaluating each word of their essays to consider if there is a stronger choice. If students used any subject-specific terms that readers may not find familiar, have them add simple definitions to their text."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently they are discussing this at the Board of Ed meeting on Thursday-- see slide 11: https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DMEQEB68EB75/$file/Curriculum%20Update%20251016%20PPT%20REV.pdf

Instead of having a truly advanced curriculum for the humanities magnets, they say they are going to do an RFP for an open-source grade-level MS English curriculum that "Includes extensions for highly-able learners.

As MCPS tries to claim that CKLA has robust embedded enrichment and thus is a totally fine replacement for the magnet humanities curriculum, folks should understand what that means. CKLA is all available online so you can see it for yourself. The way CKLA enrichment works is that for every unit, CKLA provides: 1) a handful of challenge questions to ask the class over the course of the 4-5 weeks of the unit, and 2) a list of fairly vague/general ideas for linked activities at the end. (Sometimes it also includes "have the kids read the entire book for enrichment because the main curriculum does not include the whole book.") If you go here and just select "Language Arts" and then the grade level, it'll pull up all the units and you can click through to see the teacher's guide and activity book for each unit.

For example, this is the teachers' guide for a 7th grade CKLA unit on Hello Universe (a book enriched literacy kids are reading during FIT time in 4th grade, by the way.) You can search for "challenge" throughout the text to get the challenge questions (like " Ask students to explain the symbolic meaning of the race Virgil describes on page 249" and "Ask students to find references to death on these pages")-- looks like there are 7 for this 25-day unit. And then page 188 has the list of ideas for enrichment activities, like "Ask students who enjoy Kaori’s character to research the history behind astrology and horoscopes. Where do zodiac signs come from? How long have people practiced astrology? Have students present their findings in a slideshow or multimedia presentation" and "Ask students to write an epilogue to Hello, Universe—three months, one year, or five years after the end of the story. Have students describe what the characters are doing now, what they have done since the end of the story, what they are like now, and what their relationships are." https://www.coreknowledge.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/CKLA_G7_U1_TG_Web.pdf

Link to search all units for all years here: https://www.coreknowledge.org/download-free-curriculum/

Thanks for sharing this! For Eastern and RC families, I think it would be powerful if you can list a few side-by-side examples in how a similar topic/project is approached currently in your magnet curriculum, and how it's treated in CKLA enrichment, and somewhere in that table needs to show also cost. MCPS didn't say their RFP will necessarily select CKLA enrichment, but that might likely happen. Stuff their mouths with evidences before that happens.

Are there any Eastern and Clemente parents on this thread? (Let us know if so!) Or if folks know any of them can you share this information and idea and encourage them to spread the word to other parents? My understanding is that they are talking amongst themselves and want to fight this but I don't know if they're aware that they can access this kind of detail about CKLA and use it as part of that process, which I think is a great idea.

[Anonymous]

Don’t know abt specific schools but gutting all the magnet programs has been MCPS’s goal for yrs now. They got sidetracked during covid. But they started w/ ES, then MS and now HS. It was clear to me ore-covid when they changed ES magnets that they were going to phase out all of them eventually. Just glad my DD with have graduated from HS magnet before the change. It will be a loss if a gen of a program though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good. As a parents of kids who completely qualified and would have thrived at a CES or MS magnet, I am tired of paying for other kids to get what my kids need, while my kids are ignored. Without magnets there will be more high achievers at my schools.

Yeah. CES needs to go. It's not just that most kids don't get it (even if they qualify), but also that the schools with it end up with a 2-tier system, actually disadvantaging kids not in CES. Unfortunately there is just not enough to go around given realities around many kinds of resources.

One particular principal, now retired, used to brag how she hand-picked the CES kids from her school's 3rd grade cohort, too. So there's also that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good. As a parents of kids who completely qualified and would have thrived at a CES or MS magnet, I am tired of paying for other kids to get what my kids need, while my kids are ignored. Without magnets there will be more high achievers at my schools.

Yeah. CES needs to go. It's not just that most kids don't get it (even if they qualify), but also that the schools with it end up with a 2-tier system, actually disadvantaging kids not in CES. Unfortunately there is just not enough to go around given realities around many kinds of resources.

One particular principal, now retired, used to brag how she hand-picked the CES kids from her school's 3rd grade cohort, too. So there's also that.

It’s just so easy to imagine how MCPS could offer ELA enrichment at every elementary school and so frustrating to think about what they’ve chosen to do instead. I also hope CES goes away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good. As a parents of kids who completely qualified and would have thrived at a CES or MS magnet, I am tired of paying for other kids to get what my kids need, while my kids are ignored. Without magnets there will be more high achievers at my schools.

Yeah. CES needs to go. It's not just that most kids don't get it (even if they qualify), but also that the schools with it end up with a 2-tier system, actually disadvantaging kids not in CES. Unfortunately there is just not enough to go around given realities around many kinds of resources.

One particular principal, now retired, used to brag how she hand-picked the CES kids from her school's 3rd grade cohort, too. So there's also that.

Yes, I also noticed the three students who got selected to CES did not seem random at all. And there are even fewer seats for MS criteria-based magnets and I do not think this lottery is random either. I will not miss CES or MS magnets being gone.

They need to make sure teachers in all schools are effective, enforce classroom discipline, and institute rigor. Our ES was horrible--teachers would not look at papers, not give feedback, and everyone got As, and before 4th grade (when my kid was in CM and ELC), students were allowed to be disruptive and roam around. It is not surprising the dismal MCPS MCAP performance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good. As a parents of kids who completely qualified and would have thrived at a CES or MS magnet, I am tired of paying for other kids to get what my kids need, while my kids are ignored. Without magnets there will be more high achievers at my schools.

+1. They could do pull outs for advanced kids at their home schools for far cheaper than what they’re doing for a few lucky kids who get into CES.

If I can't have it, no one can.

Wait what? That is ridiculous. I have a kid who got a spot at a CES and we turned it down for a variety of reasons. We’ve generally said we don’t plan to allow our child to go to a magnet because they would really struggle with the bussing situation (it’s FAR for us). Kids absolutely shouldn’t have to 1) get lucky 2) be up for a long bus ride and 3) be fine starting over socially to get advanced instruction. The emphasis on the magnets is a huge distraction from the legal requirement to provide enrichment to all kids. If the magnet programs are good, fine keep them but there should be a STRONG home school equivalent, which it sounds like there is not, at all.

Cite please - In MD what legal requirement is there to provide enrichment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good. As a parents of kids who completely qualified and would have thrived at a CES or MS magnet, I am tired of paying for other kids to get what my kids need, while my kids are ignored. Without magnets there will be more high achievers at my schools.

+1. They could do pull outs for advanced kids at their home schools for far cheaper than what they’re doing for a few lucky kids who get into CES.

If I can't have it, no one can.

Wait what? That is ridiculous. I have a kid who got a spot at a CES and we turned it down for a variety of reasons. We’ve generally said we don’t plan to allow our child to go to a magnet because they would really struggle with the bussing situation (it’s FAR for us). Kids absolutely shouldn’t have to 1) get lucky 2) be up for a long bus ride and 3) be fine starting over socially to get advanced instruction. The emphasis on the magnets is a huge distraction from the legal requirement to provide enrichment to all kids. If the magnet programs are good, fine keep them but there should be a STRONG home school equivalent, which it sounds like there is not, at all.

Cite please - In MD what legal requirement is there to provide enrichment?

https://dsd.maryland.gov/regulations/Pages/13A.04.07.03.aspx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently they are discussing this at the Board of Ed meeting on Thursday-- see slide 11: https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DMEQEB68EB75/$file/Curriculum%20Update%20251016%20PPT%20REV.pdf

Instead of having a truly advanced curriculum for the humanities magnets, they say they are going to do an RFP for an open-source grade-level MS English curriculum that "Includes extensions for highly-able learners.

As MCPS tries to claim that CKLA has robust embedded enrichment and thus is a totally fine replacement for the magnet humanities curriculum, folks should understand what that means. CKLA is all available online so you can see it for yourself. The way CKLA enrichment works is that for every unit, CKLA provides: 1) a handful of challenge questions to ask the class over the course of the 4-5 weeks of the unit, and 2) a list of fairly vague/general ideas for linked activities at the end. (Sometimes it also includes "have the kids read the entire book for enrichment because the main curriculum does not include the whole book.") If you go here and just select "Language Arts" and then the grade level, it'll pull up all the units and you can click through to see the teacher's guide and activity book for each unit.

For example, this is the teachers' guide for a 7th grade CKLA unit on Hello Universe (a book enriched literacy kids are reading during FIT time in 4th grade, by the way.) You can search for "challenge" throughout the text to get the challenge questions (like " Ask students to explain the symbolic meaning of the race Virgil describes on page 249" and "Ask students to find references to death on these pages")-- looks like there are 7 for this 25-day unit. And then page 188 has the list of ideas for enrichment activities, like "Ask students who enjoy Kaori’s character to research the history behind astrology and horoscopes. Where do zodiac signs come from? How long have people practiced astrology? Have students present their findings in a slideshow or multimedia presentation" and "Ask students to write an epilogue to Hello, Universe—three months, one year, or five years after the end of the story. Have students describe what the characters are doing now, what they have done since the end of the story, what they are like now, and what their relationships are." https://www.coreknowledge.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/CKLA_G7_U1_TG_Web.pdf

Link to search all units for all years here: https://www.coreknowledge.org/download-free-curriculum/

Thanks for sharing this! For Eastern and RC families, I think it would be powerful if you can list a few side-by-side examples in how a similar topic/project is approached currently in your magnet curriculum, and how it's treated in CKLA enrichment, and somewhere in that table needs to show also cost. MCPS didn't say their RFP will necessarily select CKLA enrichment, but that might likely happen. Stuff their mouths with evidences before that happens.

They haven't created the CKLA enrichment yet, so there is nothing to compare. What has been posted is core CKLA curriculum (which may have some enrichment elements, but is not what central office is talking about -- they would add to it).