No More Reading Levels in Grades 3 - 5

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Parents with higher achieving students have just about had it with the dumbing down. Mcps will eventually see more and more higher achieving students pulled out. If more reasonably priced private schools or education co-ops existed, I'd pull both of my kids out immediately.

How is expecting kids to be 1 to 2 grades above grade level dumbing things down?

It’s not that. It’s the fact that they no longer want to keep records. Keeping it off the report card makes it easier to say that kids are all ‘doing fine’. Allows MCPS to get out of providing services for kids who might need services. Allows MCPS to talk about how all the URMS are doing fantastic because there is no data otherwise.

same concept as then they ceased final exams in HS.
And stopped issueing B+s or A- so everyone's final grade rounds up to an A in HS.

all smoke and mirrors, and has the top half of the class scrambling to differentiate themselves, since their hard work getting a 95% correct is an A just like the 86%'er kid.

No, it’s not equivalent at all. Kids learn to read by third and read to learn third grade and beyond. This is just another way to sweep LDs under the rug. Mcps doesn’t use evidence based techniques or curriculum to address dyslexia even though 1 in 5 people have some form of it.

People who have means will tutor or do private school. If people try to fight the system, they will be crushed by MCPS lawyers and this just makes it easier.

We are saying the same things.

MCPS created only 2 bands of ranking students: pass/fail, A/B. This both aids them in neglecting to provide LD services to K-3 kids and aids them in saying 50% of their HS is 4.0 unweighted.

We have a family history of dyslexia. From what I see at MCPS, they will not lift a finger to evaluate my child's reading or letter/number comprehension until 3rd grade and that will be a 3-9 month process. Most likely we won't get an IED plan or bethesda school specialist appointed, because MCPS must triage its resources to severe LD and ESOL cases where kids are grade levels behind their age. If we do manage to get an IED for dyslexia, my kid will be pulled out 1 or 2x a week with a small group of other LD kids, of any LD.

We hope to move by then.

MCPS will not help at all. My child was struggling in one area that both we and the teacher agreed upon and they refused reading support as child was technically on grade level. We've had to do all services privately. The speech therapy is a joke as its 30 minutes and 6 kids with a huge variety of needs and it didn't work on any of my child's concerns and worked on the same one topic for two years.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:MIRL and these other tests that have been constantly administered are often done incorrectly because teachers have to process so many students in little time. More often than not they just rubber stamp kids to the next level on the achievement escalator. The result is kids who can read higher are often marked lower. This set of standards takes up valuable class time and harms more often than it helps. Overall this is a huge step in the right direction. Consistent standardized tests like MAP-R are signfiicantly more helpful.

Giving a student a running record (MIRL) doesn't take that long. In fact, you can do a couple of kids from each reading group daily and easily be done by the end of the month to input the data. It's the data entry that was a killer. I agree that MAPs provide a great deal of information. I sure wish the curriculum aligned better with the questions asked of students on MAP testing. K to 2 will be giving kids the MAP-RF test for the first time this year. They have to give it the same months as mClass so that's quite a bit of testing for 5 to 8 year olds. I'm thinking they might be phasing out mClass in the future and replace it with MAP-RF since it's completely computer scored and doesn't require sub time for a teacher to complete.

That would be an improvement. mClass takes so much time and it just isn't possible to be thorough. They typically base it on a single story for a level instead of several and teachers being human aren't as consistent in their methods.

Less pointless testing sounds like a welcome change. WTG MCPS!

wait what? MAP tests for K, 1 and 2 now? Does that mean their cutting social studies to do more computer class clicking training? Are MAps like 2-3 times a year?

What social studies or science? They barely get anything. If they cut it, they might as well just get rid of saying they do it. I like MAP as its more accurate than teacher testing for some kids.

[Anonymous]

We made the mistake of believing the lies. We bought a house in MoCo. Now we're trying to decide whether to move (honestly something we can't do financially for a couple of years, given that we just bought our house less than a year ago) or pay for private school.

Honestly, we're so burned that we don't even want to trust that another DC-area public school system would be meaningfully better.

What a mess.

[Anonymous]

Summary of thread: whatever MCPS does or doesn't do, it's wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Summary of thread: whatever MCPS does or doesn't do, it's wrong.

No, that’s not quite right.

I see it more that MCPS has so many issues and doesn’t always do what is in the best interests of the kids.

[Anonymous]

I think the HS issues are pretty completely different than the ES issues. I attended MCPS HS in 1993-1997 - there were no A- or B+ then either, and there was no class rank. The only one of the things mentioned that actually changed is the final exams. I personally think it would be good for kids to experience a few 3 hour comprehensive exams before starting college, but I understand why the change was made given how much extra "high stakes testing" kids are spending time on now and given that AP and IB exams are much more common now.

The ES testing is confusing. I think it's good to recognize that data can provide helpful information and guide individualized instruction. But keeping track of all the different types of testing and switching this one out for that one is just impossible to keep track of as a parent. I think they change too much and consistency year to year is clearly by the central office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Summary of thread: whatever MCPS does or doesn't do, it's wrong.

No, that’s not quite right.

I see it more that MCPS has so many issues and doesn’t always do what is in the best interests of the kids.

Kids are not homogeneous, and their best interests aren't either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Summary of thread: whatever MCPS does or doesn't do, it's wrong.

Summary of this forum.

[Anonymous]

Summary of thread: whatever MCPS does or doesn't do, it's wrong.

This is exactly what you posted when parents complained about 2.0. In your world, MCPS can do no wrong and teachers, parents, and students should just shut up.

This is what is wrong with the central office. Its incompetent and arrogant, a horrible combination that will always yield failure.

[Anonymous]

I think this forum should be directly linked to the Real Estate section so no one else makes the mistakes of moving to MoCo "for the great schools."

We certainly wished we read this board five years ago, never would have moved here. Big county slush fund public school districts are a mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this forum should be directly linked to the Real Estate section so no one else makes the mistakes of moving to MoCo "for the great schools."

We certainly wished we read this board five years ago, never would have moved here. Big county slush fund public school districts are a mess.

But where would you have moved if you have a career in the DMV?

[Anonymous]

In short, this means fewer tests. Students still take the MAP-R multiple times a year and this information is available at MyMCPS. It can also be argued the MAP-R is an overall indicator since it's consistent and more thorough than the redundant tests that they are eliminating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this forum should be directly linked to the Real Estate section so no one else makes the mistakes of moving to MoCo "for the great schools."

We certainly wished we read this board five years ago, never would have moved here. Big county slush fund public school districts are a mess.

This board is just a bubble outside reality. By any real metric, MCPS is a solid school system. Many posters here just like to whine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this forum should be directly linked to the Real Estate section so no one else makes the mistakes of moving to MoCo "for the great schools."

We certainly wished we read this board five years ago, never would have moved here. Big county slush fund public school districts are a mess.

This board is just a bubble outside reality. By any real metric, MCPS is a solid school system. Many posters here just like to whine.

I know! One parent complains there too much testing. The county eliminates a bunch of redundant tests. Another group of parents complain what will we do without those tests!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is ridiculous. One step forward by amending that insane N/I/P/ES grading system and two steps back by eliminating reading levels.

Are the kids going to know their reading levels? How is it that we're supposed to pick out books from the library if we have no idea of what their reading level is? My kid was reading above grade level in 1st last year, so the teacher did not send home books for reading at home (that was only for kids below grade level). We had to go get him books from the library. He complained that every book we took out was too hard, unless it was obviously too easy. This continued until I took out a whole pile of books that were listed one below his level! Without that reading level as a guide, the complaining would have continued.


I'm pulling my hair out with MCPS.

At least one principal has responded on this thread. Can I ask a question for any MCPS administrators on here? I'm a teacher in the county and I know principals have to tout the party line and play nice with central, but are you folks secretly as appalled as we are, generally speaking? It would be comforting actually to think that principals align more with their staff's needs than the central office initiative du jour.

Just because it is something required by Dr Smith, please don't assume all Central Office staff are behind it. Many who work in various departments are unhappy with the way things are going and are trying their best to provide solid research based practice to those above and are being ignored.