S/O spelling, phonics, grammar, math facts, etc in ACPS

[Anonymous]

Are these problem areas in ACPS, too? We're zoned for Cora Kelly. Should I expect significant supplementation to be necessary? Do any elementary schools in ACPS with opt-ins or transfer possibilities do an excellent job of teaching these things?

[Anonymous]

I’m at Maury and I’ve been very frustrated with the lack of all of this for my 4th grader.

On the other hand, my current first grader is doing a ton of phonics work (different teacher.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m at Maury and I’ve been very frustrated with the lack of all of this for my 4th grader.

On the other hand, my current first grader is doing a ton of phonics work (different teacher.)

The lack of consistency between teachers is so frustrating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are these problem areas in ACPS, too? We're zoned for Cora Kelly. Should I expect significant supplementation to be necessary? Do any elementary schools in ACPS with opt-ins or transfer possibilities do an excellent job of teaching these things?

Cora Kelly is supposed to be a Math and Science focus school. They have historically had some of the lowest Math and Science scores in City. A few years ago the principal did a big push to increase both and the scores went up slightly. As with all ACPS schools, if Math is the focus on year, SOL scores go up in Math and go down in Reading and vice versa. There is almost never an increase in both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are these problem areas in ACPS, too? We're zoned for Cora Kelly. Should I expect significant supplementation to be necessary? Do any elementary schools in ACPS with opt-ins or transfer possibilities do an excellent job of teaching these things?

George Mason does NOT do a good job with teaching math facts. But spelling, phonics and grammar all seems to be ok. But I've only had one kid go through GM. Over the years, I've met lovely Cora Kelly teachers but I don't know about the academics.

Most ACPS ES are very overcrowded so transfer possibilities are probably very limited.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are these problem areas in ACPS, too? We're zoned for Cora Kelly. Should I expect significant supplementation to be necessary? Do any elementary schools in ACPS with opt-ins or transfer possibilities do an excellent job of teaching these things?

Cora Kelly is supposed to be a Math and Science focus school. They have historically had some of the lowest Math and Science scores in City. A few years ago the principal did a big push to increase both and the scores went up slightly. As with all ACPS schools, if Math is the focus on year, SOL scores go up in Math and go down in Reading and vice versa. There is almost never an increase in both.

So basically, we would need to supplement a significant amount at any school? We could opt in to MVCS or JH, but I assume they have similar issues and I'm not sure dual language would be a good fit.

[Anonymous]

I believe all of ACPS is using the anti-science balanced literacy reading curriculum from Lucy Cawkins... the only exception might be Lyles Crouch. You will absolutely need to supplement in reading - and unteach your child the guessing strategies they will be taught in school.

[Anonymous]

It depends on the teacher. My two boys got completely different educations at the same school. My oldest had “old school” teachers who taught spelling, had kids practice printing, taught structured paragraphs, math facts, etc.

Three years later my youngest went through and had every teacher who believed ideas were more important than teaching any skills. He never had spelling tests, and spelling was never corrected. He never had any math facts tests. He was handed a blank journal and everyday for 45 minutes he wrote pages and pages of rambling misspelled paragraphs, in reading he was taught to guess words instead of sounding out, in math the teacherS thought it was fine he counted on his fingers or drew circles to solve 15-8 or 7x8. Or if he could figure out how to do the math word problem but made calculation mistakes he still got credit for it even though the answer was wrong. I finally pulled him out and sent him to Catholic school and Kumon starting in 4th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are these problem areas in ACPS, too? We're zoned for Cora Kelly. Should I expect significant supplementation to be necessary? Do any elementary schools in ACPS with opt-ins or transfer possibilities do an excellent job of teaching these things?

Cora Kelly is supposed to be a Math and Science focus school. They have historically had some of the lowest Math and Science scores in City. A few years ago the principal did a big push to increase both and the scores went up slightly. As with all ACPS schools, if Math is the focus on year, SOL scores go up in Math and go down in Reading and vice versa. There is almost never an increase in both.

So basically, we would need to supplement a significant amount at any school? We could opt in to MVCS or JH, but I assume they have similar issues and I'm not sure dual language would be a good fit.

Yes, that's correct. You should plan to do so. I had to teach my child phonics. We have been doing Outschool type classes for writing for many years because that was not taught either. (child is now a teen). For math, Khan academy as a supplement.
My child attended one of the most highly rated ACPS elementary schools btw. She had nice teachers - some better than others - and the community was nice as well. But the academics are lacking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are these problem areas in ACPS, too? We're zoned for Cora Kelly. Should I expect significant supplementation to be necessary? Do any elementary schools in ACPS with opt-ins or transfer possibilities do an excellent job of teaching these things?

Cora Kelly is supposed to be a Math and Science focus school. They have historically had some of the lowest Math and Science scores in City. A few years ago the principal did a big push to increase both and the scores went up slightly. As with all ACPS schools, if Math is the focus on year, SOL scores go up in Math and go down in Reading and vice versa. There is almost never an increase in both.

So basically, we would need to supplement a significant amount at any school? We could opt in to MVCS or JH, but I assume they have similar issues and I'm not sure dual language would be a good fit.

Yes, that's correct. You should plan to do so. I had to teach my child phonics. We have been doing Outschool type classes for writing for many years because that was not taught either. (child is now a teen). For math, Khan academy as a supplement.
My child attended one of the most highly rated ACPS elementary schools btw. She had nice teachers - some better than others - and the community was nice as well. But the academics are lacking.

And our experience has been completely different. Both math fundamentals (fact families), phonics and writing/grammar have been intentionally taught. Spelling not as much but that comes easy for our daughter. We’ve done zero supplementing—and I mean zero—but she’s naturally bright (objectively speaking, not bragging). Her recent assessments were high 90s for math and English. We are at MVCS and love the community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are these problem areas in ACPS, too? We're zoned for Cora Kelly. Should I expect significant supplementation to be necessary? Do any elementary schools in ACPS with opt-ins or transfer possibilities do an excellent job of teaching these things?

Cora Kelly is supposed to be a Math and Science focus school. They have historically had some of the lowest Math and Science scores in City. A few years ago the principal did a big push to increase both and the scores went up slightly. As with all ACPS schools, if Math is the focus on year, SOL scores go up in Math and go down in Reading and vice versa. There is almost never an increase in both.

So basically, we would need to supplement a significant amount at any school? We could opt in to MVCS or JH, but I assume they have similar issues and I'm not sure dual language would be a good fit.

Yes, that's correct. You should plan to do so. I had to teach my child phonics. We have been doing Outschool type classes for writing for many years because that was not taught either. (child is now a teen). For math, Khan academy as a supplement.
My child attended one of the most highly rated ACPS elementary schools btw. She had nice teachers - some better than others - and the community was nice as well. But the academics are lacking.

And our experience has been completely different. Both math fundamentals (fact families), phonics and writing/grammar have been intentionally taught. Spelling not as much but that comes easy for our daughter. We’ve done zero supplementing—and I mean zero—but she’s naturally bright (objectively speaking, not bragging). Her recent assessments were high 90s for math and English. We are at MVCS and love the community.

Do you think the stronger focus on phonics and grammar is because of the dual language?

-OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are these problem areas in ACPS, too? We're zoned for Cora Kelly. Should I expect significant supplementation to be necessary? Do any elementary schools in ACPS with opt-ins or transfer possibilities do an excellent job of teaching these things?

Cora Kelly is supposed to be a Math and Science focus school. They have historically had some of the lowest Math and Science scores in City. A few years ago the principal did a big push to increase both and the scores went up slightly. As with all ACPS schools, if Math is the focus on year, SOL scores go up in Math and go down in Reading and vice versa. There is almost never an increase in both.

So basically, we would need to supplement a significant amount at any school? We could opt in to MVCS or JH, but I assume they have similar issues and I'm not sure dual language would be a good fit.

Yes, that's correct. You should plan to do so. I had to teach my child phonics. We have been doing Outschool type classes for writing for many years because that was not taught either. (child is now a teen). For math, Khan academy as a supplement.
My child attended one of the most highly rated ACPS elementary schools btw. She had nice teachers - some better than others - and the community was nice as well. But the academics are lacking.

And our experience has been completely different. Both math fundamentals (fact families), phonics and writing/grammar have been intentionally taught. Spelling not as much but that comes easy for our daughter. We’ve done zero supplementing—and I mean zero—but she’s naturally bright (objectively speaking, not bragging). Her recent assessments were high 90s for math and English. We are at MVCS and love the community.

Do you think the stronger focus on phonics and grammar is because of the dual language?

-OP

That very well could be! I had not thought of it until you mentioned it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are these problem areas in ACPS, too? We're zoned for Cora Kelly. Should I expect significant supplementation to be necessary? Do any elementary schools in ACPS with opt-ins or transfer possibilities do an excellent job of teaching these things?

Cora Kelly is supposed to be a Math and Science focus school. They have historically had some of the lowest Math and Science scores in City. A few years ago the principal did a big push to increase both and the scores went up slightly. As with all ACPS schools, if Math is the focus on year, SOL scores go up in Math and go down in Reading and vice versa. There is almost never an increase in both.

So basically, we would need to supplement a significant amount at any school? We could opt in to MVCS or JH, but I assume they have similar issues and I'm not sure dual language would be a good fit.

Yes, that's correct. You should plan to do so. I had to teach my child phonics. We have been doing Outschool type classes for writing for many years because that was not taught either. (child is now a teen). For math, Khan academy as a supplement.
My child attended one of the most highly rated ACPS elementary schools btw. She had nice teachers - some better than others - and the community was nice as well. But the academics are lacking.

And our experience has been completely different. Both math fundamentals (fact families), phonics and writing/grammar have been intentionally taught. Spelling not as much but that comes easy for our daughter. We’ve done zero supplementing—and I mean zero—but she’s naturally bright (objectively speaking, not bragging). Her recent assessments were high 90s for math and English. We are at MVCS and love the community.

Do you think the stronger focus on phonics and grammar is because of the dual language?

-OP

That very well could be! I had not thought of it until you mentioned it.

OP here. Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I went and looked at the MVCS curriculum and was pleasantly surprised to see it does talk about phonics. We've been considering homeschooling but I've tried to start off with some math and reading at home and honestly, I suck at homeschooling. Hopefully K is 5 days a week in the fall and hopefully I can swing a spot at MVCS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the teacher. My two boys got completely different educations at the same school. My oldest had “old school” teachers who taught spelling, had kids practice printing, taught structured paragraphs, math facts, etc.

Three years later my youngest went through and had every teacher who believed ideas were more important than teaching any skills. He never had spelling tests, and spelling was never corrected. He never had any math facts tests. He was handed a blank journal and everyday for 45 minutes he wrote pages and pages of rambling misspelled paragraphs, in reading he was taught to guess words instead of sounding out, in math the teacherS thought it was fine he counted on his fingers or drew circles to solve 15-8 or 7x8. Or if he could figure out how to do the math word problem but made calculation mistakes he still got credit for it even though the answer was wrong. I finally pulled him out and sent him to Catholic school and Kumon starting in 4th grade.

The latter paragraph describes my daughter's experience at Lyles-Crouch. As a PP said, it seems to depend on the teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe all of ACPS is using the anti-science balanced literacy reading curriculum from Lucy Cawkins... the only exception might be Lyles Crouch. You will absolutely need to supplement in reading - and unteach your child the guessing strategies they will be taught in school.

This is absolutely correct. There has been some lip service to the need for evidence based phonics instruction in the Equity 2025 planning (but as part of “Balanced Literacy” which is a concerning concept), the system uses the good Words Their Way computer program, and there are some special needs teachers who use OG, the overall approach to reading remains in the Lucy Cawkins, non scientific dark ages. It is horrible (and permeates even into Specialized Instruction).