Anonymous wrote:GDS?

Georgetown Day School. Check out the two FAQs at the top of the independent school page. Lots of discussion there on these topics.

I'm sure every school is different in how it releases ERB data. But my understanding is that almost all schools give each student's parents a report on how their child scored on the ERB. The report will show how the child scored against various national norms, and often against the independent school norms. The ERB people have a list online of the various norms they routinely calculate for schools, and also indicate they can calculate local norms (for a fee, I assume). http://erblearn.org/schools/collaboration/quality-assessment/norms-and-scoring If you search online, you can find examples of the types of reports that schools will give. I think some schools will have presentations for parents, to explain how the reports are read, what they say about the school, and what they say about how your individual child is doing in school.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/108665105/The-ERBs_-The-Tests-That-Ate-the-School
http://issuu.com/columbusschoolforgirls/docs/erb_testing_slide_show_for_web
http://www.easthampton.k12.ny.us/PUB/CTPIII.pdf

From what I understand, most independent schools are pretty forthcoming with their students' parents about the ERB results. I gather many schools will not readily disclose information about how each individual child's ERB scores compare against the rest of her class, since that smacks of class ranking. However, I know that Beauvoir will disclose ERB results for all its students applying to NCS and StA, so I assume those schools can easily engage in a "class rank" analysis. https://www.beauvoirschool.org/ftpimages/224/download/Timeline%20for%202013%20Outplacement.pdf I'm not sure what other local schools require/disclose ERB results as part of the admissions process.

If there's any lack of transparency, it's that most schools don't seem to commonly circulate their school-wide ERB results to people who are not associated with the school. I'm not sure why that is. I could imagine some schools wanting to brag about their students' high ERB scores, to show they compare favorably with other school options. I can find a couple of examples of that online. http://www.powhatanschool.org/powhatan-news/powhatan-school-ranks-in-top-97th-percentile-in-vocabulary-erb-scores-released/ But such releases seem to be the exception. I'd guess it's because comparing different schools' ERB scores seems to be a pretty obsessive and perhaps short-sighted way of picking a school, and most independent schools seem to want to deter such inter-school competitiveness. Also, as some PP pointed out, if schools start engaging in admissions competitions over ERB scores, then the logical result is that schools will begin putting more focus on teaching to the ERB, which could piss off many current parents.

I suspect there might be some interesting broad based comparisons available somewhere of how different localities and school types compare on the ERB. But I don't have time or interest to look for those right now. If someone else is motivated, please post the results here.

HTH

I like this state-by-state analysis.
http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/electoral-map

I'm pretty sure it's a close relative of Denzel Washington's car from Training Day!

Anonymous wrote:More digging deep to find something to bash Mitt about (other than current issues affecting america right now, of course?

You must have a lot of time on your hands and be feeble-minded (so as to be so easily deflected and distracted by the mainstream media away from current issues affecting americans right now and that should be of significant importance to you in your voting decision, albeit judging from your post, they won't be at all - you probably have no clue what the hell is going on).

I'm interested in education topics, and this article popped up on the Post's education page, so I shared it here. I like what it says about bullying. Yes, the young Mitt Romney does sound like a bit of a shithead. I trust he's gotten a little more mature over the past 40 years.

We don't know each other, so I'll assume your personal insults are merely misdirected. If you'd like to dance, just say the word, because I can do that too.

Yeesh!

Mitt Romney, when he was a senior at an elite private high school in Michigan, led a group of boys who “tackled” a boy who was presumed to be gay and had bleached-blond hair, held him down and chopped his hair off with a scissors even as the boy pleaded for help.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/what-romney-should-have-said-to-schoolchildren-about-his-prank-and-bullying/2012/05/10/gIQAtBDwFU_blog.html?wprss=rss_education

The article goes on to include some positive suggestions about how society should look at bullying.

Anonymous wrote:I am the one that originally wrote "store for poors" back on the clothing thread a few months ago. The KIA Sorrento is not in any way related to store for poors. When I link store for poors I think of something far far worse. If a person is buying a new car that costs circa 30k store for poors isn't the first thing that comes to mind

http://www.cargurus.com/Cars/1982-Buick-Regal-2-Door-Coupe-Pictures-t29563_pi35682388

This is much more a store for poors car.

Are you kidding?!? That's a sweet ride. I'd be pretty excited to pick up my kids in that thing.

Anonymous wrote:I think if a mark is left they have to give an incident report. If there is no mark the only case where I feel they must tell me is if there is a head injury in case it ends up being more severe than they initially thoughr.

This is closest to where I am. I accept that all kids get hurt fairly often when they play -- sometimes by accident and sometimes intentionally. If the injury is minor (skinned knee, minor bumps and bruises, some crying), I don't need anything. If my child gets some moderate-major injury (big cut, big bruise, head injury, major upset of some sort), then I'd like to hear something from the school. I don't need a formal incident report, but I'd like to get some communication -- a teacher's note home in the child's backpack, a nurse's voicemail, an email, etc -- to let me know how my child got hurt, and that someone was paying enough attention to make sure the injury was not serious. Unless there is some specific reason (for example, a concerning pattern of some specific other child picking on my child, or maybe a pattern of my child doing dangerous things with another specific child), I don't need the school to tell me who else was involved. YMMV, obviously.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They're fine if you shop at stores for poors.

Enjoy Applebee's

So, I pulled up to the daycare today and parked behind a Kia Sorrento. The thing is, I know that this mother has a high paying job. I also know our daycare is not cheap, but rather expensive. It made me think about this thread and the silly and incorrect judgmental twits who actually make assumptions about people based on their cars.

It seems odd to me that during discussions about money on DCUM, many people will make the point that really wealthy people often drive less ostentatious cars. During those discussions, their choice of low-end cars is pitched as a positive trait, because it shows how they are careful with money and unconcerned with shallow appearances. If we heard that a member of the Buffett, Walton, or Gates family was driving a Kia, we'd be impressed about how they're smart enough not to follow the herd. But by contrast, many people here are jumping all over OP to criticize her car choice. Why the double standard?

Yeah, I know ... she's probably not a Buffett, Walton, or Gates. But why are we impressed when the wealthy make careful car choices, but we sneer when others do the same thing?

It varies widely. The earliest will publish something in June-July, usually in a section of the website that deals with graduation. Another wave will publish a list in August-October in the college counseling section of the website. Some have no regular pattern. Some will not publish at all. I think many schools circulate lists internally on a separate schedule from the public website publication.

Anonymous wrote:I said many are taking precalc in 10th, only a few in 9th. And it's not uncommon in any of the Ws so I don't want to open up the conversation about the specific school.

Ah, you are correct; I did get your earlier comment wrong. You said that half the class was taking precalculus in 10th grade (not 9th), with some small additional group taking precalculus in 9th grade. My apologies.

I'm still very interested in hearing what school this is, since that's a pretty surprising level of acceleration.

Anonymous wrote:

SAM2 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A W school.

Forgive my ignorance. What's a "W school"? Does this mean Wilson? Walt Whitman? Wootton? Winston Churchill? Woodson? Wheaton? Something else?

The reference was in the context of MCPS so that eliminates the DC and VA schools. It generally means Whitman, W. Churchill, Wootton, Walter Johnson and BCC, which are the highest scoring non magnet MCPS high schools.

OK, thanks. There do seem to be a lot of MCPSs with W in the names!

So which school was PP talking about? Why not just name the school, and instead refer to some vague cluster? If it's really true that more than half of every class is taking precalculus in 9th grade or earlier -- and then presumably taking calculus by 10th grade -- that's pretty impressive. I'd sure want to check out that school.

Also, I guess I can see the others as "W schools," but where is the "W" in BCC?

Apologies for all the questions today.

Anonymous wrote:A W school.

Forgive my ignorance. What's a "W school"? Does this mean Wilson? Walt Whitman? Wootton? Winston Churchill? Woodson? Wheaton? Something else?

Out of curiosity, I just searched for old news articles on math curricula. Seems there's not much new here. Sort of depressing that people are having the same discussions now that our parents and grandparents were having 50 years ago.

Expert Unhappy with Way New Math is Being Taught (1966)
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DLBeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gy8MAAAAIBAJ&pg=3417,3370758&dq=math+curriculum&hl=en

"The American public is being sold a bill of goods in many of the new math and science programs being produced for schools." (1965)
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=g8hTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rTgNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3545,1623138&dq=math+curriculum&hl=en

Problems in US math education include "'confused' and pooly trained teachers, often saddled with a math curriculum 'remarkably like the 1890 model.'" (1956)
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0nRPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wgQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2401,2139184&dq=math+curriculum&hl=en

The three main problems of facing math students today are "boredom, poor instruction, and an outdated curriculum." (1963)
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-HEuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yn8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=2660,1268547&dq=math+curriculum&hl=en

"The report suggested the term 'new math' should be abandoned ... parents and educators 'use the term new math only as a historical label for ... developments that took place in school mathematics between 1965 and 1975.'" (1975)
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8-9LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bO0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7201,788822&dq=math+curriculum&hl=en

Anonymous wrote:I think you must be a EDM troll, paid to make positive remarks. I have found more negative information regarding this program than any other educational program in history.

I'm not the person you're quoting, but I think it's ridiculous to think there's conclusive and incontrovertible evidence condemning EDM. I've seen lots of studies and other objective proof that suggest EDM can be a strong and effective curriculum. Of course, people who dislike EDM say those studies are biased, and that the positive student gains are attributable to something other than the EDM curriculum. And conversely, the supporters of reform mathematics methods like EDM use the exact same arguments when they criticize traditional math curriculum approaches.

In the end, it seems to me that some students -- and some teachers -- will do better with one approach versus the other. All the different curriculum approaches have their merits, and their weaknesses. If a school has good math teachers, it seems the most effective strategy would be to allow the teachers to mix-and-match whatever approaches they can teach best, and individualize those strategies on-the-fly to match what each student needs. But I recognize my "best practices" suggestion is naive, since not all math teachers have the trust of their administrators, and not all schools (particularly public school districts) can be so easily flexible with their curriculum.

Nevertheless, to me, saying that the math curriculum your school uses is the root problem of the school's math woes seems similar to pinning all your complaints to a teacher that lets students use pencils rather than pens.

Also, as an aside, after reading about the fierce competition among textbook publishers, and the serious money they pump into lobbying efforts to have their curriculum products adopted by school districts, I mistrust most of the supposedly non-partisan groups that advocate one direction or the other on these topics.

FWIW, that's my 2 cents.