Reply to Why are Maryland schools so anti-achievement?

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[quote=Anonymous]Our experience is that the new curriculum is very anti- academic achievement. Math is horrendous. The grading system is bizarre. The consistency of the type of work is very strange. DC went to private school in another state for K-1 and we have now had 2.0 for 2nd, 3rd and now 4th grade. DC#2 is in 1st grade. The difference in quality is shocking and the private school that we went to isn't one of the fancy, top elite schools around here.

I don't think the problem is the teachers. This system just can't be used to effectively measure student progress which is what grading assessment is intended to achieve. The way MCPS has set this up most students should all be Ps. A system where the only measurement that is record and shared with students and parents provides no value and no motivation for kids to do better.

A few teachers are trying to differentiate but it backfires quickly because they can't do it consistently since the system doesn't allow it. From one teacher who tries to give out more a range, DC will receive an ES on one assignment for writing additional information, more facts and going beyond what was required for a P. On the next assignment, because DC was excited about getting an ES, she will go even further but end up with a P. I asked the teacher about this and she was honest in her response. She can't give out ES grades on every assignment but the second assignment that DC did was even better than the one that got an ES. The problem is that kids do respond to positive feedback and getting better grades. They get excited about ES and when they get one they work harder to get it again. In other systems this would be seen as teaching success. The kids would continue to ES grades as long as they kept up to that level. In this system ES is supposed to be rare so you can do the same or better the next time but the reward vanishes. This demotivates the kids.

So I agree that the new system is anti-acdemic achievement. It creates the worst environment. The work is easy but the kids constantly receive the message that it doesn't matter if they try to do more or think more. I don't think anyone intended to create a system that adversely affects student motivation but I don't think that the people who adopted this know what they are doing.  Their goal was to get everyone to P and if you are at P you should just sit quietly and do nothing. [/quote]

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