Reply to CES Lottery

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "CES Lottery"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]MCPS should stop wasting money on surveys and contractors and start focusing on properly educating all the kids who meet the parameters for CES/enrichment/magnet schools.  Or perhaps MCPS needs to also ask why so many kids qualify for these enhancement programs? Maybe educational standards need to go up. These lotteries are ridiculous.[/quote]

Agreed.  [/quote]

+1 Maybe raise the bar to top 2 percent, the way CTY does, to enter the lottery, and moderate or high FARMs can be locally normed.[/quote]

Maybe we could actually dedicate money and resources to expanding the enriched studies program so that every kid who qualifies can access that instruction.[/quote]

Most of the new funds this past year went to increasing the number of Central Office positions. [/quote]

While there may be new central office positions, ELC is also expanding to all schools so there is supposed to be enrichment available at all schools.  How the implement it we will see, but I've heard great things about it from other schools.   I find this encouraging. [/quote]

Correct, and I want to pull this out because I think it will reassure some parents on this thread, but also encourage them to get involved in advocacy. There is a large-scale enlargement of the ELC curriculum coming for next year's 4th graders. Almost every school in MCPS will get the curriculum.

[u]However, contrary to the intent of the ELC and in opposition to best practice for GT education[/u], many schools will be rolling out the new curriculum to every single 4th grader and with no cohorting. That is, it amounts to a change in the reading/ELA curriculum but classes will remain heterogenous.

When the ELC was piloted, it was always meant to serve the needs to highly able learners, and to cohort them with one another for ELA. It was meant to provide an appropriate education, with academic peers, in the home school and without the trouble of changing to a CES.

This matters because MCPS had found that BIPOC kids and poor/working class kids were far less likely to accept CES placements than their white/Asian and middle class peers. Providing an appropriate, differentiated, education in the home school was meant to serve those kids in their home environment while not creating logistical challenges for their families.

So, the good news is that every kid who qualified for the lottery will have access to the ELC curriculum next year (almost). The bad news is that principals may decide NOT to cohort those kids together.

[b]The opportunity to advocate for the lottery-eligible kids to receive the ELC curriculum together is right now.[/b] Literally right now. Call/email/show up to PTA meetings and ask your principals how they intend to handle the ELC rollout. If they are going to offer it to every single kid without differentiating or cohorting the highly able learners, get in touch with the MCCPTA Gifted Committee and ask them for help advocating to the next level.

You can check them out here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/875483609961996[/quote]

MCPS teacher w/ an MCPS 3rd grader here--this is very true. I reached out the reading specialist at my kid's school (qualified for lottery but did not get placed, will receive ELC) to ask about what it would look like in our home school next year, which would help us determine whether we would accept a CES spot if offered. I was told that this:
-a dedicated teacher will pull the ELC students into another classroom for the entire ELA block every day
-all students who qualified for the lottery will be in this group
-classroom teachers and others involved in 3rd grade (I'm guessing SpEd, ESOL, etc) will meet soon and add students who did not qualify for the lottery but teachers feel would benefit from the ELC

This is just what I was told about my kids' home school. I'm sure it will look different in other schools (although this sounds very similar to what my school is doing). As with everything, if you want to know what's happening in your child's school, just ask! Email the reading specialist and ask what ELC implementation will look like.[/quote]

This sounds great. Can you share the school? [/quote]

This sounds like what Central Office is recommending according to the person I spoke to on the phone about my kid in the wait pool.  I hope it's what will happen at most schools once the schools have more information about ELC and any changes with Benchmark. [/quote]

If this is the case and if the home school has the ELC then what is the advantage of going to a CES? Just the cohort? My DD was accepted and I'm just trying to figure out whether it makes sense for her. I wonder how many kids at the home school qualify for the ELC. Would people expect that it is a full class of kids?[/quote]

My thoughts on this are the CES has the kids all together in one class all day. So your child will have the same classmates all day long, and probably the same teacher. If the CES is not your home school, your child will change schools and ride a bus. Some of the bus rides are really, really long. My child attends an "early" school (dismissal at 3:20) but the CES is late (dismissal at 3:50). I checked the current bus routes for the CES school, and my child's stop would begin the route, 70 minutes before drop-off. That would be a huge factor in the decision for our family. However, your CES might have the same schedule as the home school, and/or you might be one of the last stops on the route, so the bus ride wouldn't be an issue. Also, the CES classes stay at the max because there is a waiting list. If you're coming from a Title I or Focus school, that's a switch. Finally, you can accept a spot in the CES and give it a try, and then move back to the home school if it doesn't work for your family. I would imagine the home school would make arrangements for your child to be in the ELC class if that were the case.

For ELC, depending on the model, your child will have one classroom teacher and then leave to another room for reading/writing, with a different teacher and different classmates. From what we've read here, it sounds like compacted math is treated the same way, so potentially your child would have one classroom teacher, one ELA teacher, and one math teacher. There is likely a big overlap between ELC and compacted math, so there could be some consistency with classmates still. The class size for ELC is not pre-determined at the max. If there are 10 kids in the ELC, then there are 10 kids in the class. There might be students who didn't qualify for automatic placement still in the group, but they would be chosen by teacher recommendation, meaning they are motivated kids and would probably be academic peers for your child. However if 30+ students qualify for ELC, there's no guarantee that the school will have the staff to divide the group in two. This is why it's critical to find out what ELC will look like in your child's school, especially if you are deciding between it and CES.

Those are my thoughts as an MCPS teacher and parent. (I'm the original PP up there--Viers Mill is the ELC model I described)[/quote]

Thank you for this. I can understand how transportation would be a big factor in deciding to attend. For us, transportation isn't a big issue because the CES is Chevy Chase and our home school is NCC. My bigger concern is the social aspect and making new friends. I will definitely try to have a conversation with our home school to better understand what the ELC offering looks like. Very helpful to hear your perspective as a parent and teacher. [/quote]

I am familiar with both schools and I would encourage you to take the CES spot. We have fond feelings toward NCC, but the CES program was very very worth the switch. There are good and kind teachers at NCC, but the CES teachers are somehow other-level magical in how they bring the curriculum to life. Our year was a very warm group of kids — making friends was actually easy because most kids came without a predefined friend group. The only bittersweet part was all heading different ways for middle school. [/quote]

Thank you for this. Very helpful. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics