Reply to Another article about the magnet programs in Washington Post

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think the achievement gap is strongly linked to the deficiencies in MCPS's curriculum.  I think it is especially weak in elementary, failing to give kids the foundation they need.  (My kids are now in high school, so they were pre 2.0.  I would like to think things have changed for the better, but that is not my impression).  I think well-educated parents recognize that a student isn't where they need to be and fills in the gaps, either through tutoring or helping out at home.  When I was teaching my kids how to hold a pencil, or use a dictionary, or do 3rd grade math without a calculator, I wasn't considering it test prep.  I think my kids would have had a problem succeeding in the magnet program without these skills (and others), however.

Originally, I had expected the schools to educate my child and I would only need to help with the occasional homework problem, but that's not what I found.   I suspect that other parents may also rely on MCPS to educate their children.  Certainly parents who can't speak English, or who are busy working two jobs to put food on the table, or who don't have a solid academic background themselves, may not realize there are gaps they need to supplement, or may be unable to fill the gaps even if they do.

Strengthen elementary education.  Get a content-rich curriculum  (with textbooks) that has been proven to work.  Grade student work for correctness, not just completion.  Give students grades that mean something rather than the current I, P, E system that nobody seems to know how to interpret.  I think this would be your best shot at decreasing the racial/SES gap.[/quote]

Don't agree.

Its actually been proven that the achievement gap is primarily due to summer brain drain. Want to close the gap? Extend the school day and school year for lower performing kids. This would require the death of teacher's unions.[/quote]

If something doesn't work, giving more of it probably won't fix things.  I'll grant you there may be a small improvement, but I also think you're going to burn out any enthusiasm the kids might have for school.  A review at the beginning of the year should be plenty if they were taught well to begin with.

I actively discouraged my kids from doing summer homework packets in elementary.  Unfortunately, by middle school they were factored into the grade, leaving little choice.

I think year round school would be a disaster and I can tell you my (magnet kids) are encouraged to enjoy their summers.  I understand the argument that families like mine provide enrichment that low SES choldren don't get.  If you want to arrange for school libraries to have summer lending programs, or coordinate book-mobiles to go into underprivileged neighborhoods, I would fully support you.  If ypu want to set up a reward system for watching documentaries we could ecplore that.  For that matter, if you wanted to set up a summer camp with field trips or science experiments or outdoor skills I could see some merit in that.  It would be expensive, but maybe we could cut Promethean boards or astroturf, or a curriculum department that gives us a bad curriculum.  Kids need the chance to be kids and they need experiences besides school.  I think they even need the chance to waste time.

Here's an aricle written by a high school teacher in Vermont that talks about why summer vacations are important:

http://www.nhregister.com/opinion/20150727/poor-elijahs-almanack-time-for-fireflies[/quote]

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