Reply to MCPS Middle School writing: do you think expectations are in line with state standards

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here.  Thanks for the comments.  A few replies:

I can't name the school without further risk of "outing" DC.

[quote]Here are the books: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzpjEw_DrUViMzRiaVlZOG9mSXM/view
It seems quite appropriate to me for sixth grade. [/quote]
Maybe I should have asked the question of how closely does your child's teacher follow this list.  At this point in the year, DC's class has "read" only one of the books listed for each unit and that was done by having the entire class listen to audio book version.  There have been zero books assigned for actual reading, all reading (as opposed to listening) assignments are 5 pages or less of photo copies.  If other classes actually have assigned reading for some of these books then that is a good example of lower expectations for DC's class.

[quote]Fill in the blank is not necessarily simple, but it’s guided. [/quote]
Just as an example, the standards specify students should use a variety of transition words.  On DC's organizers, all the transition wording is supplied.  DC describes it as teacher now  says [i]what[/i] to do but previous teachers taught us  [i]how[/i] to do things.

[quote]DH doesn't follow these debates as closely as I do, and thinks DD will be fine next year ... I keep telling him otherwise. i[/quote]
[b]A bit of a tangent but I have a similar challenge.  It's only when I dive into details that I see this stuff.  Spouse has more faith that it will all work out and school knows best. The school does a good job of [i]saying[/i] they do all the right things.
[/b]
[quote]these comments only provide more evidence to back up what I've read in MCPS's own curriculum materials and heard in person from parents with kids in the later ES and MS grades. [/quote]
DC's middle school is in a different feeder pattern than elementary school classmates (both W pyramids).  Some of DC's former classmates are amazing writers.  DC did not have this problem of low expectations/simplified assignments in elementary.  I think experiences vary widely and there are plenty of things that are going really well for DC at school.  DC's middle school doesn't have any technology electives but does have a great band/orchestra program.  None of the private schools we looked at could approach the public school band/orchestra offerings.

DC's English class does include learning parts of speech and I think they will do some sentence diagramming.  I thought it was an example of low expectations that they needed to spend so much time learning parts of speech (which DC already knew) but maybe the rest of the class needed it.[/quote]

PP who made that comment here. I think part of the reason he has more faith than I do is because public schools served him well, whereas they failed me. I started out in a magnet program in an urban school, and ended up in a private school because budget cuts decimated the program (to the point where they couldn't even fix broken toilets). Now, I doubt MCPS' budget issues will reach that point (this was in a city struggling with adapting to a post-manufacturing world -- think Pittsburgh, Buffalo, etc.), but it instilled in me a skepticism about public schools. [/quote]

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