Reply to Jan. 9 BOE Business Meeting Discussion Thread

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s easy to blame the teachers. It’s hard to try to solve the problem of 16 year olds who don’t know 7+4 without a calculator. Yet teachers are trying to teach them quadratic equations and logs. Also, many former LFI students are now diploma bound due to new guidance from MSDE. Many have IQs under 60 yet are still expected to learn these topics. The problem is so much deeper than teaching skills but MCPS refuses to address this time and time again.[/quote]

A 16 year old who doesn't know 7+4 without a calculator got to that point because the system failed to teach them the basics in elementary school and socially promoted them instead. It's not because they innately have a low IQ. They received horrible or inadequate elementary education, so it's still MCPS's fault. [/quote]

This is at the heart of the issue. I saw it myself with both of my kids. Instead of making sure that the kids had the foundational skills to be successful in upper level math classes, they just skirted that issue and moved them along. We spent a lot of money on math tutors and almost all of them said that the kids were missing foundational math skills. And I know this will be considered teacher bashing but the truth is that not everyone should be teaching math and the same for ELA yet most MCPS elementary schools don't departmentalize these subjects so teachers are expected to teach both math and ELA. All it takes is one year of poor math instruction in elementary school to have a domino effect all the way through high school. [/quote]

+1. Well said.[/quote]

Which is why most of the coaches are deployed to ES.  The reality is most hardworking adults don’t understand math at a mastery level. The same is true for ES and many MS teachers.  To  successfully help students who are struggling or just taking longer to grasp a concept, requires the teacher to have a great understanding of the content such that they can explain it another way. Compound that with classrooms full of kids, some with LD’s or behavior challenges and it’s a recipe for disaster.

What someone needs to say is that the problem with Math and English are not going to be resolved until:

1) There are more people in the building dedicated to helping kids academically in K-2 across the county.

2) Kids can get in school support for documented LD’s and behavior challenges without parental sign off by license clinical psychologists and social workers and professionals trained to support like Special Education teachers, reading specialist, math specialist, etc.

3) We give little kids more time to move around, and much of it outdoors.  This means recess and outdoor learning.

4) we acknowledge that teacher training programs need to become much more rigorous and in the interim plan for new teachers to need a great deal of training and support their first 1-3 and as such may make better assistant teachers and support staff as opposed to a full classroom teacher where they are more likely to burnout and quit.[/quote]

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