Reply to Why is there no levelling for middle school English/ELA (is there a backstory?), and is that possible to change?

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Reply to "Why is there no levelling for middle school English/ELA (is there a backstory?), and is that possible to change?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Can someone speak to OPs other questions about how to advocate for it to be changed back? What has already been done, and does it seem like changing back is possible/ there is enough support?[/quote]

A couple of thoughts on advocacy.

First, I know the MCC PTA gifted committee was looking to take this on and wanted parent volunteers.

Second, look for an ally on the school board. This discussion around the Middle School curriculum provides a perfect opportunity to open the conversation. Know what you were advocating for. In this case, the most realistic request is probably an open door policy. Any kid can opt into honors or regular, without any gatekeeping

Ask that ally to officially inquire about whether test scores have gone up for target communities since the advent of honors for all ELA. By now, they should have at least 4 years of data for Middle School, and they will soon have 2 years of data for high school. Basically, did the hypothesis work? I'm guessing no.

This is a good time to be doing the advocacy because there does seem to be some swing back to common sense approaches that meet kids where they are. [/quote]

Who would be the best board ally for this?  Yang and Stewart both seemed pretty interested in this issue/skeptical about the challenges of differentiating in heterogenous classrooms (also the SMOB but obviously that doesn't help much.). Maybe Wolff too although I couldn't entirely tell where she was coming from on this.  There might be others who care too but didn't speak about it last week (anyone know?)[/quote]

I think Stewart might be willing to at least start asking the questions, like "Can you show us the MAP-R and ELA MCAP data before and after this change, dis-aggregated by target groups?" and "Did this change lead to the improvements you believed it would?"

Montoya might be willing to ask from the perspective of educators, like "What are you hearing from MS and HS ELA teachers regarding this change?"

[/quote]

Well they don’t have MCAP data from before because it wasn’t administered and did not exist until several years ago.

The bottom line is that we all know scores on the bottom did not improve based on this change. It helps no one and harms many, many students. It’s amazing to me that Hazel and the district think it is acceptable to just let students languish with grade level or below grade level texts until 11th grade with a few crumbs for a select few who win a lottery and take on a commute.

There are many reasons why a student may be below grade level but plopping them next to high achieving peers isn’t going to just rub off on them. Putting my unathletic child on the basketball team isn’t going to turn him into a tall, talented basketball player. Everyone has strengths and gifts in different areas. Let kids learn at the appropriate level and pace. [/quote]

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