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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

This bothers me too.  My child is so bored and spends most of her time in groups explaining to kids who aren't nearly as strong, what to do.  I mean are they differentiating them so the kids can now teach?  I am all for helping here and there but to constantly group the highest with the lowest is basically a child who is asking to become a teacher's aide.  Why they can not just track these kids and keep them in like classes so the teachers don't have to constantly do groups, is beyond me.  [/quote]'

This is exactly what I have observed.  At our school, they have made it clear that 'working together in groups' is a priority.  So, this is what goes on.  The kids who are stronger in a subject (usually reading/math) are helping out the kids who are not as strong.  I think there IS a place for that, because you do learn by teaching others.  But, it goes on daily.

Yesterday, we observed the teacher give the kids an activity while she pulled the 5 (FIVE!!) reading groups up to her desk.  The activity was way over some of the kids' heads.  The kids who did understand what needed to be done were able to complete it quickly and then just spent the rest of the time helping the other kids (who didn't seem to grasp the point of it anyway).

Each reading group only got about 15 minutes of direct instruction, if that.

If the point of K-2nd grade is to get the kids reading, then they should group the classrooms by reading levels.  2 or 3 reading levels in a class.  So there is still room for advancement/movement.  But, the teacher isn't trying to squeeze in 5 reading groups during an hour or 75 minute block of time.

They kids are evaluated anyway, and it would be easy to place them in 1st and 2nd grade based on what their reading level was the previous year.  [/quote]

I agree but the reason they don't do this is because of diversity.  Because most of the lower range kids would be the ESOL and FARMS students.  Mostly hispanic and black.  And then they would cry racism.  So they keep the classes looking uniform.  Split between gender, race and level.  It benefits no one but the parents who think it looks good.  The teachers are scrambling.

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PP, please don't bring race into this.  It will just turn off other people to this discussion.  I think there are valid points being presented in this thread, and making this about race won't be constructive, IMO.

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+1  My 1st grader class has a few ESOL students who are Japanese - probably kids of foreign service personnel.  Should we not allow these kids into our schools?  And yet, DC's class still has these issues.[/quote]

Ugh, no where did I say to not have ESOL.  You are misreading what I am saying.  Most kids in these younger groups that are struggling with reading are ESOL (no matter what their race) and if you put all 15-20 of them and 5 non-ESOL kids in the same class, those 5 parents would not be happy no matter what color the other kids are.  That is 15 kids that can not speak English to them.  That is 15 kids the teacher can not truly communicate with.  They need to be spread out so they do not track the kids, they differentiate.  As the kids get older the 3rd and 5th tests results show that many hispanic and AA kids can not pass the tests.  So by that guess, they would be in the lower groups and then people would pass judgement on the higher groups with Asians and whites and maybe only a few other minority students.

I know in my daughter's K class there are 8 out of 25 kids that get pulled in ESOL and we are only 28% ESOL school.  Are you really going to take all the other ESOL kids from the other 3 K classes and put them in one class for one teacher?  Because wouldn't most of them be in the lowest reading levels?  There is just too much diversity for elementary schools to track.  [/quote]

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