Reply to Is Western high school going to be sought after?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Luckily, “FARMS” is not contagious, so if your family has a good income, your kid will most likely do well despite higher FARMS percentage of students at a school. They might also get first “dibs” in leadership positions and athletic teams. [/quote]

It negatively impacts the learning environment. Schools have to teach to the lowest common denominator. If 25% of the students are below grade level, teachers waste alot of time trying to bring students up to grade level and neglect the higher performing students.[/quote]

[b]This doesn’t affect high schools as much when there are regular, honors and AP classes. The cohort of high achieving students is smaller at high FARMS schools, but the classes still follow the same fcps curriculum, and the students take the same AP exams. The high school might only offer two AP Lit sections instead of ten, but the coursework is the same[/b]. [/quote]

+1
And, I disagree with PP who said that schools have to teach to the lowest common denominator.  Even in elementary school, that does not happen, and there are Honors classes offered in middle school.

As an elementary teacher, I taught a very wide span of achievers.  It can be done.  Ever heard of reading groups? The lowest achievers usually get additional help from specialists, so that helps.  But, claiming that the teachers teach to the lowest denominator is flat wrong.
Of course, we all know that socio-economics makes a difference, but even in the poorest communities you find shining stars.
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DP. This is our 3rd year in FCPS, and my 4th and 1st grader have always answered NO/HUH/WHAT when I ask if they have a reading group at school. Whether that's true or not remains to be seen, but I've never heard anything from any teacher about any sort of reading groups either, to be fair.[/quote]

I was the one who brought up reading groups.  I admit that I am a dinosaur and have not taught in some years.  Hopefully, with the "Science of Reading" (which is NOT new--good teachers have always known the way to teach kids to read), they will go back to reading groups.  It may not be perfect, but it works.[/quote]

Um, no, reading groups are very Lucy Calkins. We don't want reading groups. All of our kids are using Benchmark right now, which is probably 2-3 grade levels higher than the curriculum kids were being taught at every grade just 3 years ago. The kids who are not doing as well don't have special reading groups anymore, they get pull outs with other teachers or with the "high impact tutors". It's much better now than it used to be -- speaking as a parent of a current middle schooler who was taught using the old method and current 3rd grader who is being taught using the new method. 3rd grader is doing SO MUCH more now than my older child did at the same age.[/quote]

Reading groups are a grouping based on levels.  Classroom teachers used them successfully for years.  I speak from experience.  It is just a way to be sure all are moving forward.  I never used Lucy Calkins.  Phonics is not a new invention.  Sadly, FCPS ignored it, apparently..
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