Reply to How to help MCPS' lowest performing students?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Some of you should visit the homes if an opportunity allows of a student who may be low performing. Some need help. Help them.[/quote]

You may be surprised to learn that schools aren't able to police the life choices of private families. [/quote]

Does each elementary school have adult reading volunteers (or [i]enough[/i] staff) who can come in to read with students who are struggling? Maybe that could help the lowest performing students.[/quote]

Our ES didn't allow parent volunteers.[/quote]

You would be surprised to see how skilled and knowledgeable a teacher has to be for any child who doesn’t pick up reading quickly. Mild dyslexia is extremely common and probably a huge part of the problem here. The good news is the mcps curriculum is much better for this now. However, random volunteers wouldn’t make a big difference without intensive training and ideally years of experience. In fact, lack of training can sometimes make the problem worse. [/quote]

Teaching reading isn't harder than neurosurgery. [/quote]

I'm not sure that is the right comparison. Teachers don't get the luxury of working 1-1 with a child who can't read, the way neurosurgeons completely focus on one patient at a time. They are also trying to treat and triage the other 24 students at the same time while following a curriculum, preparing kids for standardized tests, attending SO MANY IEP meetings, dealing with behaviors, etc. I think if a teacher were assigned to just remediate one kid's reading struggles at a time, they would be more successful...you know, like parents can. Even neurosurgeons would struggle if they had to operate on a brain while helping 20 other patients with a variety of issues at the same time.[/quote]

Most teachers don’t care nor do school admin.  We’ve been trying to get an iep for years and do one every year and are told no because the kid is smart and has involved parents.  This year we had to get an attorney.  The vp basically only allows kids of specific races and other factors.

Kids aren’t getting the foundation.   They don’t teach the basics anymore.  They don’t flag learning disabilities till later and even so they regularly refuse ieps or don’t follow them.  For esol, start teaching the kids in their language so they can keep up whike having intense English classes.  [/quote]

I agree that admin can be resistant if the student has good grades (which they are not allowed to do by law), and I agree that there needs to be more of an emphasis teaching foundational skills.

Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as “teach them in their native language.” I am at a Title I school with a very high percentage of MLL students. I would estimate at least 60% of our MLL students are not proficient in their native language, and would estimate less than 5% can read and write in their home language. What I think may be beneficial would be to have a transitional 3-6 month program for newcomer MLL students to acclimate them to the language and teach foundational skills. It wouldn’t be enough to close the gap but it may help establish a baseline foundation and give the students a soft landing for when they start MCPS. We get brand new students almost every week and it feels like we are reinventing the wheel every single time.[/quote]

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