Reply to Reading in county third grade classrooms is a three-alarm fire going unanswered

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Schools are for social learning
Tutors and home is for academics[/quote]

How come private schools can teach more effectively than public schools when it comes to K-3?

Will mcps please hire a consultant to propose changes to the curriculum that will allow public schools to challenge and equip students the way catholic schools do?

Note: catholic schools arguably have far less funding and less trained teachers, yet students quickly learn to read, spell, understand grammar, write in cursive, etc. Heck, they even learn a foreign language! Class sizes at area catholic schools skyrocketed during the pandemic, so they know how to handle big classes. And ICYMI: bipoc families are scrambling to get into area privates as the mass exodus from mcps continues.

Don’t say “Catholic schools can expel troublemakers!”

We are talking about K-3, not middle school or MS13 high school.

I went to Catholic school in the 70s/80s…before adhd and medicated kids were a thing. We had a smattering of kids who definitely had behavior issues. Nonetheless, everyone learned.

Heck, at this point I’d support uniforms, desks in rows, and classrooms grouped by ability. Worth a shot, no? Pilot an old school curriculum and see what happens. Be sure to incorporate grammar (we had spelling workbooks that incorporated vocabulary and grammar). I bet the kids will outpace their counterparts.

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Privates aren't 35%+ ESM students with the addition of students with behavioral issues. They won't even admit kids with behavioral issues. These situations are not comparable.[/quote]

So you are saying the ESM students are negatively impacting everyone else?

Then shouldn’t those kids be in a different class? [/quote]

We have these things called laws, written by politicians, assuming idyllic conditions.  Not to mention research.  These things find and suggest that EML students do best and acquire language faster when immersed in regular classrooms with the language.  These things also indicate that special education students should be in the least restrictive classroom and are entitled to a full range of services in order to allow for access the curriculum and class.

Now, most teachers nor people have any problem with the above ideals, however each does require extra time, funds, and training, to make work properly.[/quote]

You quoted a bit related to ESM…not ESL.

Different kids, different issues…right?

ICYMI: catholic schools in the inner city (think: Baltimore, South Side of Chicago, Compton, etc.) are largely catering to…wait for it…Latinos!!! They can somehow navigate the whole bilingual thing fairly well.)

But we are talking about ESM…different issues.

Maybe mcps needs to find a better solution *if* those kids are the reason why so many 3rd graders can’t read.

I’m not convinced a few kids with extreme emotional issues and behavioral outbursts are the reason why so many third graders can’t read. Another poster suggested it as the reason why even poorly resourced Catholic schools churn out better educated kids than mcps…arguably one of the best resourced districts on the planet. [/quote]
DP.. Those inner city catholic schools can still pick and choose whom they decide to educate.  The parents who put their kids in those schools obviously care about their kids' education. That's where it starts.  The parents.  Parents do not have to know how to read themselves, but if they care about their kid's education, they will make sure that the kids have the support at home needed to do well in school.

My parents do not speak any English.  So, they did not help with HW at all. But, they wanted me to do well in school, and as I got older, I saw education as a way out poverty.

I have always been of the opinion that parents and teachers are partners in educating the children.  Like I said, the parent doesn't need to be teaching the kids at home, but they do need to provide support.  And in MCPS, there are so many programs for ELL students. It's a matter of priorities and having the time.

Having stated that, we read to our kids every night when they were very little.  We made reading a priority. Lots of trips to the library, and used bookstores.  Both my kids were reading before Ker, and yea, we used phonics.  Stupid to not use a combination of phonics and context clues.

We didn't push them; it just happened because they were surrounded by books.  We limited screen time when they were very little.  I think that helped.

My DS#1 is now 18 and said that limiting screen time before the age of 8 is crucial for getting kids to learn to love reading.  He said he was thankful that we did that, but we were more lax with DC#2, which I regret, but it's harder to limit the younger when the older one is watching tv.[/quote]

Catholic elementary schools are not as selective as you think. They take kids from the parish.

Schools have shifted to serve the low-income minorities in their parish boundaries (and then some). Just like mcps, it’s a mix of parents who are invested in their child’s education and those who are checked out (or struggling as a single mom or grandmother raising kids while working multiple jobs).

Enough with the excuses!

Why not admit that mcps isn’t doing the best it can and lessons can be learned from schools that are outpacing us. The curriculum matters. The resources matter. For whatever reason, mcps has done a really, really bad job over the last decade or so when it comes to such things.

Perhaps we need a ceo with business acumen and commonsense to make some changes? Go find a guy who was educated by jesuits. I bet you he will make a positive impact. [/quote]
I'm not excusing MCPS.  The numbers are appalling, but I also don't think it's fair to compare a large public school with a significant portion of ELL to a small private that can pick and choose who they want, even if they admit lower performing students; they can still kick out a kid for whatever reason.  Public schools cannot do that.

MCPS' experiment with their curriculum was an unmitigated disaster. My DC#1 was the first class to get curriculum 2.0.  I was willing to give it a chance, but it was horrible.  Thankfully, DC had already been reading two grades above when they implemented it.

It was stupid to get rid of phonics. That's exactly how DC learned to read at 3.[/quote]

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