Anonymous
Post 01/06/2013 19:38     Subject: Re:Lack of Text books
Anonymous wrote:
PP, It's about not even getting the basics right at dcps - poor choices of curriculum and textbooks, lack of emphasis on the right things (like phonics), and misguided approaches like differentiation which do not work and only drag everyone down to the level of the weakest link in the classroom. There are many lessons to be learned from the past and from other schools, as to which things work and which things do not work, but instead everyone in the public school system seems to want to rely on the latest vogue educational fads and fluffy feel-good studies by academics. But, the reality is that what's "new" isn't necessarily what's better, and regional and longterm performance and results demonstrate that quite clearly.


NP here.

PP, you have a lot of opinions, but it's important to note that they are just that, personal opinions. You can't back up claims about phonics or differentiation and you're not qualified to judge what works and what doesn't. How do I know this? Because anyone who actually works in education knows that there are no simple answers and people like you, who think you know it all, make it harder for the serious people to create and implement the kind of innovative solutions that are needed if we are really to make a difference in schools.

Yes, you're entitled to your overly simplistic opinions, but please stop trying to sound like a professional, because it is quite clear that you are not.


I can't speak for any other posters here, but you don't have to be a mechanic to know when you have a flat tire, you don't have to be a weather man to know which way the wind's blowing. But it seems glaringly obvious that many DCPS defenders don't even know that their tire's flat, there's nothing but denial, defense of the system, attack of any alternatives, and refusal to change anything. It shows up in thread after thread - this one, the anti-Charter attacks, the Rhee attacks, and so many others.

So tell us, where IS the innovation? What IS your proposal? Who ARE these supposed "serious" people? Parents have waited for a solution for years, waited, waited, waited, and waited - and nothing. And now, more and more of them have given up and have gone to charters, gone to privates, gone to the suburbs instead, because your grand innovation has failed to materialize.

If you want them back, you have to EARN them back. Here's your big chance - tell us all what it is that we "simplistic" people don't know - tell us all what this grand innovative solution that will make a difference is, and maybe you can earn them back.
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2013 19:28     Subject: Lack of Text books
Spare us the baloney, "NP".

Anyone watching from the sidelines can see the DCPS approaches are an obvious failure. And for the many of us frustrated parents who've come to DC from elsewhere, we've SEEN and EXPERIENCED different approaches, textbooks, curricula and methods that WORK. And yet, in DC, those methods that WORK are attacked and denigrated and nobody is even willing to try them, because they hate change.

Frankly, those here so staunchly defending DCPS and its methods need to get out more and learn more about what the rest of the world is doing, and what WORKS.
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2013 18:32     Subject: Re:Lack of Text books
PP, It's about not even getting the basics right at dcps - poor choices of curriculum and textbooks, lack of emphasis on the right things (like phonics), and misguided approaches like differentiation which do not work and only drag everyone down to the level of the weakest link in the classroom. There are many lessons to be learned from the past and from other schools, as to which things work and which things do not work, but instead everyone in the public school system seems to want to rely on the latest vogue educational fads and fluffy feel-good studies by academics. But, the reality is that what's "new" isn't necessarily what's better, and regional and longterm performance and results demonstrate that quite clearly.


NP here.

PP, you have a lot of opinions, but it's important to note that they are just that, personal opinions. You can't back up claims about phonics or differentiation and you're not qualified to judge what works and what doesn't. How do I know this? Because anyone who actually works in education knows that there are no simple answers and people like you, who think you know it all, make it harder for the serious people to create and implement the kind of innovative solutions that are needed if we are really to make a difference in schools.

Yes, you're entitled to your overly simplistic opinions, but please stop trying to sound like a professional, because it is quite clear that you are not.
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2013 18:09     Subject: Lack of Text books
Here is an example of a Common Core Standard that, without a supporting curriculum, could be considered both vague and specific:

5.NBT.B.6 Find whole-number quotients of whole numbers with up to four-digit dividends and two-digit divisors, using strategies based on place value, the properties of operations, and/or the relationship between multiplication and division. Illustrate and explain the calculation by using equations, rectangular arrays, and/or area models.

It is specific in that it clearly doesn't want teachers to teach the standard division algorithm, but it is vague in that it lists a list of options that methods/support that teachers can use. It is also vague about which properties and relationships it is referring to.

This isn't necessarily a good or bad thing, but it does mean that these standards are not the same as a curriculum, and that without great curricula, we will continue to have teachers teaching skills and concepts every which way (and hopefully interpreting the standards in the correct way). I also wouldn't want to be a teacher trying to create all the worksheets that go with that standard...try using Word to create a place value array - a nightmare.
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2013 18:04     Subject: Re:Lack of Text books
Anonymous wrote:I have a 5th grader, that school uses Common Core. I don't know if it is the teachers/ admin or the curriculum but he is so unenthused about going to school. They get reading comprehension hand outs that puts me to sleep .The passion is gone from this school. Teachers are worried about being fired or quit because they know this is not going to work. He has been there since Pre-K and I am worried that middle school is going to eat him alive. As soon as the the teacher tells him to read Ch. 1 thru Ch.6 and be ready for a test the next day, he is going to wonder, where are the Common Core "hand-outs". It is all about conforming to Common Core and DC CAS at this school. No history, the science is a joke and art is very basic. [/quote

Everyone is supposed to be using the Common Core, that is just an infrastructure for sequencing and structuring concepts. The use of hand outs such as you describe just sound like poor implementation. Frankly the school you are describing sounds like DCPS when it is failing.
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2013 17:25     Subject: Lack of Text books
Skeptic here, and given the lack of real and substantive criticism (and the amount of bogus criticism), I'm rapidly getting to the conclusion that the pushback vs. Common Core is because some in the public school system simply don't want to be held to any more broader-reaching standard, as it exposes the flaws.
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2013 16:17     Subject: Lack of Text books
14:45 - previous posters have claimed that there are a.) no approved Common Core materials and b.) that Common Core is "too vague" for anyone to use for making any class materials, so what exactly are the "hand outs" that you are referring to?
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2013 14:45     Subject: Re:Lack of Text books
I have a 5th grader, that school uses Common Core. I don't know if it is the teachers/ admin or the curriculum but he is so unenthused about going to school. They get reading comprehension hand outs that puts me to sleep .The passion is gone from this school. Teachers are worried about being fired or quit because they know this is not going to work. He has been there since Pre-K and I am worried that middle school is going to eat him alive. As soon as the the teacher tells him to read Ch. 1 thru Ch.6 and be ready for a test the next day, he is going to wonder, where are the Common Core "hand-outs". It is all about conforming to Common Core and DC CAS at this school. No history, the science is a joke and art is very basic.
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2013 12:34     Subject: Lack of Text books
Anonymous wrote:Ha! Funny to hear some mediocre teacher from a crappy DCPS school with lousy DC-CAS results trying to tell the rest of the world how it's done.

This has been truly entertaining.


So, my dear, if someone disagrees with you and you run out of arguments you pull out your insults?
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2013 10:18     Subject: Lack of Text books
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Ha! Funny to hear some mediocre teacher from a crappy DCPS school with lousy DC-CAS results trying to tell the rest of the world how it's done.

This has been truly entertaining.


Ms. Potty Mouth! Actually, we had double digit gains last year.


Well, congratulations to you. But that's still just a very short list of 10 DCPS schools (all elementary schools, except for Burroughs) out of 122 total DCPS schools that had "double digit gains" - and just barely, as they are in the teens. And among those "big gainers", even the best of them had over half of the school not even minimally proficient enough to pass the watered-down DC-CAS test. Suffice it to say I am underwhelmed.


PP, It's about not even getting the basics right at dcps - poor choices of curriculum and textbooks, lack of emphasis on the right things (like phonics), and misguided approaches like differentiation which do not work and only drag everyone down to the level of the weakest link in the classroom. There are many lessons to be learned from the past and from other schools, as to which things work and which things do not work, but instead everyone in the public school system seems to want to rely on the latest vogue educational fads and fluffy feel-good studies by academics. But, the reality is that what's "new" isn't necessarily what's better, and regional and longterm performance and results demonstrate that quite clearly.
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2013 08:53     Subject: Lack of Text books
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Ha! Funny to hear some mediocre teacher from a crappy DCPS school with lousy DC-CAS results trying to tell the rest of the world how it's done.

This has been truly entertaining.


Ms. Potty Mouth! Actually, we had double digit gains last year.


Well, congratulations to you. But that's still just a very short list of 10 DCPS schools (all elementary schools, except for Burroughs) out of 122 total DCPS schools that had "double digit gains" - and just barely, as they are in the teens. And among those "big gainers", even the best of them had over half of the school not even minimally proficient enough to pass the watered-down DC-CAS test. Suffice it to say I am underwhelmed.
Anonymous
Post 01/05/2013 22:12     Subject: Lack of Text books
Anonymous wrote:Ha! Funny to hear some mediocre teacher from a crappy DCPS school with lousy DC-CAS results trying to tell the rest of the world how it's done.

This has been truly entertaining.


Ms. Potty Mouth! Actually, we had double digit gains last year.
Anonymous
Post 01/05/2013 21:57     Subject: Lack of Text books
Ha! Funny to hear some mediocre teacher from a crappy DCPS school with lousy DC-CAS results trying to tell the rest of the world how it's done.

This has been truly entertaining.
Anonymous
Post 01/05/2013 19:11     Subject: Lack of Text books
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:but probably not public school, tested grade.


LOL! Yeah, all bets on common sense and fundamentals are off when you get to public school.


So you've never taught in a public school, and probably never had to use standards, and you've never taught in a tested grade, so you don't know what you're talking about. Glad we got that settled.


You are responding to someone else - I never taught at DCPS, I'm not originally from DC - but where I taught there were indeed standards and a far higher level of achievement and expectations and far better results from the students than anything DCPS is getting in most of its schools. I do indeed know what I'm talking about.


Don't tell me! Lake Wobegon.
Anonymous
Post 01/05/2013 18:32     Subject: Lack of Text books
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:but probably not public school, tested grade.


LOL! Yeah, all bets on common sense and fundamentals are off when you get to public school.


So you've never taught in a public school, and probably never had to use standards, and you've never taught in a tested grade, so you don't know what you're talking about. Glad we got that settled.


You are responding to someone else - I never taught at DCPS, I'm not originally from DC - but where I taught there were indeed standards and a far higher level of achievement and expectations and far better results from the students than anything DCPS is getting in most of its schools. I do indeed know what I'm talking about.


OK, so where, when, what grade, what subject, and how many preps?