Anonymous wrote:
My children have been exposed to the French and British school systems (private and public) before coming here to MCPS. While no system is perfect, they DO expect much higher standards of performance from their average students compared to MCPS.

For example, in DC1's private British school, they were teaching multiplication tables to FIRST graders (started at step counting and jam tarts, and ended by learning tables off by heart). In the French public school system, they learn this in second grade. In MCPS, they learn multiplication in third grade. And everything is like this.

The French grade their primary students on a numbers scale that is either out of 20 or out of 10. One point off for every error on your homework or test. Everything is graded, the reports come home with all grades and written recommendations. The parents know exactly how their kid is performing and what the teacher thinks: no sweet talking here!

The average French and British students end up with a greater and more rigorous body of knowledge than the average students here who waste more time with "manipulatives", "multiple strategies", etc. They have better written essay skills, while the US is stronger on oral presentations (which is great).

My problem with MCPS and I fear, many other US school systems, is that they expect too little of their average students. They cater to their LD students much BETTER than French and British systems - I also have a LD child receiving services, so I know. I am grateful for that.

Students here have coasted for years on US economic power which has given them comfortable lifestyles for mediocre performance. Now the economy is in decline and other countries are taking the lead, the next generation of students should be taught to a higher level, otherwise they will not be able to compete in the global marketplace.

Anonymous wrote:12:06 Stop playing dumb. You know that N/I/P are measured differently than N/S/O or A/B/C/D. A teacher and multiple posters have responded to this. You just seem to need to defend MCPS with poor logic and weak arguments over and over again. Are you paid to do this?

Anonymous wrote:Feel free to quibble on minor details. The big picture is that MCPS, and the American approach to education in general, are not sustainable in the long-term. We need curriculae with informative factual content, not "higher-order thinking / creative strategies". We need to use detailed and specific measures to evaluate students' work, not meaningless Ps and Is. We need to train teachers to be precise and rigorous in their teaching, not laissez-faire. We need to pay these teachers more to begin with, so that the cream of the crop will be attracted to the teaching profession! No more wishy-washy murky nonsense.

Anonymous wrote:My older child received a far better math education in K-3 than my youngest child is receiving under 2.0.

My children have been exposed to the French and British school systems (private and public) before coming here to MCPS. While no system is perfect, they DO expect much higher standards of performance from their average students compared to MCPS.

For example, in DC1's private British school, they were teaching multiplication tables to FIRST graders (started at step counting and jam tarts, and ended by learning tables off by heart). In the French public school system, they learn this in second grade. In MCPS, they learn multiplication in third grade. And everything is like this.

The French grade their primary students on a numbers scale that is either out of 20 or out of 10. One point off for every error on your homework or test. Everything is graded, the reports come home with all grades and written recommendations. The parents know exactly how their kid is performing and what the teacher thinks: no sweet talking here!

The average French and British students end up with a greater and more rigorous body of knowledge than the average students here who waste more time with "manipulatives", "multiple strategies", etc. They have better written essay skills, while the US is stronger on oral presentations (which is great).

My problem with MCPS and I fear, many other US school systems, is that they expect too little of their average students. They cater to their LD students much BETTER than French and British systems - I also have a LD child receiving services, so I know. I am grateful for that.

Students here have coasted for years on US economic power which has given them comfortable lifestyles for mediocre performance. Now the economy is in decline and other countries are taking the lead, the next generation of students should be taught to a higher level, otherwise they will not be able to compete in the global marketplace.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My children have been exposed to the French and British school systems (private and public) before coming here to MCPS. While no system is perfect, they DO expect much higher standards of performance from their average students compared to MCPS.

For example, in DC1's private British school, they were teaching multiplication tables to FIRST graders (started at step counting and jam tarts, and ended by learning tables off by heart). In the French public school system, they learn this in second grade. In MCPS, they learn multiplication in third grade. And everything is like this.

I don't think that it's valid to compare British private schools to US public schools.

You have missed the point.
Many, many school systems around the world, especially the Asian systems like those in Japan, Korea, Singapore, etc, but also some European systems like I wrote, are training the next generation to be much more competitive than here because their schooling is more rigorous.

Feel free to quibble on minor details. The big picture is that MCPS, and the American approach to education in general, are not sustainable in the long-term. We need curriculae with informative factual content, not "higher-order thinking / creative strategies". We need to use detailed and specific measures to evaluate students' work, not meaningless Ps and Is. We need to train teachers to be precise and rigorous in their teaching, not laissez-faire. We need to pay these teachers more to begin with, so that the cream of the crop will be attracted to the teaching profession! No more wishy-washy murky nonsense.

Anonymous wrote:

You have valid points, but as you said this is the general U.S. system, it is not a problem created by MOCO or 2.0.
Even before 2.0, 1st graders were not doing multiplication. On the whole, I think there are a lot of things that can be done to improve the ENTIRE educational system.

This is terribly weak argument. You can't let off MCPS off the hook by saying all US based education is sub par. US education including MCPS needs to become competitive with countries that rank higher. MCPS is going in the opposite direction with 2.0. They missed on opportunity to improve and instead backslid. MCPS is accountable to its tax payers, students, and parents. They deserve better.