Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Many people on this board talk about how they pay hundreds of thousands more for homes in specific neighborhoods because of the schools. They believe they are so vastly superior to other neighborhoods because they confer an advantage to the children who attend them. This appears to be a mainstream belief that the county has addressed with its cohort criteria.
Since when is sending your kid to a school with a bunch kids who don’t know any subjects or any language well going to be the preferred education for your literate child? Of course you’re not going to GI ti that school to attend that school, you might go to test in to a center but not year after year.
The idea that there are people who believe that there are kids in school who "don't know any language well."
I'm an ESOL teacher and that absolutely happens. There are students who understand and speak using conversational language in their first language (BICS), but have very little academic language (CALP) in their first language which makes it much harder to learn it in English since they're learning both the concept and the language simultaneously rather than already being familiar with the concept and just learning the English word for it. It becomes very difficult to fill those deep gaps once the content becomes more complex.
http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/bics_calp.php
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Many people on this board talk about how they pay hundreds of thousands more for homes in specific neighborhoods because of the schools. They believe they are so vastly superior to other neighborhoods because they confer an advantage to the children who attend them. This appears to be a mainstream belief that the county has addressed with its cohort criteria.
Since when is sending your kid to a school with a bunch kids who don’t know any subjects or any language well going to be the preferred education for your literate child? Of course you’re not going to GI ti that school to attend that school, you might go to test in to a center but not year after year.
The idea that there are people who believe that there are kids in school who "don't know any language well."
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Here's why the achievement gap has grown:
Because kids...all kids...barely receive instruction at their level. Most of the elementary school day is dedicated to reading and math blocks, but kids are broken into groups within the classroom and teachers rush through each group quickly addressing/assessing and then sending them on their way to work independently.
Instead, kids should switch classrooms for math and reading and spelling and grammar (noting that grammar currently isn't part of the mcps curriculum) to receive actual teacher instruction at their level.
Spelling should be expanded to include vocabulary. That's the old school way we learned in private school (which actual drills/exercises).
And grammar must be taught. It's mind boggling that it isn't! Name a 1st world country that doesn't teach grammar.
Kids can't magically learn grammar through reading...particularly when the kids who aren't achieving don't read for pleasure. Can they read and pass the ridiculous mcps literacy benchmarks? Sure. Will they excel in HS, college and the workforce? Nope. You can't write well if you haven't mastered spelling, vocabulary and grammar. I believe that fact is supported by "No duh!"
I agree with this and I am a teacher. FYI- teachers do not make these decisions. We are told how it is going to be by our admins. The three ring circus (actually I have 5 reading and math groups) is a very ineffective model for students and teachers. I have a feeling that we won't be going back to ability grouping though. It's one of the reasons I took my DS out of public school and out him in a Catholic school. He was always in the high group and his teachers would meet with his group once or maybe twice a week for 15-20 mins. The rest of the time was his group doing busy work while the teacher met with the on-grade level and below grade level groups everyday. In Catholic school, students are divided into two groups per grade for all subjects and students can move between them if necessary. Now he isn't sitting for days filling out worksheets.
This, MCPS can no longer afford the small grouping with current teacher:students ratio. Student-lead learning style is a luxury. MCPS should consider going back to the old way if it wants to teach all kids.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We need marriage and parenting class plus How to Live in a Developed Country class (rules of the road, concept of health insurance, school matters, healthy diet, birth control, trade jobs vs career jobs, benefits of exercise, w-2 jobs is legal/cash job is illegal) in Spanish.
The You're Living Your Life Wrong; Listen To Us Tell You How To Do It Correctly approach didn't go over well with the immigrants in the 1890s, either.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We need marriage and parenting class plus How to Live in a Developed Country class (rules of the road, concept of health insurance, school matters, healthy diet, birth control, trade jobs vs career jobs, benefits of exercise, w-2 jobs is legal/cash job is illegal) in Spanish.
The You're Living Your Life Wrong; Listen To Us Tell You How To Do It Correctly approach didn't go over well with the immigrants in the 1890s, either.
Spanish language Parent Academy classes are held regularly at our MCPS school.
Look up WIC.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We need marriage and parenting class plus How to Live in a Developed Country class (rules of the road, concept of health insurance, school matters, healthy diet, birth control, trade jobs vs career jobs, benefits of exercise, w-2 jobs is legal/cash job is illegal) in Spanish.
The You're Living Your Life Wrong; Listen To Us Tell You How To Do It Correctly approach didn't go over well with the immigrants in the 1890s, either.
Spanish language Parent Academy classes are held regularly at our MCPS school.
Look up WIC.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We need marriage and parenting class plus How to Live in a Developed Country class (rules of the road, concept of health insurance, school matters, healthy diet, birth control, trade jobs vs career jobs, benefits of exercise, w-2 jobs is legal/cash job is illegal) in Spanish.
The You're Living Your Life Wrong; Listen To Us Tell You How To Do It Correctly approach didn't go over well with the immigrants in the 1890s, either.
Anonymous wrote:We need marriage and parenting class plus How to Live in a Developed Country class (rules of the road, concept of health insurance, school matters, healthy diet, birth control, trade jobs vs career jobs, benefits of exercise, w-2 jobs is legal/cash job is illegal) in Spanish.
Anonymous wrote:The only reliable proven way of getting kids from very impoverished backgrounds in dangerous neighborhoods to be academically successful is the Asian family model. Very engaged parents - even the poor ones with 2 jobs- and an environment which stresses success in school over everything else.
If Smith can spread this model throughout the schools the gap would close.
Absent that, he is throwing money down the toilet - or at esteem coaches, the same thing.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Many people on this board talk about how they pay hundreds of thousands more for homes in specific neighborhoods because of the schools. They believe they are so vastly superior to other neighborhoods because they confer an advantage to the children who attend them. This appears to be a mainstream belief that the county has addressed with its cohort criteria.
Since when is sending your kid to a school with a bunch kids who don’t know any subjects or any language well going to be the preferred education for your literate child? Of course you’re not going to GI ti that school to attend that school, you might go to test in to a center but not year after year.
Don’t think anyone said anything about your preferences. They were talking about how the cohort criteria identifies actual outliers by factoring for the differences in school quality which everyone goes on about
I guess if people believe so strongly that some schools are better than others they’re willing to pay inflated home prices there’s something to this.