Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been in elementary education for 22 years and here's my take on why kids are performing so poorly...
1) We haven't been teaching using the research behind the science of reading until very recently. As a country, we've spent decades teaching kids to read incorrectly despite there being 40+ years of scientific research to prove how to do it correctly. For whatever reason, school systems across America banded together and adopted the "balanced literacy approach" which is not how kids learn to read.
2) The Common Core State Standards are just too rigorous and developmentally inappropriate for the primary grades. Teachers have to shove so much content into kids because the bar is so high. There's no time to build a solid foundation in the basics before layering in harder concepts. So for the younger kids, we're basically trying to build a sand castle at high tide.
3) The assessments are ridiculously tough. I believe kids can do very hard things but since we're so test-driven, we don't let kids learn and demonstrate their understanding in ways that capitalize on all of their unique strengths. Multiple-choice and written response questions don't capture the genius of all of our awesome kids.
4) Our society has changed. I help get kids in the cars every afternoon during dismissal and I'm always saddened to see how many parents barely acknowledge their kids as they get in the car because they're so engrossed in their cell phones. I have caught myself a time or two on my phone and not giving my own kids my undivided attention but I think we underestimate how much screen time has had an impact on our kids overall development.

Common core standards are fine. Many parents are working from home. My spouse takes calls in the car to pick up our kids as there is no mcps bus. What other option is there? You assume parents don’t spend time with their kids based off that?

Anonymous wrote:SOURCE: https://mocoshow.com/2024/08/28/mcps-schools-show-consistent-performance-in-2023-2024-mcap-results/

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has shared that “students once again outperformed state averages on the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), particularly in elementary and middle school English Language Arts and Literacy (ELA/L) and Math.” MCAP assessments measure student proficiency in academic standards and complex skills like critical thinking, persuasive writing and problem-solving.

The Maryland State Department of Education released the results of the 2023-2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) for English Language Arts/Literacy (ELA/L) and Mathematics (Math). These results were presented to the State Board of Education on Tuesday, August 27, 2024 and provide insights into the performance of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students compared to the previous year. Key Findings:

Elementary School: MCPS students continue to improve in ELA/L and Math, with proficiency rates slightly fluctuating compared to the previous year.

ELA/L Grades 3-5: MCPS students outperformed their peers statewide. Specifically, 54.9% of Grade 3 students were proficient, a decrease of 2.7 percentage points from 2022-2023. For Grade 4 and 5 students, proficiency rates were 55.9% and 52.0%, representing a decrease of 1.7 points and an increase of 1.5 points, respectively.

Math Grades 3-5: Similarly, MCPS students surpassed state averages in Math. In Grade 3, 50.4% of students met proficiency, a decrease of 3.2 percentage points from last year. 43.1% of Grade 4 students and 40.8% of Grade 5 students were proficient, with the latter marking a 0.9-point increase.

Middle School: Middle school students showed modest improvements in both ELA/L and Math, with some grades experiencing more significant gains.

ELA/L Grades 6-8: Proficiency rates in middle school ELA/L showed notable improvement in Grade 7, where proficiency increased by 1.2 percentage points. Grade 6 saw a 0.9-point increase, while Grade 8 remained steady.

Math Grades 6-8: Middle school students demonstrated slight improvements in Math proficiency with increases in proficiency rates for Math 6 and Math 7 by 1.3 and 2.7 points, respectively and a decrease of 0.2 percentage points for Math 8.

High School: High school students demonstrated a significant increase in ELA/L proficiency, while Algebra 1 proficiency rates remained relatively stable.[/list]

ELA/L 10: High school students showed a significant increase in ELA/L 10 proficiency, with 61% achieving proficiency, a 5.9-point increase from 2022-2023.

Algebra 1: Proficiency rates for middle and high school students who took the Algebra 1 assessment were 42.5% and 5.4%, respectively, marking an increase of 4.5 and 0.9 percentage points from the previous year.

MCPS is truly shameless. They are boasting that MCPS kids "outperformed state averages" but who cares about when the proficiency levels are in the 50s and in some cases DECREASING year over year?

Why do they lack shame and standard? These proficiency levels are SHAMEFUL and they should not be applauding or celebrating anything about. Especially since there are decreases in some areas and even where there are increases, they're so small that they're within the margin of error and might not be real increases after all.

Where is the accountability for these systemic failures in MCPS by our leadership? How can Chris Cram and his team write this press release with a straight face?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yawn.

We have compulsory universal education. Why would you expect everyone to be at the same grade level standard?

Yawn? That's your response to these results?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been in elementary education for 22 years and here's my take on why kids are performing so poorly...
1) We haven't been teaching using the research behind the science of reading until very recently. As a country, we've spent decades teaching kids to read incorrectly despite there being 40+ years of scientific research to prove how to do it correctly. For whatever reason, school systems across America banded together and adopted the "balanced literacy approach" which is not how kids learn to read.
2) The Common Core State Standards are just too rigorous and developmentally inappropriate for the primary grades. Teachers have to shove so much content into kids because the bar is so high. There's no time to build a solid foundation in the basics before layering in harder concepts. So for the younger kids, we're basically trying to build a sand castle at high tide.
3) The assessments are ridiculously tough. I believe kids can do very hard things but since we're so test-driven, we don't let kids learn and demonstrate their understanding in ways that capitalize on all of their unique strengths. Multiple-choice and written response questions don't capture the genius of all of our awesome kids.
4) Our society has changed. I help get kids in the cars every afternoon during dismissal and I'm always saddened to see how many parents barely acknowledge their kids as they get in the car because they're so engrossed in their cell phones. I have caught myself a time or two on my phone and not giving my own kids my undivided attention but I think we underestimate how much screen time has had an impact on our kids overall development.

Common core standards are fine. Many parents are working from home. My spouse takes calls in the car to pick up our kids as there is no mcps bus. What other option is there? You assume parents don’t spend time with their kids based off that?

Common core standards were developed specifically to counter the effects of unearned white privilege.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been in elementary education for 22 years and here's my take on why kids are performing so poorly...
1) We haven't been teaching using the research behind the science of reading until very recently. As a country, we've spent decades teaching kids to read incorrectly despite there being 40+ years of scientific research to prove how to do it correctly. For whatever reason, school systems across America banded together and adopted the "balanced literacy approach" which is not how kids learn to read.
2) The Common Core State Standards are just too rigorous and developmentally inappropriate for the primary grades. Teachers have to shove so much content into kids because the bar is so high. There's no time to build a solid foundation in the basics before layering in harder concepts. So for the younger kids, we're basically trying to build a sand castle at high tide.
3) The assessments are ridiculously tough. I believe kids can do very hard things but since we're so test-driven, we don't let kids learn and demonstrate their understanding in ways that capitalize on all of their unique strengths. Multiple-choice and written response questions don't capture the genius of all of our awesome kids.
4) Our society has changed. I help get kids in the cars every afternoon during dismissal and I'm always saddened to see how many parents barely acknowledge their kids as they get in the car because they're so engrossed in their cell phones. I have caught myself a time or two on my phone and not giving my own kids my undivided attention but I think we underestimate how much screen time has had an impact on our kids overall development.

Common core standards are fine. Many parents are working from home. My spouse takes calls in the car to pick up our kids as there is no mcps bus. What other option is there? You assume parents don’t spend time with their kids based off that?

Anonymous wrote:SOURCE: https://mocoshow.com/2024/08/28/mcps-schools-show-consistent-performance-in-2023-2024-mcap-results/

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has shared that “students once again outperformed state averages on the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), particularly in elementary and middle school English Language Arts and Literacy (ELA/L) and Math.” MCAP assessments measure student proficiency in academic standards and complex skills like critical thinking, persuasive writing and problem-solving.

The Maryland State Department of Education released the results of the 2023-2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) for English Language Arts/Literacy (ELA/L) and Mathematics (Math). These results were presented to the State Board of Education on Tuesday, August 27, 2024 and provide insights into the performance of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students compared to the previous year. Key Findings:

Elementary School: MCPS students continue to improve in ELA/L and Math, with proficiency rates slightly fluctuating compared to the previous year.

ELA/L Grades 3-5: MCPS students outperformed their peers statewide. Specifically, 54.9% of Grade 3 students were proficient, a decrease of 2.7 percentage points from 2022-2023. For Grade 4 and 5 students, proficiency rates were 55.9% and 52.0%, representing a decrease of 1.7 points and an increase of 1.5 points, respectively.

Math Grades 3-5: Similarly, MCPS students surpassed state averages in Math. In Grade 3, 50.4% of students met proficiency, a decrease of 3.2 percentage points from last year. 43.1% of Grade 4 students and 40.8% of Grade 5 students were proficient, with the latter marking a 0.9-point increase.

Middle School: Middle school students showed modest improvements in both ELA/L and Math, with some grades experiencing more significant gains.

ELA/L Grades 6-8: Proficiency rates in middle school ELA/L showed notable improvement in Grade 7, where proficiency increased by 1.2 percentage points. Grade 6 saw a 0.9-point increase, while Grade 8 remained steady.

Math Grades 6-8: Middle school students demonstrated slight improvements in Math proficiency with increases in proficiency rates for Math 6 and Math 7 by 1.3 and 2.7 points, respectively and a decrease of 0.2 percentage points for Math 8.

High School: High school students demonstrated a significant increase in ELA/L proficiency, while Algebra 1 proficiency rates remained relatively stable.[/list]

ELA/L 10: High school students showed a significant increase in ELA/L 10 proficiency, with 61% achieving proficiency, a 5.9-point increase from 2022-2023.

Algebra 1: Proficiency rates for middle and high school students who took the Algebra 1 assessment were 42.5% and 5.4%, respectively, marking an increase of 4.5 and 0.9 percentage points from the previous year.

MCPS is truly shameless. They are boasting that MCPS kids "outperformed state averages" but who cares about when the proficiency levels are in the 50s and in some cases DECREASING year over year?

Why do they lack shame and standard? These proficiency levels are SHAMEFUL and they should not be applauding or celebrating anything about. Especially since there are decreases in some areas and even where there are increases, they're so small that they're within the margin of error and might not be real increases after all.

Where is the accountability for these systemic failures in MCPS by our leadership? How can Chris Cram and his team write this press release with a straight face?

Anonymous wrote:Seriously. How TF do we get the MCAP scores? Apparently they exist.

Anonymous wrote:I've been in elementary education for 22 years and here's my take on why kids are performing so poorly...
1) We haven't been teaching using the research behind the science of reading until very recently. As a country, we've spent decades teaching kids to read incorrectly despite there being 40+ years of scientific research to prove how to do it correctly. For whatever reason, school systems across America banded together and adopted the "balanced literacy approach" which is not how kids learn to read.
2) The Common Core State Standards are just too rigorous and developmentally inappropriate for the primary grades. Teachers have to shove so much content into kids because the bar is so high. There's no time to build a solid foundation in the basics before layering in harder concepts. So for the younger kids, we're basically trying to build a sand castle at high tide.
3) The assessments are ridiculously tough. I believe kids can do very hard things but since we're so test-driven, we don't let kids learn and demonstrate their understanding in ways that capitalize on all of their unique strengths. Multiple-choice and written response questions don't capture the genius of all of our awesome kids.
4) Our society has changed. I help get kids in the cars every afternoon during dismissal and I'm always saddened to see how many parents barely acknowledge their kids as they get in the car because they're so engrossed in their cell phones. I have caught myself a time or two on my phone and not giving my own kids my undivided attention but I think we underestimate how much screen time has had an impact on our kids overall development.

Anonymous wrote:Seriously. How TF do we get the MCAP scores? Apparently they exist.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It has always been parenting that results in proficiency. No schools or teachers. High performing schools just have more parents involved in their child's education. Schools and teachers take credit but it's always been the parents.

So declining school performance just means that we have decline in parenting.

So you'll be sending your kid to the worst-performing school in MCPS to prove this theory out, right?

And if parenting is 100% responsible for proficiency, why do we even have schools?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you read a story with any kid in preschool and kindergarten before bedtime, they will be reading children's books on their own in first grade.

That's all it takes. It's a very small 15 minutes per day investment.

Same with math spend 15 minutes per day with your kid doing math and they will be way ahead.

You’re delusional.

For one, 20% of kids have dyslexia. No amount of reading to them will teach them to read. They need intensive, systematic phonics-based reading instruction.

Another roughly 60% of kids don’t have dyslexia but still need intentional reading instruction.

It’s rare for kids to just pick up reading by osmosis the way you’re describing. It’s a myth.

It's not osmosis. You read 15 minutes per day and then in Kindergarten start having the kid read you those 2-3 letter word books like Bob Books.

Nobody can complain about schools unless they are doing this minimum amount of work with their kids at home daily.

And 20% of kids do not have dyslexia. NIH says 5%. The only source that says 20% are companues trying to sell services.

The latest research is from Yale: https://dyslexia.yale.edu/dyslexia/dyslexia-faq/

And yes — what you’re describing is osmosis. The kid will apparently internalize what you’re reading, such that they’ll be able read Bob Books when they’re in kindergarten.

Guess what? My kid couldn’t do that. Many smart kids can’t do that. They needed systematic reading instruction to learn to read.

This is well known. Why are you fighting it?

Systemic reading instruction is what they do in kindergarten. You learn the letters and the sounds. The parents still need to supplement that at home.

What am I fighting? If there is deterioration in school performace or test scores, that means parents involvement in childs education is declining. Are you suggesting that dyslexia is increasing and that is the reason for poor school performace?

You said a kid can learn to read children’s books by 1st grade if the parent reads to them 15 minutes a day. Nowhere did you mention the school.

And no — I’m not saying dyslexia is increasing. But it’s well known that the move away from phonics-based reading instruction has led to reading deficiencies, which supports the notion that many kids need that.

Read about Lucy Calkin and the Sold a Story podcast.