Anonymous wrote:Is Benchmark really that bad? I thought I read on here that people like it?

Benchmark is only a couple years old, isn't it? How can they get rid of it so soon?

It's okay but we really love to complain about stuff.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone should be held accountable for the costly mistake with Benchmark.

The working group of educators who reviewed the various options did not support Benchmark. So who made the decision to go against the recommendation?

Big, expensive mistake that negatively impacted students.

Where’s the accountability?

It makes me wonder if someone got a kickback for selecting Benchmark because otherwise it makes no sense. Has anyone investigated this?

They essentially selected Benchmark because it had the most materials available in Spanish translation. They told this to the board at the time, explaining why they didn't choose a higher-rated curriculum.

I recall this too. Not really sure how they will navigate this because the ideal- a highly rated curriculum also available in Spanish, is a unicorn that doesn't exist. And now they are rolling out even more dual-immersion programs (which overall I think is a good thing! they just seem to have put the cart before the horse).

This seems so weird. How hard is it to translate a different curriculum into Spanish?

Why does it need to be the same? Somehow Spanish speaking countries teach kids to read with their own curriculums. Why don’t we get the best English reading curriculum for when we are teaching in English and the best Spanish reading curriculum for when we are teaching in Spanish? Having a curriculum that’s equally bad in both languages doesn’t seem to be an advantage.

Anonymous wrote:I saw there is an RFP for a new ES ELA curriculum:
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/office/ela-rfp.aspx

Looks like the BOE will vote in March.

I don't like that it's January and the list of stakeholder groups on the review committee hasn't yet been published on the website.

"LIST OF STAKEHOLDER GROUPS ON REVIEW COMMITTEE

TBD- end of December

FINALISTS INFO

TBD- January"

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would just get a few curriculua that meet the needs--even if that means there is a different curriculum for Spanish and English schools

Right!

Anonymous wrote:Someone should be held accountable for the costly mistake with Benchmark.

The working group of educators who reviewed the various options did not support Benchmark. So who made the decision to go against the recommendation?

Big, expensive mistake that negatively impacted students.

Where’s the accountability?

Yup! Someone needs to be held accountable for this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone should be held accountable for the costly mistake with Benchmark.

The working group of educators who reviewed the various options did not support Benchmark. So who made the decision to go against the recommendation?

Big, expensive mistake that negatively impacted students.

Where’s the accountability?

It makes me wonder if someone got a kickback for selecting Benchmark because otherwise it makes no sense. Has anyone investigated this?

They essentially selected Benchmark because it had the most materials available in Spanish translation. They told this to the board at the time, explaining why they didn't choose a higher-rated curriculum.

I recall this too. Not really sure how they will navigate this because the ideal- a highly rated curriculum also available in Spanish, is a unicorn that doesn't exist. And now they are rolling out even more dual-immersion programs (which overall I think is a good thing! they just seem to have put the cart before the horse).

This seems so weird. How hard is it to translate a different curriculum into Spanish?

There's a startup opportunity for you!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone should be held accountable for the costly mistake with Benchmark.

The working group of educators who reviewed the various options did not support Benchmark. So who made the decision to go against the recommendation?

Big, expensive mistake that negatively impacted students.

Where’s the accountability?

It makes me wonder if someone got a kickback for selecting Benchmark because otherwise it makes no sense. Has anyone investigated this?

They essentially selected Benchmark because it had the most materials available in Spanish translation. They told this to the board at the time, explaining why they didn't choose a higher-rated curriculum.

I recall this too. Not really sure how they will navigate this because the ideal- a highly rated curriculum also available in Spanish, is a unicorn that doesn't exist. And now they are rolling out even more dual-immersion programs (which overall I think is a good thing! they just seem to have put the cart before the horse).

This seems so weird. How hard is it to translate a different curriculum into Spanish?

+1. I also don't understand what they did previously for all the full immersion programs (spanish, french and chinese). Were they using different curricula or a translated version?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone should be held accountable for the costly mistake with Benchmark.

The working group of educators who reviewed the various options did not support Benchmark. So who made the decision to go against the recommendation?

Big, expensive mistake that negatively impacted students.

Where’s the accountability?

It makes me wonder if someone got a kickback for selecting Benchmark because otherwise it makes no sense. Has anyone investigated this?

They essentially selected Benchmark because it had the most materials available in Spanish translation. They told this to the board at the time, explaining why they didn't choose a higher-rated curriculum.

I recall this too. Not really sure how they will navigate this because the ideal- a highly rated curriculum also available in Spanish, is a unicorn that doesn't exist. And now they are rolling out even more dual-immersion programs (which overall I think is a good thing! they just seem to have put the cart before the horse).

This seems so weird. How hard is it to translate a different curriculum into Spanish?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone should be held accountable for the costly mistake with Benchmark.

The working group of educators who reviewed the various options did not support Benchmark. So who made the decision to go against the recommendation?

Big, expensive mistake that negatively impacted students.

Where’s the accountability?

It makes me wonder if someone got a kickback for selecting Benchmark because otherwise it makes no sense. Has anyone investigated this?

They essentially selected Benchmark because it had the most materials available in Spanish translation. They told this to the board at the time, explaining why they didn't choose a higher-rated curriculum.

Hispanic scholars are the largest demographic cohort in MCPS these days, so it's an important consideration.

Is the Spanish version of Benchmark better than the English version? If so why not keep that for the immersion programs and find something else for the other schools. It does seem like perhaps there is not a once-size-fits-all solution here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone should be held accountable for the costly mistake with Benchmark.

The working group of educators who reviewed the various options did not support Benchmark. So who made the decision to go against the recommendation?

Big, expensive mistake that negatively impacted students.

Where’s the accountability?

It makes me wonder if someone got a kickback for selecting Benchmark because otherwise it makes no sense. Has anyone investigated this?

They essentially selected Benchmark because it had the most materials available in Spanish translation. They told this to the board at the time, explaining why they didn't choose a higher-rated curriculum.

Hispanic scholars are the largest demographic cohort in MCPS these days, so it's an important consideration.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a reddit thread called "Benchmark curriculum or how to suck the joy out of reading" and that title really summarizes my 5th grader's experience with the curriculum the past three years.

It's awful. I don't understand how MCPS is so inept at choosing a ELA curriculum. Please, please tell me there is reason to think they will choose better this time.

Because they don't have the $$$ for a decent one. They have a lot of overhead with all the CO jobs so not much left for anything else.

Anyway, even if by some miracle they selected a great curriculum it would take them 3+ years to roll it out.

I wish they would just get a few curriculua that meet the needs--even if that means there is a different curriculum for Spanish and English schools

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone should be held accountable for the costly mistake with Benchmark.

The working group of educators who reviewed the various options did not support Benchmark. So who made the decision to go against the recommendation?

Big, expensive mistake that negatively impacted students.

Where’s the accountability?

It makes me wonder if someone got a kickback for selecting Benchmark because otherwise it makes no sense. Has anyone investigated this?

They essentially selected Benchmark because it had the most materials available in Spanish translation. They told this to the board at the time, explaining why they didn't choose a higher-rated curriculum.

I recall this too. Not really sure how they will navigate this because the ideal- a highly rated curriculum also available in Spanish, is a unicorn that doesn't exist. And now they are rolling out even more dual-immersion programs (which overall I think is a good thing! they just seem to have put the cart before the horse).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone should be held accountable for the costly mistake with Benchmark.

The working group of educators who reviewed the various options did not support Benchmark. So who made the decision to go against the recommendation?

Big, expensive mistake that negatively impacted students.

Where’s the accountability?

It makes me wonder if someone got a kickback for selecting Benchmark because otherwise it makes no sense. Has anyone investigated this?

They essentially selected Benchmark because it had the most materials available in Spanish translation. They told this to the board at the time, explaining why they didn't choose a higher-rated curriculum.

Anonymous wrote:Someone should be held accountable for the costly mistake with Benchmark.

The working group of educators who reviewed the various options did not support Benchmark. So who made the decision to go against the recommendation?

Big, expensive mistake that negatively impacted students.

Where’s the accountability?

It makes me wonder if someone got a kickback for selecting Benchmark because otherwise it makes no sense. Has anyone investigated this?