If you work for the "county," as you claim, I trust you even less. I happened to attend the recent math 2.0 meeting hosted by the MCPTA group. A collection of bumbling bureaucrats from MCPS attempted to explain the sorry state of math in the schools under 2 (prompted, no doubt, by the outcry from dissatisfied parents). The bureaucrats made any number of contradictory statements regarding possible acceleration/enrichment, grouping students by ability, future roll-outs beginning in fall 2013 and, generally, the rigor of the curriculum.

Please, watch the rebroadcast of this sorry performance by your fellow county officials and you will see why parents have lost confidence. Principals and teachers are getting the same contradictory messages that parents are getting. If things were as clear you would have us believe, the answers to basic questions would be clear as well. They are not. When you watch, please take note of how often the answer is "we're working on that" or "we're in the process of looking into that." Trust me the good teachers are as frustrated by this mess as the parents are.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have apparently been writing the math curriculum as the year went on. It has been rolled out to teachers as the year went on b/c the curriculum wasn't ready at the beginning of the year. The crummy roll-out and inept preparation are a couple of reasons that parents are suspicious of it and wary of future roll-out-years.

I'm the second PP and this is COMPLETELY incorrect. Please stop spreading misinformation on this forum. The curriculum (in its entirety) was available to teachers prior the beginning of the school year.

B.S. We have had multiple meetings with my DD's 3rd grade teacher and have discussed the problem with the curriculum being written as they went along. The math curriculum was NOT available in its entirety, the homework and "enrichment" components have yet to be completed and "assessments" which (theoretically) be used to determine whether some kids need enrichment have not yet been written.

Believe me, we have had many, many meetings about these issues.

Believe ME, I work for the county. I saw the entire curriculum last April. There is no standardized homework (as there NEVER has been under any curriculum in MCPS). The enrichment that is allowed for third grade was there in April, too....so I think maybe you are expecting (or even your child's teacher is incorrectly expecting) some elements that aren't there, not because they're not done, but because they're not part of the curriculum. There are no longer county-wide standardized assessments in math like there were under the previous curriculum. The focus is on formative assessment and taking multiple types of assessments (small and larger) throughout instruction.

In my third grader's class the tests have been done away with but the formative assessments you refer to don't seem to be in place.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have apparently been writing the math curriculum as the year went on. It has been rolled out to teachers as the year went on b/c the curriculum wasn't ready at the beginning of the year. The crummy roll-out and inept preparation are a couple of reasons that parents are suspicious of it and wary of future roll-out-years.

I'm the second PP and this is COMPLETELY incorrect. Please stop spreading misinformation on this forum. The curriculum (in its entirety) was available to teachers prior the beginning of the school year.

B.S. We have had multiple meetings with my DD's 3rd grade teacher and have discussed the problem with the curriculum being written as they went along. The math curriculum was NOT available in its entirety, the homework and "enrichment" components have yet to be completed and "assessments" which (theoretically) be used to determine whether some kids need enrichment have not yet been written.

Believe me, we have had many, many meetings about these issues.

Believe ME, I work for the county. I saw the entire curriculum last April. There is no standardized homework (as there NEVER has been under any curriculum in MCPS). The enrichment that is allowed for third grade was there in April, too....so I think maybe you are expecting (or even your child's teacher is incorrectly expecting) some elements that aren't there, not because they're not done, but because they're not part of the curriculum. There are no longer county-wide standardized assessments in math like there were under the previous curriculum. The focus is on formative assessment and taking multiple types of assessments (small and larger) throughout instruction.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have apparently been writing the math curriculum as the year went on. It has been rolled out to teachers as the year went on b/c the curriculum wasn't ready at the beginning of the year. The crummy roll-out and inept preparation are a couple of reasons that parents are suspicious of it and wary of future roll-out-years.

I'm the second PP and this is COMPLETELY incorrect. Please stop spreading misinformation on this forum. The curriculum (in its entirety) was available to teachers prior the beginning of the school year.

B.S. We have had multiple meetings with my DD's 3rd grade teacher and have discussed the problem with the curriculum being written as they went along. The math curriculum was NOT available in its entirety, the homework and "enrichment" components have yet to be completed and "assessments" which (theoretically) be used to determine whether some kids need enrichment have not yet been written.

Believe me, we have had many, many meetings about these issues.

Anonymous wrote:The algorithm being introduced later is explicitly from the Common Core, not MCPS's interpretation of it. The thinking skills you're referring to are part of MCPS's curriculum, but are not "graded" like you imply...you are given information since they are working on developing those skills in school, but your child is not going to fail a grade because he cannot think flexibly or analyze well, etc.

See here is the thing. I am just not sure the "think flexibly or analyze well" has anything to do with doing multiplication in four different ways. I don't even mind that they introduce the different ways of doing things. The bottom lines the kids need to be taught what is the best way to automate these calculations to free their brain for more advanced work/ creativity.

For some reason, I just don't trust the teachers to evaluate the meta cognition and intellectual risk taking for 5 years old. Nor do I see the need for them to do so.

I do think highly of the power of the Montgomery county parents. I think these new report cards will be gone sooner rather than later. And ability grouping will be back in a big way. I just hope that my son will not suffer for too long if we stay in the district.