Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are a funding/political issue. Teachers have no say except to use or not use the outdated ones the school may or may not have access to.

You assume too much. We had to get rid of our textbooks over the last few years. I'm a teacher and our district invited teachers to one school to take any book they wanted. There were thousands and thousands of textbook from every subject they were getting rid of. I picked up math textbooks for my kids to use from pre-algebra all the way through high school. I got a few Spanish textbooks and beautiful and very costly history textbooks. There was an entire hallway filled with class sets of classic novels- To Kill A Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, etc. What a waste.

This is SOOO PISSY to read, since my son has ended up buying all of his English novels (and when the kids buy them individually, they are bought the most expensive way possible).

Anonymous wrote:Study guides from the teacher. Often they are posted on Edline.

I find it so surprising that people are hung up on text books. Our kids have these mega binders that are compiled throughout the school year. There are internet resources. There are the study guides that are posted. The teachers send home study packets.

Most of us have adjusted in our work lives to the fact that we type everything instead of writing longhand and having a secretary type it. We've gone from typewriters to computers. We've gone from mail to fax to scanning documents. We used to write checks and now we go onto our bank websites and type in a dollar amount to send to our creditor. But we can't adjust to the move away from textbooks?!

Sorry, I don't buy the analogy to technology. Textbooks are being used in all the top privates. It's a budget thing. But you can believe what you want to make yourself feel better about your kid's crappy education.

Anonymous wrote:My older child started middle school this year in MCPS. She has no textbooks in any class. When I was in school (admittedly not in U.S.), we had textbooks so when we had a test, we would know to study chapters 1-4, for example. I would re-read the chapters, make flashcards if there was an vocabulary, and generally just cover the page with my hand and "test" myself on my recollection of the material. I am struggling with how to explain to DD how best to study since she does not have textbooks. She did not have any tests in elementary school so studying generally is new to her. Math is easy as it is very discrete. But how best to study english, world studies. When I ask DD what the test covers, she shows me a few worksheets that she filled out in class. I really am at a loss other than to tell her to look over the worksheets. How does your middle school aged child study for tests?

No tests in elementary school? No textbooks? How in earth are these kids going to know how to study in middle and high school? My parochial school 3rd grader has books for Math, English, Science, Social Studies, and Religion. Has 2-3 tests per week. So glad we pulled her out of MCPS after kindergarten.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parochial school - all textbooks. The newer ones have online access from home or the kids can bring the textbook home. Love it.

Yup. Same here. And the local library has a section of all the local schools' textbooks and workbooks for kids to use if they forget to bring books home.
I was very surprised to hear no text books in schools. Why is that? $?

I think it's part money/part prestige. MCPS does get money from its partnership with Pearson:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/maryland-schools-insider/post/pearson-previews-education-materials-developed-with-montgomery-county-schools/2013/01/31/dd8a30b4-6bb3-11e2-ada0-5ca5fa7ebe79_blog.html?utm_term=.8dc0f4b68737

Before they partnered with Pearson they had tried to market their curriculum themselves. My understanding is that it wasn't very successful.

I think MCPS likes to view themselves as expert educators and innovators. I wish they would stick to teaching and leave curriculum development to the actual experts. Montgomery county funnels a lot of tax money to education (as it should). I think MCPS pursuing profit opportunities in this way is a conflict of interest which does not serve our students well.

Agree. DCPS middle school -- so glad we have textbooks; one set for home and one for school. Didn't have them in grade school, and it makes a huge difference. I also like that the teachers don't feel tied to the text books, because they can get dated in some subjects.

Ask the teachers if there is a textbook they are basing the info on the worksheets on. If so, ask the school of they can provide a copy or attempt to get a copy of it from the publisher.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parochial school - all textbooks. The newer ones have online access from home or the kids can bring the textbook home. Love it.

Yup. Same here. And the local library has a section of all the local schools' textbooks and workbooks for kids to use if they forget to bring books home.
I was very surprised to hear no text books in schools. Why is that? $?

I think it's part money/part prestige. MCPS does get money from its partnership with Pearson:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/maryland-schools-insider/post/pearson-previews-education-materials-developed-with-montgomery-county-schools/2013/01/31/dd8a30b4-6bb3-11e2-ada0-5ca5fa7ebe79_blog.html?utm_term=.8dc0f4b68737

Before they partnered with Pearson they had tried to market their curriculum themselves. My understanding is that it wasn't very successful.

I think MCPS likes to view themselves as expert educators and innovators. I wish they would stick to teaching and leave curriculum development to the actual experts. Montgomery county funnels a lot of tax money to education (as it should). I think MCPS pursuing profit opportunities in this way is a conflict of interest which does not serve our students well.

MCPS's curriculum 2.0 is designed by Pearson?

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are a funding/political issue. Teachers have no say except to use or not use the outdated ones the school may or may not have access to.

You assume too much. We had to get rid of our textbooks over the last few years. I'm a teacher and our district invited teachers to one school to take any book they wanted. There were thousands and thousands of textbook from every subject they were getting rid of. I picked up math textbooks for my kids to use from pre-algebra all the way through high school. I got a few Spanish textbooks and beautiful and very costly history textbooks. There was an entire hallway filled with class sets of classic novels- To Kill A Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, etc. What a waste.

Textbooks are a funding/political issue. Teachers have no say except to use or not use the outdated ones the school may or may not have access to.

Anonymous wrote:My older child started middle school this year in MCPS. She has no textbooks in any class. When I was in school (admittedly not in U.S.), we had textbooks so when we had a test, we would know to study chapters 1-4, for example. I would re-read the chapters, make flashcards if there was an vocabulary, and generally just cover the page with my hand and "test" myself on my recollection of the material. I am struggling with how to explain to DD how best to study since she does not have textbooks.

She did not have any tests in elementary school so studying generally is new to her.

Math is easy as it is very discrete. But how best to study english, world studies. When I ask DD what the test covers, she shows me a few worksheets that she filled out in class. I really am at a loss other than to tell her to look over the worksheets. How does your middle school aged child study for tests?

This is quite interesting. I wondered about this as I had one child go through MCPS and didn't remember tests in elementary school either...at least nothing challenging. Both my kids are now in private and use text books, and the one in elementary school has texts for every subject and has 2 or 3 tests per week. Glad we made the switch to private.

Textbooks have better retention rates among many other benefits. We get small slips of paper in tiny fonts (to save paper) but they are very difficult to keep organized especially when they are turned in. Eventually everything will be online, but it's not better for learning

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parochial school - all textbooks. The newer ones have online access from home or the kids can bring the textbook home. Love it.

Yup. Same here. And the local library has a section of all the local schools' textbooks and workbooks for kids to use if they forget to bring books home.
I was very surprised to hear no text books in schools. Why is that? $?

I think it's part money/part prestige. MCPS does get money from its partnership with Pearson:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/maryland-schools-insider/post/pearson-previews-education-materials-developed-with-montgomery-county-schools/2013/01/31/dd8a30b4-6bb3-11e2-ada0-5ca5fa7ebe79_blog.html?utm_term=.8dc0f4b68737

Before they partnered with Pearson they had tried to market their curriculum themselves. My understanding is that it wasn't very successful.

I think MCPS likes to view themselves as expert educators and innovators. I wish they would stick to teaching and leave curriculum development to the actual experts. Montgomery county funnels a lot of tax money to education (as it should). I think MCPS pursuing profit opportunities in this way is a conflict of interest which does not serve our students well.

I'm one of those people who are hung up on textbooks. They provided an organized way to present information. They provided a context for material that may be missing when things are thrown together piecemeal. They made it much easier to study.

I'll never forget my daughter's first experience with a textbook (middle school math). She asked me for help with her homework and I asked her if she had read the section preceding the problem set. It actually shocked her that she had an explanation of the material. Then, to really blow her mind I introduced her to the marvels of a glossary and index.

I could help her with math homework at that level, but with the textbook she didn't need me nearly as much. If we want to reduce the achievement gap, I think textbooks are the way to start.

Yes, sometimes textbooks have errors. However I have far more confidence in a panel of subject-matter experts with professional editors than I do in the curriculum department of MCPS. Moreover, with textbooks parents can see what is being taught and how it is presented. Here, no one really knows because MCPS is so proprietary.

This is a link from 2003 about the MCPS rollout of the math curriculum. Parents were upset about using an untested curriculum and felt that it wasn't working. Teachers had more specific criticisms, but were understandably reluctant to come out publicly.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2003/02/20/teachers-parents-protest-untested-math-curriculum/169792eb-144b-4239-9045-99619b56ff07/?utm_term=.8c4cf8689ee0

If MCPS had adopted textbooks, rather than developing their own curriculum, it would have led to several benefits:

They could have studied the results on students elsewhere and chosen a curriculum that had proven effective.

Teachers would have had more time to familiarize themselves with the material.

Parents could have seen for themselves how material was being presented.

In summary, I can think of no drawbacks to having textbooks. A teacher can always supplement if they wish. However, I can think of many advantages to having textbooks for not only the students, but the teachers and parents as well.

Anonymous wrote:Parochial school - all textbooks. The newer ones have online access from home or the kids can bring the textbook home. Love it.

Yup. Same here. And the local library has a section of all the local schools' textbooks and workbooks for kids to use if they forget to bring books home.
I was very surprised to hear no text books in schools. Why is that? $?

Parochial school - all textbooks. The newer ones have online access from home or the kids can bring the textbook home. Love it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My middle schooler admits the most organized class and the one she is learning the most from is the class that is following a text book.

The fact is most teachers simply are not as great at creating and providing their own resources as they believe they are.

+100000000 They all want autonomy but then don't have the time to create more than one or two of their own resources each semester.

Yup. When I taught, I liked to use the text for facts and context and supplement with my own materials when I had created or borrowed good ones.