Anonymous wrote:If your kid is scoring way above grade level on these inventories in the fall, nothing taught in MS is going to increase it by much. Or at all. My kids always scored two or more years ahead. It would vary over the course of the year, up and down. Pre pandemic. If your kid comes into sixth grade over 1000 on math inventory, nothing they are teaching in math 6 extended is going to move him much. He’s already way ahead. And for reading, the decrease probably reflects that your kid is doing less independent reading than over the summer. The APS reading course or English 7 isn’t going to move the readings score of a high achieving kid. That’s pretty pandemic truth.

My kid's high reading score did increase, but she also is still reading as much as she did over the summer. Maybe even more over these cold months. Also, her English 7 teacher isn't as lax about grading as other teachers so she does take that one a little more seriously.

I think a lot depends on teachers - the 7th grade teachers have been great. Better than the pre-pandemic 6th grade teachers. Plus, there was practically zero new content in pre-pandemic 6th grade so it's tough to compare the years.

Anonymous wrote:APS loves data and studies. How about they put together a composite graph of the MS inventories from September to present? I don’t give a crap about much of the wasted conversation with the school board, but the actual education/product is what I would like to see.

They tend to hide material that doesn’t support their cause, like info they compiled which made them scrap the intensified math pathways that were failing kids they tracked from 6th-12th.

You won’t see it if there was a significant decline and they can’t fudge the data.

APS loves data and studies. How about they put together a composite graph of the MS inventories from September to present? I don’t give a crap about much of the wasted conversation with the school board, but the actual education/product is what I would like to see.

They tend to hide material that doesn’t support their cause, like info they compiled which made them scrap the intensified math pathways that were failing kids they tracked from 6th-12th.

If your kid is scoring way above grade level on these inventories in the fall, nothing taught in MS is going to increase it by much. Or at all. My kids always scored two or more years ahead. It would vary over the course of the year, up and down. Pre pandemic. If your kid comes into sixth grade over 1000 on math inventory, nothing they are teaching in math 6 extended is going to move him much. He’s already way ahead. And for reading, the decrease probably reflects that your kid is doing less independent reading than over the summer. The APS reading course or English 7 isn’t going to move the readings score of a high achieving kid. That’s pretty pandemic truth.

Anonymous wrote:Straight As really don’t mean much this year. They have dumbed it down so much for virtual. My kid (HS) has straight As and she’s said there’s no way she would have an A in calculus if she was in person. So take the grades with a grain of salt.

Yeah. Wonderful. The grades aren’t the concern is the lack of real learning and the path of preparedness for the next level in many subjects. My kid is joining eldest at a rigorous private HS next Fall and it is going u to o be a tough adjustment. Ma y of the kids in thee are y school have had 5-days per week in person this year. He gets all As, but will be woefully behind.

Anonymous wrote:Straight As really don’t mean much this year. They have dumbed it down so much for virtual. My kid (HS) has straight As and she’s said there’s no way she would have an A in calculus if she was in person. So take the grades with a grain of salt.

Straights As in APS has always been a joke. Both my boys have never received a grade below an A—in all the intensified pathways and even pre-pandemic I saw very little effort- studying/hw.

Sacrificed Gen Y for the Baby Boomers. This next generation is starting off poorly. This thread is mostly MS. Imagine how bad the start was for early education/elementary.

Straight As really don’t mean much this year. They have dumbed it down so much for virtual. My kid (HS) has straight As and she’s said there’s no way she would have an A in calculus if she was in person. So take the grades with a grain of salt.

Anonymous wrote:They have not been in a classroom since March 13th- almost a year ago.

The pps weighing in are most likely from the upper SES, “advantaged households”. Imagine what the loss of learning is like for the disadvantaged and kids without support at home.

This is a nationwide crisis.

I worry about how dumbed down APS 8th grade will be next year due to the ever widening education gap in the grades. Some kids will have dropped much farther. APS always teaches to the lowest denominator- like last spring not adding new material to the curriculum.

Yes. And they only have school instruction 4 days per week this year.

Another point- if your child’s score dropped it doesn’t mean they answered fewer questions or got more wrong necessarily. With each administration then it in the sample they are measured against changes and so it more than likely means they haven’t progressed at the same rate as they should have, which I would expect this year. It doesn’t mean they LOST previously taught material. But it is correct they haven’t gained as much new material as they would expect to I. A typical year.

School is only twice a week right now for each class compared to much more and longer in regular times. Something’s gotta give.

I wonder if this speaks as much to the conditions of taking the test at home as it does to actual learning? When you're in a room with other kids at a desk, you concentrate and try to do the work. When you're at home with your ipad taking a test that doesn't matter for your grade for the second time this year and it's lunchtime and you've got other things you'd like to be doing ... I'm not as sure.

My 6th grader's math score also dropped (reading went up), and dropped significantly, but I'm not sure it's a real reflection of their learning given the other circumstances, described above, that were going on at the time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My youngest is in 7th and this is the first time a mid-year inventory was lower as a start of school year inventory.

He’s still getting straight As, camera on and fully participates. Granted, he’s above average but seeing the results dropped a little makes me worry how behind so many kids will be and what learning will be like with many kids behind. We are going on one full year of DL March 13th.

Has APS published any data on this?

Sorry - lower than inventory at start of school year. Not drastically, but a slight drop.

For both reading & math?

Yes-7th grade.

Reading went from 1459 to 1297. Math only dropped 10 points.

I'd definitely ask about it during the upcoming parent-teacher conference. Or maybe email about it in advance so the TA can check-in with the reading & math teachers.

It's just one data point, but my engaged, straight-A 7th grader's scores did both go up. Not sure about overall APS metrics though. I wonder if they are going to share the data at some point.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My youngest is in 7th and this is the first time a mid-year inventory was lower as a start of school year inventory.

He’s still getting straight As, camera on and fully participates. Granted, he’s above average but seeing the results dropped a little makes me worry how behind so many kids will be and what learning will be like with many kids behind. We are going on one full year of DL March 13th.

Has APS published any data on this?

Sorry - lower than inventory at start of school year. Not drastically, but a slight drop.

For both reading & math?

Yes-7th grade.

Reading went from 1459 to 1297. Math only dropped 10 points.

They need to ability-base the kids in all MS classes next year. Do it by testing/grade assessment. Not doing that will be a disaster in the classroom with ever widening learning discrepancies.

They have not been in a classroom since March 13th- almost a year ago.

The pps weighing in are most likely from the upper SES, “advantaged households”. Imagine what the loss of learning is like for the disadvantaged and kids without support at home.

This is a nationwide crisis.

I worry about how dumbed down APS 8th grade will be next year due to the ever widening education gap in the grades. Some kids will have dropped much farther. APS always teaches to the lowest denominator- like last spring not adding new material to the curriculum.