Anonymous wrote:If you haven’t yet, listen to the podcast “Sold A Story,” about Calkins and this whole ill-conceived theory of reading instruction. It is unbelievable. It is shocking to me that any reputable school still uses that approach.
Anonymous wrote:It's not just DC. Our west coast independent school is still all-in on Lucy Calkins. We were lucky and had one of the kids who was going to learn to read despite the curriculum, rather than because of it (as a teacher friend explained it).
For the school, Lucy Calkins is a lot easier for teachers. Teaching them to actually *teach* reading and writing is a lot harder. I'm honestly not sure a lot of the administrators would actually know how to coach their staff in this, sadly. And a majority of the kids in private schools are probably among those who are going to learn to read no matter what you do (and the minority for whom this isn't the case have parents who will hire tutors).
Anonymous wrote:My kid's school officially dumped it this year. I'm glad they finally moved to something else but I'd be happier if they had spent more than a week before school started learning how to use it. Back to school night was an endless parade of people (admins, teachers, board members) all saying versions of "we are learning this curriculum alongside your children..." which didn't fill me with confidence.
Anonymous wrote:There are local private lower schools who have not used Lucy Calkins in years, but the race for status continues to win out.
Anonymous wrote:Beauvoir does not use that curriculum, thank goodness.
Anonymous wrote:Yes Beauvoir has not phased it out publicly and her name was featured prominently as of late last school year. But they’re not the only one - all DC privates still are holding on. None have officially changed!
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Orton-Gillingham follows the Science of Reading (phonics) and not Calkins
Highly recommend listening to the Sold a Story podcast before anyone goes to back to school night!
As the commenter notes on the first page mentioned, so many of the veiled Calkins teaching methods are noted on these private school website. It may not explicitly say her name anymore but the practice is still there.
Beauvoir, GDS, Maret, Sidwell, NPS - they all are still pushing the outdated (and not based on science) methods
Oh there you have it. Just as I suspected, ALL of these schools are the same and any extra “prestige” attached to any of them more than others is completely made up and meaningless.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Orton-Gillingham follows the Science of Reading (phonics) and not Calkins
Highly recommend listening to the Sold a Story podcast before anyone goes to back to school night!
As the commenter notes on the first page mentioned, so many of the veiled Calkins teaching methods are noted on these private school website. It may not explicitly say her name anymore but the practice is still there.
Beauvoir, GDS, Maret, Sidwell, NPS - they all are still pushing the outdated (and not based on science) methods
Oh there you have it. Just as I suspected, ALL of these schools are the same and any extra “prestige” attached to any of them more than others is completely made up and meaningless.