Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am one of the PPs who complained about lack of acceleration in math. There are differentiated groups at our school starting in 1st for math. As far as I can tell there are only 2 groups. The problem is that the "top" group is not allowed to advance to topics from the next grade. For my son this is not enough.

Then do more math at home.

Yes, this!

Anonymous wrote:I am one of the PPs who complained about lack of acceleration in math. There are differentiated groups at our school starting in 1st for math. As far as I can tell there are only 2 groups. The problem is that the "top" group is not allowed to advance to topics from the next grade. For my son this is not enough.

Then do more math at home.

I am one of the PPs who complained about lack of acceleration in math. There are differentiated groups at our school starting in 1st for math. As far as I can tell there are only 2 groups. The problem is that the "top" group is not allowed to advance to topics from the next grade. For my son this is not enough.

I'm really interested to hear that some kids are in differentiated math groups. Is this only third grade and up? Is anyone getting that in first or second grade? I think those who are complaining about the OP should hold back on the snark. My daughter is constantly complaining that she's bored at school -- I can't tell if the problem is that the material is too easy, if she's just a complainer, or some third option. I'm not trying to get her into Harvard -- I just want her to like school, and learn how to work hard. At the moment, she doesn't really seem to work hard on anything at school. At this age, she would be happy to work hard on more difficult assignments -- in another couple of years, I'm afraid she'll be happy to just coast through and then she'll never learn to really work.

They care because they want a shot at getting into the HGC where the anointed ones essentially receive an education on par with private school.

OK..so take test in 3rd grade if you want a shot. That is all you have to do. And not that I think that all private schools are the top of the educational pile, but my child was in a HGC and didn't choose to continue for middle despite getting all A's and being encouraged to do so. 4th grade was great. 5th grade went way down hill. It is still MCPS. It is still a large number of kids. Some still have behaviour issues. I would not start prepping my 1st grader.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Because if you're "advanced", you will go to a "good" college and get the right resume and make a lot of money (and claim to be middle class on a HHI of $350,000+) and be a success.
Whereas if you're not "advanced", you will go to a community college and live in a trailer park and be a failure.
And there are only so many people who can be successes -- the rest will be failures -- and you want to make sure your child is among the successes and not the failures.

You're clearly being snotty but Americans NEED to realize that if you do not work hard enough to be or become advanced and just slide through school to community college, you will not be successful. You don't understand that other countries are exponentially outpacing you. The population is so high in China and India that the competition is 100 times more intense than it is here just to make the first cut. The culture puts a much higher expectation toward academic success than American culture.

t would be nice if everyone could continue to do poorly in academic in America and still be successful but this isn't what will happen. The jobs and careers that you think you will have are going overseas or companies are hiring from abroad.

That is one opinion. There are other opinions on what it means to be successful. Of course working hard counts. But being advanced in first grade is not necessarily an indicator of future success. And if a child is not advanced in first grade - its doesn't mean he is automatically going be a failure.

Being advanced and working hard are separate things. The more advanced the child is naturally, the harder it will be for the child to work hard when he needs to.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If so, it is nice that you believe that in America, if you work hard, you will achieve all of the conventional measures of success. But the fact is that many people have to work damn hard just to get to community college. And also that many people don't work hard at all and still achieve the conventional measures of success (the people who were born on third base and think they hit a home run).

And nobody is saying that kids should not work hard in school.

I love you and I'm going to use this --ALL.THE.TIME.

I didn't make it up. The incomparable Ann Richards, the former governor of Texas, did.

Hard workers will usually be rewarded. It's not only where you went to college but frankly,
How hard you apply yourself. My bright kid who has coasted for much of his life will not be
"Successful" if he does not learn work ethic.

very true. college can be what you make of it. in my opinion it doesn't have to be an Ivy for success to be yours.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If so, it is nice that you believe that in America, if you work hard, you will achieve all of the conventional measures of success. But the fact is that many people have to work damn hard just to get to community college. And also that many people don't work hard at all and still achieve the conventional measures of success (the people who were born on third base and think they hit a home run).

And nobody is saying that kids should not work hard in school.

I love you and I'm going to use this --ALL.THE.TIME.

I didn't make it up. The incomparable Ann Richards, the former governor of Texas, did.

Hard workers will usually be rewarded. It's not only where you went to college but frankly,
How hard you apply yourself. My bright kid who has coasted for much of his life will not be
"Successful" if he does not learn work ethic.

Anonymous wrote:They care because they want a shot at getting into the HGC where the anointed ones essentially receive an education on par with private school.

True. Amazing teachers. Made me wish I were in 4th.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If so, it is nice that you believe that in America, if you work hard, you will achieve all of the conventional measures of success. But the fact is that many people have to work damn hard just to get to community college. And also that many people don't work hard at all and still achieve the conventional measures of success (the people who were born on third base and think they hit a home run).

And nobody is saying that kids should not work hard in school.

I love you and I'm going to use this --ALL.THE.TIME.

I didn't make it up. The incomparable Ann Richards, the former governor of Texas, did.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Because if you're "advanced", you will go to a "good" college and get the right resume and make a lot of money (and claim to be middle class on a HHI of $350,000+) and be a success.
Whereas if you're not "advanced", you will go to a community college and live in a trailer park and be a failure.
And there are only so many people who can be successes -- the rest will be failures -- and you want to make sure your child is among the successes and not the failures.

You're clearly being snotty but Americans NEED to realize that if you do not work hard enough to be or become advanced and just slide through school to community college, you will not be successful. You don't understand that other countries are exponentially outpacing you. The population is so high in China and India that the competition is 100 times more intense than it is here just to make the first cut. The culture puts a much higher expectation toward academic success than American culture.

t would be nice if everyone could continue to do poorly in academic in America and still be successful but this isn't what will happen. The jobs and careers that you think you will have are going overseas or companies are hiring from abroad.

I infer from your post that you are not an American?

If so, it is nice that you believe that in America, if you work hard, you will achieve all of the conventional measures of success. But the fact is that many people have to work damn hard just to get to community college. And also that many people don't work hard at all and still achieve the conventional measures of success (the people who were born on third base and think they hit a home run).

And nobody is saying that kids should not work hard in school.

I love you and I'm going to use this --ALL.THE.TIME.

Anonymous wrote:

Because if you're "advanced", you will go to a "good" college and get the right resume and make a lot of money (and claim to be middle class on a HHI of $350,000+) and be a success.
Whereas if you're not "advanced", you will go to a community college and live in a trailer park and be a failure.
And there are only so many people who can be successes -- the rest will be failures -- and you want to make sure your child is among the successes and not the failures.

You're clearly being snotty but Americans NEED to realize that if you do not work hard enough to be or become advanced and just slide through school to community college, you will not be successful. You don't understand that other countries are exponentially outpacing you. The population is so high in China and India that the competition is 100 times more intense than it is here just to make the first cut. The culture puts a much higher expectation toward academic success than American culture.

t would be nice if everyone could continue to do poorly in academic in America and still be successful but this isn't what will happen. The jobs and careers that you think you will have are going overseas or companies are hiring from abroad.

I infer from your post that you are not an American?

If so, it is nice that you believe that in America, if you work hard, you will achieve all of the conventional measures of success. But the fact is that many people have to work damn hard just to get to community college. And also that many people don't work hard at all and still achieve the conventional measures of success (the people who were born on third base and think they hit a home run).

And nobody is saying that kids should not work hard in school.

Anonymous wrote:

Because if you're "advanced", you will go to a "good" college and get the right resume and make a lot of money (and claim to be middle class on a HHI of $350,000+) and be a success.
Whereas if you're not "advanced", you will go to a community college and live in a trailer park and be a failure.
And there are only so many people who can be successes -- the rest will be failures -- and you want to make sure your child is among the successes and not the failures.

You're clearly being snotty but Americans NEED to realize that if you do not work hard enough to be or become advanced and just slide through school to community college, you will not be successful. You don't understand that other countries are exponentially outpacing you. The population is so high in China and India that the competition is 100 times more intense than it is here just to make the first cut. The culture puts a much higher expectation toward academic success than American culture.

t would be nice if everyone could continue to do poorly in academic in America and still be successful but this isn't what will happen. The jobs and careers that you think you will have are going overseas or companies are hiring from abroad.

That is one opinion. There are other opinions on what it means to be successful. Of course working hard counts. But being advanced in first grade is not necessarily an indicator of future success. And if a child is not advanced in first grade - its doesn't mean he is automatically going be a failure.

Because if you're "advanced", you will go to a "good" college and get the right resume and make a lot of money (and claim to be middle class on a HHI of $350,000+) and be a success.
Whereas if you're not "advanced", you will go to a community college and live in a trailer park and be a failure.
And there are only so many people who can be successes -- the rest will be failures -- and you want to make sure your child is among the successes and not the failures.

You're clearly being snotty but Americans NEED to realize that if you do not work hard enough to be or become advanced and just slide through school to community college, you will not be successful. You don't understand that other countries are exponentially outpacing you. The population is so high in China and India that the competition is 100 times more intense than it is here just to make the first cut. The culture puts a much higher expectation toward academic success than American culture.

t would be nice if everyone could continue to do poorly in academic in America and still be successful but this isn't what will happen. The jobs and careers that you think you will have are going overseas or companies are hiring from abroad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They care because they want to make sure their child is actually LEARNING something when they go to school- not just twiddling their thumbs because the school doesn't bother teaching them anything because the administration has decided the child will probably already score high enough on their tests for the school to look good. It's not always about getting ahead - it's about making sure your child is engaged at school and learning something.

THIS +1000! I want to know my child is learning. The hide-the-ball report cards, the lack of tests (just subjective "assessments" which often aren't even written down, just the teacher's feeling about how the kid is doing), the one conference at the beginning of the year: all of these things make me question MCPS. When there is an objective measurement, say a MAP-R or MAP-M and your child scores through the roof, you might realize your child needs more than the bare-minimum basics that are being spoon fed to every child in the class. A one-size-fits-all system simply doesn't work.

But I'm not convinced that is is one size fits all. Maybe the real outliers are not getting what they need - but I think the majority are. Is there no differentiation at all at your school??