Anonymous wrote:

When our kid was in PBES 4th grade CES they were given choices of what books to read

This is interesting. My kid was in 4th Grade CES at Piney Branch, so not sure what this parent is talking about. The kids were not permitted to select any book they wanted (at least not my kid). It is also true that the spelling lists were very different between the two groups as well.

Are you sure they weren't given a choice out of three each time there was a new group of books to read? That's the way it worked when our kid was in PBES CES too.

Anonymous wrote:

When our kid was in PBES 4th grade CES they were given choices of what books to read

This is interesting. My kid was in 4th Grade CES at Piney Branch, so not sure what this parent is talking about. The kids were not permitted to select any book they wanted (at least not my kid). It is also true that the spelling lists were very different between the two groups as well.

My kid was also in PBES CES for 4th and they had a choice of three books and my kid usually got their #1 choice. In 5th, there was no choice of books and everyone read the same one.
In 4th there were two spelling lists: very difficult and not difficult at all (totally making this up, but think words like pneumonic vs. plywood). In 5th there was no "spelling" but they did some latin thing.

We were part of the large cohort (2 classes) so I wonder if they caved to admit more kids over the summer and then realized that not all could actually handle the CES programming (and why should they...if CES programming is truly challenging and for gifted kids, then ~20% of a grade should not be able to cut it). That certainly seemed to be the case. No offense intended, but an observation based on the conflict and strife that went down the year before last.

When our kid was in PBES 4th grade CES they were given choices of what books to read

This is interesting. My kid was in 4th Grade CES at Piney Branch, so not sure what this parent is talking about. The kids were not permitted to select any book they wanted (at least not my kid). It is also true that the spelling lists were very different between the two groups as well.

FWIW DC was in the 4th grade at PBES this year and nothing like this went on. Seems more likely this happened at the fictional TPMS CES program.

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Actually MCPS didn't deny it, so its with the State of Maryland right now

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they're talking about the incident where some kids in the same class were given easy assignments and the others had super difficult books to read and harder spelling words?

Huh. Our child's PBES CES had two spelling groups (one much harder) when they were in 4th but I wasn't aware of harder books or harder assignments for one group versus another. I think we asked that our kid be placed in the harder spelling group because everyone saw the two lists and I thought the easier one was unchallenging (our kid was originally in the easier one). Was moved without issue. Strange year though.

Oak View PP here, and this is fascinating to me because there was definitely no "easy mode" for the spelling lists. Everyone got the same list and had the same test at the end of the week.

Anonymous wrote:I think they're talking about the incident where some kids in the same class were given easy assignments and the others had super difficult books to read and harder spelling words?

When our kid was in PBES 4th grade CES they were given choices of what books to read. Each kid decided which one they wanted to read - usually a choice out of three. Then book groups were made depending on which book the student chose.

Anonymous wrote:I think they're talking about the incident where some kids in the same class were given easy assignments and the others had super difficult books to read and harder spelling words?

Huh. Our child's PBES CES had two spelling groups (one much harder) when they were in 4th but I wasn't aware of harder books or harder assignments for one group versus another. I think we asked that our kid be placed in the harder spelling group because everyone saw the two lists and I thought the easier one was unchallenging (our kid was originally in the easier one). Was moved without issue. Strange year though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

they got caught lowering the kid's grades in the system

That's horrible. They should fire the Principal at that school.

This didn’t happen.

Agree - this seems pretty out there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone talk about the culture of Oak View? Esp for 4th grade?

And let me say that I am also very concerned/curious as to how CES will go with remote learning. Since it is likely that at least some of the fall will start that way.

Oak View is great. Strongly recommend. The principal is great and it's just a really well-run school in general. The 4th grade team changed this last year, but the teacher that I know in 4th is amazing, and then one of the previous 4th grade teachers moved to 5th and she's also great. My child had an amazing experience and is off to a great MS experience in part due to the support they got at OVES.

+1. Very happy with our Oak View CES experience. Teachers and staff there are wonderful. It was a challenging program, but not overwhelming for my kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know what they're talking about. PBES CES 4th divided the class into two groups. Some kids (mostly white) got easier assignments while the other kids (mostly not white) got really hard assignments. When an asian parent filed a complaint, that kid got kicked out from the TPMS CES program (even though the kid was really smart).

Was that the year there were two CES classes for 4th grade? Therefore two teachers who taught the curriculum differently? Or are you saying it was within one classroom that there were different expectations?

FWIW DC was in the 4th grade at PBES this year and nothing like this went on. Seems more likely this happened at the fictional TPMS CES program.

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone talk about the culture of Oak View? Esp for 4th grade?

And let me say that I am also very concerned/curious as to how CES will go with remote learning. Since it is likely that at least some of the fall will start that way.

Oak View is great. Strongly recommend. The principal is great and it's just a really well-run school in general. The 4th grade team changed this last year, but the teacher that I know in 4th is amazing, and then one of the previous 4th grade teachers moved to 5th and she's also great. My child had an amazing experience and is off to a great MS experience in part due to the support they got at OVES.

Anonymous wrote:

they got caught lowering the kid's grades in the system

That's horrible. They should fire the Principal at that school.

This didn’t happen.

they got caught lowering the kid's grades in the system

That's horrible. They should fire the Principal at that school.

Can anyone talk about the culture of Oak View? Esp for 4th grade?

And let me say that I am also very concerned/curious as to how CES will go with remote learning. Since it is likely that at least some of the fall will start that way.

I think they're talking about the incident where some kids in the same class were given easy assignments and the others had super difficult books to read and harder spelling words?