Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher who HATES the Benchmark curriculum but really enjoy Really Great Reading for phonics. My kids are making much better gains in foundational skills this year due to switching from Benchmark phonics to RGR. I hope if we do switch to something else we can continue using RGR for phonics.

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Anonymous wrote:I heard my principal say this week that they are definitely getting rid of Benchmark. Hooray!

Hooray? I just wasted the last three summers in Benchmark training. Now time to learn yet another new curriculum? Nope. MCPS is just continually failing both staff members and students.

Benchmark is awful. It never should have been selected. But given that MCPS did, and it has been awful, yes, hooray; it needs to go.

Why is Benchmark awful? Whats so bad about it? I am trying to understand aa my current 3rd grader has been doing Benchmark since K. What is Benchmark lacking?

Have you ever asked any of your child's teachers? Or the Reading Specialist at your school? They have direct experience implementing the curriculum and are a great resource. The reading specialist and teachers at our school have not had good things to say about Benchmark, for various reasons (the phonics component especially got the thumbs down from them and they are happy to be using RGR this year).

Ok but what about for older grades like 3rd and up? They don’t technically need a phonics component anymore. Whats terrible about it for higher grades?

DP. Well part of the problem is they didn't get that in K-2nd. There are a lot of struggling readers in 3rd-5th.

Also they don't read actual books. The Benchmark "books" and passages are terrible.

There is very little reading of books in middle school as well, so, don't worry!

Well that’s not great! What about the kids who went to ces or were in elc in elementary school? They don’t have any options in middle school in reading/English?

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Anonymous wrote:I heard my principal say this week that they are definitely getting rid of Benchmark. Hooray!

Hooray? I just wasted the last three summers in Benchmark training. Now time to learn yet another new curriculum? Nope. MCPS is just continually failing both staff members and students.

Benchmark is awful. It never should have been selected. But given that MCPS did, and it has been awful, yes, hooray; it needs to go.

Why is Benchmark awful? Whats so bad about it? I am trying to understand aa my current 3rd grader has been doing Benchmark since K. What is Benchmark lacking?

Have you ever asked any of your child's teachers? Or the Reading Specialist at your school? They have direct experience implementing the curriculum and are a great resource. The reading specialist and teachers at our school have not had good things to say about Benchmark, for various reasons (the phonics component especially got the thumbs down from them and they are happy to be using RGR this year).

Ok but what about for older grades like 3rd and up? They don’t technically need a phonics component anymore. Whats terrible about it for higher grades?

DP. Well part of the problem is they didn't get that in K-2nd. There are a lot of struggling readers in 3rd-5th.

Also they don't read actual books. The Benchmark "books" and passages are terrible.

There is very little reading of books in middle school as well, so, don't worry!

Anonymous wrote:I’d be surprised if they don’t just move to the Benchmark 2022 version given how much feedback/partnering they supposedly gave. And the fact that Ed reports just gave it a green rating.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/benchmark-advance-2022-receives-green-161000620.html

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Anonymous wrote:I heard my principal say this week that they are definitely getting rid of Benchmark. Hooray!

Hooray? I just wasted the last three summers in Benchmark training. Now time to learn yet another new curriculum? Nope. MCPS is just continually failing both staff members and students.

Benchmark is awful. It never should have been selected. But given that MCPS did, and it has been awful, yes, hooray; it needs to go.

Why is Benchmark awful? Whats so bad about it? I am trying to understand aa my current 3rd grader has been doing Benchmark since K. What is Benchmark lacking?

Have you ever asked any of your child's teachers? Or the Reading Specialist at your school? They have direct experience implementing the curriculum and are a great resource. The reading specialist and teachers at our school have not had good things to say about Benchmark, for various reasons (the phonics component especially got the thumbs down from them and they are happy to be using RGR this year).

Ok but what about for older grades like 3rd and up? They don’t technically need a phonics component anymore. Whats terrible about it for higher grades?

DP. Well part of the problem is they didn't get that in K-2nd. There are a lot of struggling readers in 3rd-5th.

Also they don't read actual books. The Benchmark "books" and passages are terrible.

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Anonymous wrote:Benchmark is completely boring and uninspiring. My 5th grader, who generally loves reading and writing, lost it earlier this year when he spent a month learning about corn in Benchmark.

Our ES no longer teaches the corn unit. Not since the corn rebellion of 2021.

Anonymous wrote:Benchmark is completely boring and uninspiring. My 5th grader, who generally loves reading and writing, lost it earlier this year when he spent a month learning about corn in Benchmark.

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Anonymous wrote:I heard my principal say this week that they are definitely getting rid of Benchmark. Hooray!

Hooray? I just wasted the last three summers in Benchmark training. Now time to learn yet another new curriculum? Nope. MCPS is just continually failing both staff members and students.

Benchmark is awful. It never should have been selected. But given that MCPS did, and it has been awful, yes, hooray; it needs to go.

Why is Benchmark awful? Whats so bad about it? I am trying to understand aa my current 3rd grader has been doing Benchmark since K. What is Benchmark lacking?

Have you ever asked any of your child's teachers? Or the Reading Specialist at your school? They have direct experience implementing the curriculum and are a great resource. The reading specialist and teachers at our school have not had good things to say about Benchmark, for various reasons (the phonics component especially got the thumbs down from them and they are happy to be using RGR this year).

Ok but what about for older grades like 3rd and up? They don’t technically need a phonics component anymore. Whats terrible about it for higher grades?

DP. Well part of the problem is they didn't get that in K-2nd. There are a lot of struggling readers in 3rd-5th.

Also they don't read actual books. The Benchmark "books" and passages are terrible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard my principal say this week that they are definitely getting rid of Benchmark. Hooray!

Hooray? I just wasted the last three summers in Benchmark training. Now time to learn yet another new curriculum? Nope. MCPS is just continually failing both staff members and students.

Benchmark is awful. It never should have been selected. But given that MCPS did, and it has been awful, yes, hooray; it needs to go.

Why is Benchmark awful? Whats so bad about it? I am trying to understand aa my current 3rd grader has been doing Benchmark since K. What is Benchmark lacking?

Have you ever asked any of your child's teachers? Or the Reading Specialist at your school? They have direct experience implementing the curriculum and are a great resource. The reading specialist and teachers at our school have not had good things to say about Benchmark, for various reasons (the phonics component especially got the thumbs down from them and they are happy to be using RGR this year).

Ok but what about for older grades like 3rd and up? They don’t technically need a phonics component anymore. Whats terrible about it for higher grades?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard my principal say this week that they are definitely getting rid of Benchmark. Hooray!

Hooray? I just wasted the last three summers in Benchmark training. Now time to learn yet another new curriculum? Nope. MCPS is just continually failing both staff members and students.

Benchmark is awful. It never should have been selected. But given that MCPS did, and it has been awful, yes, hooray; it needs to go.

Why is Benchmark awful? Whats so bad about it? I am trying to understand aa my current 3rd grader has been doing Benchmark since K. What is Benchmark lacking?

Have you ever asked any of your child's teachers? Or the Reading Specialist at your school? They have direct experience implementing the curriculum and are a great resource. The reading specialist and teachers at our school have not had good things to say about Benchmark, for various reasons (the phonics component especially got the thumbs down from them and they are happy to be using RGR this year).