Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve had three kids go through NB and the transition to HS is very rough. They each took 1-2 AP classes freshman year, which had significant homework. Plus Algebra 2 is a really hard class. Plus it’s the first time they take a real science class with labs and things to memorize — stuff that isn’t just intuitive BS. And if they are in 3rd or 4th year of a language, those are when it starts to get really hard (after the first 2 years being basically a cake walk). So that’s 4-5 classes with significant work right there. My youngest keeps complaining about how all her 8tj grade classes are too easy and I’m like “oh, just you wait, grasshopper.” I think one of the hardest adjustments is not just the homework level, but learning how to actually study. I don’t think my kids ever actually studied for a test in MS.

+1 agree. I'm a PP who stated that MS does a piss poor job of preparing kids for rigors of AP classes in HS.

Or maybe kids who are not prepared should not attempt 1-2 AP classes Freshman year.

Anonymous wrote:I’ve had three kids go through NB and the transition to HS is very rough. They each took 1-2 AP classes freshman year, which had significant homework. Plus Algebra 2 is a really hard class. Plus it’s the first time they take a real science class with labs and things to memorize — stuff that isn’t just intuitive BS. And if they are in 3rd or 4th year of a language, those are when it starts to get really hard (after the first 2 years being basically a cake walk). So that’s 4-5 classes with significant work right there. My youngest keeps complaining about how all her 8tj grade classes are too easy and I’m like “oh, just you wait, grasshopper.” I think one of the hardest adjustments is not just the homework level, but learning how to actually study. I don’t think my kids ever actually studied for a test in MS.

+1 agree. I'm a PP who stated that MS does a piss poor job of preparing kids for rigors of AP classes in HS.

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at Silver Creek and regularly has homework for math, French, and English. No homework in math and social studies.

?

Anonymous wrote:Parents should demand mcps track what happens tp it's graduates. The public would be shocked at how many mcps grads flunk college

It does. For five years.

I have 2 kids in 9th and 7th. At their middle school, there were 3 classes they reliably got hw in (global humanities, math, language) most days. However it rarely took them more than 15-20 mins per subject.

High school is at a magnet program for our oldest and she typically has 2-3 hrs/day hw. Without question, her hardest classes (for her) are the humanities ones, because she just wasn't adequately prepared in MS for this magnitude of reading or this level of writing. Math/sci/comp sci are all fine even if advanced/AP.

The middle school English curriculum is just awful. And Global Humanities just doesn't bridge the gap enough..

Anonymous wrote:I don't give homework because the students don't do it. Then they get zeros on things and it lowers their grade. Then, I have to make sure that I contact home. Why waste time on something that students won't do.

I’m not sure what you reach. I guess if I had my pick, for 7th and 8th graders I would like regular math homework, maybe weekly science homework that is due on a standardized day but can be turned in either in paper or online (so kids don’t neeed to worry about losing the paper) and for humanities, large projects due maybe twice a quarter. I think the High program has something like that. That would probably be my ideal.
I also would really like it to be the norm that English teachers assign at least two essays per quarter, and then they can have a movie week or independent work or something to allow the teachers time to grade the essays and provide substantive feedback. Eg read a Shakespeare play, have class discussions, have an essay assigned, then the kids can watch the collected works of Kenneth Branagh foot a week while the teacher provides comments on the essays.

I don't give homework because the students don't do it. Then they get zeros on things and it lowers their grade. Then, I have to make sure that I contact home. Why waste time on something that students won't do.

I’ve had three kids go through NB and the transition to HS is very rough. They each took 1-2 AP classes freshman year, which had significant homework. Plus Algebra 2 is a really hard class. Plus it’s the first time they take a real science class with labs and things to memorize — stuff that isn’t just intuitive BS. And if they are in 3rd or 4th year of a language, those are when it starts to get really hard (after the first 2 years being basically a cake walk). So that’s 4-5 classes with significant work right there. My youngest keeps complaining about how all her 8tj grade classes are too easy and I’m like “oh, just you wait, grasshopper.” I think one of the hardest adjustments is not just the homework level, but learning how to actually study. I don’t think my kids ever actually studied for a test in MS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents should demand mcps track what happens tp it's graduates. The public would be shocked at how many mcps grads flunk college

This. My neighbor’s kid was placed into remedial math and English classes after being in honors math and English in HS. He got mostly As in those classes too. Public schools are committing educational fraud.

Even at Havad:
www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/9/3/new-math-intro-course/

A lot of the prestige schools have those classes because they are trying to admit kids from underprivileged backgrounds and don’t want them to fail out. They might admit the top kid who is first gen college from a Baltimore City urban HS and that kid never had the opportunity to take a decent math or science class and didn’t even realize what they were missing.

My MCPS grad is at a school that is as hard or harder than Harvard. She is doing great and started with mostly sophomore level classes in her freshman year.