Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I agree with the PP. There seems to be a double standard. We fully (me included) support services for kids who need extra help or are learning disabled, but NOT for kids who would benefit from some extra challenge. Why is that?

What extras are you looking for? There is the highly gifted centers, magnets for middle school, what exactly are you looking for?
Plus our teacher will give extra assignments if you ask for them. Plus, we do extras at home. Never expected not to.

gifted centers don't start until 4th and kids have to be pulled to another school and bussed very long days with parents having to be able to drive then early and pick up at their local school. Why should someone that is smart have to do that? Growing up, gifted classes were offered in every school.

So, in other words, there actually are extras -- you just don't think that there are enough extras.

No there aren't ANY extras for gifted kids within their schools. Why don't we bus the dumb kids offer to extra help schools and see how that flies?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I agree with the PP. There seems to be a double standard. We fully (me included) support services for kids who need extra help or are learning disabled, but NOT for kids who would benefit from some extra challenge. Why is that?

What extras are you looking for? There is the highly gifted centers, magnets for middle school, what exactly are you looking for?
Plus our teacher will give extra assignments if you ask for them. Plus, we do extras at home. Never expected not to.

gifted centers don't start until 4th and kids have to be pulled to another school and bussed very long days with parents having to be able to drive then early and pick up at their local school. Why should someone that is smart have to do that? Growing up, gifted classes were offered in every school.

So, in other words, there actually are extras -- you just don't think that there are enough extras.

LOL!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I agree with the PP. There seems to be a double standard. We fully (me included) support services for kids who need extra help or are learning disabled, but NOT for kids who would benefit from some extra challenge. Why is that?

What extras are you looking for? There is the highly gifted centers, magnets for middle school, what exactly are you looking for?
Plus our teacher will give extra assignments if you ask for them. Plus, we do extras at home. Never expected not to.

gifted centers don't start until 4th and kids have to be pulled to another school and bussed very long days with parents having to be able to drive then early and pick up at their local school. Why should someone that is smart have to do that? Growing up, gifted classes were offered in every school.

So, in other words, there actually are extras -- you just don't think that there are enough extras.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^2. It does NOT get better in MS except for Math. The rest are academically diverse classes. My Child has kids that call out, don't do HW, ruin it for kids who WANT to learn. Wish we applied for a Magnet.

It's Montgomery County Public Schools. It's not Montgomery County Schools For Kids Like Mine.

And I don't even mean this to be snarky. I mean it quite sincerely. There seem to be a lot of people on DCUM who believe that MCPS should be MCSFKLM.

But that is very snarky. Would you seriously approach a parent of a special needs kid and suggest that the child be taught in the highest level, fast moving class if he could barely read?! I hope not. Equally, you shouldn't mock parents whose kids are stagnating and not being taught anything b/c they've "already hit the benchmarks" for the school year (and the next two schoolyears in some cases!). Why would you want children to be warehoused in schools that aren't meeting their needs. No one is suggesting an individual plan for every kid (although, that does happen in the special Ed environment). Parents are saying "don't artificially stifle a child's education in order to fit the new MCPS ideology."

I agree with the PP. There seems to be a double standard. We fully (me included) support services for kids who need extra help or are learning disabled, but NOT for kids who would benefit from some extra challenge. Why is that?

What extras are you looking for? There is the highly gifted centers, magnets for middle school, what exactly are you looking for?
Plus our teacher will give extra assignments if you ask for them. Plus, we do extras at home. Never expected not to.

gifted centers don't start until 4th and kids have to be pulled to another school and bussed very long days with parents having to be able to drive then early and pick up at their local school. Why should someone that is smart have to do that? Growing up, gifted classes were offered in every school.

Ok where did you grow up that every school offered gifted classes? Would be great if we could do that -- you willing to pay for it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^2. It does NOT get better in MS except for Math. The rest are academically diverse classes. My Child has kids that call out, don't do HW, ruin it for kids who WANT to learn. Wish we applied for a Magnet.

It's Montgomery County Public Schools. It's not Montgomery County Schools For Kids Like Mine.

And I don't even mean this to be snarky. I mean it quite sincerely. There seem to be a lot of people on DCUM who believe that MCPS should be MCSFKLM.

But that is very snarky. Would you seriously approach a parent of a special needs kid and suggest that the child be taught in the highest level, fast moving class if he could barely read?! I hope not. Equally, you shouldn't mock parents whose kids are stagnating and not being taught anything b/c they've "already hit the benchmarks" for the school year (and the next two schoolyears in some cases!). Why would you want children to be warehoused in schools that aren't meeting their needs. No one is suggesting an individual plan for every kid (although, that does happen in the special Ed environment). Parents are saying "don't artificially stifle a child's education in order to fit the new MCPS ideology."

I agree with the PP. There seems to be a double standard. We fully (me included) support services for kids who need extra help or are learning disabled, but NOT for kids who would benefit from some extra challenge. Why is that?

What extras are you looking for? There is the highly gifted centers, magnets for middle school, what exactly are you looking for?
Plus our teacher will give extra assignments if you ask for them. Plus, we do extras at home. Never expected not to.

gifted centers don't start until 4th and kids have to be pulled to another school and bussed very long days with parents having to be able to drive then early and pick up at their local school. Why should someone that is smart have to do that? Growing up, gifted classes were offered in every school.

Anonymous wrote:

I agree that the kids who need extra help should be in classes with lower teacher:student ratios. I volunteer in my kids' classes and I definitely see how these kids would benefit with more one-on-one attention. They are not less intelligent - they are just getting left behind because the class moves too fast for them.

I volunteer too and see the same thing. The kids who are struggling are not less intelligent but many seem less motivated to work independently. Small things like one on one direction praising what they did and then asking them to write a noter sentence or include some describing words make a big difference. There are kids at the bottom just because the teacher can't give out any motivation through grades (everyone is a P) and doesn't have enough one on one time with the students. There are kids in the middle who can do much more when encouraged to do it. The system does nothing for them and just lets them skate by with the bare minimum. Its all very sad.

This is nothing new. When everyone agrees to pay more taxes to pay more teachers, than school systems will hire more teachers...
But, oh wait -- people already think teachers are overpaid!
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/355107.page

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I agree with the PP. There seems to be a double standard. We fully (me included) support services for kids who need extra help or are learning disabled, but NOT for kids who would benefit from some extra challenge. Why is that?

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/

LOL!

I agree that the kids who need extra help should be in classes with lower teacher:student ratios. I volunteer in my kids' classes and I definitely see how these kids would benefit with more one-on-one attention. They are not less intelligent - they are just getting left behind because the class moves too fast for them.

I volunteer too and see the same thing. The kids who are struggling are not less intelligent but many seem less motivated to work independently. Small things like one on one direction praising what they did and then asking them to write a noter sentence or include some describing words make a big difference. There are kids at the bottom just because the teacher can't give out any motivation through grades (everyone is a P) and doesn't have enough one on one time with the students. There are kids in the middle who can do much more when encouraged to do it. The system does nothing for them and just lets them skate by with the bare minimum. Its all very sad.

Anonymous wrote:

I agree with the PP. There seems to be a double standard. We fully (me included) support services for kids who need extra help or are learning disabled, but NOT for kids who would benefit from some extra challenge. Why is that?

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/

Anonymous wrote:

Differentiation in reading GROUPS, not classes. It isn't allowed at MCPS anymore. They used to assign classes based on reading levels. Now it is just a smorgasbord of kids with various reading groups within them. So the highest reading group gets little sit downs with their group and most of their time sitting at a desk doing busy work. If they grouped by classes they could work as a class and occasionally meet in smaller groups. I would think this would be easier for a teacher and students. But the powers that be think it is not politically correct. Yet they do it for math without issue?

You think this, based on what evidence and expertise? You assume that MCPS is doing within-class differentiation for reading groups because of "political correctness". What if MCPS is doing within-class differentiation for reading groups because the evidence shows that this approach works better?

And differentiation has been within-class reading GROUPS, not classes, for the entire time of my experience with MCPS. Before Curriculum 2.0.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^2. It does NOT get better in MS except for Math. The rest are academically diverse classes. My Child has kids that call out, don't do HW, ruin it for kids who WANT to learn. Wish we applied for a Magnet.

It's Montgomery County Public Schools. It's not Montgomery County Schools For Kids Like Mine.

And I don't even mean this to be snarky. I mean it quite sincerely. There seem to be a lot of people on DCUM who believe that MCPS should be MCSFKLM.

But that is very snarky. Would you seriously approach a parent of a special needs kid and suggest that the child be taught in the highest level, fast moving class if he could barely read?! I hope not. Equally, you shouldn't mock parents whose kids are stagnating and not being taught anything b/c they've "already hit the benchmarks" for the school year (and the next two schoolyears in some cases!). Why would you want children to be warehoused in schools that aren't meeting their needs. No one is suggesting an individual plan for every kid (although, that does happen in the special Ed environment). Parents are saying "don't artificially stifle a child's education in order to fit the new MCPS ideology."

I agree with the PP. There seems to be a double standard. We fully (me included) support services for kids who need extra help or are learning disabled, but NOT for kids who would benefit from some extra challenge. Why is that?

What extras are you looking for? There is the highly gifted centers, magnets for middle school, what exactly are you looking for?
Plus our teacher will give extra assignments if you ask for them. Plus, we do extras at home. Never expected not to.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't act like it isn't possible! Please. MCPS used to do this type of differentiation (as recently as a couple of years ago). It isn't that hard to do. The issue s that there is a new PHILOSOPHY at play in MCPS. That philosophy dictates that all kids should be together and not much acceleration or enrichment should happen. Please don't allow yourself to be fooled into believing this new 2.0 way is the only way to teach. It is a new way and it simply isn't working for many, many kids.

This. If you don't think reducing achievement gap is the major motivation for public education, you have delibrately been avoiding the facts.

As it should be -- as the goal of public education is -- wait for it -- TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC. And just because they are doing that doesn't mean all the brilliant kids or middle of the road kids are being held back. Not only that...but there is differentiation at my school...in reading and math.

Differentiation in reading GROUPS, not classes. It isn't allowed at MCPS anymore. They used to assign classes based on reading levels. Now it is just a smorgasbord of kids with various reading groups within them. So the highest reading group gets little sit downs with their group and most of their time sitting at a desk doing busy work. If they grouped by classes they could work as a class and occasionally meet in smaller groups. I would think this would be easier for a teacher and students. But the powers that be think it is not politically correct. Yet they do it for math without issue?

My daughter is in a reading group in a class - works for her -- and for me. I could not care less that she is not in an entirely separate class -- what she is getting is working. She's in the 3rd grade and is reading,writing and comprehending way beyond her grade level. I don't feel like anything is holding her back. There is only so much a school can do and they have done a lot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^2. It does NOT get better in MS except for Math. The rest are academically diverse classes. My Child has kids that call out, don't do HW, ruin it for kids who WANT to learn. Wish we applied for a Magnet.

It's Montgomery County Public Schools. It's not Montgomery County Schools For Kids Like Mine.

And I don't even mean this to be snarky. I mean it quite sincerely. There seem to be a lot of people on DCUM who believe that MCPS should be MCSFKLM.

But that is very snarky. Would you seriously approach a parent of a special needs kid and suggest that the child be taught in the highest level, fast moving class if he could barely read?! I hope not. Equally, you shouldn't mock parents whose kids are stagnating and not being taught anything b/c they've "already hit the benchmarks" for the school year (and the next two schoolyears in some cases!). Why would you want children to be warehoused in schools that aren't meeting their needs. No one is suggesting an individual plan for every kid (although, that does happen in the special Ed environment). Parents are saying "don't artificially stifle a child's education in order to fit the new MCPS ideology."

I agree with the PP. There seems to be a double standard. We fully (me included) support services for kids who need extra help or are learning disabled, but NOT for kids who would benefit from some extra challenge. Why is that?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't act like it isn't possible! Please. MCPS used to do this type of differentiation (as recently as a couple of years ago). It isn't that hard to do. The issue s that there is a new PHILOSOPHY at play in MCPS. That philosophy dictates that all kids should be together and not much acceleration or enrichment should happen. Please don't allow yourself to be fooled into believing this new 2.0 way is the only way to teach. It is a new way and it simply isn't working for many, many kids.

This. If you don't think reducing achievement gap is the major motivation for public education, you have delibrately been avoiding the facts.

As it should be -- as the goal of public education is -- wait for it -- TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC. And just because they are doing that doesn't mean all the brilliant kids or middle of the road kids are being held back. Not only that...but there is differentiation at my school...in reading and math.

Differentiation in reading GROUPS, not classes. It isn't allowed at MCPS anymore. They used to assign classes based on reading levels. Now it is just a smorgasbord of kids with various reading groups within them. So the highest reading group gets little sit downs with their group and most of their time sitting at a desk doing busy work. If they grouped by classes they could work as a class and occasionally meet in smaller groups. I would think this would be easier for a teacher and students. But the powers that be think it is not politically correct. Yet they do it for math without issue?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I agree that the kids who need extra help should be in classes with lower teacher:student ratios. I volunteer in my kids' classes and I definitely see how these kids would benefit with more one-on-one attention. They are not less intelligent - they are just getting left behind because the class moves too fast for them.

There aren't reading specialists at your kids' school, who pull out the kids who need extra help? There are several at mine. I don't know how much of this is up to the discretion of the various principals.

We have reading specialists at my kids' school but I don't think it's a very effective system. The kids who need help get pulled out of class for about 45 minutes. However, the class goes on with the same lesson. The kid comes back to the class and is now even more behind because she missed the lesson. It's crazy! And inefficient.

Instead of pulling these kids out, they should have a teacher who an simply slow down the lesson for ALL the kid's who need it presented slower. It would help the kid feel better about herself as well. If the class was going at a pace she could handle, she could actually keep up and participate. Being taken out by the 'reading specialist' or the 'math specialist' at random times isn't doing the kid a favor.