Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 16:19     Subject: Dcps new ELA curriculum
I spoke with our ELA teacher (at Jefferson) and raised that I had heard concerns about the new curriculum, and she said that there was a lot she actually liked about it, but that there was also a lot that she planned to do to have students read additional novels outside of the requirements. I left the conversation feeling much more positive about it all.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 15:46     Subject: Re:Dcps new ELA curriculum
Anonymous wrote:One of the APs at Deal insists the new curriculum will result in more reading than last year. Hard to believe that. And even if it is more reading in the aggregate, the point is that kids need to build up endurance to read long books. Excerpts and passages as the basis for ELA just feeds into the general trajectory of kids reading small snippets as they do in social media. Are DCPS kids really going to be able to come out of the school system prepared as well as NOVA or MOCO kids? Those districts have novels incorporated into their ELA curriculum. As usual, this seems like a way for DCPS to achieve equity by dumbing down the standards.

Please write to your school's leadership, your SBOE, DCPS Central on this.


More reading of WHAT? Of excerpts on a computer? That is not acceptable at all.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 13:21     Subject: Re:Dcps new ELA curriculum
Just get out of DCPS. Go charters or move. That is the answer and solution.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 13:02     Subject: Re:Dcps new ELA curriculum
One of the APs at Deal insists the new curriculum will result in more reading than last year. Hard to believe that. And even if it is more reading in the aggregate, the point is that kids need to build up endurance to read long books. Excerpts and passages as the basis for ELA just feeds into the general trajectory of kids reading small snippets as they do in social media. Are DCPS kids really going to be able to come out of the school system prepared as well as NOVA or MOCO kids? Those districts have novels incorporated into their ELA curriculum. As usual, this seems like a way for DCPS to achieve equity by dumbing down the standards.

Please write to your school's leadership, your SBOE, DCPS Central on this.
Anonymous
Post 08/31/2025 20:02     Subject: Dcps new ELA curriculum
Here s the SBOE link if you want to learn what they do. None of these bios are that impressive in terms of school related experience, or having kids in in DCPS.
They mainly "advise" OSSE. There is a reason there was a mayoral takeover under Fenty, SBOE has been notoriously inept.
https://sboe.dc.gov/

I looked on the DCPS site for the middle school curriculum for ELA, they still list multiple books for each grade. Where is the info coming from regarding the pilot?
Anonymous
Post 08/31/2025 19:52     Subject: Dcps new ELA curriculum
Which school are part of the pilot this year?
Anonymous
Post 08/31/2025 10:11     Subject: Dcps new ELA curriculum
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So sounds like we have established that 3 MS 7th grade classes read 4 books last year. Anyone here from SH, Wells or Francis Stevens who can report?


Wells is not part of this “pilot.” Verified with a teacher. I don’t remember the exact titles but they read 3-4 books/year and they will continue this year.


I wouldn’t be surprised if the pilot gets permanently instituted at all schools next year and even moved to high school.


NP. Not at charters. They can’t tell charters what curriculum to have, etc… and glad it’s so


Yeah, I think this is going to pull more kids out of DCPS and into charters/private. Parents with options who do their research are not going to settle for one book per year.
Anonymous
Post 08/31/2025 09:57     Subject: Dcps new ELA curriculum
Hmm.. just looked at Hardy’s lists from the AP’s… I can see 6th just has one book: “a long walk to water” and 8th has “to kill a mockingbird”, “a raisin in the sun” and then they pick another book from a provided list and have something like a book club with kids who pick the same book from the list. So looks like 8th grade at Hardy will be doing at least 3 (plus a book of their choice for the start of the year to write a book report on). Looks like 6th is only one book.
Anonymous
Post 08/31/2025 09:40     Subject: Dcps new ELA curriculum
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So sounds like we have established that 3 MS 7th grade classes read 4 books last year. Anyone here from SH, Wells or Francis Stevens who can report?


Wells is not part of this “pilot.” Verified with a teacher. I don’t remember the exact titles but they read 3-4 books/year and they will continue this year.


I wouldn’t be surprised if the pilot gets permanently instituted at all schools next year and even moved to high school.


NP. Not at charters. They can’t tell charters what curriculum to have, etc… and glad it’s so
Anonymous
Post 08/31/2025 09:31     Subject: Dcps new ELA curriculum
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So sounds like we have established that 3 MS 7th grade classes read 4 books last year. Anyone here from SH, Wells or Francis Stevens who can report?



It doesn’t matter what happened last year. The point is that there is a huge downgrade this year and kids will be reading less.


The idea is to establish that this is a downgrade for most schools
Anonymous
Post 08/31/2025 09:26     Subject: Re:Dcps new ELA curriculum
Just finished up at SHMS last year. 4 books last year.
Anonymous
Post 08/31/2025 09:01     Subject: Dcps new ELA curriculum
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So sounds like we have established that 3 MS 7th grade classes read 4 books last year. Anyone here from SH, Wells or Francis Stevens who can report?


Wells is not part of this “pilot.” Verified with a teacher. I don’t remember the exact titles but they read 3-4 books/year and they will continue this year.


I wouldn’t be surprised if the pilot gets permanently instituted at all schools next year and even moved to high school.
Anonymous
Post 08/31/2025 00:34     Subject: Dcps new ELA curriculum
Anonymous wrote:So sounds like we have established that 3 MS 7th grade classes read 4 books last year. Anyone here from SH, Wells or Francis Stevens who can report?


Wells is not part of this “pilot.” Verified with a teacher. I don’t remember the exact titles but they read 3-4 books/year and they will continue this year.
Anonymous
Post 08/30/2025 23:25     Subject: Dcps new ELA curriculum
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This is an abomination! I know this may be difficult for some, but parents need to take a more active role in their child’s education because we cannot rely on the schools anymore. For example, we had our son read Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, etc. …All the books were read when we were in school!


This is of course true, but reading in school includes character and plot analysis, annotating, being tested on details... Etc. there is only so much we can do at home without full-on homeschooling.

What exactly can parents do here? Talk to our SBOE... What else?



Does the SBOE have any power to do anything. I am involved with my kids school and her education but have no idea who is on the SBOE. It seems like all decisions come out of ce teal office and chancellor.
Anonymous
Post 08/27/2025 18:12     Subject: Dcps new ELA curriculum
Anonymous wrote:So sounds like we have established that 3 MS 7th grade classes read 4 books last year. Anyone here from SH, Wells or Francis Stevens who can report?



It doesn’t matter what happened last year. The point is that there is a huge downgrade this year and kids will be reading less.