I actually don't mind the curriculum. At first it was way too easy, but as my child has progressed through compacted math (current 5th grader), it is definitely not easy and I am actually surprised at how challenging it is. It is definitely pushing my daughter- in a good way.

My biggest issue is the absolutely ridiculous report card that doesn't show a thing. I have no idea what my child can and cannot do. Horrible!

I'd just like to point out that prior to 2.0 Mcps also had commitment to smaller class sizes in k-2. This is compelely seperate from the implementation of 2.0, which isn't perfect, but really no curriculum is perfect for every child. It is based in solid research and theory so, while parents may not understand it, most educators do.
If you really want to restore mcps to its former glory, start pushing for smaller class size. You've been distracted from that issue by 2.0. Well played Board of Ed!

Time is also on MCPS curriculum for the 4th quarter of 1st grade. http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/curriculum/elementary/parent-guide-curriculum2.0-grade1-en.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Telling time in one hour and half hour increments is a Common Core standard for first grade, CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.B.3 "Tell and write time in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks." Your child should have been taught this in 1st grade.

They aren't

Yow! MCPS out-common-cores Common Core!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't wanna get in to details, but I have a 6th grader in magnet and a 4th grader in compacted math. Couldn't be happier.
I occasionally looks at what they are learning and am very satisfied (I also come from a European country where public education is standardized and very very good).
As some PPs said, MCPS cannot please everyone.

You got in under the wire.

I have a seventh-grader in a home school and a fourth-grader in compacted math, and I think that my fourth-grader is getting a better elementary-school math education than my seventh-grader got. And my seventh-grader got a better elementary-school math education than I got, in elementary schools in the US. Well, mostly -- my seventh-grader had gaps from getting accelerated via skipping whole years of math.

Anonymous wrote:

OMG! I see this too. I don't know that parents realize what their kids are doing. Parents, you all need to spend some time volunteering in your kids' classrooms. Offer to make some copies so you can see all the ridiculous busywork that they do at school. It is very rarely graded. Kids put it in a bin and unless it is labeled with a P/I/N, chances are, it is not going to be even looked at.

I started off with the idea that I should NOT be checking DD's homework. I figured I should let the teacher check it. Then, in 1st grade, we rarely got homework back, or if we did, it was much later than when the work was actually being done (so they had already moved on to something else). Not much feedback - just a check if it was done adequately. And, I also realized that our teacher doesn't actually even LOOK AT the homework. She has an aide that does this. Fair enough, when there are 27 kids in the class, I guess.

So, now I go over my kid's homework in detail. I figure if they're going to assign it, and I want it to be useful, I need to review it myself.

Great for my kid, but how great is it for parents who don't have time to do this? Pretty crappy. I see these kids homework packets, and they just get sent home with a check on the front, and minimal corrections. What's the point of the homework packets if the teacher doesn't even get to see them, and if the kids don't have them returned?

If there had been a DCUM when you were in elementary school, and if your mother had volunteered in class when you were in elementary school, and if your mother had been of the opinion that parents know just as much about teaching as teachers, then your mother would have posted similar complaints on DCUM. "OMG OMG OMG! My child is not learning! These people are completely incompetent!"

Anonymous wrote:

+1,000,000. It is so rushed and crazy but I was told if they tracked classes, the poor students and non-english students would all mainly be in one class and that isn't a positive thing for them? Huh? So instead we are politically correct and match class sizes by gender, race, culture and sprinkle ESOL all around. And then you have 10 minutes of reading a day and 10 minutes of math a day - IF your group gets picked. My daughter is in the highest reading group and gets called only 2-3 times a week. So she gets 30 minutes of direct teacher time A WEEK for reading.

Maybe think about why it would be a bad thing to put, in first grade, all of the students who are behind, and all of the students who don't speak English, in one class. And "political correctness" has nothing to do with it, unless you include under "political correctness" the idea that all children should get a decent education, even the ones who are behind and the ones who don't speak English.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If there is no math tracking,,then what are the groups that are meeting each day? random?

Not the OP, but I have a kid in 2nd grade in MCPS.

Our school has NO math tracking. Not sure if this is school specific, or just MCPS policy because DD is our first kid going through.
No math groups that meet daily. My DD is a pretty good reporter, so I'm pretty confident that she's not just making it up. All kids get the same worksheets.

What ESs in MoCo have math tracking for 1st and 2nd graders? We have two younger kids, and are currently renting, so are open to moving into a different cluster!

OP noted her child was in a math group that met with the teacher for 10 minutes every day so they must be grouped somehow though she says there is no tracking.

10 minutes a day is nothing compared to going with another class for 1.5 hours every day. Please tell me you understand that? Have you been in a current 1st grade math class. CHAOTIC at best. Rotating every 10 minutes. 5 kids meet with a teacher real quick and the other 20+ kids are all over the classroom doing a "center." Computers, bouncing a call and counting, goofing off, going to the bathroom, sleeping at a desk (I have seen it all as a volunteer.) And no, my job is not to help the class. I get a few kids struggling and bring them out to the hallway to help with basic concepts or I stay in the class and do filing, cutting etc...

This is exactly the same description of would give of a pre 2.0 math (and reading class). So it sounds like there are groups but the complaint is that they don't get enough teacher time?

I'm not the PP, and we're new to MCPS, so I have no idea what things were like pre-2.0. It doesn't really matter much to me how things were done in the past, but I am hugely disappointed by how things are being done now in the early elementary grades. We can't afford private, so we're spending a good amount of time homeschooling.

The 10 minutes a day set up for reading and math is just LUDICROUS. I have volunteered extensively in both kids' classrooms, and my older DD is currently in 3rd. It is just a chaotic mess. We've had 'good' teachers and 'not so good' teachers, and it doesn't matter. I don't blame the teachers AT ALL. It's just ridiculous to think that you can teach at 5 different levels in one classroom, with 27 kids in the class.

+1,000,000. It is so rushed and crazy but I was told if they tracked classes, the poor students and non-english students would all mainly be in one class and that isn't a positive thing for them? Huh? So instead we are politically correct and match class sizes by gender, race, culture and sprinkle ESOL all around. And then you have 10 minutes of reading a day and 10 minutes of math a day - IF your group gets picked. My daughter is in the highest reading group and gets called only 2-3 times a week. So she gets 30 minutes of direct teacher time A WEEK for reading.

Anonymous wrote:Telling time in one hour and half hour increments is a Common Core standard for first grade, CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.B.3 "Tell and write time in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks." Your child should have been taught this in 1st grade.

They aren't

Telling time in one hour and half hour increments is a Common Core standard for first grade, CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.B.3 "Tell and write time in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks." Your child should have been taught this in 1st grade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't wanna get in to details, but I have a 6th grader in magnet and a 4th grader in compacted math. Couldn't be happier.
I occasionally looks at what they are learning and am very satisfied (I also come from a European country where public education is standardized and very very good).
As some PPs said, MCPS cannot please everyone.

You got in under the wire.

NP. What does that mean?

Also, NP, but am a parent of a sixth grader who stayed ahead of the 2.0 rollout until it hit compacted math in 5th grade last year. The discussion is moot for magnet math.
Don't see how a current 4th graders got in under the wire though, they're 2.0 native.

I am the original 6th grader in magnet and 4th grade in CM poster. Yes, the the 4th grader did not get in "under the wire." My 6th grader did. But BOTH of my kids have the same CM since the 4th grade and I am thrilled how math is taught. I love how they are taught to understand the concept before knowing the mechanics. E.g. how to multiply and divide fractions, instead of just learning that they multiply to top numbers and multiply the bottom numbers and do the same for division after flipping the second fraction. They do pie charts and area models to "see" how and why it works that way. And I couldn't care less when my 4th grader actually learned how to tell time from an analog clock but he surely knows it. He just spent an afternoon performing some tests on 12 rocks (including submerging them in vinegar to test for the presence of calcium) and reporting the results in a worksheet. I truly am a happy MCPS parent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If there is no math tracking,,then what are the groups that are meeting each day? random?

Not the OP, but I have a kid in 2nd grade in MCPS.

Our school has NO math tracking. Not sure if this is school specific, or just MCPS policy because DD is our first kid going through.
No math groups that meet daily. My DD is a pretty good reporter, so I'm pretty confident that she's not just making it up. All kids get the same worksheets.

What ESs in MoCo have math tracking for 1st and 2nd graders? We have two younger kids, and are currently renting, so are open to moving into a different cluster!

OP noted her child was in a math group that met with the teacher for 10 minutes every day so they must be grouped somehow though she says there is no tracking.

10 minutes a day is nothing compared to going with another class for 1.5 hours every day. Please tell me you understand that? Have you been in a current 1st grade math class. CHAOTIC at best. Rotating every 10 minutes. 5 kids meet with a teacher real quick and the other 20+ kids are all over the classroom doing a "center." Computers, bouncing a call and counting, goofing off, going to the bathroom, sleeping at a desk (I have seen it all as a volunteer.) And no, my job is not to help the class. I get a few kids struggling and bring them out to the hallway to help with basic concepts or I stay in the class and do filing, cutting etc...

This is exactly the same description of would give of a pre 2.0 math (and reading class). So it sounds like there are groups but the complaint is that they don't get enough teacher time?

I'm not the PP, and we're new to MCPS, so I have no idea what things were like pre-2.0. It doesn't really matter much to me how things were done in the past, but I am hugely disappointed by how things are being done now in the early elementary grades. We can't afford private, so we're spending a good amount of time homeschooling.

The 10 minutes a day set up for reading and math is just LUDICROUS. I have volunteered extensively in both kids' classrooms, and my older DD is currently in 3rd. It is just a chaotic mess. We've had 'good' teachers and 'not so good' teachers, and it doesn't matter. I don't blame the teachers AT ALL. It's just ridiculous to think that you can teach at 5 different levels in one classroom, with 27 kids in the class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't wanna get in to details, but I have a 6th grader in magnet and a 4th grader in compacted math. Couldn't be happier.
I occasionally looks at what they are learning and am very satisfied (I also come from a European country where public education is standardized and very very good).
As some PPs said, MCPS cannot please everyone.

You got in under the wire.

NP. What does that mean?

Also, NP, but am a parent of a sixth grader who stayed ahead of the 2.0 rollout until it hit compacted math in 5th grade last year. The discussion is moot for magnet math.
Don't see how a current 4th graders got in under the wire though, they're 2.0 native.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is exactly what it looks like! It's ridiculous, the ones that don't know what they are doing, and really need help, just bounce around.

No child left behind, because if you go this slow there is no "behind". <---This is exactly right.

To the person who stated the OP needed a private school, how about you get bent.

$2.39 billion Operating budget for a school system that can't provide books or a curriculum, but we who are unhappy should just send our kids to private. How about we hold the school responsible for accomplishing their mission.

I don't understand what you mean by "no curriculum". Here OP is, complaining about the curriculum. Is OP complaining about something that doesn't exist?

There is no curriculum it's a mish mosh of worksheets. Ask your child's teacher to show you the binders or ask how much time they spend at the copier EVERY DAY. My child has literally seent he teacher dump them straight from turn in into recycling. Its not graded and completely demotivating.

OMG! I see this too. I don't know that parents realize what their kids are doing. Parents, you all need to spend some time volunteering in your kids' classrooms. Offer to make some copies so you can see all the ridiculous busywork that they do at school. It is very rarely graded. Kids put it in a bin and unless it is labeled with a P/I/N, chances are, it is not going to be even looked at.

I started off with the idea that I should NOT be checking DD's homework. I figured I should let the teacher check it. Then, in 1st grade, we rarely got homework back, or if we did, it was much later than when the work was actually being done (so they had already moved on to something else). Not much feedback - just a check if it was done adequately. And, I also realized that our teacher doesn't actually even LOOK AT the homework. She has an aide that does this. Fair enough, when there are 27 kids in the class, I guess.

So, now I go over my kid's homework in detail. I figure if they're going to assign it, and I want it to be useful, I need to review it myself.

Great for my kid, but how great is it for parents who don't have time to do this? Pretty crappy. I see these kids homework packets, and they just get sent home with a check on the front, and minimal corrections. What's the point of the homework packets if the teacher doesn't even get to see them, and if the kids don't have them returned?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, sounds like you should go private.

Bad news on that front... my child at highly regarded private is learning to tell time and count money now in 2nd grade. He also learned to tell time in preschool, but had 100% forgotten it by now... so maybe, just maybe, 2nd grade is the more developmentally appropriate time for this.

But if he learned it at preschool and then not again at K or 1st, isn't that the fault of the school? Do you think he wouldn't grasp it in K or 1st but he did grasp it in preschool? That doesn't make sense.

Not a lover of MCPS, but at some point don't you put a clock in the kids room or ask him what time it is at home?

That's exactly what we've been doing. My 2nd grader has gotten pretty good at telling time because we bought an analog clock and make her tell us the time for various things. However, I was volunteering in the winter, and there were only 3 (out of 23 kids) who could confidently read an analog clock. So, it's either not being taught in MCPS, or the kids just aren't getting it.

PP is right, that parents can do this stuff at home (and we do), but what about the kids whose parents are choose not to be as involved, or don't have the time to be as involved? If parents are expected to fill in the gaps of the curriculum, then the kids from families with fewer resources are simply not going to do as well.

In a county this large, with such a huge budget, we should expect better for ALL kids.