Hundreds of freshly minted Harford County Public School graduates head off to Harford Community College each fall only to discover that they’re not necessarily ready for college level work.
Collectively, these students pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to take taxpayer-subsidized, transitional courses and re-learn what they ought to have learned in high school. Until now, the public had little idea how many HCPS graduates were affected, but a new study reveals just how pervasive the problem may be and recommends enhanced data collection to help identify underlying causes and potential solutions.
Under the no-nonsense title of Harford County Public School Graduates Requiring Transitional Classes at Harford Community College, the study was conducted by volunteer analysts from Aberdeen Proving Ground with the support of Harford County Councilman Richard Slutzky and Harford Community College President James LaCalle. The effort resulted in some stunning revelations:
Nearly 87% the HCPS graduates who took the community college placement test were in need of at least one transitional course, according to 2005 data provided by the college.
Here is the study:
HCC does not routinely capture data on the percent of all HCPS graduates who need transitional courses. The data that was provided from 2005 was available because it had been previously requested by HCPS.
Like most Maryland community colleges, Harford Community College requires new students to take the College Board’s ACCUPLACER test in reading, writing and math to determine their level of readiness for college coursework. Students who are found in need of transitional courses must complete these courses before enrolling in the corresponding subject for college credit. The ACCUPLACER test is waived under some circumstances, for example if a student has taken the SAT and scored a 550 or higher on both the math and verbal sections.
Information provided by Harford Community College from the fall of 2005 shows a total of 606 Harford County public school graduates entering the college were required to take the ACCUPLACER test and 524 students, or 86.5%, needed at least one transitional course. Of the 524, two-thirds needed to take more than one.
Tuition for transitional courses at Harford Community College collectively cost HCPS graduates between $307,000 and $498,000 in 2005.
Individually, the students paid $231 for each required course. These figures do not include the cost to taxpayers, who fund both Harford Community College and Harford County Public Schools.
About one-third of recent HCPS graduates attended Harford Community College in 2008. Students were drawn from all 9 HCPS high schools, ranging from a low of 26% from Aberdeen to a high of 40% of graduates from C. Milton Wright.
In a cover letter thanking HCC President LaCalle for his cooperation, Councilman Slutzky rightly said that the data available for the study was too slim to allow for a full understanding of all the dynamics involved. Slutzky also agreed with the APG analysts’ conclusion that more data should be collected in order to understand how HCPS graduates can be better prepared to attend the college.
But Slutzky also called the 87% remediation rate “alarming” for the sub-group of students who were required to take the placement test and he suggested a meeting with representatives from the college and from Harford County Public Schools to discuss next steps.
Copies of the report were also sent to local officials, including Harford County Board of Education President Patrick Hess and Interim Superintendent Patricia Skebeck .
Harford County isn’t alone in producing high school graduates who are unprepared for college. Funded in part by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a recent national study called Diploma to Nowhere found that 43% of students at public, 2-year colleges have enrolled in a remedial course.
Locally, Maryland community colleges keep track of students who need transitional courses in a report to the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) called the Student Outcome and Achievement Report (SOAR). But the SOAR doesn’t track Maryland high school graduates who attend college out-of-state and it only looks at students who have taken the SAT, because MHEC uses background data from the test-takers to inform their study.
Still, it’s worth looking at results from the 2009 SOAR. The data used for the report were based on Maryland high school students who graduated in 2006.
The SOAR distinguishes between students who have taken a college-prep program in high school (called “core”) and those who have not (“non-core”).
Kind of makes you wonder about those # 1 rankings Maryland has been racking up. Not to mention the nearly perfect pass rates on the Maryland High School Assessment (HSA). MHEC acknowledges there is a disconnect:
“In light of these accomplishments, however, an examination of student performance data at the intersection of the P-12 and postsecondary systems suggests that more needs to be done to ensure that a greater number of the state’s high school students graduate with the skills necessary to be considered “college-ready.”
In other words, something’s outta whack..
Here in Harford County, the analysts from APG noted the burdens of time and money placed on all stakeholders by the need for transitional classes. While acknowledging that it would require resources, the analysts made the case for the type of data collection that would allow for a better understanding of the causes and the solutions to the problem.
Hitting the nail on the head, the report concludes: “The presentation of these data could be an integral part to determine any actions required by HCPS to improve education to all students.”
WOW. Having several children in the HCPS, I can’t say this is suprising, but to see the evidence right there in black and white is horrifying. Sadly, I am not holding my breath for any real solutions, and unfortunately for the students graduating in the next few years, any solution will be too late.
It makes one wonder what exactly our children are learning in school when basic skills like reading, writing and math are so clearly lacking.
I’am inclined to believe. education is advanceing so rapidly’ the teachers can not keep up with the advancement’s. spending less time on the three R’s reading writeing & arithmetic. & cramming every thing else. NOPE not blameing the teachers not enough time in a day week ? month ? I got it a year.
Not to slam anyone, but why is it home scool kids can get perfect SAT scores whith out all the new technonolgy or latest trends inthe educational field. Why is it only the school’s fault. Why dont we know what are cildren are learning, just an example,
“It makes one wonder what exactly our children are learning in school when basic skills like reading, writing and math are so clearly lacking.”
Is the gap of education from the highschool grad to freshman because parents of today’s society leave it all on the system to produce the end resualt and remove them selves from the responcibility of their own cildren’s out come?
I personally know a family of 15 that home school and the first two kids to reach college age scored 1600 on SAT and both did their four year degree in only three. One has a law degree and oneis a VET. Mabey its genetcs, well the parents are dairy farmers so… Mabey the general decline in family structure is the direct cause to the decline in child developement?
and yes by the way i typed that i am cleary a product of the system.
A big thanks to the volunteers who spent their own time to pull this valuable information together.
Collecting data on the class of 2009 would be interesting since they are the first class that is required to pass HSA’s to graduate. Does passing HSA mean you’re ready of college??
Makes you wonder how many other students who don’t go to HCC end up taking remedial classes.
PMS Mom your last question is more valid.
The trend nationally is that we would like to believe all children will go to college or need to go to college. The HCC study while interesting neglects to account for the fact that a large portion of students have been “Cherry Picked” off the top. The brightest who really are not in need of assistance have gone to four year institutions. Community Colleges are used for two groups of kids. Further more the sample group was dilluted to remove those who have SAT scores of a certian level, 550, which is not very high. That means of the group of students who where low 87% of them need remediation. I kind of thought that was part of the point of a community college to help students who wish to go to a 4 year college go who are not ready to do so.
Fact is not all kids should go to college and they still can be very good and productive citizens in our society.
But no HSA does not mean you are ready for college. Passing the HSA means you have recieved a basic tenth grade education. The courses tested are tenth grade courses. Algebra, Govt, English 10 and Biology. Thes are basic classes.
Lyle,
Perhaps I should have re-phrased my statement to this “It makes you wonder why our children are learning what they ARE learning, and not having more focus placed on essential basic skills such as reading, writing and math”. I certainly do know what my children are being taught – I actually am very on top of them (to their dismay!) and particularly at the high school level am amazed at some of the subjects that count for credit. However, I don’t want to get into a long debate over specific classes here. The bottom line is that in my opinion, the quality of education kids today are receiving has degraded significantly over the past few decades. I don’t claim to have any answers but it is wonderful that the writer of this article took the time to uncover this issue and hopefully it can be one step in getting it fixed.
Trust me, I wish I was in the position to home school my children, but for many families, two incomes are a necessity and home schooling just isn’t an option.
So CDEV a question for you: if your student couldn’t afford to go to a 4 year college (which many students can’t right now), wasn’t sure what they wanted to do (which many of them don’t), and took Algebra 2 and beyond (and got B’s or higher) are you saying the expectation is that they aren’t ready for college? You say 2 groups of students – what are you talking about? Apparently the Accuplacer test (which is affiliated with the College Board and what most of the Community Colleges use in the State of Maryland) isn’t ALIGNED with the curriculum of HCPS which uses the University of Chicago math series. I am not a math teacher or guidance counselor but I have been told that by many of those professionals.
Is HCPS the only county that has kids take Geometry before the 2nd part of Algebra? Most other parents I talk to (and myself) took Geometry after Algebra 2. You must not have a college student at HCC who got A’s and B’s in high school and then found themselves unprepared for the community college. If those kids were on a college track isn’t a reasonable expectation that they would know the material? It is a lot of time and money if the kids aren’t being prepared in high school. Also, National Association of Educational Progress just issued a report that 17 year olds aren’t doing any better or any smarter than they were 30-35 years ago. So much for reform…
I would like to know what the high school GPA was for the students that were required to take remedial courses. Then I would like a survey done on the home life of those students versus those of the higher GPA students.
I was a product of PG county schools and took Algebra 2 after Geometry but we had Alg 2/Trig for the real advanced students. I took pre Algebra instead of 2 years of Algebra.
I am not disparaging students who go to CC for economic reasons or to “find” themselves at a much cheaper rate. But those students that would of been qualified for 4 year schools where not included in this because they got eliminated from taking the test based on SAT scores in all probability which fit your so prototypical student. The only kids they sampled where those who took the test and they where preselected for low scores thus indicating that they only achieved what was expected. That is why there was a high percentage. A better indicator would have been if you gave this test to ALL or a Random sample of students who graduate from HCPS and say they got into college somewhere then you could make a better generalization about all HCPS grads. This skimed off many students from the top and took those students who are going to HCC and got low or had no SAT scores. If a kid was serious about going to college then they took the SAT as a Junior or Senior. Thus this studies methodology was geared to achieving an outcome; and based on one of the individuals involved who may have an alterior motive I question if the stated outcome was predetermined since his other studies have had predetermined outcomes.
A real study should NEVER have a predetermined outcome and anyone who does this knows Random sampling techniques are desired and they are generalizing the results to a larger population. I think they took existing data that did not fit to make a point.
I am not saying there are not problems. There are. Parents who demand grades, extra credit lots more time to complete work. Teachers who agree to lowered expectations just as above and kids who play the two parties off of each other to achieve a grade they in fact did not merit.
With the HSA’s here is an example of lowering standards.
1)We used to have the functional tests and they had low standards we replaced them with a series of 5 tests with the expectation that kids would have to pass all 5 of them. This standard would have put us Higher then New York because there was not going to be a substitute diploma. It had somethings other tests did not actual written responses, multiple choice and grid in answers for math. It took the out school systems had for pushy parents away because they could say it is a state requirement.
THEN….
2) We lowered the bar by removing the Geometry test because it was “too hard”!
THEN……
3) Kids can not pass all of them so we made the pass three with an agregate score option.
THEN…..
4) Kids are not good test takers so we will have a Project for them which the state does not right the individual school districts do allowing them to be responsible for how easy it would be to satisfy the requirement.
THEN….
5) We remove the novel idea of student written answers because they are to hard!
THEN….
6) Maybe some kids have a good reason so we will exempt them from the requirement if the local BOE does.
This returns us to where we were a few years ago. So really we do not have high standards and are number 1. We need to maintain high basic standards for all students. We need to offer classes in a wide range of abilities for students who may or may not be college bound. While some criticize career pathways I think they are great. If a kid completes one and hates it they found out for free something they know they do not want to do when they get older. Offering a wide range of classes is hard when we have small schools due to staff issues.
More magnet programs and expanding options and selecting students for a program who fit. One wekness of Harford Tech is we have kids going there to be in a program who want to be a lawyer. That is not something that should happen. We are expanding magnet programs an IB program at Edgewood which was severly underapplied for I hear. IB is a very demanding program which can put a kid done HS with a year of college work under their belt in basic general requirements. We have people saying we are not challenging there kids and some people not applying for a program whose job is to challenge their kids. The S & T program at Aberdeen is good and should be expanded but still be selective. We have a homeland Security program at Joppatowne which is not a magnet but since Joppatowne is underenrolled a bounfry exception would be easy to aquire. Or we should make it a magnet. Thus an avenue for students who are into those type of jobs. Adding programs like these will stop HVT from being used as an “escape to a better school” by some who are using it that way and taking spots away from kids who are really interested and will use those skills.
By doing this we can keep from making mega schools which can offer options but get impersonal with so many studnets. This will keep with what we like. Maybe a AG program opened to everyone at NH or a program at Fallston in Advanced Social Sciences at Fallston. Students would have to apply and be accepted thus keeping it from being a free for all move to aanother school and leave a basic program in place of nieghborhood schools at each school for kids who are not ready to make a decision and just want the basic education. We might spend more on buses but it will keep over crowding from being an issue.
I’m not sure if taking Geometry before or after Algebra I really makes that much difference. For the kids that are taking remedial Algebra at HCC, the reality is they never learned it in the first place. How can a student who takes 4 years of high school math not be able to do basic Algebra? In the lowest math placement in HCPS, the students still get to Trig. Which means they had 2 years of Algebra. I think part of the problem is the University of Chicago math (my opinion) and by extension Everyday Math. Minnesota recently posted big gains on the international math test after they dumped U. Chicago math. My guess is that the kids taking the HCC placement test had the same issue my kids did taking High School Placement test. They couldn’t do math without a calculator!
I don’t think all kids should go to college, but all kids should be able to do basic math without a calculator. The HCC test was not for placement in calculus, usually the first college level math course. It was a test to see if they knew basic high school math. Yet somehow the schools thought they were ready to graduate.
These results are only for graduates who go to HCC AND have lower than 1100 SAT scores. What percentage is that of the total HCPS graduating class? It looks like about 33% of HCPS graduates go to HCC directly (with the rest going to 4 year schools, trade schools, out of county, taking a year or more off, or no further schooling).
606 took the test, so how many placed out of it? Are those numbers additional graduates to the 13.5% of test takers who passed, or would they also have failed a section? And of course, how many attending 4 year schools require transition courses? Presumably most of those not attending any further school would also require remedial courses.
In other words, is it “just ” those 530 graduates that score under 1100 on the SAT that graduated without truly making the grade, or is it much larger than that?
I have seen and taken those test recently at HCC as I started my second career. The entry-level courses at HCC are embarrassingly easy- I am not even talking about the transition courses. I got the feeling, however, that the placement tests were designed to place as many students as possible in the “transition” courses. My opinion was that it was more of a way to get student to enroll in more classes if even they weren’t needed. So I think before every freaks out about this, maybe the test at HCC should be validated.
I have an idea. You guys should go take the placement test at HCC. It only takes about 20 minutes to take all three, and it’s free. Go take them and see what you get. Do your own validation. Would you need to take a “transition” class at HCC??
I have also heard firsthand from math teachers at the college that there is an issue with the test and especially the first level of transitional math. Many students don’t need the first half of the class but need the second and there is no way to differentiate. I do understand there needs to be a way for the college to educate all students regardless of their educational background so they have to offer all levels of transitional coursework.
I think there probably isn’t enough information to make a definitive conclusion but getting the information shouldn’t be difficult and we should have been doing it all along. This isn’t a new problem but we have the technology available now to do better data analysis and more efficiently. Question still is if so many students are graduating with college prep math (Algebra 2, Trig or beyond) and don’t have a 550 on the test, isn’t there a disconnect between what the school system is teaching and what the kids need to know. There are many students who end up dropping out of college because they have so many transitional courses to take. There used to be an office at the college (funded by a federal grant) who supported those particular students to give them extra help but it was eliminated years ago by the college president.
Why couldn’t the math teachers from HCPS take the test and make recommendations about incorporating some of the lessons into their curriculum. It doesn’t help that the block schedule took away weeks of math instruction at many schools in this county and the students no longer have math everyday. There is empirical data and studies to support the fact that students who have math everyday do better on SAT and AP tests and that their retention of the subject is better.
I am going to target shoot some quick responses to the first 15 comments submitted.
Agree with Kate that HCPS central office math staff and teachers need to take these tests and see where if should lead for some fixes. What a novel suggestion. Come on HCPS central office get into this and let’s hear from you.
Agree, not all students need to go on to 4 years of college. A two year degree and certifgicate programs and ongoing learning/training are what many want and need. HCPS is too hung up on supposedly getting everyone into this mode.
I do not believe that all student must graduate, this willful approach by HCPS. I don’t blame the teachers or the school system if 100% don’t make it. A very high precentage yes, but some are just not motivated and parental help isn’ there. I don’t expect teachers to babysit or take over my parentling role. Some people see the value later on in life and get a GED once they make some life decisions. HCPS and the Aegis weekly reporting on the countdown to to how many won’t make it (50, 49, 48, hurry get your project done!). If 20 or 40 or 60 out of 2000/year don’t make it – fine. We should not put infinite resources into this level of diminishing returns.
CDEV gives a nice recounting of the 6 points of the slippery slope we are on of trying to get everyone to graduate so we make it easier and easier. Nice job. We’ll get 100% graduation rates somehow.
Don’t agree with CDEV that the study advocates were cherrypicking. I think Mr. Slutzky and the APG analysts are digging in the right places. They kicked over another Harford County rock and found a body/problem so they started to investigate with the data they could get. Sure we need more data and study but we have learned we have a problem – we just don’t know the size of it yet.
LyleKelvin asks a good question about the GPA’s of these students. Wow, let’s go study if these are some C and abouve students. Let’s look at grade inflation in HCPS. For example, I hear (hard to believe) over 50% of Patterson Mill students are on the honor roll. It’s a new magnet school only for smart kids. Bel Air and Fallston and CMW parents look out you will have vacant houses in your districts.
HSA’s only test to the 10th grade level. Then take them all right after 10th grade. Why are we paying for the last two years and we only get dumber kids. Is there any wonder there is a problem in education. G. Bush and T. Kennedy did the right thing overall with No Child Left Behind. The reports (ill-defined as they may be have put an emphasis on results for those in education. Amend it if needed but don’t throw it out. It is allowing for accountability to (slowly) seep into the system.
Have a great day and we need more great discussin likt this. Is anyone at HCPS listening. And you wondered why some feared an elected school board. It’s too bad it has come to this, but it became necessary because although well meaning and great volunteers of their time, the boards of the past 20 years have let the superintendants and key staff go off the rails.
PMS Mom the lowest sequence of math for these kids is Algebra 1A and 1B in 9th grade, Geometry in 10th and Consumer Math in 11th or Algebra 2 in 11th then a one year break between college math.
One other thought the 2005 data represents kids who only had to take 3 credits of math. So we may have done something to address this already.
Absolutely we need more data. Unfortunately, providing data, or collecting data is not HCPS’ strong suit. I’d like to understand why the percentages of 2008 graduates attending HCC is way higher than those reported on the High School’s school profiles. If 40% of the class of 2008 from CMW is attending HCC then why does their school profile say that 19% are attending 2-year institutions. I understand that plans can change, but that’s a lot of kids changing their minds. When do the school survey the graduates about what they plan on doing? All the high schools under report how many of their 2008 graduates go to 2 year schools.
The truth of the matter is two-fold. First, parents are no longer parenting. They are more interested in being their child’s best friend than they are being an authority figure. In the past, I made sure the my children came home right from school and completed their homework and studied…whether they had a test or not. Nowadays, parents complain about the burden of homework rather than its importance to strengthen concepts learned in school. Now parents complain about the harshness of teachers rather than questioning the behavior of their own children. If parents would go back to being authority figures with expectations rather than looking for others to blame so that their kids would “hang out’ with them, you would see improvement.
But aside from that, we are allowing the powers that be (NOT TEACHERS) dumb down our educational system. When kids were not passing state tests, what did we do? Lowered the standards. Then, created a bridge plan so that kids who still couldn’t meet the lower standards could meet a requirement. I also hear if from a neighbor who is a teacher that the board is getting rid of it’s zero policy. Again, dumbing it down. Johnny gets a 50% for doing nothing. Great message to send kids! Does HCC give you a 50% for a non-completed term paper? Seriously, what idiot thought of such a policy? Where in life do you get a 50% for doing nothing? So, if a kid agrees to mow my law for $50 and fails to show, do I owe him $25? And how should student X, who completed the assignment but struggled with the concept, feel about a student who did NOTHING getting a 50% while they received a 55%?
Why are they doing this? Beats me! But I do know that we are creating a system where “A’s” don’t mean excellence and students who should fail are passing courses. Then, they go to HCC and and the educators there ask…did you really have a 3.0 grade point average? You can’t write an essay!
We need to somehow find ways to strengthen the standards and prevent those in power from allowing our schools to graduate the uneducated.
But don’t blame the teachers. They don’t make policy….in fact, from what I hear, they have everything dictated to them, from syllabus construction to grading policy. We don’t even allow them to hold students to high standards any more! If they try, mom or dad the buddy calls and complains!
Let’s face it. If transparency and accountability existed in Harford County secondary education, we would know who in the school system received this data, when they received it, and what what was done about it? Was the data willfully ignored or suppressed? You can be sure darn sure that if the data was positive, we’d have been drowning in self-congratulatory powerpoint presentations. Also, the data at least could have been very valuable as baseline data, especially while we were being railroaded into ill-advised secondary school reform.
But as we all know, when it comes to the governance or the oversight of secondary education in Harford County….there has been little accountability or transparency for several years.
And the fact that it is quite conceivable that the data was treated irresponsibly or in bad faith by the school administration is disturbing to say the least.
Our only hope is that the incoming superintendent, our new curriculum director, or a new director of secondary education, can change that.
Actually this data can be valuable. This would be a good comparison for Sec Reform. If the data from the first class that had reform from the bigining was campared to it we might have a better idea.
Not that sec. reform is all bad. 4th math is a great idea. Personally a forth science and social studies would be great too.
Maybe we should also bring back spelling as a subject.
Some people should also learn the definition of contradiction because there is a lot of that going on in some of these posts.
I strongly urge parents with children in Harford County Public Schools (HCPS) to visit
http://ccpsmath.org/ for more in-depth information on two of the math programs currently in use by Cecil County Public Schools (CCPS) which are also in use at HCPS.
Click on the links tab, and at the bottom under “CCPS Presentation,” you will find a letter and accompanying presentation slides in PDF authored by Dr. Pam Kaste, Ph.D., an analytical chemist who works at the Army Research Lab at APG, respectfully requested that CCPS replace its math programs, including Everday Math (EM), at a CCPS Board of Ed. meeting on March 5, 2007. I know HCPS uses EM in its elementary program because my stepdaughters are HCPS students; I can’t speak to their middle school or high school math programs.
On p.1 she writes, “Some major findings presented in detail in the following text:” and bulleted item #2 is sobering:
*CCPS students frequently require remediation when entering college. Only Baltimore City and Prince George’s counties performed more poorly than CCPS and HCPS. HCPS stands alone as performing poorly due to apparently curriculum rather than social-economic reasons.”
Around pp. 15-20, she goes into more depth regarding the CCPS and HCPS connections. Anyway, the letter and accompanying slides are truly eye-opening, and I wish every parent of a HCPS student could/would see it.
Thanks for the link. Julie.
Wow is all I can say…
Realist, I couldn’t agree more re: the whole state testing debacle. My daughter’s a 2nd grader, and they took the Terra Nova 2 (TN2) a few weeks ago, and the brouha surrounding this test, both during the week before and the week of, was amazing. Countless pep rallies, something called the “TN2 Clap-Out,” and numerous activities centered on this test.
The best part, though, came when my daughter’s “homework” for test week included a sheet sent home for parents which included questions like, “What time did your child go to bed last night?” “Did your child have a healthy breakfast this morning?” — parents were supposed to fill these out each night/the next morning (this test went for several days that week) and send them back. (And just to be clear, we live in Montgomery Co.; this isn’t something that happened in Harford Co.)
I’m now beginning to understand why parents homeschool. I would like my daughter to leave school an educated young lady–instead, I’m starting to feel like she’s going to leave a trained monkey if something doesn’t give.
One good thing about a national test, such as Terra Nova, is that at least you get to compare how the rest of the country scores. Many of the tests Harford County gives are state tests. How can you compare anything when a state-created test is administered only in state to Maryland students? I don’t really care how my kids stack up in Maryland. I want to know how they fit nationally or internationally because that is where they will be competing for college entrance and jobs.
I like the national tests, Julie. If I home-schooled, which is something I would never do, I would want my children to take a national test to make sure they are on track. Some testing is good and I understand the frustration of teaching to the test, etc., etc., but you want to know when something is terribly wrong or really good. If a child–especially in Harford County where no gifted education is offered–tests really high, it is a signal for parents to pursue outside testing if the child is interested. And if a child tests really low, it is an opportunity for parents to evaluate whether further testing or additional help is needed–or whether the school is lacking. Testing is good.
One note Judy is that ironiclly no states tests are written by the state. Moreover they are written by subdiaries of one of three compianes (ETS, McGraw-Hill and McDougal-Littell). When NCLB was passed no one really was ready for the work that goes into creating valid tests. If you want to make a ton of money….become a psycho-matrician. Most of the companies recycle questions to meet the curriculum goals and objectives of each state which differ. In Maryland we use the Voluntary State Curriculum which is not so voluntary!
The HW your daughter got sounds like schools trying to do what they need to do to get kids focused for testing since in our society parents are sometimes not cutting the mustard. Although, correct me if I am wrong was Montgomery the County that does not allow homework to count as part of a grade or was that just someones bad idea?
Julie, thanks for the links. My kids never used Everyday Math, but it has universally poor reviews from HCPS parents ( and a few brave teachers). There is a great article in today’s SUN about how Frederick CO. parents are trying to change their math curriculum, but they do not use EM.
As for testing, Maryland may not write their own tests, but they do not use a nationally normed test. Up until last year, when I got my kids MSA scores there was a box that said how they did on the Stamford 10 portion of the test. That told me how they did relative to all the other kids in the country. We don’t get that anymore. In fact, all you get is a raw score. If you want to figure out how your kid did relative to other kids in the state, you have to go the MSDE website, and even then the info is pretty cryptic. So, Julie, be happy you’re getting Terra Nova scores. They are especially valuable if you ever move out of state. It’s a great way to talk with new schools about placement.
I personally think HCPS is too afraid to use national tests. They won’t like what they test will tell them.
Two words – “Stretch Spelling” Anyone heard of that joke?! I have a bunch of kids that went to YBES and that nonsence has made a mess of their adult lives. Of our clan, the three who went through HCPS all the way through can’t spell and all required remedial classes. We pulled all of our kids ten years ago to home school and remedial classes at HCC were a thing of the past.
It’s not like the teachers didn’t give spelling tests, and the kids passed them – but they learned to spell and to comprehend the logical process of spelling incorrectly. The whole intellectual training for language has been corrupted by this and they still struggle.
It’s not the teachers – it’s the politics. Give the teachers a break, they aren’t allowed to choose their curriculum, they are stuck with what they are given to teach from, and what they are given is chosen on a political basis. Then dump all of the other rules on their backs and they have no room to breathe. I feel for them.
Here is an example – my daughter, in 5th grade numerous years ago had free reading time. She pulled out her Bible to do her church club homework and the teacher told her to put it away and read something else. She was very upset and told me about it. I spoke with the teacher and the principle- it was free reading time, other kids are reading Captain Underpants and little chapter books, she’s reading King James English – not sharing it with anyone, so why is this an issue? They allowed her to user her free reading time to do her church club homework after that – but why was that an issue at all? It was quiet time, she didn’t bother anyone, and it’s not like she had a Playboy mag in the back of the room. Sheesh – aren’t there better things to have to worry about? I felt bad for the teacher – she was in the middle of a sticky situation; stuck between politics and a desire to help kids learn… and we wonder why there aren’t more people pursuing a teaching degree? I don’t.
juls–stretch spelling isn’t the nightmare that many make it out to be. Both of my kids started with stretch spelling and both are great spellers. My daughter was even the Bel Air Middle spelling champ one year.
I always liked stretch spelling and this is why: children learned to write much younger than they used to, so developmentally it makes sense. Stretch spelling lets the teacher know whether a child hears the word correctly and then spells it the way it sounds. Hmmmm. I always thought that it would help identify hearing and processing problems. Spelling correctly by kindergarten students is simply memorization–the lowest level of learning as you well know since you are homeschooling. And a bad speller would not place into remedial English classes based on spelling alone. Spelling ability has nothing to do with intelligence or writing ability either for that matter.
You don’t have to spend much time on these blogs to see that spelling isn’t much of a priority for many people.
Judy,
Congrats on the spelling champ!! Seriously! That’s an accomplishment! Stretch spelling works for good students – kids who are more self motivated, and my two (of the four) girls who went to YBES didn’t have a problem with it. The boys, on the other hand… All four of my sons have been ruined by it, and in their own words, it gave them an easy out. It played to their lazy nature. Also, there was no penalty for going back to the old way of spelling a word after the spelling test was finished. So if the child turned in a paper the next week and stretch spelled last weeks spelling word, it was not marked wrong. So basically the child answered the question right for the test, but after that there was no reinforcement. As a home schooling parent I know once you teach something incorrectly, re-teaching that same thing is difficult on the child. First impressions matter.
The stretch spelling was just an example, and I agree that spelling alone won’t trigger remedial English. The bigger problem is that there are holes, big holes, in the cirriculum. At one point we had a daughter in public high school, a senior in the certificate of merit classes, and a home schooled daughter in the 9th grade. They were doing much of the same work with regard to the literature being studied, types of composition work, etc. The home schooled daugher went on to types of composition, formats, an in depth study of sentence structure, gerund phrases, etc. These sentence structure elements were one of the missing pieces that caused the public schooled daughter to have to take remedial English at HCC – the home schooled daughter took the same HCC entrance exam three years later with no remedial requirements.