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Our new principal geared up for them by spending much of last year attempting to get rid of the 6th grade accelerated math class altogether. This was justified to furious parents by references to middle school teachers not knowing how to teach Trailblazers kids, needing time for training in the ways of Trailblazers (skinnies, bits, etc.), or some such. I think the idea was to keep all the kids in the same class in 6th grade, then create an accelerated track in 7th.
He didn't manage to make this happen. We still have an accelerated math class in 6th grade, now populated by Trailblazers kids who have come to middle school further behind than kids in previous years.
Students in Susan's district weren't so lucky:
Our little Trailblazer First Wavers hit the middle school [this year], also. The district responded by restructuring the math department to better "align" with the grade schools. Accelerated 6th grade pre-algebra has gone missing. Can't imagine why.
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I mentioned in another thread that this is what's happened in our district as well. Our Everyday Math kids are now in 6th grade and to better "align" the curriculum they now have CMP-2 through 8th grade. There is a barely breathing accelerated track for 7th and 8th that's been whittled down to about 3% of the students and I believe it's a step towards "sunsetting" it in favor of mixed ability CMP-2 for ALL 6-8 graders. After so many years of Everyay Math, how many of them would be able to do well in a traditional track without outside intervention? They won't figure out what a debacle this is until high school when it's too late to do anything about it.
They've eliminated the gifted programs, flexible ability grouping, and soon accelerated tracks of math will be gone too.
What stumps me is that no one seems to be making a ruckus about it. Administration has quietly gone about the changes informing parents after the fact and only after spinning the changes as advances that will prepare our children for the 21st century.
It puzzles me also why parents are accepting this dumbing down of expectations.
After a conversation this weekend with some other parents, I realized I probably sounded so strident in expressing my views that I need to tone it down. Most parents I encounter will express mild complaints about the issues we discuss here on KTM, but they’re not outraged. In the end, they seem to defer to the education experts and they conclude their own KIDS are the problem. Their kids lack the motivation, good study habits and/or intellectual capacity to do better. So, the parents start talking about finding a good tutor. That’s the solution, in their minds.
Maybe they’re relieved that the math taught in school these days is easier for their kids because the parents struggled with math when they were in school?
"It puzzles me also why parents are accepting these dumbing down of expectations."
This puzzles me as well. However, in my neck of the woods, it seems parents are happy with the status quo because of test scores. In their minds, high test scores equal high expectations. Also, the term progressive curriculum sounds impressive.
Our superintendent has let it be known that he wants our county to be the forerunners in how a progressive curriculum can be taught successfully. Keeping this in mind, we have TERC in elementary school and balanced literacy and yet the SOL scores and the SAT scores remain high. Who is going to complain?
No one stops to think about all the afterschooling and tutoring that is going on behind closed doors. Like Tex, I have heard parents talk about finding a tutor. They believe what the schools tell them about their children not being motivated enough or not being "developmentally" ready.
I meant to say forerunner. Geez.
Also, I might add that recently a close friend put her son in a tutoring center. She was quick to point out that the director of the center did not "bash" the school system. The director told her that the public school system simply did not teach children the correct way to study because they were too busy teaching other things.
I wondered if she thought I was bashing our sons' elementary school last year when I told her my opinions about the principal and the county's elementary school curriculum.
I made a mental note to "tone it down" when or if I spoke with her about anything school related.
"tone it down" is a CHRONIC challenge for me
chronic
It is ESSENTIAL to be able to maintain a tone, but lordy
it is not easy
Ed is BRILLIANT at tone. Amazing. He's going to be our secret weapon this year.
One thing: maintaining a moderate tone, like anything else, requires practice. Ed has had many, many years of practice, having been a college administrator for much of his life.
HE IS GOOD AT TONE BECAUSE HE'S PRACTICED TONE FOR YEARS.
My advice -- and I feel qualified to give advice here -- is to keep practicing.
I've made a couple of discoveries.
NUMBER ONE SPACED REPETITION. (I realize this isn't my discovery.) Simply repeating your message over and over again (without pauses!) has an effect --- a strong effect --- over time.
Parents may seem as if they accept the status quo; they (we) do blame our kids. That's what makes us good parents --- the fact that we're willing to look critically at our own kids, to blame them or us, to take responsibility for the problem.
I don't think you guys were around on the old site when I spent a lot of time ranting about how "I blame the school." I said this a lot during C's 6th grade year, and it was rupturous as hell. All the other parents were taking responsibility for the school's many failings --- taking responsibility on themselves, and holding their kids responsible. THAT'S WHAT MAKES THEM GOOD CITIZENS AND GOOD PARENTS.
Basically, the school was using parents' good qualities against them -- and against their kids.
I went around saying, out loud, "I blame the school."
Whatever went wrong, I would say, "I blame the school."
I would tell people this!
It was so rupturous that for some people it really broke through the students-are-responsible-for-their-own-learning orthodoxy.
.............
OK, where was I.
oh, yes.
SPACED REPETITION - although responsible parents will blame themselves and their kids before they blame the school, the fact is that they are on their kids' side, not the school's side.
When you continually raise the possibility that the fault may lie in the school, not the child, parents hear.
Stay on message.
NUMBER TWO Don't be thin-skinned.
I've found that it's easier to "fake" a thick skin than to "fake" a moderate tone.
When I say "fake" I mean "do something that doesn't come naturally."
I have an absolute, ironclad rule NOT TO BE DEFENSIVE.
I find I'm able to follow it pretty well.
When people criticize me here in town -- or when people say things I construe to be criticisms -- I FORCE myself to say, "You're right."
or: "I'm sorry." (I never say this to my husband, of course....sigh)
or: "I know I come off as strident at meetings; I'm glad you reminded me. I'm trying to do better."
The fact is (I've learned this as a writer) that most criticisms are either correct from the perspective of the person making the criticism or they have an element of truth from anyone's perspective, including my own.
My best moment with this happened when I was sent a BLISTERING email by a man here in town I didn't know. The Forum had just started and someone had made an anonymous and quite hostile, negative post about people who were supporting the fields.
This guy reamed me up one side and down the other.
Naturally, my immediate impulse was to ream him right back.
I managed to stifle that.
After sleeping on it I saw, clearly, that HE WAS RIGHT. The post made to the forum was anonymous, wounding, etc. I have no idea whether what was said in the post was true or not; there was probably an element of truth combined with an element of not having all the facts, seeing as how none of us ever has all the facts.
But this guy was right to be upset.
I sat down and wrote him a response that included the line, up front: "How can I make this right?"
Then I suggested some ways to post a correction or clarification; I said he could post one or I could post one, etc. I basically said, Tell me what you need and I'll do it.
And I apologized.
And that was it. He didn't need a dramatic public correction, etc.; he just needed to know that I hadn't set up a public Yahoo list that was going to be devoted to trashing people working to get fields built for the schools.
It's extremely difficult to maintain a moderate speaking tone because our nonverbals aren't under conscious control (or, rather, it's quite difficult to override unconscious control of nonverbals consciously).
Making defensive statements is under conscious control.
NUMBER THREE I have now found that I can maintain a tone in writing. I don't know how well that transfers to other people who haven't been writing professionally all their lives, but I think it does. Writing takes away the nonverbals and gives you time to edit yourself.
NUMBER FOUR For women especially, maintaining a sense of humor and fun is good for you, and probably good for other people's ability to deal with you.
"This puzzles me as well. However, in my neck of the woods, it seems parents are happy with the status quo because of test scores. In their minds, high test scores equal high expectations. Also, the term progressive curriculum sounds impressive."
Exactly!
Good test scores, flashy textbooks, everybody's feels good, and a grading system that makes sure everyone is "proficient" equals no complaining. It's all good.
... everybody feels good.
Catherine,
Good points on toning it down! When I talked with my friends last year, I always reiterated how these were just my feelings and observations. However, I don't think saying that really matters.
You are so right about a sense of humour! My friend (the one who made the bashing comment) and I laughed a lot. We both laughed talking about our principal. I feel as long as we were talking about a person and not the curricula then things were fine. Also, I never got the sense that she was tired of hearing me rant. She sympathized, but I think she felt removed from the situation...it didn't pertain to her child until this year.
This year I am more careful to whom I speak with about school...even my closest friends. I always come to the school with a smile on my face and I am always cordial with the principal. A principal that simply oozes arrogance from her every pore. A principal who patted my knee last year and said, "I think mom is worrying too much." This is the same principal who said my child had a disconnect in math although his record indicated he achieved 80% proficiency.
The same principal who said to me that she had never in all her days of being a school teacher or administrator had someone question her educational beliefs.
Yet, I do smile and refrain from saying anything to her or the teachers who think TERC is just great. I smile at parents too.
As long as everyone is perceived to be happy, everything is fine.
I always come to the school with a smile on my face and I am always cordial with the principal. A principal that simply oozes arrogance from her every pore. A principal who patted my knee last year and said, "I think mom is worrying too much." This is the same principal who said my child had a disconnect in math although his record indicated he achieved 80% proficiency.
OK, it's obvious a person can go overboard with this moderation thing.
I'm in a state of open warfare with the math department, semi-open warfare with the administration,....
Gloves are off.
Our principal during 6th grade loathed me as much as I've ever been loathed in my entire life. The administration made him meet with me on his last day in town, and it was astounding looking into his face.
His face expressed sheer loathing. Disgust, really.
My challenge is to moderate my tone when complaining about the district to other parents.
(I was kidding with the "It's obvious a person can go overboard" line! My hat is off to you.)
"It's obvious a person can go overboard with this moderation thing." Yes, so true! LOL!
I think I had the principal on my mind because she comes up in conversations with other parents. One parent agreed the principal was terribly condescending. She said this like it was an okay thing to be condescending to parents. This is when I lose my moderation!
Someone actually loathed you? Oh, dear. You seem so level headed and articulate. Then again, I guess that doesn't matter if you aren't saying what the district wants to hear.
For the record, I don't loathe the principal. I don't think she loathes me either, but I will say she hates all my questions. Well, she hates that, and the fact my husband and I were willing to go over head to remove our son from a certain class last year.
We definitely got her "parents to avoid" list.
I can't write today. I meant to say we got on her "parents to avoid" list.
There's an old truism that you can tell much about the measure of a person by the quality of his or her enemies. By the available evidence, that works out to be quite the compliment to you, Catherine.
8-)
She was quick to point out that the director of the center did not "bash" the school system.
You never bite the hand that feeds you. This would be very bad business indeed.
By the way, Catherine, your discoveries are quite astute. I would do well to "tone it down" a bit myself. I'm really trying to this school year, really I am.
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