450,000 students across the nation will now have MCPS to thank for their "next generation college-ready elementary curriculum."
Read that again - it's a college-ready elementary curriculum.
Has your 2nd grader selected their college major yet? Better work on that this evening.
Included in those 450,000 will be students in "rural" school districts. (That's what the MCPS i3 Grant application says!)
Below is the description for the North Star project. Development of this project already began with the hiring of at least a dozen administrators by MCPS.
The North Star project has now been named as a winner of a Department of Education i3 Grant. And that's good news for 450,000 elementary students across the nation!
Here's what's coming:
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:Here's what's coming:
"Project North Star will be the next generation of elementary instruction. In a quest to raise expectations for students of all colors, broaden instruction to include science, social studies, and the arts while exceeding AYP, and to save teachers and students valuable instructional time, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) and Pearson, LLC are partnering on a one-of-a-kind, research-based project. MCPS is requesting $4,999,633 in i3 funds to develop a curriculum and online professional learning community designed to nurture the skills and mindset that will guide children towards the north star of college readiness. The project includes development of a unique college-ready elementary curriculum aligned to the Common Core Standards. Integration of content and processes is key to the innovative and time-saving design of this curriculum. Critical and creative thinking skills, and academic success skills form the nucleus around which reading, writing, mathematics, science, social studies, and the arts are carefully planned by marking period. The power of making connections among contents will help unleash the natural curiosity of young children and the habits that mark the academic mind - persistence, questioning, and collaboration - will be developed beginning in Kindergarten. In addition to $1,000,000 in matching funds, Pearson will bring its considerable assets and expertise to help develop the first generation of post-NCLB assessments that measure achievement of challenging academic standards alongside the skills that develop advanced learners. The final key design feature of this project will be curriculum-aligned, just-in-time professional development offered in a collaborative Web 2.0 environment. Teachers will be able to harness the power of instructional experts and their peers to solve complex and commonplace teaching challenges. When fully scaled-up this project will reach over 450,000 students and will be standardized for use across the nation."
There you go, elaborating again on the information provided! We need not fear our little darlings will be subject to a college curriculum in elementary school. Rather, it is a curriculum aligned with the common core standards, required by the Obama administration, that will help students reach the goal of college readiness.
ReplyDeleteNever said that students would have a college curriculum in elementary school.
ReplyDeleteWhat the proposal says is that it is college-ready. What about career ready? Are those children no longer welcome in Montgomery County?
Note to families moving to D.C. - if you want your children to have an education that meets their individual needs don't move to Montgomery County.
If you had read the i3 Grant information put out by the Department of Education you would know that the grant sought out proposals for college-ready AND career ready.
But MCPS is only interested in college-ready. Students that don't go to college can get their education elsewhere.
And what about the fact that Middle School Reform in MCPS has failed? Should we really be putting MORE money into elementary school curriculum revisions without addressing the middle school students?
And what about our high school students? 50% of the students in high school didn't go to MCPS for elementary school. The graduation rate is dropping. When will we be addressing that problem?
A college-ready elementary curriculum only focuses on those students who will go to college and will only impact the 50% of our students who will still be in MCPS by high school.
If you have a copy of the actual grant proposal, please make it public! Superintendent Weast sure hasn't made the grant proposal public and hasn't made the final agreement with Pearson Education, Inc. public. If you have the documents - let's see them! According to the reviewer comments the Board of Education and parents are on "board" with this proposal!