Tuscan needs an education makeover

Tuscan's PTA should come together and instead of grouping random children in the many first grade, second grade classes, they should group according to learning abilities. From a parent of a child struggling to keep up it is unfair to be one of 2 that just can't learn as quickly as say the other 15 children. The high school has level 1,2, and 3. Why can't Tuscan do the same? JMO

In the Education threads we have NIMBY and we have YSESDT (Yeah, Someone Else Should Do That)

Tall_Mocha said:
Tuscan's PTA should come together and instead of grouping random children in the many first grade, second grade classes, they should group according to learning abilities. From a parent of a child struggling to keep up it is unfair to be one of 2 that just can't learn as quickly as say the other 15 children. The high school has level 1,2, and 3. Why can't Tuscan do the same? JMO

I don't thing the PTA has anything to do with student grouping andplacement

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No, this is NOT the job of the PTA. If you think your child is struggling perhaps speak with the teacher, or request a consultation with the child study team

Definitely talk to your child's teacher as soon as possible. Do not wait for the parent teacher conference in November.

At least when my current 8th grader was at Tuscan, they had some really wonderful inclusion teachers, who made it possible for kids at lots of different learning levels to work together in a single classroom. Is your child in an inclusion class? Could that help? Agree about talking with the teacher and the Child Study team.

You should not and will not see leveling at the elementary schools. Forgetaboutit. I know what it's like to have a child that struggles in school (I have tremendous empathy there), but having children placed in a class for the "slow" learners will probably increase the chance that children stay behind. You should talk to your child's teacher and see what you can do at home to help your child. Ideally you want a close, positive relationship with the teacher working together to help your child. Inclusion teachers can also help, although I think they went out with the last budget cuts. They may have pull out replacement classes for some subjects, which creates a small, somewhat homogenous class, and sometimes the same problems I described with leveling. Pull-out can be effective for some kids.

But first stop, as others have mentioned, talk to the teacher.

LL_ said:

Tall_Mocha said:
Tuscan's PTA should come together and instead of grouping random children in the many first grade, second grade classes, they should group according to learning abilities. From a parent of a child struggling to keep up it is unfair to be one of 2 that just can't learn as quickly as say the other 15 children. The high school has level 1,2, and 3. Why can't Tuscan do the same? JMO

I don't thing the PTA has anything to do with student grouping andplacement

ptas are groups of parent volunteers who have exactly diddly squat to say about how classes are grouped. in this district, with its abysmal ability to communicate with parents, you are probably rightly confused about who you should talk to about what is going on with your kid in his/her school, because probably most of the relevant info you've gotten about anything having to do with your child's education has been through the pta. don't kill the messenger though.

i'm not being flip. i understand your frustration. you probably could reach out to a pta member to try to find out who to talk to in the administration about your child. best of luck.

Struggling how? Compared to whom? Parents often have a limited perspective on how their child[ren] are doing in school compared with their classmates. A talk with your child's teacher soonest can give a much needed reality check and the opportunity to develop a parent/teacher partnership to identify and address any learning problems the child may have. If the meeting results in identifying learning lags that may need to be addressed through an individual education plan, the child study team can become involved at that time.

Most everyone on my block sends their kids to Tuscan and they seem very pleased. My family switched to Seth Boyden and could not be happier, in large part because of the posture toward full acceptance and inclusion model classrooms. With two now at MMS, I had principal at MMS warn about the leveling system at CHS, which has me a bit concerned. Seems to me leveling is another word for pigeon-holing and would serve to limit students. What am I missing?

vdfam said:
Most everyone on my block sends their kids to Tuscan and they seem very pleased. My family switched to Seth Boyden and could not be happier, in large part because of the posture toward full acceptance and inclusion model classrooms. With two now at MMS, I had principal at MMS warn about the leveling system at CHS, which has me a bit concerned. Seems to me leveling is another word for pigeon-holing and would serve to limit students. What am I missing?

What exactly is Mr. Adams saying

vdfam said:
Most everyone on my block sends their kids to Tuscan and they seem very pleased. My family switched to Seth Boyden and could not be happier, in large part because of the posture toward full acceptance and inclusion model classrooms. With two now at MMS, I had principal at MMS warn about the leveling system at CHS, which has me a bit concerned. Seems to me leveling is another word for pigeon-holing and would serve to limit students. What am I missing?

At some point, differentiated education in a heterogeneous classroom fails to serve all students well. In general our elementary schools differentiate in language arts (different reading levels and spelling words), and pretty much teach everyone the same thing in other topics, including math, where more differentiation would be very welcome.

By high school, it is just too hard (and unfair) to try to teach everyone the same material, in the same classroom, so we have different levels in each course. Not having multiple levels of instruction would serve to limit both the most and least advanced students at the high school level (by pretending that they don't need more tailored approaches).

We can imagine an ideal world in which that is not the case (probably requiring much smaller class sizes to facilitate differentiation), but we aren't there, and shouldn't sacrifice children to a dream.

The ongoing challenge is to make levels about teaching youth well, rather than pigeonholing onto a "track", and the current move to open up enrollments is a welcome part of that.

Mr. Adams said to be very aware of where CHS places our children, warned that the placement would track with the student throughout HS (my interpretation: Pigeon-holing), all while affirming the goodness and intention of the principal at CHS.

Thank you, susan1014, for the explanation. I believe everyone is doing their best to educate children well. I also believe schools are under pressure from the testing industry to protect themselves, which doesn't serve students well. I need to be better educated about education as my kids progress.

Finally, I affirm the "talk to the teachers and the school" theme above. My family has had wonderful success partnering with teachers and staff at Seth Boyden & MMS. Most recently, I interacted with a guidance counselor (Ms. Battle) at MMS regarding my 7th grade son's placement in an intervention class. After a good conversation and some investigation by Ms. Battle, my son was moved out of intervention. This relates back to the leveling conversation in that my son was placed in intervention because he struggled in 6th grade. Once everyone looked into my son's particular case, it was clear his struggles had to do with effort & attitude rather than ability, and needed to be addressed differently.

vdfam, we have some real struggles in our district about how to handle kids who aren't working up to ability, whether because of of effort/attitude issues or because of disabilities. Parents and educators need to be vigilant that the educational approach used reflects need rather than past performance (whether in leveled or differentiated classrooms).

But we also need to make sure that the range of courses and differentiation options is there to serve the range of real educational needs out there, from well below grade level to gifted.

vdfam said:
Mr. Adams said to be very aware of where CHS places our children, warned that the placement would track with the student throughout HS (my interpretation: Pigeon-holing), all while affirming the goodness and intention of the principal at CHS.
Thank you, susan1014, for the explanation. I believe everyone is doing their best to educate children well. I also believe schools are under pressure from the testing industry to protect themselves, which doesn't serve students well. I need to be better educated about education as my kids progress.
Finally, I affirm the "talk to the teachers and the school" theme above. My family has had wonderful success partnering with teachers and staff at Seth Boyden & MMS. Most recently, I interacted with a guidance counselor (Ms. Battle) at MMS regarding my 7th grade son's placement in an intervention class. After a good conversation and some investigation by Ms. Battle, my son was moved out of intervention. This relates back to the leveling conversation in that my son was placed in intervention because he struggled in 6th grade. Once everyone looked into my son's particular case, it was clear his struggles had to do with effort & attitude rather than ability, and needed to be addressed differently.

It is really not right for Mr. Adams to alarm parents about an issue that is much more complicated than his depiction. He's been in the district a year. If he wants to flag for a parent the fact that the high school has some leveled classes, and that what happens at MMS can affect where a child is placed, there are better ways to communicate that.

Trying to make my take more clear: I do not believe at all Mr. Adams was trying to alarm anybody in the conversation I was part of. He was calling for parents to be very aware of what was happening. In my posts I said he "warned" us, which I think is a fair word, but I did not intend to connote any real negativity on his part. My interpretation - which is my responsibility alone - sees leveling as pigeon-holing, which I see as a negative. My negative view is mediated by above posts, btw.

Tall Mocha, Elementary aged students are all over in their achievement. I had two boys who lagged in their reading and writing skills until about fifth grade. One needed extra help through special education, the other did not. However, they are both now in high school and in all honors or ap classes. Talk to the teacher about what you and she or he can do to help and believe in your child's ablilities.

vdfam said:
Trying to make my take more clear: I do not believe at all Mr. Adams was trying to alarm anybody in the conversation I was part of. He was calling for parents to be very aware of what was happening. In my posts I said he "warned" us, which I think is a fair word, but I did not intend to connote any real negativity on his part. My interpretation - which is my responsibility alone - sees leveling as pigeon-holing, which I see as a negative. My negative view is mediated by above posts, btw.

I'm curious whether Mr. Adams talked privately to some parents or spoke about leveling at CHS in a public forum. I think it's important to inform middle school parents about leveling at CHS. However, I think, there should be an informational meeting for the parents conducted by someone from the district who is most knowledgeable about the levels. Otherwise there can be quite a bit of misinformation floating around as there's different leveling criteria for various subjects.