Looking for Feedback on Kent Gardens French Immersion Program in Mclean

[JD984]

Originally Posted by pomme sauvage

the test scores from 2008 to 2010
They compares 42 separate pieces of data consisting of SOL test results from 3rd - 6th grade across all subjects for the past three years at the seven McLean elementary schools. You will notice that KGES finishes in last place 15 times (or 36% of the time). Eighty percent of those last place finishes occur in the last two years. The 1st spreadsheet ranks the schools by last place finishes.

The transfer our rates are this year.

The current data reflects the old data. KGES still poor.

Thanks for the update. I hear the 4th graders at KGES are having a spelling bee next week. Please keep us posted.

[claremarie]

When my kids were in elementary school in McLean, I would have been thrilled if the principal and teachers had said, "We don't care about SOL scores. We are not going to spend the year learning silly songs about Virginia history ("Home of Most Presidents!! Home of Most Presidents!" -- my high school senior can still sing it on demand) just to increase our advanced pass rate by 2 percentage points, but rather focus on honing critical thinking skills in math and reading. And we are going to have two recess periods every day."
Actually, that's one of the reasons we moved them OUT of the public school system.
But, one of the McLean schools has to be the lowest-performing school in McLean. Maybe they could take turns each year.

[slduvall]

Originally Posted by JEB77

Thanks for the update. I hear the 4th graders at KGES are having a spelling bee next week. Please keep us posted.

[tgbwc]

Originally Posted by JEB77

Thanks for the update. I hear the 4th graders at KGES are having a spelling bee next week. Please keep us posted.

Thank GOD it's not against the other McLean elementary schools! Can you imagine the carnage?! Oh, the horror!

[bmwguydc]

Originally Posted by pomme sauvage

I am not excessively advertising my own blog. I could post all that same data here. I was simply trying to avoid having to post duplicate entries that are entirely on subject and entirely supported by FCPS data to prove my points. You are actually voilating the purpose of this community site. I will start to post the research here if that's how you want it played.

Actually, according to the Terms of Service, personal blogs are not to be advertised at all on the forum.

[stpickrell]

Originally Posted by claremarie

When my kids were in elementary school in McLean, I would have been thrilled if the principal and teachers had said, "We don't care about SOL scores. We are not going to spend the year learning silly songs about Virginia history ("Home of Most Presidents!! Home of Most Presidents!" -- my high school senior can still sing it on demand) just to increase our advanced pass rate by 2 percentage points, but rather focus on honing critical thinking skills in math and reading. And we are going to have two recess periods every day."
Actually, that's one of the reasons we moved them OUT of the public school system.
But, one of the McLean schools has to be the lowest-performing school in McLean. Maybe they could take turns each year.

I hear a lot about teaching critical thinking. The problem, though, is that without a solid grounding in basic fact, these higher-order skills don't do a lick of good. This may not be a problem with upper-middle class folks in Northern Virginia, but it might be a problem others.

Apparently, enough schools weren't teaching much of anything, otherwise the SOLs would have never been passed.

[claremarie]

From what I could tell as my kids went through elementary school, the SOLs tested how well they could memorize random factoids about things like economics and Virginia history. An inordinate amount of class and homework time was devoted to making sure that the handful of struggling students were able to improve their performance, to the detriment of anything more interesting and useful, such as reading harder books and tackling more challenging math concepts.