Sunday, April 16, 2017

Thurgood Marshall SS Update


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"If you could choose, who would you sit by in social studies?"

Huh? I might ask my child if they've made any new friends at school, just as a general question, but who they would choose to sit with, for SS in particular? Seems like an odd line of questioning.

"How is your social studies class different from your regular class?"

Huh? What do they mean, "regular" class? Why make this distinction? Is social studies not just another part of the regular school day?

weird

Anonymous said...

I thought the prompts were odd, too. I was also disappointed--but not surprised--to see that these early reports of "success" don't look at academics at all, and doesn't do any breakdowns by HCC vs. non-HCC. If 61% of parents feel positive about the program, that leaves nearly 40% neutral or negative. Is there an enthusiasm gap between HCC and non-HCC? Or what about grade level? As my own HCC students aged, they became more and more frustrated with their GE classes. Are families of HCC students in upper grades as positive as those in lower? These would be good to know. Then again, it seems like the intent was more for this to be a social intervention than an academic one, and maybe that's what TM families wanted. More power to 'em.

Benjamin Leis said...

Bear in mind the HCC population outnumbers the gen-ed 3-4 : 1 (I'm going off memory here) in the building so even if there is a difference in enthusiasm the overall rates can only be shifted so far. The article mentions 132 families responded and 80% were in HCC. That's roughly about 25% of the school.

I'm curious what current 4th / 5th families @ TM think if anyone wants to jump in.

Anonymous said...

Katie May says she plans to apply for the waiver again next year. I'm sure they'll add more subjects. I'm curious why they left out academic data, since May said they would monitor academic outcomes. Not good so swept under the rug?

sr