Montgomery County families question omitted content from virtual curriculum
ROCKVILLE, Md. - Many parents in Montgomery County are sounding off about what they say, is lack of transparency when it comes to omitted lessons during virtual learning.
"When we got the QuickNotes the other day, MCPS included in it the charts that actually show in each class I think all the way up through Calculus what the particular content was that was either omitted work or condensed or as not included as part of the curriculum this school year," said Kimberly Glassman, a mother of three referring to the omitted content for elementary school mathematics.
"So looking to my own kids, my seventh grader was the most impacted. It was something like 57 percent of the content was covered and the remainder was not covered in the school year and I believe the idea is that in future math classes those are concepts that we circle back into the curriculum so they will get it in the future."
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Other parents noted that basic math lessons such as measurements and date that include telling and writing time and differentiating U.S. currency, had been omitted.
"When I was looking at math curriculum and saw that the first graders didn’t get the difference between a penny, a nickel, a dime and a quarter and didn’t learn how to tell time on the hour and a half hour, that really struck me because those are basic life skills," said MCPS parent, Jessica Hasson.
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"I just wish that MCPS was upfront in saying, ‘Oh because of virtual school we can’t do what we did before and don’t expect what we did before."
Other content omitted includes counting & cardinality where students would have learned numbers 1 to 10 using objects, images, and numerals and
numeral writing counting to 20.
Also omitted were math addition and subtractions using drawings and fingers and drawing and identifying lines and angles in geometry.
Some parents said that with just one month left in the school year, they didn’t find about the removed content until recently. It was a finding that sparked a long discussion on social media among many MCPS families.
"For me it’s a matter of transparency knowing what was missed and how is it going to be addressed in the next step of the curriculum," Glassman said.
"Is it going to be infused into the next school year‘s curriculum as kind of a recovery effort?"
MCPS spokesperson, Gboyinde Onijala said the school district made intentional adjustments to the pacing of the curriculum in an effort to adapt to the virtual schedule. Additionally, MCPS "received a significant amount of feedback from students, teachers, parents and school leaders about the immense struggles students were experiencing in the remote setting with fully learning and understanding the mathematics content, especially at the middle school level."
Onijala said, consultation with experts around the major and minor math standards were considered in making decisions about what content could be compacted, reduced or omitted, specifically in mathematics.
"As a result of the adjustments, MCPS is working on a long range plan for addressing the unlearned content. This includes instruction during summer school and/or the implementation of lessons in future courses that will be reviewed with teachers during summer training," she explained.
Fox 5’s Ayesha Khan asked Onijala if a curriculum with omitted content will also be the case for the virtual academy option being offered in the Fall.
Onijal said, virtual academy will offer a full curriculum.
She acknowledged that many students have thrived in virtual learning and many have struggled as well.
"That is something we have consistently acknowledged as a system. Adjustments to curriculum were made in the fall in response to feedback received from the community. All MCPS students, whether participating in person or virtually, continue to receive rigorous and engaging instruction.
Ayesha also checked with some other surrounding school districts about their curriculum.
Officials with Arlington Public Schools said they have bit had to omit any content from their curriculum as a result of a virtual learning setting.
Frank Bellavia with Loudoun County Public Schools said their school system has also not omitted content from the curriculum this school year.
"We have provided teachers with updated scope and sequence documents to provide guidance for teachers on how to address the key concepts from the curriculum in the new distance and hybrid learning environment. We did so for the four core content areas," Bellavia explained.