The information in this blog includes a summary of a curriculum meeting from a taxpayer that regularly attends the meetings and is very active in helping the candidates running for school board this year along with additions from my research on these issues.
There were 2 presentations on the Studio Classrooms pilot programs. One was given by the 7th grade Spanish teacher. Studio Classroom seems to be used to administer the Portrait of an Eagle program, which is the District’s social-emotional learning program (SEL). The Spanish teacher admitted that the program “cuts down on content instruction.” This is what we have been saying all along about SEL watering down academic instruction time.
SEL requires a lot of internal focus and will make students more narcissistic (constant focus on feelings) and less focused on facts and constructive action.
James Lindsay defines SEL as the practice of psychology on groups of children in uncontrolled, non-therapeutic spaces by non-professionals. SEL will be used to shape students’ attitudes, values and beliefs to accept a particular (Marxist) worldview. This will be done through classroom discussion and written/online surveys and “assessments.”
Students will have instruction on these “competencies” and assessed on them within the Studio Classroom curriculum. Students will be tracked on how they are scoring on these competencies and the data is being collected and used to move them through until they get the “correct” scores. You can learn more about SEL on the New Discourses web site/podcasts, and also read this paper:
The other pilot program teacher was Matt Billman, Human Anatomy and Physiology.
Mr. Billman said the assessments are moving to “non-traditional” methods, such as group work.
He stated the students were concerned how they were being assessed in these new subjective methods, as they should be! Everyone should ask how group work will affect their students’ learning and grades. Again, is it all being watered-down?
Use of Technology Update
Tech Director Chris Smith gave a detailed technology update.
Apparently, the teachers have access to 279 apps, web sites and programs that have not been technically approved for curriculum, but the teachers find through other sources.
There has been no control or oversite of these supplemental resources.
They discussed putting internal regulations in place to approve these supplemental sources before teachers can use them.
For concerned parents there are options. Opt your child out of school Google account:
Pushing Failing Students into Certification Programs
Dr. Christopher talked about pushing students who don’t pass the Keystone Exams, which are required for graduation, into one of several certification programs with local colleges.
This aligns with the knowledge we have of how the Keystone test scores were cut to make sure a certain percentage of students failed. So it is a back-door way of practically forcing students into certain career paths? I’m not saying these certification programs are bad. But I don’t believe pigeon-holing students based on one exam is helpful or fair to a developing student that may change in ability and interest during the high school experience and young adult lives.
Math update
The Math department will be looking to testing a K-8 pilot program in the 2023-24 school year. They want to test multiple programs to see which they like best.
Remember when they do these pilot programs, this is basically experimenting with your kids. Do parents really understand how different the structure and content of the class with be for their child? This needs to be more transparent. When asked if the math program will be like the new language arts curriculum, the answer was yes. That means that several studies will be incorporated into the math lesson. For example, with CVSD’s new language arts program, the students also have their science and social studies curriculum. How can students get the time needed to develop the specific skills required for math if they are now going to add other disciplines into the lessons???
Dr. Euker stated that the math “vocabulary” is now not consistent across the grades (I assume due to the implementation of Common Core) and this is creating problems.
Who knew math “vocabulary” needed to change?
Class Rank
Dr. Christopher stated that some students have been asked about class ranking and the students want to “get rid of it.” Dr. Blanchard stated that the Board is ultimately responsible for the decision. How will the Board decide and when? Maybe there needs to be some adjustment, but will the administration and school board use this as an excuse to get rid of grades as the main source of assessing students. SEL programming is all for getting rid of grades and moving towards assessing competencies. I do not believe this will help our children as they move into adulthood and whatever competitive work environment that they choose after graduation. There are schools doing this to varying degrees and the outcomes are just as diverse. Here are some examples for reference:
https://www.simplemost.com/schools-phase-out-valedictorians/
https://www.foxnews.com/us/virginia-accelerated-math-courses-equity
Here are the next three school board meeting dates and they are held at the District Office Boardroom located at 6746 Carlisle Pike, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050:
Tuesday, Jan. 21st at 7:00 p.m.
Monday, March 6th at 7:00pm
Monday, March 20th at 7:00pm
If you cannot attend in person you can also livestream these full board meetings. The agenda and livestream link are posted three days prior to the meeting at the following site:
https://go.boarddocs.com/pa/cmdvsd/Board.nsf/vpublic?open
Latest news