Shady Grove Middle School PTA Meeting 11.9.2016

Welcome – Cynthia Simonson, PTA

 Update on membership – currently 125 (compared to 85 last year)

 Emphasized the importance of parent engagement. This year, the PTA has been much more active in the operation of the school – parents are volunteering at school store, running concessions for school dances, financially supporting the 7th grade field trip, funding 6th grade archaeology project – these are just some examples.

 PTA President will be testifying before the board of education concerning the capital improvement plan on November 14th. Shady Grove does not have any specific needs at this time, but other schools within the Magruder Cluster do have capital needs.

 Growing issue within the county is about job-preparedness after high school graduation. Current statistics have 75% of the MCPS graduates participating in higher education upon graduation vs. 25% that will seek employment. MCPS is committed to ensure the 25% seeking employment have access to skills to successfully being a career. Likewise, MCPS is placing greater emphasis on skill development, even for those that are “college bound” as 53% of these students will work while in college. Through stronger skill- development opportunities, students will have more opportunities available to them.

Treasurer Report – Sharon Sievert, PTA Treasurer

 Membership is up

 71 percent of target for direct appeals

 Book fair raised $2900

 Spirit wear is ongoing – no specific numbers

 Concessions/School Store is doing well

Secretariat Report – Jen Devine, PTA Corresponding Secretary

 Update on bylaws

 Recommended to change general meetings to 4 a year

 The recommendation was supported

 Voting on bylaws will occur next year

Upcoming Events – Mary Moore, PTA Vice President of Programs

SGMS PTA Meeting, November 9, 2016 Page 1  Wrapping Station needs volunteers

SGMS PTA Meeting, November 9, 2016 Page 2 School-level updates/concern – Mr. Owusu, SGMS Principal

 Recognized this meeting is one of the largest attended meetings

 Presented MCPS Milestones for 2016-2017

 Discussed Shady Grove Middle School Improvement Plan

 Reviewed Grade Readiness for Shady Grove Middle School

Presentation: What does Advanced Mean?

Mr. James Fliakas, Supervisor, English Language Arts Ms. Kurshanna Johnson, Supervisor, Accelerated and Enriched Instruction  Presented on the ideal classroom, the concepts surrounding differentiation classroom and described what this looks like in a middle school classroom.

 Participants worked on an example to demonstrate activities in the classroom.

 Discussion on the concept of Advanced English and why it may be different than Math.

Cynthia Simonson, SGMS PTA President, 2016-17

The following are notes from a SGMS parent, that are forwarded to share with SGMS community one parent’s perspective on how MCPS is approaching “Advanced” curriculum and the role parents can play (and questions parents may want to ask) in ensuring their student is appropriately challenged. This is strictly one parent’s opinion and does not reflect the opinions of MCPS, SGMS PTA or its board, or SGMS.

At SGMS, all students in 6th through 8th grades are in “Advanced English” and “Advanced Social Studies” classes. There are no “on-level” courses in these disciplines at Shady Grove. This reality made it important to our community to actually understand what it means for students of varying levels to be grouped in the same “advanced” course and why MCPS has structured courses this way. In cooperation with the Principal, we requested the Central Office come and explain the vision and reasoning behind this grouping.

MCPS recognizes two models (and which model a school follows is at the discretion of the school): 1) A school can have two levels of courses (advanced and on-level) often referred to as “ability-grouped model.” 2) A school can have just one level of course (advanced) often refered to as a “mixed classroom model.” Shady Grove follows the second model. MCPS central office encourages the “mixed classroom model” as it takes away the "ceiling" that on-level kids face if they're in an on-level only classroom. The mixed approach allows everyone to "reach high." As a point of interest,

SGMS PTA Meeting, November 9, 2016 Page 3 “Advanced English” has been growing in the past 3 years and 80% of current MCPS middle school students participate in “advanced” instruction. A couple of key understandings from this discussion:

Being in an advanced class does not suggest the student is an advanced student. Further, parents should not assume an advanced student is being adequately challenged just because they are in an advanced class. Each English and Social Studies class is made up of clusters of students with a full range of abilities within one class. Each class in our school (using PARCC performance indicators as the reference) fall within the range of Levels 1-5 (“did not yet meet expectations” to “exceeded expectations”).

 Take Away 1 – Parents should ask teachers how the class is clustered and what “cluster” their student is part of.

 Take Away 2 – Parents should ask the teacher what differentiation is occurring between their student’s instruction and the instruction of the cluster that is above and/or below.

Each child is ENTITLED to a year of growth, every year. As expected, students enter middle school in different places with different academic experiences. Shady Grove teachers and administrators work very hard to bring all students to academic success. However, the MCPS “mixed classroom model” calls for differentiation to ensure both ends of the spectrum experience a year of growth.

 Take Away 3 -- If a parent doesn’t believe their child is being adequately challenged, the parent should ask questions of the teachers and administration. When classes have a wide range of abilities, it can occur that more attention is placed on students needing to “catch up” and less attention directing students to “forge ahead.” Parents should consider themselves a partner with the school, ensuring each student is receiving the opportunities they need.

 Take Away 4 -- Coursework should reflect the rigor the student is capable of performing. Student capability is often recognized by teachers but, if a student isn’t being adequately challenged (in the parents’ opinion), those concerns should be raised. Parents MAY request their student receive the more advanced assignment (e.g., if the differentiation occurring in a class is one cluster reads summary chapters and the more advanced cluster reads the full novel, parents may request their student be expected to read the full novel).

 Take Away 5 – It is completely appropriate and expected for parents to ask teachers -- “What can we do at home, in class, and at school to help continue building my child’s knowledge and skills?” In other words, if a parent believes their child would benefit from enriched instruction (possibly beyond what the coursework for the “advanced” cluster), asking the teacher what that might look like.

SGMS PTA Meeting, November 9, 2016 Page 4