STUPID decision - reading is the single most important skill a child could / should learn. Big step backwards!!! So it is safe to assume that our property taxes will be decreased - correct!!!

The headline for this report is very misleading. The proposal is NOT to eliminate reading instruction at the middle school level. Rather, it is to better align the HC middle school curriculum with the emerging set of "Common Core" standards being cooperatively developed by more than 45 state. In this realignment, reading instruction would dispersed throughout other classes (social studies, science, etc.) and take on more of a "disciplinary reading" character, which has been identified by many studies as a weakness in the American educational system. There are plusses and minueses to what is being proposed to the HC Board of Education tonight. Reasonable people can disagree on the approach being recommended. All concerned citizens and parents should read the proposal and discuss it among their neighbors. Local PTAs should definitely weigh in on this. However, let's be accurate about what's being proposed, and not go by sensationalist headlines that are being used to draw attention to a news story.

Thanks for clarifying that....even the article was kinda misleading as well..

John H. is right, there are a lot of positives to this plan. I think the negative is that they have started the process by announcing that they will be scrapping the current plan and "reassigning" reading staff. No one likes change when it is seems to be ignoring the positives and causes chaos. There are issues with related arts teachers and others losing their planning time not to mention that it is a move away from explicitly teaching reading. I like that we are talking about this now in Nov-Dec rather than April. I think that they would have won the teacher's union easier if they had started with collaborative meetings among middle school reading teachers and staff, and possibly some parents too, to discuss how to align the reading curriculum to the common core. If they addressed those valid concerns up front with a collaborative process, I think there would be teachers excited to start the change rather than dreading not being able to do their jobs. I actually look forward to seeing these changes as a positive change. As a mother of a former middleschooler I always felt that the reading classes were a repeat of the English class only not as interesting and double the work for kids who already have too much homework. I also think that this is an opportunity for reading teachers to focus on actually teaching in conjunction with a subject that is interesting to the student rather than assessment data points and grades. Sounds like a dream job for a teacher.

I concur with much of what Heather says. However, for the record, some middle school staff (administrators mostly) were involved in shaping the proposal. Unfortunately, the planners didn't formally involve persons from the Howard County Education Association (a.k.a. the teachers union), leading to some hard feelings and misunderstandings.

Does the district have a plan to address the Common Core standards for English Language Arts in grades 6 through 8?

For example, sixth graders are expected to "Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to or viewing
an audio, video, or live version of the text, including contrasting what they “see” and “hear” when reading the text to what they perceive when they listen or watch." Seventh graders are expected to "Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a
time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history." Those are quotes from page 27 of the Standards (corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA%20Standards.pdf).