Compacted math going away?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the teacher is wrong or misunderstood something. A third grade teacher would not necessarily know the curricular pathway for upper elementary.

If you are concerned, however, you should probably take this question to the gifted education community of the Montgomery County PTA. They have a Facebook group and would be able to get an answer from the central office relatively quickly I think

+1 This is your best way to an answer. It has absolutely not been announced or publicized anywhere official that compacted math is going away next year. But sometimes people in Central Office start making plans or decisions, particularly around accelerated and enriched programs, and do not inform anyone.
FWIW, I do think there have been some low key rumblings about changes for next year. My kids are in MS, so it wouldn’t affect me. But I’d get with the Gifted Ed committee if I had a 3rd grader, tbh. These decisions can and will affect the trajectory kids can have in high school and will potentially put the strongest students at a disadvantage compared to other students in other jurisdictions who can access upper level math in HS because of their earlier pathway.
Many current high schoolers are lacking in some foundational math concepts. This is almost entirely because MCPS condensed/omitted a ton of math content the two covid years and never went back and covered it. I fear they will mistakenly use that data to justify needing to slow down everyone’s path in a sneaky attempt to eliminate acceleration earlier on, even in the face of students like OP’s who clearly demonstrate a readiness and need for acceleration and enrichment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the teacher is wrong or misunderstood something. A third grade teacher would not necessarily know the curricular pathway for upper elementary.

If you are concerned, however, you should probably take this question to the gifted education community of the Montgomery County PTA. They have a Facebook group and would be able to get an answer from the central office relatively quickly I think

A 3rd grade teacher's job is to help sort kids into 4th grade CM.

But many, many teachers don't actually know what's going on with administration, and pass around rumors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the teacher is wrong or misunderstood something. A third grade teacher would not necessarily know the curricular pathway for upper elementary.

If you are concerned, however, you should probably take this question to the gifted education community of the Montgomery County PTA. They have a Facebook group and would be able to get an answer from the central office relatively quickly I think

+1 This is your best way to an answer. It has absolutely not been announced or publicized anywhere official that compacted math is going away next year. But sometimes people in Central Office start making plans or decisions, particularly around accelerated and enriched programs, and do not inform anyone.
FWIW, I do think there have been some low key rumblings about changes for next year. My kids are in MS, so it wouldn’t affect me. But I’d get with the Gifted Ed committee if I had a 3rd grader, tbh. These decisions can and will affect the trajectory kids can have in high school and will potentially put the strongest students at a disadvantage compared to other students in other jurisdictions who can access upper level math in HS because of their earlier pathway.
Many current high schoolers are lacking in some foundational math concepts. This is almost entirely because MCPS condensed/omitted a ton of math content the two covid years and never went back and covered it. I fear they will mistakenly use that data to justify needing to slow down everyone’s path in a sneaky attempt to eliminate acceleration earlier on, even in the face of students like OP’s who clearly demonstrate a readiness and need for acceleration and enrichment.

You mean because kids spend a year and a half playing Fortnite instead of doing their schoolwork.

[Anonymous]

This is speculation, but maybe compacted math is being changed in some way due to curriculum issues.

Compacted math, covering 4th-6th grade math in elementary school, used to lead to AIM, covering 7th and 8th grade math in 6th grade, and then to algebra in 7th. AIM was created by MCPS, and many middle schools seem to be getting rid of it in favor of the options available from the current MS curriculum provider (LearnZillion/Imagine Learning Classroom). LearnZillion options include "6+", which covers 6th and half of 7th grade math, and "7+", which covers the rest of 7th and 8th grade math. So if you're trying to get to Algebra in 7th grade using these options, you end up doing compacted math and then 7+, missing part of the 7th grade math curriculum.

I could see MCPS trying to adjust the elementary school compacted classes to address this, but I don't know if that's really happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hasn't compacted math been going away for a decade now?

It seems to be out of step with equity whose goal is to dumb down all high-achievers to create an equally bad outcome.

I know that you view equity this way, but an actual equitable approach to this question is the one MCPS was pursuing at at least one point. An equitable approach acknowledges that kids are coming in with different levels of support, and scaffolds in additional support to kids who have potential but lack the advantages of some of their peers.

My child (middle class, single parent household) benefited from that approach through free Saturday enrichment beginning in 3rd grade. MCPS identified my child as "gifted" but correctly identified that my child did not have access to expensive and time-consuming outside enrichment. So they plugged in that support to help create a level playing ground. Many years later, my child was successful in a rigorous magnet programs and has already secured admission to their first-choice college. No wealthy or well-supported child was harmed through the "equity-based" support that MCPS gave my child in elementary school, and no one's class was "dumbed down" because the district tried to level the playing ground through free enrichment for gifted kids from low and medium income families.

Affirmative action and DEI sound great too (and maybe even were a long time ago) but they've metastasized into the very thing they were created to combat. It's the same with equity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is speculation, but maybe compacted math is being changed in some way due to curriculum issues.

Compacted math, covering 4th-6th grade math in elementary school, used to lead to AIM, covering 7th and 8th grade math in 6th grade, and then to algebra in 7th. AIM was created by MCPS, and many middle schools seem to be getting rid of it in favor of the options available from the current MS curriculum provider (LearnZillion/Imagine Learning Classroom). LearnZillion options include "6+", which covers 6th and half of 7th grade math, and "7+", which covers the rest of 7th and 8th grade math. So if you're trying to get to Algebra in 7th grade using these options, you end up doing compacted math and then 7+, missing part of the 7th grade math curriculum.

I could see MCPS trying to adjust the elementary school compacted classes to address this, but I don't know if that's really happening.

How would this align with the WPES schools that offer further acceleration and enrichment in ES so that students complete Algebra in 6th or earlier?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is speculation, but maybe compacted math is being changed in some way due to curriculum issues.

Compacted math, covering 4th-6th grade math in elementary school, used to lead to AIM, covering 7th and 8th grade math in 6th grade, and then to algebra in 7th. AIM was created by MCPS, and many middle schools seem to be getting rid of it in favor of the options available from the current MS curriculum provider (LearnZillion/Imagine Learning Classroom). LearnZillion options include "6+", which covers 6th and half of 7th grade math, and "7+", which covers the rest of 7th and 8th grade math. So if you're trying to get to Algebra in 7th grade using these options, you end up doing compacted math and then 7+, missing part of the 7th grade math curriculum.

I could see MCPS trying to adjust the elementary school compacted classes to address this, but I don't know if that's really happening.

I think this makes a lot of sense and is the most plausible explanation I've seen on this thread. The elementary curricular provider is Eureka, and the MS provider is LearnZillion. If you have ES kids doing MS math, it will need to straddle those two providers or will require some changes in the second half of 5th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the teacher is wrong or misunderstood something. A third grade teacher would not necessarily know the curricular pathway for upper elementary.

If you are concerned, however, you should probably take this question to the gifted education community of the Montgomery County PTA. They have a Facebook group and would be able to get an answer from the central office relatively quickly I think

+1 This is your best way to an answer. It has absolutely not been announced or publicized anywhere official that compacted math is going away next year. But sometimes people in Central Office start making plans or decisions, particularly around accelerated and enriched programs, and do not inform anyone.
FWIW, I do think there have been some low key rumblings about changes for next year. My kids are in MS, so it wouldn’t affect me. But I’d get with the Gifted Ed committee if I had a 3rd grader, tbh. These decisions can and will affect the trajectory kids can have in high school and will potentially put the strongest students at a disadvantage compared to other students in other jurisdictions who can access upper level math in HS because of their earlier pathway.
Many current high schoolers are lacking in some foundational math concepts. This is almost entirely because MCPS condensed/omitted a ton of math content the two covid years and never went back and covered it. I fear they will mistakenly use that data to justify needing to slow down everyone’s path in a sneaky attempt to eliminate acceleration earlier on, even in the face of students like OP’s who clearly demonstrate a readiness and need for acceleration and enrichment.

You mean because kids spend a year and a half playing Fortnite instead of doing their schoolwork.

I actually don’t. I’m sure there were lots who did. But MCPS actually published a long list of all the topics they omitted and condensed to fit into the 4-day (No Wednesday) pacing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is speculation, but maybe compacted math is being changed in some way due to curriculum issues.

Compacted math, covering 4th-6th grade math in elementary school, used to lead to AIM, covering 7th and 8th grade math in 6th grade, and then to algebra in 7th. AIM was created by MCPS, and many middle schools seem to be getting rid of it in favor of the options available from the current MS curriculum provider (LearnZillion/Imagine Learning Classroom). LearnZillion options include "6+", which covers 6th and half of 7th grade math, and "7+", which covers the rest of 7th and 8th grade math. So if you're trying to get to Algebra in 7th grade using these options, you end up doing compacted math and then 7+, missing part of the 7th grade math curriculum.

I could see MCPS trying to adjust the elementary school compacted classes to address this, but I don't know if that's really happening.

That’s fine, but if they eliminate ES acceleration and start at 6+ for advanced 6th graders, no one will get to Algebra until 8th, which is out of step with a lot of the rest of the country and will have consequences for students in high school and college.

Back in the 90s, in a different Maryland jurisdiction, we had everyone in 4th grade math together, advanced kids did both 5th and 6th grade math in 5th, in 6th grade we did pre-algebra and then Algebra 1 in 7th. Advanced kids was probably the top 15-20 percent, but I don’t actually know. It wasn’t most kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is speculation, but maybe compacted math is being changed in some way due to curriculum issues.

Compacted math, covering 4th-6th grade math in elementary school, used to lead to AIM, covering 7th and 8th grade math in 6th grade, and then to algebra in 7th. AIM was created by MCPS, and many middle schools seem to be getting rid of it in favor of the options available from the current MS curriculum provider (LearnZillion/Imagine Learning Classroom). LearnZillion options include "6+", which covers 6th and half of 7th grade math, and "7+", which covers the rest of 7th and 8th grade math. So if you're trying to get to Algebra in 7th grade using these options, you end up doing compacted math and then 7+, missing part of the 7th grade math curriculum.

I could see MCPS trying to adjust the elementary school compacted classes to address this, but I don't know if that's really happening.

This doesn’t make sense to me. I thought 5/6 is supposed to cover half of 5 and all of 6.
7+ should cover all of 7 and perhaps half of 8. To me the solution would not be to change CM which seems fine to me, but to have LZ adjust their curriculum flow or find a MS math provider who would do 7/8, 8/9, 9/10 so to speak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is speculation, but maybe compacted math is being changed in some way due to curriculum issues.

Compacted math, covering 4th-6th grade math in elementary school, used to lead to AIM, covering 7th and 8th grade math in 6th grade, and then to algebra in 7th. AIM was created by MCPS, and many middle schools seem to be getting rid of it in favor of the options available from the current MS curriculum provider (LearnZillion/Imagine Learning Classroom). LearnZillion options include "6+", which covers 6th and half of 7th grade math, and "7+", which covers the rest of 7th and 8th grade math. So if you're trying to get to Algebra in 7th grade using these options, you end up doing compacted math and then 7+, missing part of the 7th grade math curriculum.

I could see MCPS trying to adjust the elementary school compacted classes to address this, but I don't know if that's really happening.

That’s fine, but if they eliminate ES acceleration and start at 6+ for advanced 6th graders, no one will get to Algebra until 8th, which is out of step with a lot of the rest of the country and will have consequences for students in high school and college.

Back in the 90s, in a different Maryland jurisdiction, we had everyone in 4th grade math together, advanced kids did both 5th and 6th grade math in 5th, in 6th grade we did pre-algebra and then Algebra 1 in 7th. Advanced kids was probably the top 15-20 percent, but I don’t actually know. It wasn’t most kids.

Right, my speculation wasn't that they would eliminate ES acceleration, but that maybe they're changing it in some way and the OP's teacher is misinterpreting that as ending compacted math. Maybe (and again, this is total speculation), they will look at a way to combine 4th and 5th grade math together in 4th grade, and then do 6+ in 5th grade and 7+ in 6th grade, leading to algebra in 7th. I agree that they will want to keep a pathway to get to algebra in 7th, and they may want to do something that allows use of the LearnZillion curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is speculation, but maybe compacted math is being changed in some way due to curriculum issues.

Compacted math, covering 4th-6th grade math in elementary school, used to lead to AIM, covering 7th and 8th grade math in 6th grade, and then to algebra in 7th. AIM was created by MCPS, and many middle schools seem to be getting rid of it in favor of the options available from the current MS curriculum provider (LearnZillion/Imagine Learning Classroom). LearnZillion options include "6+", which covers 6th and half of 7th grade math, and "7+", which covers the rest of 7th and 8th grade math. So if you're trying to get to Algebra in 7th grade using these options, you end up doing compacted math and then 7+, missing part of the 7th grade math curriculum.

I could see MCPS trying to adjust the elementary school compacted classes to address this, but I don't know if that's really happening.

This doesn’t make sense to me. I thought 5/6 is supposed to cover half of 5 and all of 6.
7+ should cover all of 7 and perhaps half of 8. To me the solution would not be to change CM which seems fine to me, but to have LZ adjust their curriculum flow or find a MS math provider who would do 7/8, 8/9, 9/10 so to speak.

Math 5/6 is not provided by LearnZillion, so it doesn't flow into their accelerated path easily. As you said, 5/6 (which I believe was created by MCPS) gets all the way through 6th grade math. LZ's 6+ and 7+ work together to cover 6th-8th grade math in 2 years, so 7+ is the second half of the regular 7th grade curriculum and all of 8th grade. MCPS chose LZ as a curriculum provider; I don't think they have the ability to ask LZ to change their curriculum. They could look for a different provider that has different accelerated options the next time they do a curriculum change, though.

[Anonymous]

I think the name maybe has changed - something about being aligned with Eureka math. My kid is in 6th, and in AMP 7+ (formerly AIM). The follow up to that class is Algebra in 7th and Geometry in 8th. My kid was not in 'compacted math 5/6', just in whatever was the advanced math cohort in 4th/5th. They called it Math 5 plus or something.

While I do think there's a lot silly rebranding going on(calling honors for every English class etc) I also think there's an unhealthy trend of everyone in mcps into forced acceleration in math, when it will just not be necessary for most people's lives. I have a graduate degree in applied maths and I guarantee that most people (outside of engineers, hard science, applied math folks) will not need anything beyond alg 2/trig. People would be better served taking several years of statistics. Also, just looking at the mean and ranges of SAT scores shows you that despite all the enriched classes students are just missing the basics. No point in learning differential equations if you cannot just logically solve an algebra problem or calculate a probability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is speculation, but maybe compacted math is being changed in some way due to curriculum issues.

Compacted math, covering 4th-6th grade math in elementary school, used to lead to AIM, covering 7th and 8th grade math in 6th grade, and then to algebra in 7th. AIM was created by MCPS, and many middle schools seem to be getting rid of it in favor of the options available from the current MS curriculum provider (LearnZillion/Imagine Learning Classroom). LearnZillion options include "6+", which covers 6th and half of 7th grade math, and "7+", which covers the rest of 7th and 8th grade math. So if you're trying to get to Algebra in 7th grade using these options, you end up doing compacted math and then 7+, missing part of the 7th grade math curriculum.

I could see MCPS trying to adjust the elementary school compacted classes to address this, but I don't know if that's really happening.

How would this align with the WPES schools that offer further acceleration and enrichment in ES so that students complete Algebra in 6th or earlier?

What do you mean by WPES schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is speculation, but maybe compacted math is being changed in some way due to curriculum issues.

Compacted math, covering 4th-6th grade math in elementary school, used to lead to AIM, covering 7th and 8th grade math in 6th grade, and then to algebra in 7th. AIM was created by MCPS, and many middle schools seem to be getting rid of it in favor of the options available from the current MS curriculum provider (LearnZillion/Imagine Learning Classroom). LearnZillion options include "6+", which covers 6th and half of 7th grade math, and "7+", which covers the rest of 7th and 8th grade math. So if you're trying to get to Algebra in 7th grade using these options, you end up doing compacted math and then 7+, missing part of the 7th grade math curriculum.

I could see MCPS trying to adjust the elementary school compacted classes to address this, but I don't know if that's really happening.

That’s fine, but if they eliminate ES acceleration and start at 6+ for advanced 6th graders, no one will get to Algebra until 8th, which is out of step with a lot of the rest of the country and will have consequences for students in high school and college.

Back in the 90s, in a different Maryland jurisdiction, we had everyone in 4th grade math together, advanced kids did both 5th and 6th grade math in 5th, in 6th grade we did pre-algebra and then Algebra 1 in 7th. Advanced kids was probably the top 15-20 percent, but I don’t actually know. It wasn’t most kids.

No, no it won't. The amount of hand-wringing that parents of 4th graders do on this Board about the need for their child to take Algebra in 7th grade or whatever is always hilarious. Your kid will be just fine and, contrary to popular belief, the impact that their inability to take multivariable calculus by 10th grade or whatever makes you feel happy on what they will be able to take in college is nonexistent.