Freshman Math at W-L - Are many struggling?
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Anonymous
| DC is really struggling in A2 Intensified at W-L, and tells me grades in their class are quite terrible across the board. Also tells me that friends in other math classes, like Geometry, report a struggle and low grades. Is this class struggling after having subpar math experiences due to the pandemic for formative years, or is this what it’s always like? Or is my kid just hanging out with the few other kids who are struggling (and most are doing just fine)? |
Anonymous
| I know some kids struggling with geometry int. in 8th right now. They also struggled last year in remote. I think it’s a mix of pandemic plus at least one of them should have done one track slower. |
Anonymous
| My DS is in the same class (Alg 2/trig) at W-L and working like crazy for a low B/high C. He is frustrated too and stressed out. I think missing the last quarter on factoring and quadratics in Algebra I in spring of 2020 is really hurting the students. |
Anonymous
Wait, what? they didn't do remediation on the missed topics when school resumed? |
Anonymous
Yes, they covered it the first weeks of Geometry last year. And again the first weeks of Alg2/Trig this year, but then the teacher has to accelerate the remaining intensified math course --so it's even harder than prior years. Hopefully a math teacher will chime in here. |
Anonymous
| My kid is getting really discouraged. I’m worried he will shut down. The abbreviated algebra 1 is part of the problem. How can we make up for lost time and help these kids? My kid has a tutor and is still running Cs and Ds on quizzes and tests. |
Anonymous
| Maybe they need to give the A2 kids an A1 diagnostic and add a catch-up class to the W-L Saturday school program for those who need it? Or maybe a virtual after school program? GP is tricky because the time is limited and apparently getting a pass can take a while (maybe a pass that works for a whole week at a time would help)? |
Anonymous
| Even pre-covid Intensified Alg 2/Trig is a bear and a big step up from Intensified Alg and Intensified Geo in middle school. My DD sailed through the middle school classes and Intens. A2/Trig was awful for her. I think part of that was that she was also doing a time-intensive EC freshman year + lots of intensified classes and it was all just too much but math was the worst since if you missed something early on it was really hard to catch up. She ended up opting to drop down to regular Alg 2 and life got much better. |
Anonymous
| I feel like I've heard all the maths are challenging at W-L right now. I think the teachers/admins haven't accounted for the last year or so of virtual school. |
Anonymous
| I have a student in pre-calc at Wakefield. They started the year with a quick unit to re-cap Algebra 2. Apparently almost every kid in the class failed the test. Mine got a 10/100 (and a B in math last year). We got a tutor, which is helping, but I think a lot of kids did not really learn math remotely. The SOL scores from APS are atrocious. Online learning was a failure, and APS is not admitting it or appropriately remediating. We are lucky we can afford a tutor. |
Anonymous
I’m a math teacher at a different school and many are struggling after the past two years of being home. They missed a lot but want to stay on the same “track.” Content can’t slow down forever. Somewhere they need to catch up. Teachers can remediate and review but at some point students need to decide if they should stay in the honors/intensified course. Sometimes it is better to take a year or two and slow it down than always trying to press ahead at full steam. There are too many gaps and it’s not fair to some of these kids to be pushed this hard right now. |
Anonymous
| ^What I mean is, you can’t always except the next course to fill in the gaps from the previous class. Math classes always review but this year is going to be much harder for many because they have to catch up on content from Alg 1 plus learn all of the material in Alg II. If they don’t, they won’t be ready for the next class and the content deficits snowball. Many of these kids should not have taken honors/intensified this year given the Alg 1 gaps. |
Anonymous
| At BTSN in fall of 2019, my kid's math teacher warned parents that the class moves fast, and reminded parents that even regular algebra II in 9th grade would allow kids to take calc before graduating. |
Anonymous
Agreed. I would also encourage getting a tutor ASAP. At W-L they have a list of students who are available for math tutoring through the Math Dept. Speak to the teacher to get a recommendation. The one my DD had freshman year was a huge help! |
Anonymous
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I have a child at WL who struggled with math pre-pandemic. We had her in Algebra II Strategies concurrently with Algebra II in an attempt to give her a stronger math foundation heading into the higher levels. The Strategies teacher was amazing but her regular Algebra II teacher was just awful. This was 10th grade when they were home for the 4th quarter. Last year she was entirely virtual and had an amazing Algebra III teacher who caught them up and did a great job teaching online all year. She got her best math grades ever.
I guess my point is I have found the math instruction hit or miss even before the pandemic and online learning. Nothing anyone has said surprises me. They do offer math labs and extra help during lunch and other times. It takes initiative but kids can take advantage of that if they want to. With luck they might latch on to a different math teacher who might be more help. We also have used a tutor off and on for the years when the teaching wasn’t as good. |