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Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)
What's wrong with this math picture?
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Anonymous
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I have just realized that almost every kid I know in MCPS elementary schools who's been pushed ahead a year in math has an outside math tutor. Granted, it's a small sampling, but it's five out of the eight children I know who have been.
What is up with that? |
Anonymous
| I'll add to your sample. My daughter is one year ahead and does not have a math tutor. Why would she need one? |
Anonymous
Please help me understand your argument. Are you saying that of 8 kids you know to be in MCPS accelerated math, 5 have a math tutor? And you are saying that 5 out of 8 constitutes "almost every kid I know"? 8 is a very small sample, and 5/8 is hardly "almost every." |
Anonymous
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That's a very small sample. My son is a grade accelerated and hasn't needed a tutor. In fact, he complains at times that it still goes too slowly.
If a parent feels their child is being pushed too far too fast, tell the school to move the child back to grade level. There's no rush. |
Anonymous
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Our child is accelerated and has no tutor. DC will skip a second year of math this summer.
In rare instances, I have to explain some bit of homework to her, but it's usually because the explanation given in class is poor, not because of the acceleration itself. None of her friends have tutors either. |
Anonymous
| Here's what my husband and I are currently discussing...if your child is having a hard time in advanced math, how do you know whether they are misplaced or whether the teaching is inadequate? |
Anonymous
| My children are both 2 years ahead with no tutoring. One is opver accelerated and one is not. I can see the difference in their understanding of the material. One "does" the work rotely. The other "gets" it..can come up with alternate methods of problem solving than what is presented etc . |
Anonymous
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Just so you know....I work in a Bethesda public elem. school. Many of the kids in the upper grades are in accelerated math classes. They are there because that is what the parents want not because that is where they actually belong. It drives teachers nuts. Many of the "accelerated" kids have huge gaps in their math knowledge because they skipped a year or two of math. (probably why some need tutors) Parents in MCPS get what they want and many of them want their kid to be "advanced" Don't you know that all kids who live in Bethesda are advanced...haha.
Signed, A MCPS graduate, parent and teacher |
Anonymous
The teaching is not inadequate; the curriculum, however, is. Most students who "excel" are doing so b/c the math curriculum has been watered down. So although they claim it's at a higher level, there are many components missing. |
Anonymous
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OP here -- that's what I worry about. For the record, my DC skipped one year and does NOT have a tutor. But the kids I know who do are plenty bright.
I worry that she's missing things and that this will all catch up with her in high school. |
Anonymous
| I'm the person currently discussing issue with husband. We decided to give it another year (not tell the school to move child down to regular math, even if she is placed in advanced math). We figure to give it one more "chance" and if she struggles two years in a row (with two different teachers/classes) than that means she shouldn't be there. I am very encouraged by the reading instruction in MCPS (elem school in Bethesda) and extremely discouraged by the math instruction. I hope that MCPS administration is listening to the increasing discontent. |
Anonymous
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A 5th-grade math teacher at a top-performing MCPS elementary school told me that she felt eh curriculum was rushing the kids. On parents' visiting day, I sat in on her class and was incredulous at the pace: she'd go through one problem quickly and then speed on the the next. Later she actually got the school to add 10 minutes to her class bvy taking 10 minutes from the "specials" class right beforr hers, and my DD said that the extra 10 minutes made a big difference.
But then DD went to a top private school in 7th grade and found that although she was in honors pre-algebra and technically "retaking" math she had taken in 6th at MCPS, this math as taught in the private school was much deeper and broader in coverge than she had gotten in MCPS. She had to work hard to get A's in honors pre-algebra in 7th; I think she did not learn it that well in 6th at MCPS even though she got all A's in MCPS. |
Anonymous
We had the same experience when our son moved from MCPS to independent school in 7th. Despite having gotten straight As with minimal effort for years in MCPS, he found that "repeating" pre-algebra in 7th at his new school was much more challenging than he expected. He's now in high school and is an excellent math student, whose math SAT scores were higher than his old friends who are still in MCPS, despite the fact that they have followed a more "accellerated" math curriculum. |
Anonymous
15:30 here. Our experience was just like yours. After going on to private school, DD was able to meet the challenge of pre-algebra by working harder than she had a MCPS. The only thing I would point out is that the math SAT score is a measure of aptitude, not of achievement, and I would interpret your son's higher math SAT score relative to his friends' as an indication not of having received better math teaching since he went to an independent school but of having a better, innate aptitude for math. My DD has not taken the math SAT yet, but she aced the math SSAT with a perfect score. Probably our children's aptitude for math helped them meet the greater challenges of pre-algebra as taught at the private schools they went to after MCPS. |
Anonymous
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In 5th and 6th grade in your MCPS how many minutes a day are allotted for math instruction?
Or if your child is in a different school -- I'd also like to know. |