AMP6+ versus 7th grade math in 6th Grade
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Anonymous
| My son was recommended by his teacher to take 7th grade math next year, when he is in 6th grade. He's in compacted math and gets As, but didn't make the cutoff for the magnet program. I guess this means he would skip part of 6th grade math next year. And the bonus is that he wouldn't have to repeat part of 6th? |
Anonymous
| Our school used to offer 7th grade math to 6th graders and 8th grade math to 7th graders for this very reason. But this coming year they have had to switch to AMP 6+/7+. If you have the option to send your DC to math 7 next year, I would definitely do that. Student then can go more slowly through 7th and 8th grade content and won’t have to repeat 6th. |
Anonymous
| Doesn’t your school have AIM? |
Anonymous
| Yes, but he didn’t get placed into it by the central office. Too bad, as he would be fine in the class. Sometimes he gets nervous on the MAP tests. |
Anonymous
| How is everyone finding out their kids' MS math placement already? Last year I did not find out until I think late spring? |
Anonymous
Oh, that's a raise heck with the counselor and principal for placement. Every day, every hour, until they relent! Pleasantly of course, but persistently. Some principals and counselors cave fast, some cave slow; but they nearly all eventually cave. If you are SURE they can handle it, just keep at it. Go over heads if need be. Teacher here, students get placed in and out of classes all the time because of parental/student desire. Sure, admin likes to pretend it isn't done. Don't believe them. |
Anonymous
| For some people the recommendation is showing up under Course Request. But that’s not the case for our MS. |
Anonymous
For our DD (SSIMS) the math recommendation is under course request. However, it lists the teacher recommendation as AMP6+. I believe it should be higher under the circumstances (i.e., current 5/6 math student, MAP-M 246, all As, made magnet lottery but not selected). I understand that AIM can only be assigned centrally by MCPS - so I assume this means the recommendation may change -but am am not sure about Math 7 or AMP7+, both of which are listed as possible articulation options at our MS for students currently in 5/6. |
Anonymous
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I'm new to this. My kid did not get recommended to the magnet for math but is making As in compacted 5/6. His recommendation under Course Request is Applied Investig Math 6/Teacher Recommended
Is that AIM? What is AMP? What's the differences between 6 and 6+? (is there a difference?) So many acronyms and I haven't been able to find a page on MCPS that defines them all! |
Anonymous
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I think the SSIMS chart is wrong, if it was the one linked by the ES principal. The 7+ at the bottom of the 6th grade column should be AIM.
As far as teacher recs go, some are reporting, here, that teachers are recommending AIM. Our own said they didn't have that as an option -- at all (the system constrained them to 6 or 6+). Not sure if it's different at the different schools (horror show, but not out of the realm of MCPS possibility) or if the AIM recs some are seeing are a central office override of the teacher recs for kids placed in the lottery pool. AIM is assigned centrally, but that doesn't mean principals can't make the choice to add interested students to that class. Same with HIGH. |
Anonymous
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I think what we are seeing is preliminary - in most cases it doesn't include the information from the letters that just came out. I'm thinking it is the first step in the planning process. My guess is things for AIM and HIGH may shift in the coming weeks.
The FAQs say the middle school can place students in the enriched courses, but the course catalogs say they can only be placed by "MCPS".... weird, aren't they all part of MCPS? Is that saying it's not a parent request? |
Anonymous
In middle school, from 6th grade to 8th, "Normal" course: Math 6 => Math 7. => Math 8 (prep for Algebra 1 in 9th grade) Advanced course: AMP 6+ (6th & 1/2 of 7th) => AMP 7÷ (1/2 of 7th & 8th) => Algebra 1 Highly-advanced course: AIM (7th & 8th) => Algebra 1 => Geometry There are support courses for those who have difficulty with the on-grade-level material. There are also smaller minorities of highly-advanced students who take an even more accelerated set of classes. That's supposed to be for one-off exceptions with tremendous ability, but, from various DCUM discussions, it looks like certain schools caved to large numbers of parent advocates, getting whole classes of Algebra in 6th, for instance, or even in 5th, if you believe them. They are always circumspect about the particular schools, though Frost has been mentioned and "a DCC school" (in response to all this being available only to those in Potomac). Glad your teacher rec says AIM. If your kid did not get into the magnet but was in the lottery pool, that's where they are supposed to be. If they didn't make the pool but were recommended for AIM, I'd jump on that (as long as your kid is doing swimmingly in 5/6). Monitor to be sure they get that, and advocate with the teacher rec in case they don't. |
Anonymous
THANK YOU so much, PP! This is so much clearer than anything I've gotten from MCPS so far. |
Anonymous
| I have no idea how it works at other schools, but I have a kid in AIM6 at Frost and can confirm they have an Algebra class for 6th graders. During course selection in 5th grade, AIM was presented to us as the advanced option but not super advanced so I had no idea that AMP existed. I just checked and it looks like she's been recommended for Algebra in 7th so it seems like the path is AIM in 6th > Algebra in 7th > Geometry in 8th. Again, not sure if that's the same for all schools or students. |
Anonymous
That is the standard advanced track with algebra in 7th. |