Highest math track- middle school

[Anonymous]

What is the most accelerated math track offered at your child’s middle school for grades 6-8?

What is the criteria?

[Anonymous]

It depends on the school. The wealthiest schools offer more options for easy acceleration.

[Anonymous]

Why do you care? Your kid should be on the math track that is appropriate for your kid. Don't worry about what others are doing.

[Anonymous]

A small number of kids will take Algebra H in 6th grade. Perhaps 15% of the kids in FCPS will take Algebra H in 7th grade. After that there are a number of paths forward based a child’s interest and the course offerings at each school but Calculus, Linear Algebra, Statistics of some sort and other options are available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the most accelerated math track offered at your child’s middle school for grades 6-8?

What is the criteria?

At our RoVA county middle school it's Algebra I Honors in 6th.

The criteria - we were told - include 5th grade teacher recommendation, past NWEA results (they discontinued it though), past SOL results (only up to 5th grade SOL), and a math coach invites selected students to take the IAAT in the Spring of their 5th year. Last year, 8 out of ~320 students made it. Note that our AAP here is a joke and actively anti-math. Fortunately, GT teachers do not participate in the selection for the advanced math track. The children who worked hard to achieve this usually had to rely on the support of their parents, in a few cases against the active resistance of their elementary school teachers (I'm saying a "few" - we've lucked out and had very supportive ES teachers in 4th and 5th grade where our child could substitute in-class assignments with their AoPS work. Covid helped a lot, too, since the kids spent less time in school.)

To answer your question regarding criteria, since our child had a 274 K2-6 NWEA in 4th grade, 600 SOLs and a 100% raw IAAT score I cannot tell you what the cut-off is. I don't believe they publish one. I understand that some of the kids got in with slightly lower stats. Nevertheless, they're all doing really well and are on track for Geometry and then Algebra II in 8th. Not all of them are active in Math enrichment activities though.

More acceleration is rare, but there is one case where parents insisted on skipping Geometry, one case where they skipped Algebra I and placed straight into Geometry, and also cases of transfer students who ended up taking Trig in 8th grade, but I wouldn't count this as "offered Math track." Overall, it's a very successful selection program our county is proud of, which is why there was so much panic when the Democrats' VMPI proposal wanted to end these opportunities for our math kids.

[Anonymous]

A few kids will take algebra in 6th grade. Around half will take algebra in 7th grade.

7th grade algebra is from teacher recommendations, generally anyone getting an A in prealgebra or foundations of algebra.

6th grade algebra is 90% on SOL7 given in 5th grade, 82 is the cutoff for prealgebra in 6th grade. The 5th graders might possibly also take IAAT.

[Anonymous]

I teach at a secondary school so the advanced middle schoolers just walk over to the high school pod for math if nevessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the most accelerated math track offered at your child’s middle school for grades 6-8?

What is the criteria?

At our kid's middle school, it's Algebra 1 in 6th; Geometry in 7th and Algebra 2/Trig in 8th. For Algebra 2/Trig, kids take bus from middle school to the base high school for the class as it's not offerred at their middle school.

The process starts at the Spring of 5th grade and based on MAP scores and probably other test scores, ie, math grades; SOLs; CogAT; NNAT (pretty sure based on MAP scores and not very sure about others), the Math teacher/counselor would contact parents letting them know their child qualified for a placement test to take 8th grade math in 6th grade and ask for permission to let the child take the test. If yes and the child scores 83% and above on the placement test, he/she can take the path as I mentioned above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A few kids will take algebra in 6th grade. Around half will take algebra in 7th grade.

7th grade algebra is from teacher recommendations, generally anyone getting an A in prealgebra or foundations of algebra.

6th grade algebra is 90% on SOL7 given in 5th grade, 82 is the cutoff for prealgebra in 6th grade. The 5th graders might possibly also take IAAT.

Do you have to already be in a special class or situation to take SOL7 in 5th grade. (7 vs 5?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the most accelerated math track offered at your child’s middle school for grades 6-8?

What is the criteria?

Algebra 1 in 7th is the most advanced at pretty much every FCPS school, and is available at every FCPS school. I think there were less than 39 6th graders who took the algebra 1 SOL but thousands of 7th graders

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the most accelerated math track offered at your child’s middle school for grades 6-8?

What is the criteria?

At our RoVA county middle school it's Algebra I Honors in 6th.

The criteria - we were told - include 5th grade teacher recommendation, past NWEA results (they discontinued it though), past SOL results (only up to 5th grade SOL), and a math coach invites selected students to take the IAAT in the Spring of their 5th year. Last year, 8 out of ~320 students made it. Note that our AAP here is a joke and actively anti-math. Fortunately, GT teachers do not participate in the selection for the advanced math track. The children who worked hard to achieve this usually had to rely on the support of their parents, in a few cases against the active resistance of their elementary school teachers (I'm saying a "few" - we've lucked out and had very supportive ES teachers in 4th and 5th grade where our child could substitute in-class assignments with their AoPS work. Covid helped a lot, too, since the kids spent less time in school.)

To answer your question regarding criteria, since our child had a 274 K2-6 NWEA in 4th grade, 600 SOLs and a 100% raw IAAT score I cannot tell you what the cut-off is. I don't believe they publish one. I understand that some of the kids got in with slightly lower stats. Nevertheless, they're all doing really well and are on track for Geometry and then Algebra II in 8th. Not all of them are active in Math enrichment activities though.

More acceleration is rare, but there is one case where parents insisted on skipping Geometry, one case where they skipped Algebra I and placed straight into Geometry, and also cases of transfer students who ended up taking Trig in 8th grade, but I wouldn't count this as "offered Math track." Overall, it's a very successful selection program our county is proud of, which is why there was so much panic when the Democrats' VMPI proposal wanted to end these opportunities for our math kids.

Do the 6th graders take the algebra 1 SOL?

[Anonymous]

My kids took:
6th - Alg 1 (they were bussed to the MS for 1st period and then bussed back to the ES for rest of the day)
7th - Geo (at MS)
8th - Alg 2 (at MS)

The most advanced (my recollection is just a couple of kids) either took Alg 1 starting in 5th grade or took Geo in the summer between 6th/7th. They then took Precalc in 8th grade at the nearest HS - they had to be driven there by parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the most accelerated math track offered at your child’s middle school for grades 6-8?

What is the criteria?

At our RoVA county middle school it's Algebra I Honors in 6th.

The criteria - we were told - include 5th grade teacher recommendation, past NWEA results (they discontinued it though), past SOL results (only up to 5th grade SOL), and a math coach invites selected students to take the IAAT in the Spring of their 5th year. Last year, 8 out of ~320 students made it. Note that our AAP here is a joke and actively anti-math. Fortunately, GT teachers do not participate in the selection for the advanced math track. The children who worked hard to achieve this usually had to rely on the support of their parents, in a few cases against the active resistance of their elementary school teachers (I'm saying a "few" - we've lucked out and had very supportive ES teachers in 4th and 5th grade where our child could substitute in-class assignments with their AoPS work. Covid helped a lot, too, since the kids spent less time in school.)

To answer your question regarding criteria, since our child had a 274 K2-6 NWEA in 4th grade, 600 SOLs and a 100% raw IAAT score I cannot tell you what the cut-off is. I don't believe they publish one. I understand that some of the kids got in with slightly lower stats. Nevertheless, they're all doing really well and are on track for Geometry and then Algebra II in 8th. Not all of them are active in Math enrichment activities though.

More acceleration is rare, but there is one case where parents insisted on skipping Geometry, one case where they skipped Algebra I and placed straight into Geometry, and also cases of transfer students who ended up taking Trig in 8th grade, but I wouldn't count this as "offered Math track." Overall, it's a very successful selection program our county is proud of, which is why there was so much panic when the Democrats' VMPI proposal wanted to end these opportunities for our math kids.

Do the 6th graders take the algebra 1 SOL?

Well, yes. It's a standard high school level Algebra I Honors class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids took:
6th - Alg 1 (they were bussed to the MS for 1st period and then bussed back to the ES for rest of the day)
7th - Geo (at MS)
8th - Alg 2 (at MS)

The most advanced (my recollection is just a couple of kids) either took Alg 1 starting in 5th grade or took Geo in the summer between 6th/7th. They then took Precalc in 8th grade at the nearest HS - they had to be driven there by parents

What math class will they take in9, 10, 11 and 12th grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the most accelerated math track offered at your child’s middle school for grades 6-8?

What is the criteria?

Algebra 1 in 7th is the most advanced at pretty much every FCPS school, and is available at every FCPS school. I think there were less than 39 6th graders who took the algebra 1 SOL but thousands of 7th graders

How do those fraction of 6th graders qualify for Alfebra 1 sol?