State set to keep MS math minutes requirement that will likely cut electives (but delaying it a year)

[Anonymous]

Despite all the opposition, MSDE appears to be doubling down on keeping the middle school 60-daily-minutes-of-math requirement, although they are at least planning on delaying it a year (starting in fall 2028 rather than fall 2027.) See here (page 21-22 and page 47)-- the committee will vote on it this Thursday and then the full board will likely vote next Tuesday to put it out for public comment, before finalizing it in July.

However, I suspect MCPS will go ahead with implementing it in the 2027-2028 school year anyway because Central Office wants to get all middle schools and high schools on the same schedule starting in fall 2027 and they're not going to want to change the schedules a second time in 2028.  My guess is that unless MSDE repeals the requirement, MCPS will probably go with a 6-period middle school schedule with only one elective starting in 2027 (or some similar change that also results in just one elective per year in MS), and they will probably announce it by this fall at the earliest to give middle schools enough time to prep for the change.  So unless MSDE repeals this in the next few months, it may well be too late to change anything at MCPS.  

It is very frustrating.  I was hoping the state would relent on this requirement for 60 minutes of math daily in middle school (which no other state does) after all the powerful testimony they've received from teachers of electives, social studies, and science regarding the harmful impacts of such a requirement in middle school.  Apparently they are too stubborn to do so.  At this point I think people who care about this need to focus hard on expressing our alarm to state legislators and asking them to push MSDE to roll this back (plus make clear they will consider overturning this in law next year if MSDE doesn't change course.)  

You can also e-mail State Board of Ed members before the votes-- here is the full list, and the Montgomery County members are: peggy.carr [at] maryland.gov, samir.paul [at] maryland.gov, and nicole.murraylewis [at] maryland.gov  (who's apparently a history teacher at Blake, if anyone knows her personally and can appeal to her directly on this topic)-- and/or sign up to testify at next Tuesday's state Board of Ed meeting (in person, virtually, or through written testimony, although I think the written testimony generally gets ignored): [url]https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/stateboard/pages/publiccomment.aspx
[/url]
(And then of course folks should weigh in through whatever "public comment" process they put out there over the next few weeks-- but there are a bunch of other revisions to the policy that will be part of that as well, and folks shouldn't have any illusions that "public comment" alone will get this repealed.)

[Anonymous]

How do they not understand how disruptive this is? How stupid it is? How pointless it is? Oh yeah-none of them have (if ever) been in a classroom.

[Anonymous]

Well....glad they're pushing it out. My kid will be out of middle school by then and won't have to deal with that rejiggering.

[Anonymous]

OP, do you have info on how we can comment? This is bad.

[Anonymous]

How does this compare to what other states do?

[Anonymous]

OP, do you have a link to the document?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Despite all the opposition, MSDE appears to be doubling down on keeping the middle school 60-daily-minutes-of-math requirement, although they are at least planning on delaying it a year (starting in fall 2028 rather than fall 2027.) See here (page 21-22 and page 47)-- the committee will vote on it this Thursday and then the full board will likely vote next Tuesday to put it out for public comment, before finalizing it in July.

However, I suspect MCPS will go ahead with implementing it in the 2027-2028 school year anyway because Central Office wants to get all middle schools and high schools on the same schedule starting in fall 2027 and they're not going to want to change the schedules a second time in 2028.  My guess is that unless MSDE repeals the requirement, MCPS will probably go with a 6-period middle school schedule with only one elective starting in 2027 (or some similar change that also results in just one elective per year in MS), and they will probably announce it by this fall at the earliest to give middle schools enough time to prep for the change.  So unless MSDE repeals this in the next few months, it may well be too late to change anything at MCPS.  

It is very frustrating.  I was hoping the state would relent on this requirement for 60 minutes of math daily in middle school (which no other state does) after all the powerful testimony they've received from teachers of electives, social studies, and science regarding the harmful impacts of such a requirement in middle school.  Apparently they are too stubborn to do so.  At this point I think people who care about this need to focus hard on expressing our alarm to state legislators and asking them to push MSDE to roll this back (plus make clear they will consider overturning this in law next year if MSDE doesn't change course.)  

You can also e-mail State Board of Ed members before the votes-- here is the full list, and the Montgomery County members are: peggy.carr [at] maryland.gov, samir.paul [at] maryland.gov, and nicole.murraylewis [at] maryland.gov  (who's apparently a history teacher at Blake, if anyone knows her personally and can appeal to her directly on this topic)-- and/or sign up to testify at next Tuesday's state Board of Ed meeting (in person, virtually, or through written testimony, although I think the written testimony generally gets ignored): [url]https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/stateboard/pages/publiccomment.aspx
[/url]
(And then of course folks should weigh in through whatever "public comment" process they put out there over the next few weeks-- but there are a bunch of other revisions to the policy that will be part of that as well, and folks shouldn't have any illusions that "public comment" alone will get this repealed.)

Interesting that the newest teacher representative on the State Board of Ed is an MCPS social studies teacher. Anyone here from Blake or who otherwise knows Ms. Murray-Lewis? I wonder if she knows that one of the options on the table is cutting middle school social studies significantly to fit in the math minutes? She is too new to have signed off on this the first time around-- maybe she can be convinced to speak up to oppose it now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, do you have a link to the document?

https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/stateboard/documents/edpolicycommittee/20260618/comprehensive-math-policy-and-secondary-math-program-a.pdf There's a lot in there-- search for "minutes."

And nowhere else requires anywhere close to 60 minutes of math in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Despite all the opposition, MSDE appears to be doubling down on keeping the middle school 60-daily-minutes-of-math requirement, although they are at least planning on delaying it a year (starting in fall 2028 rather than fall 2027.) See here (page 21-22 and page 47)-- the committee will vote on it this Thursday and then the full board will likely vote next Tuesday to put it out for public comment, before finalizing it in July.

However, I suspect MCPS will go ahead with implementing it in the 2027-2028 school year anyway because Central Office wants to get all middle schools and high schools on the same schedule starting in fall 2027 and they're not going to want to change the schedules a second time in 2028.  My guess is that unless MSDE repeals the requirement, MCPS will probably go with a 6-period middle school schedule with only one elective starting in 2027 (or some similar change that also results in just one elective per year in MS), and they will probably announce it by this fall at the earliest to give middle schools enough time to prep for the change.  So unless MSDE repeals this in the next few months, it may well be too late to change anything at MCPS.  

It is very frustrating.  I was hoping the state would relent on this requirement for 60 minutes of math daily in middle school (which no other state does) after all the powerful testimony they've received from teachers of electives, social studies, and science regarding the harmful impacts of such a requirement in middle school.  Apparently they are too stubborn to do so.  At this point I think people who care about this need to focus hard on expressing our alarm to state legislators and asking them to push MSDE to roll this back (plus make clear they will consider overturning this in law next year if MSDE doesn't change course.)  

You can also e-mail State Board of Ed members before the votes-- here is the full list, and the Montgomery County members are: peggy.carr [at] maryland.gov, samir.paul [at] maryland.gov, and nicole.murraylewis [at] maryland.gov  (who's apparently a history teacher at Blake, if anyone knows her personally and can appeal to her directly on this topic)-- and/or sign up to testify at next Tuesday's state Board of Ed meeting (in person, virtually, or through written testimony, although I think the written testimony generally gets ignored): [url]https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/stateboard/pages/publiccomment.aspx
[/url]
(And then of course folks should weigh in through whatever "public comment" process they put out there over the next few weeks-- but there are a bunch of other revisions to the policy that will be part of that as well, and folks shouldn't have any illusions that "public comment" alone will get this repealed.)

Interesting that the newest teacher representative on the State Board of Ed is an MCPS social studies teacher. Anyone here from Blake or who otherwise knows Ms. Murray-Lewis? I wonder if she knows that one of the options on the table is cutting middle school social studies significantly to fit in the math minutes? She is too new to have signed off on this the first time around-- maybe she can be convinced to speak up to oppose it now.

They aren’t cutting social studies. They may actually be making it 60 mins.

It’s electives that will be cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Despite all the opposition, MSDE appears to be doubling down on keeping the middle school 60-daily-minutes-of-math requirement, although they are at least planning on delaying it a year (starting in fall 2028 rather than fall 2027.) See here (page 21-22 and page 47)-- the committee will vote on it this Thursday and then the full board will likely vote next Tuesday to put it out for public comment, before finalizing it in July.

However, I suspect MCPS will go ahead with implementing it in the 2027-2028 school year anyway because Central Office wants to get all middle schools and high schools on the same schedule starting in fall 2027 and they're not going to want to change the schedules a second time in 2028.  My guess is that unless MSDE repeals the requirement, MCPS will probably go with a 6-period middle school schedule with only one elective starting in 2027 (or some similar change that also results in just one elective per year in MS), and they will probably announce it by this fall at the earliest to give middle schools enough time to prep for the change.  So unless MSDE repeals this in the next few months, it may well be too late to change anything at MCPS.  

It is very frustrating.  I was hoping the state would relent on this requirement for 60 minutes of math daily in middle school (which no other state does) after all the powerful testimony they've received from teachers of electives, social studies, and science regarding the harmful impacts of such a requirement in middle school.  Apparently they are too stubborn to do so.  At this point I think people who care about this need to focus hard on expressing our alarm to state legislators and asking them to push MSDE to roll this back (plus make clear they will consider overturning this in law next year if MSDE doesn't change course.)  

You can also e-mail State Board of Ed members before the votes-- here is the full list, and the Montgomery County members are: peggy.carr [at] maryland.gov, samir.paul [at] maryland.gov, and nicole.murraylewis [at] maryland.gov  (who's apparently a history teacher at Blake, if anyone knows her personally and can appeal to her directly on this topic)-- and/or sign up to testify at next Tuesday's state Board of Ed meeting (in person, virtually, or through written testimony, although I think the written testimony generally gets ignored): [url]https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/stateboard/pages/publiccomment.aspx
[/url]
(And then of course folks should weigh in through whatever "public comment" process they put out there over the next few weeks-- but there are a bunch of other revisions to the policy that will be part of that as well, and folks shouldn't have any illusions that "public comment" alone will get this repealed.)

I think MCPS will gladly take the extra year to figure out any 60-minute math mandate for MS. That said, such a mandate for all students at that level is folly, and MSDE should adopt a more nuanced approach to ensuring MS math success, one that recognizes the limitations and impact of period scheduling.

I don't think MCPS needs to have MS and HS on the same schedule. Where did you see that? If that was the case and MS needed to go to 6 periods, then HS also goes to 6 periods? I mean, they really should be embracing a uniform 8-period block schedule with one period allowed, but not required, to be study hall to facilitate more meaningful magnets and the like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Despite all the opposition, MSDE appears to be doubling down on keeping the middle school 60-daily-minutes-of-math requirement, although they are at least planning on delaying it a year (starting in fall 2028 rather than fall 2027.) See here (page 21-22 and page 47)-- the committee will vote on it this Thursday and then the full board will likely vote next Tuesday to put it out for public comment, before finalizing it in July.

However, I suspect MCPS will go ahead with implementing it in the 2027-2028 school year anyway because Central Office wants to get all middle schools and high schools on the same schedule starting in fall 2027 and they're not going to want to change the schedules a second time in 2028.  My guess is that unless MSDE repeals the requirement, MCPS will probably go with a 6-period middle school schedule with only one elective starting in 2027 (or some similar change that also results in just one elective per year in MS), and they will probably announce it by this fall at the earliest to give middle schools enough time to prep for the change.  So unless MSDE repeals this in the next few months, it may well be too late to change anything at MCPS.  

It is very frustrating.  I was hoping the state would relent on this requirement for 60 minutes of math daily in middle school (which no other state does) after all the powerful testimony they've received from teachers of electives, social studies, and science regarding the harmful impacts of such a requirement in middle school.  Apparently they are too stubborn to do so.  At this point I think people who care about this need to focus hard on expressing our alarm to state legislators and asking them to push MSDE to roll this back (plus make clear they will consider overturning this in law next year if MSDE doesn't change course.)  

You can also e-mail State Board of Ed members before the votes-- here is the full list, and the Montgomery County members are: peggy.carr [at] maryland.gov, samir.paul [at] maryland.gov, and nicole.murraylewis [at] maryland.gov  (who's apparently a history teacher at Blake, if anyone knows her personally and can appeal to her directly on this topic)-- and/or sign up to testify at next Tuesday's state Board of Ed meeting (in person, virtually, or through written testimony, although I think the written testimony generally gets ignored): [url]https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/stateboard/pages/publiccomment.aspx
[/url]
(And then of course folks should weigh in through whatever "public comment" process they put out there over the next few weeks-- but there are a bunch of other revisions to the policy that will be part of that as well, and folks shouldn't have any illusions that "public comment" alone will get this repealed.)

I think MCPS will gladly take the extra year to figure out any 60-minute math mandate for MS. That said, such a mandate for all students at that level is folly, and MSDE should adopt a more nuanced approach to ensuring MS math success, one that recognizes the limitations and impact of period scheduling.

I don't think MCPS needs to have MS and HS on the same schedule. Where did you see that? If that was the case and MS needed to go to 6 periods, then HS also goes to 6 periods? I mean, they really should be embracing a uniform 8-period block schedule with one period allowed, but not required, to be study hall to facilitate more meaningful magnets and the like.

Sorry, I meant "all middle schools the same" and "all high schools the same," not that the middle schools and high schools necessarily need to match with each other.

MCPS has said they are planning to implement new standardized MS and standardized HS schedules in the 2027-28 school year. Plus they need to figure out what they're doing middle-school-schedule-wise before they make decisions about how they change middle school programs, which I think they want to decide on this coming year. In general I get the sense they're antsy to have the new middle school schedules figured out and implemented ASAP, and if they're pretty sure MSDE is going to make them do the 60 minutes then they'll want to get it over with rather than take the extra year. (Plus the changes will probably require laying off a bunch of middle school electives teachers, and they probably want to factor that into the budget for 2027-28.)

But I could be wrong and certainly would be glad to see MCPS wait on the changes. And maybe if MSDE is signaling this is a "not yet, and maybe not ever" situation rather than a "we're definitely requiring this but we'll give you another year to prepare if you want it" situation, they'll wait. But it sounds more like the latter to me...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Despite all the opposition, MSDE appears to be doubling down on keeping the middle school 60-daily-minutes-of-math requirement, although they are at least planning on delaying it a year (starting in fall 2028 rather than fall 2027.) See here (page 21-22 and page 47)-- the committee will vote on it this Thursday and then the full board will likely vote next Tuesday to put it out for public comment, before finalizing it in July.

However, I suspect MCPS will go ahead with implementing it in the 2027-2028 school year anyway because Central Office wants to get all middle schools and high schools on the same schedule starting in fall 2027 and they're not going to want to change the schedules a second time in 2028.  My guess is that unless MSDE repeals the requirement, MCPS will probably go with a 6-period middle school schedule with only one elective starting in 2027 (or some similar change that also results in just one elective per year in MS), and they will probably announce it by this fall at the earliest to give middle schools enough time to prep for the change.  So unless MSDE repeals this in the next few months, it may well be too late to change anything at MCPS.  

It is very frustrating.  I was hoping the state would relent on this requirement for 60 minutes of math daily in middle school (which no other state does) after all the powerful testimony they've received from teachers of electives, social studies, and science regarding the harmful impacts of such a requirement in middle school.  Apparently they are too stubborn to do so.  At this point I think people who care about this need to focus hard on expressing our alarm to state legislators and asking them to push MSDE to roll this back (plus make clear they will consider overturning this in law next year if MSDE doesn't change course.)  

You can also e-mail State Board of Ed members before the votes-- here is the full list, and the Montgomery County members are: peggy.carr [at] maryland.gov, samir.paul [at] maryland.gov, and nicole.murraylewis [at] maryland.gov  (who's apparently a history teacher at Blake, if anyone knows her personally and can appeal to her directly on this topic)-- and/or sign up to testify at next Tuesday's state Board of Ed meeting (in person, virtually, or through written testimony, although I think the written testimony generally gets ignored): [url]https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/stateboard/pages/publiccomment.aspx
[/url]
(And then of course folks should weigh in through whatever "public comment" process they put out there over the next few weeks-- but there are a bunch of other revisions to the policy that will be part of that as well, and folks shouldn't have any illusions that "public comment" alone will get this repealed.)

I think MCPS will gladly take the extra year to figure out any 60-minute math mandate for MS. That said, such a mandate for all students at that level is folly, and MSDE should adopt a more nuanced approach to ensuring MS math success, one that recognizes the limitations and impact of period scheduling.

I don't think MCPS needs to have MS and HS on the same schedule. Where did you see that? If that was the case and MS needed to go to 6 periods, then HS also goes to 6 periods? I mean, they really should be embracing a uniform 8-period block schedule with one period allowed, but not required, to be study hall to facilitate more meaningful magnets and the like.

Sorry, I meant "all middle schools the same" and "all high schools the same," not that the middle schools and high schools necessarily need to match with each other.

MCPS has said they are planning to implement new standardized MS and standardized HS schedules in the 2027-28 school year. Plus they need to figure out what they're doing middle-school-schedule-wise before they make decisions about how they change middle school programs, which I think they want to decide on this coming year. In general I get the sense they're antsy to have the new middle school schedules figured out and implemented ASAP, and if they're pretty sure MSDE is going to make them do the 60 minutes then they'll want to get it over with rather than take the extra year. (Plus the changes will probably require laying off a bunch of middle school electives teachers, and they probably want to factor that into the budget for 2027-28.)

But I could be wrong and certainly would be glad to see MCPS wait on the changes. And maybe if MSDE is signaling this is a "not yet, and maybe not ever" situation rather than a "we're definitely requiring this but we'll give you another year to prepare if you want it" situation, they'll wait. But it sounds more like the latter to me...

Someone could ask at the MCPS math zoom tonight whether they would delay the year for 60 minutes in MS if MSDE adopted that revision.

And maybe note that, if they adopted an 8-period block schedule, they could make one an enrichment/support block. Could be study hall to help get through homework/studying for tests/etc. Could be a "normal" elective for kids whose electives otherwise might be constrained by magnet classes (might better preserve things like SMCS and might alleviate concerns that others wouldn't be "real" magnets). Could be directed math support where the student needs that to get to ensure mastery of those life/career-critical skills.

And with that support available from MS through HS, maybe talk MSDE back from ledge of painting everyone in MS with the broad brush of a 60-minute mandate.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, what about an 8 period day with 7 or 8 periods a week of math? That seems better than six 60-minute periods, given pre-teen attention spans.

[Anonymous]

Some MS already limit kids to one elective because they require all students to take Digital Literacy and WL to boost their report card scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, what about an 8 period day with 7 or 8 periods a week of math? That seems better than six 60-minute periods, given pre-teen attention spans.

Figuring out 7 or 8 periods a week of math would be too complicated schedule-wise... if they did an 8 period day (or block schedule) it would probably be double-period math. But that would then make every other class shorter, which I don't think they would be willing to do for ELA at least (there are rumors the state will require 60 minutes of ELA in middle school soon too.)