Seventh grade algebra at Deal
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Anonymous
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Look around for someone you can pay to give Math 8 / Prealgebra credit. For example AoPS as a self-paced online course for $600. Unfair and frustrating, but better than wasting 200 hours of class time and homework.
Of course this assumes that your student really is ready for Algebra 1. |
Anonymous
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This is idiotic.
It's like suggesting a kid take Spanish 101 and 201 at the same time. My kids have taken both courses. There is some overlap in the first weeks but then Math8 teaches the stuff that one needs to do well in Algebra 1. How does DCPS come up with this stuff? I'm sure that what happened is that something is messed up with the number of kids they have at each level of math and so they're pulling this student to get the grade's math spread where they want it. I.e. they need (for bragging rights? for staffing purposes? for some sort of accreditation?) 20% of the grade on track to do geometry in 8th and they only have 12% so they're moving up kids with this stupidity. Parents beware. This is not great for your kid's learning. Clear evidence that at DCPS any individual student's learning be dammed. They are looking at their grade cohort and could care less about your kid. |
Anonymous
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Previous poster again---
AND TO SUGGEST THAT KIDS DROP foreign language to do this foolery????? Even more stupid and inappropriate. Are they suggesting that kids go from 6th grade language to 8th grade? HUH? Those 8th grade Deal language grades go on the transcript that are sent to colleges. Hope your kid can catch up to their peers with no instruction for a year. Plus there's something to be said for exercising the part of the brain that learns foreign language. Shaking my head.  
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Anonymous
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This is sooooo frustrating as a parent who just put one through Deal but is starting Deal with another! Both are very strong in math. And this isn't relevant to the discussion but in my experience the problem is not that Deal does too much acceleration. If anything the opposite is true and there are some forces that are anti-acceleration even for kids who would benefit from it. So if a kid has been recommended for acceleration, odds are that acceleration is appropriate for that kid.
I think that this problem is arising for a few reasons: - Because of its status as an IB school, Deal requires 3 years of a foreign language. Foreign languages tend to be important to UMC/Ward 3 parents. - But 3 years of a foreign language isn't a DCPS requirement, so Deal has some discretion in excusing students from the foreign language "requirement." I believe they have done this for transfers or for kids who need to take some extra remedial classes for support. - Art/Music/PE are required by DCPS, even though most UMC parents, if forced to choose between a language and Art/Music/PE, would choose the language. - For some reason Deal has long had the policy that while it is ok to skip Math 6, Math 7 and Math 8 cannot be skipped. So in order to get on a path where you can take Geometry or Alg II in 8th, you need do some summer school, double block, or both. - There isn't enough time in the day to double block unless you skip another class. Most parents would prefer that this be Art/Music/PE, but apparently now DCPS is not allowing that, so the only option is to skip the language. - This puts parents in a bind-- both math and language are important, so which do they pick? - I would urge Deal to consider allowing kids to skip Math 7/8, so they could take a language instead of one of those classes. I'll observe that my older child's Math 8 teacher was completely checked out. My child had 100% the entire year but did not learn one thing. And also earned a high A in Alg. 1. So obviously Math 8 was not essential, and it was rather annoying that Deal denied our request for our child to skip Math 8, only to have an absent teacher for that class anyhow. - And Deal/DCPS does not allow "transfer credits" from outside math programs like AOPS, so that's not a solution either. |
Anonymous
Disagree completely. Deal math is super weak. The last thing they need is to further accelerate kids. I have 3 kids who completed Deal math. The oldest two went on to top privates (Sidwell, STA). The two oldest got through Algebra 2 at Deal with high As in every course. The private kids (and the majority of their friends) floundered in private school math after Deal (most were placement tested back in Algebra 1 in 9th). Their math foundation was terrible. I'm sure people will come on here and say that their kid learned all sorts of math at Deal but it was not the case with my kids. We spend a lot of time and money (in tutors) in 9th grade catching them up to a reasonably competent level. We elected not to accelerate the third kid beyond geometry at Deal and have supplemented outside of Deal throughout. I am far from a tiger parent but I was shocked at how many gaps my kids had- (entire topics, especially in the algebra 2 course). |
Anonymous
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Apples and oranges. Even if what you say above is true, forcing a kid who is capable of taking Algebra 1 in 7th rather than taking Math 8 isn't solving any problems at all. Are you suggesting that your kids who took Alg 2 at Deal would have received a stronger math education if they had only taken math through Alg 1? I highly doubt that.
Whether Deal should do a better job with instruction, at any level, is a totally different question than whether acceleration is helpful. But thanks for advocating that kids who don't have the opportunity to go to private school should also be deprived the opportunity to take advanced math! |
Anonymous
Send a note to the school to get clarification on what language class your child would be in next year if you decide to do this. |
Anonymous
Be aware that Algebra 1 final grade will appear on your child's high school transcript. |
Anonymous
As will the grade from whatever language class this kid is put in for 8th. |
Anonymous
| OP- I’m curious whether the 8th grade math was offered to your child as a summer course. This was our experience at Hardy. It was a big commitment but worth the jump for our kid. There may be similar opportunities next summer. |
Anonymous
No. And TBH, we wouldn't have done it I don't think (camp and vacation... seem like important developmental opportunities too!) |
Anonymous
I'm the PP who said we declined this offer. Our son was offered to do the SMAC (Summer math acceleration course) where they can do a year of math over the summer and if they pass out of it they can skip a year. You're offered this on how your kid does on the testing. What isn't clear is what happens to their language level for the following year and if they would still be eligible to go on the language trip in 8th grade. And to all the PP's above who say upper NW parents value language, art and music education over a second math class, I can speak only for myself - hell yes. |
Anonymous
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I think it depends on your kid. Mine was fine with doing algebra in 8th grade, and would not have wanted to miss the 8th grade foreign language trip. I would not double up if it meant not doing foreign language all 3 years. FWIW, going on the language trip was a major highlight of my 8th grader's year las year. The kids I knew who doubled up, did away with music/art, which is an easier trade off. I'm actually surprised dropping a year of language is even an option - does that mean next year your 8th grader would be in foreign language classes with 7th graders? Just another consideration since my kid would not have wanted to be in language classes outside their grade either.
Also, SMAC is only a month long so it doesn't eat up an entire summer for vacation and camp. |
Anonymous
| Why are they letting kids out of language but not out of music, art, and PE? |
Anonymous
They let them out of music/art/pe in 8th to double up on math, so why not in 7th? |