Questions about Potomac Upper School

[Anonymous]

OP, I’m the poster who just clarified the point above on flipped classrooms.

Math instruction has dramatically changed in recent years, yes. If I were guessing, based on this limited description, I would say the teacher is attempting to implement strategies from this form of math education: https://buildingthinkingclassrooms.com/

I would advise any parent in this situation to schedule a meeting with the math teacher to ask what specific supports are available, in-class and out-of-class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The issue is that not all students should take math at an accelerated and honors level. That is why the school has three levels of math courses. Parents cannot except that their child is perhaps not capable to succeed in the highest levels so they want the school to water down the honors level program.

Parents can expect the teachers to actually teach. The teacher does nothing but give out problems and grade the problems. That is it. High School honors math is not making groundbreaking discoveries in the field of mathematics. It is teaching long established and accepted mathematics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like lazy teaching to me!

The feeling is basically universal in upper school. This is the department most students hate. There is also a creepy almost middle aged teacher who only favors popular girls for extra help. It's a great school otherwise but your child won't learn very much and will probably be turned off to any math in college.

[Anonymous]

The honors math program is what your neighbor is describing. It absolutely is not a flipped classroom, nor is it like a college classroom as two previous posters described. It is problem sets that students do amongst themselves.

The regular and extended classes have more normal teaching.

Language varies by which language. I think the Spanish department is excellent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP it’s called the flipped classroom model of teaching. Just another crazy idea created by education consultants trying to justify their existence.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The issue is that not all students should take math at an accelerated and honors level. That is why the school has three levels of math courses. Parents cannot except that their child is perhaps not capable to succeed in the highest levels so they want the school to water down the honors level program.

Hmm. Also, many (not all) of the better performing math students have had outside supplementing in math for years before US starts. That might be AoPS, Kumon, Mathnasium, or RSM. That race for the advanced math track starts in LS, although most people will not admit it in any public setting. [Tip - Look for the P sticker (or the equivalent stickers for GDS, Sidwell, StA/NCS, and others) on the cars in the various parking lots.]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue is that not all students should take math at an accelerated and honors level. That is why the school has three levels of math courses. Parents cannot except that their child is perhaps not capable to succeed in the highest levels so they want the school to water down the honors level program. [/quote

That's not the issue. Some children, regardless of intellect, are not naturally gifted at math. They go to school in order to learn it. Potomac simply refuses to teach those children math, prohibits them from taking an honors or higher level in math, thereby locking them out of any top colleges, despite their intelligence, hard work, and high performance in other classes. One of my kids was like that. Incredibly smart. Begged their way into honors level Pre-calc because they only got a B+ their freshman year. A horrible young woman, who had only an undergraduate degree from a very low ranking party school, was the teacher then and she was awful. She had no idea how to teach the class-because they basically don't teach it. Was degrading to my child, bringing her to tears many times. No other course was ever like this, my daughter had As in advanced classes otherwise. Fortunately, that teacher is gone, but it is still very indicative of this very lopsided way of teaching math at Potomac.

So do they teach math in the more traditional method at the "regular" grade level (geometry or calculus that is not accelerated/honors/AP)? Why don't the parents speak up about this? I can't imagine your child is/was the only one affected by this.

Parents have spoken up for years, and administration (none of whole are math specialists) believes the lie that the math department tells, which is that the students leaving honors en masse are too stupid for honors math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue is that not all students should take math at an accelerated and honors level. That is why the school has three levels of math courses. Parents cannot except that their child is perhaps not capable to succeed in the highest levels so they want the school to water down the honors level program.

Parents can expect the teachers to actually teach. The teacher does nothing but give out problems and grade the problems. That is it. High School honors math is not making groundbreaking discoveries in the field of mathematics. It is teaching long established and accepted mathematics.

You have it and no one cares. The confounding thing is why is allowed
to continue?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP it’s called the flipped classroom model of teaching. Just another crazy idea created by education consultants trying to justify their existence.

+1

Lol. Except it’s categorically not described as a flipped classroom. See the posted link about someone clarifying what a flipped classroom is.

Reading is fundamental, all.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the helpful information — OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue is that not all students should take math at an accelerated and honors level. That is why the school has three levels of math courses. Parents cannot except that their child is perhaps not capable to succeed in the highest levels so they want the school to water down the honors level program. [/quote

That's not the issue. Some children, regardless of intellect, are not naturally gifted at math. They go to school in order to learn it. Potomac simply refuses to teach those children math, prohibits them from taking an honors or higher level in math, thereby locking them out of any top colleges, despite their intelligence, hard work, and high performance in other classes. One of my kids was like that. Incredibly smart. Begged their way into honors level Pre-calc because they only got a B+ their freshman year. A horrible young woman, who had only an undergraduate degree from a very low ranking party school, was the teacher then and she was awful. She had no idea how to teach the class-because they basically don't teach it. Was degrading to my child, bringing her to tears many times. No other course was ever like this, my daughter had As in advanced classes otherwise. Fortunately, that teacher is gone, but it is still very indicative of this very lopsided way of teaching math at Potomac.

So do they teach math in the more traditional method at the "regular" grade level (geometry or calculus that is not accelerated/honors/AP)? Why don't the parents speak up about this? I can't imagine your child is/was the only one affected by this.

The tours we've been on - the kids say that all three levels are taught this way. Just to differing degrees of how much to figure out on your own or how hard the initial problems are. The girl on one tour said you might get a sheet for homework with 10 problems and may come back with only getting to 3 of them....

[Anonymous]

It’s a b*stardized version of Harkness, but it requires a really thoughtful and experienced teacher to execute it well. Recent grad of a party school ain’t it. Shocked that Potomac would hire someone like that. Makes it seem like they are looking after their finances more than their students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue is that not all students should take math at an accelerated and honors level. That is why the school has three levels of math courses. Parents cannot except that their child is perhaps not capable to succeed in the highest levels so they want the school to water down the honors level program.

Hmm. Also, many (not all) of the better performing math students have had outside supplementing in math for years before US starts. That might be AoPS, Kumon, Mathnasium, or RSM. That race for the advanced math track starts in LS, although most people will not admit it in any public setting. [Tip - Look for the P sticker (or the equivalent stickers for GDS, Sidwell, StA/NCS, and others) on the cars in the various parking lots.]

Yeah, what a lot of people don't want to admit is that these schools don't necessarily do a better job of "teaching" material. The kids were already set up for success because of pushy parents that made sure their kids were years ahead. When it comes to math, which is an objective subject, parents can put their kids in a variety of supplemental programs to accelerate them.

If you aren't putting your kid in one of these supplemental programs, they will likely end up in the bottom half of their peer group academically, because so many other parents are doing it to get an edge.

[Anonymous]

That is the way NCS math was taught in upper school when I went there a couple decades ago. It was absolutely horrible for me as a weak math student. Our seventh grade teacher didn't do that and I did really well.

For homework in US, we'd read the book, try the problems, and then discuss a few problems in school the next day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue is that not all students should take math at an accelerated and honors level. That is why the school has three levels of math courses. Parents cannot except that their child is perhaps not capable to succeed in the highest levels so they want the school to water down the honors level program.

Hmm. Also, many (not all) of the better performing math students have had outside supplementing in math for years before US starts. That might be AoPS, Kumon, Mathnasium, or RSM. That race for the advanced math track starts in LS, although most people will not admit it in any public setting. [Tip - Look for the P sticker (or the equivalent stickers for GDS, Sidwell, StA/NCS, and others) on the cars in the various parking lots.]

Agree. Also it is not surprising that students who have siblings do better as they already have the material.