APS 6th grade pre algebra

[Anonymous]

I’d pay a million dollars for the calculus AP scores junior year split by parent placed in sixth grade versus assigned by the school to accelerated math.

[Anonymous]

My current 6th grader got 1046 on the math inventory, 600 on SOL in both 4th and 5th grade. No outside math enrichment. He rarely has math homework this year. If it helps at all he got a 1760 on the new math assessment.

[Anonymous]

APS isn’t using MI anymore so the cutoff on what they use now (can’t remember the name) is a complete mystery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because of parent placement, none of the accelerated math in Arlington middle school is in fact challenging for actually gifted math students. If you are even thinking of extra tutoring, though, sounds like your kid may not actually be so gifted.

This wasn’t our experience, but okay. Maybe your kid is super gifted. My kid did well in intensified algebra & geometry in MS, but it was a lot of work, and there were definitely smart kids who struggled/needed extra help.

1046 on the MI to take PRE-algebra is ridiculous. It used to be a 1030 to take algebra I. There has been a concerted effort to allow fewer & fewer kids to take the accelerated math track. This is not a secret.

Yup. I think it's great they are raising the bar.

If they required calculus skills as a prerequisite for 6th grade pre-algebra, would that be raising the bar too? Or would it indicate that they were setting a higher than needed threshold in order to scale back the number of students taking the course?

[Anonymous]

My kid got 136 CogAT and 550 on sol. Her 5th grade teacher told me I should fight to place her in pre-algebra. We didn’t. She started with Math 6 and after half of the first quarter, her 6th grade teacher called and wanted to moved her to pre-algebra. So she did move end of 1st quarter, did fine and sailed through it really and got an A.

Now in 7th taking Algebra intensified - a bit of an adjustment due to teacher but also has been working and reviewing at home and getting an A.

I wouldn’t parent place my kid. Sometimes is not math skills but also maturity. She said kids in her class are very disruptive and causing lot of trouble although they seem to be very smart. But their disruptive behaviors are causing issues for the whole class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because of parent placement, none of the accelerated math in Arlington middle school is in fact challenging for actually gifted math students. If you are even thinking of extra tutoring, though, sounds like your kid may not actually be so gifted.

This wasn’t our experience, but okay. Maybe your kid is super gifted. My kid did well in intensified algebra & geometry in MS, but it was a lot of work, and there were definitely smart kids who struggled/needed extra help.

1046 on the MI to take PRE-algebra is ridiculous. It used to be a 1030 to take algebra I. There has been a concerted effort to allow fewer & fewer kids to take the accelerated math track. This is not a secret.

Yup. I think it's great they are raising the bar.

If they required calculus skills as a prerequisite for 6th grade pre-algebra, would that be raising the bar too? Or would it indicate that they were setting a higher than needed threshold in order to scale back the number of students taking the course?

You can debate what would be the appropriate “bar”, but it is being raised.

[Anonymous]

I'm confused - second grade CogAT scores are used to help determine sixth grade math placement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because of parent placement, none of the accelerated math in Arlington middle school is in fact challenging for actually gifted math students. If you are even thinking of extra tutoring, though, sounds like your kid may not actually be so gifted.

This wasn’t our experience, but okay. Maybe your kid is super gifted. My kid did well in intensified algebra & geometry in MS, but it was a lot of work, and there were definitely smart kids who struggled/needed extra help.

1046 on the MI to take PRE-algebra is ridiculous. It used to be a 1030 to take algebra I. There has been a concerted effort to allow fewer & fewer kids to take the accelerated math track. This is not a secret.

Yup. I think it's great they are raising the bar.

If they required calculus skills as a prerequisite for 6th grade pre-algebra, would that be raising the bar too? Or would it indicate that they were setting a higher than needed threshold in order to scale back the number of students taking the course?

You can debate what would be the appropriate “bar”, but it is being raised.

But the appropriate level of the bar is the issue. If APS has set the bar above the skill level needed to succeed in 6th grade pre-algebra, then it is unwarrantably excluding kids who would otherwise do well in accelerated math. In that case, raising the bar is not a good thing, just as raising the bar to the level of calculus would not be a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm confused - second grade CogAT scores are used to help determine sixth grade math placement?

Kids use to take cigar in fourth grade. The current fifth graders took a truncated version in second and never took it in fourth. I imagine they won’t use it at all for this year’s placements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm confused - second grade CogAT scores are used to help determine sixth grade math placement?

Kids use to take cigar in fourth grade. The current fifth graders took a truncated version in second and never took it in fourth. I imagine they won’t use it at all for this year’s placements.

It was always odd that APS used CogAT scores in the first place. FCPS and LCPS don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid got 136 CogAT and 550 on sol. Her 5th grade teacher told me I should fight to place her in pre-algebra. We didn’t. She started with Math 6 and after half of the first quarter, her 6th grade teacher called and wanted to moved her to pre-algebra. So she did move end of 1st quarter, did fine and sailed through it really and got an A.

Now in 7th taking Algebra intensified - a bit of an adjustment due to teacher but also has been working and reviewing at home and getting an A.

I wouldn’t parent place my kid. Sometimes is not math skills but also maturity. She said kids in her class are very disruptive and causing lot of trouble although they seem to be very smart. But their disruptive behaviors are causing issues for the whole class.

That’s the opposite of my kid’s experience. They say pre-algebra is the only class where there’s not at issue with disruptive kids to some extent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid got 136 CogAT and 550 on sol. Her 5th grade teacher told me I should fight to place her in pre-algebra. We didn’t. She started with Math 6 and after half of the first quarter, her 6th grade teacher called and wanted to moved her to pre-algebra. So she did move end of 1st quarter, did fine and sailed through it really and got an A.

Now in 7th taking Algebra intensified - a bit of an adjustment due to teacher but also has been working and reviewing at home and getting an A.

I wouldn’t parent place my kid. Sometimes is not math skills but also maturity. She said kids in her class are very disruptive and causing lot of trouble although they seem to be very smart. But their disruptive behaviors are causing issues for the whole class.

Reminds me of the one lady saying her kid didn’t do as well on the SOL because he didn’t follow instructions. LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got 136 CogAT and 550 on sol. Her 5th grade teacher told me I should fight to place her in pre-algebra. We didn’t. She started with Math 6 and after half of the first quarter, her 6th grade teacher called and wanted to moved her to pre-algebra. So she did move end of 1st quarter, did fine and sailed through it really and got an A.

Now in 7th taking Algebra intensified - a bit of an adjustment due to teacher but also has been working and reviewing at home and getting an A.

I wouldn’t parent place my kid. Sometimes is not math skills but also maturity. She said kids in her class are very disruptive and causing lot of trouble although they seem to be very smart. But their disruptive behaviors are causing issues for the whole class.

Reminds me of the one lady saying her kid didn’t do as well on the SOL because he didn’t follow instructions. LOL

Haha. Maturity is a part of the readiness. The kids are doing 3 years of math in one, they need to focus and follow directions!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got 136 CogAT and 550 on sol. Her 5th grade teacher told me I should fight to place her in pre-algebra. We didn’t. She started with Math 6 and after half of the first quarter, her 6th grade teacher called and wanted to moved her to pre-algebra. So she did move end of 1st quarter, did fine and sailed through it really and got an A.

Now in 7th taking Algebra intensified - a bit of an adjustment due to teacher but also has been working and reviewing at home and getting an A.

I wouldn’t parent place my kid. Sometimes is not math skills but also maturity. She said kids in her class are very disruptive and causing lot of trouble although they seem to be very smart. But their disruptive behaviors are causing issues for the whole class.

Reminds me of the one lady saying her kid didn’t do as well on the SOL because he didn’t follow instructions. LOL

Hi! I'm that lady. My son says pre-algebra is easy for him, but some other kids struggle with the concepts. He was very sad that he skipped the first six or seven questions to "get a feel for the test" because he didn't understand that he wasn't allowed to do that. He has ADHD, and now he has a 504 that requires instructions be available in written form. His teachers report that he is very quiet and well-behaved during class. The math leader at his middle school says pre-algebra is absolutely the right class for him.

I do get the frustration with parent placement; my son is very bright and wishes classes were more difficult, and it would be nice if there were some standards students had to meet before going into intensified classes next year. But that's not always the reason the class goes slowly and isn't as rigorous as it could be. I homeschooled my son for a couple years and it was great; perhaps a you can do that if you're concerned about rigor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid got 136 CogAT and 550 on sol. Her 5th grade teacher told me I should fight to place her in pre-algebra. We didn’t. She started with Math 6 and after half of the first quarter, her 6th grade teacher called and wanted to moved her to pre-algebra. So she did move end of 1st quarter, did fine and sailed through it really and got an A.

Now in 7th taking Algebra intensified - a bit of an adjustment due to teacher but also has been working and reviewing at home and getting an A.

I wouldn’t parent place my kid. Sometimes is not math skills but also maturity. She said kids in her class are very disruptive and causing lot of trouble although they seem to be very smart. But their disruptive behaviors are causing issues for the whole class.

I'd think that most parents know if their kid has a maturity issue. If you have a kid who has never gotten in trouble, turns in every assignment, does homework without being asked and gets good reviews for class participation, there's no reason to think maturity is an issue.

I'm guessing parent placement comes up most often when kids have split scores with some scores on both sides of the cutoff. Parents don't want a bored kid because of one bad test day.