Deal math tracks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is Deal no longer offering Algebra 2 and geometry is the highest track in 8th?

I don’t know, but my guess would be because it’s unnecessary, and because art and music are important too.

What?? This is BS.

You can offer art and music and more advance math.

At least Deal offered Algebra 2 in the past. So they have taken that away and now no DCPS middle school offers anything except geometry by 9th.

Talk about lowering standards. Why have Deal families not pushed back in this???

At Deal, you always had to double-block to get to Algebra 2 in 8th. That means giving up another class. What other subject are you planning to sacrifice, if not art or music? History? Science?

There are only so many hours in the day. If you do more math, you have to do less of something else. And middle school is a little young to be dropping core subjects.

+1
And Deal requires three years of foreign language. Art/music/PE + history/civics + ELA + science + language + math = 6 classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is Deal no longer offering Algebra 2 and geometry is the highest track in 8th?

I don’t know, but my guess would be because it’s unnecessary, and because art and music are important too.

What?? This is BS.

You can offer art and music and more advance math.

At least Deal offered Algebra 2 in the past. So they have taken that away and now no DCPS middle school offers anything except geometry by 9th.

Talk about lowering standards. Why have Deal families not pushed back in this???

At Deal, you always had to double-block to get to Algebra 2 in 8th. That means giving up another class. What other subject are you planning to sacrifice, if not art or music? History? Science?

There are only so many hours in the day. If you do more math, you have to do less of something else. And middle school is a little young to be dropping core subjects.

+1
And Deal requires three years of foreign language. Art/music/PE + history/civics + ELA + science + language + math = 6 classes.

Why do you need to take both art and music? Why can’t you take one or the other and take Algebra 2 like before?

Why are you prioritizing what basically is electives over math?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is Deal no longer offering Algebra 2 and geometry is the highest track in 8th?

I don’t know, but my guess would be because it’s unnecessary, and because art and music are important too.

What?? This is BS.

You can offer art and music and more advance math.

At least Deal offered Algebra 2 in the past. So they have taken that away and now no DCPS middle school offers anything except geometry by 9th.

Talk about lowering standards. Why have Deal families not pushed back in this???

At Deal, you always had to double-block to get to Algebra 2 in 8th. That means giving up another class. What other subject are you planning to sacrifice, if not art or music? History? Science?

There are only so many hours in the day. If you do more math, you have to do less of something else. And middle school is a little young to be dropping core subjects.

+1
And Deal requires three years of foreign language. Art/music/PE + history/civics + ELA + science + language + math = 6 classes.

Why do you need to take both art and music? Why can’t you take one or the other and take Algebra 2 like before?

Why are you prioritizing what basically is electives over math?

Art/music/PE rotate, so they only take up one period total. Every year, the kids take one semester of PE, and then art or music. And not everyone thinks math is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is Deal no longer offering Algebra 2 and geometry is the highest track in 8th?

I don’t know, but my guess would be because it’s unnecessary, and because art and music are important too.

What?? This is BS.

You can offer art and music and more advance math.

At least Deal offered Algebra 2 in the past. So they have taken that away and now no DCPS middle school offers anything except geometry by 9th.

Talk about lowering standards. Why have Deal families not pushed back in this???

At Deal, you always had to double-block to get to Algebra 2 in 8th. That means giving up another class. What other subject are you planning to sacrifice, if not art or music? History? Science?

There are only so many hours in the day. If you do more math, you have to do less of something else. And middle school is a little young to be dropping core subjects.

+1
And Deal requires three years of foreign language. Art/music/PE + history/civics + ELA + science + language + math = 6 classes.

Why do you need to take both art and music? Why can’t you take one or the other and take Algebra 2 like before?

Why are you prioritizing what basically is electives over math?

Art/music/PE rotate, so they only take up one period total. Every year, the kids take one semester of PE, and then art or music. And not everyone thinks math is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER.

OK but some families with mathy kids do think it’s important.

Why can’t they compress the math into 3 years like some schools in the city. It’s not like the kids can’t handle it.

It’s ridiculous that what is supposed to be one of the best middle schools in DCPS only offers up to geometry in 8th. This is such a low bar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is Deal no longer offering Algebra 2 and geometry is the highest track in 8th?

I don’t know, but my guess would be because it’s unnecessary, and because art and music are important too.

What?? This is BS.

You can offer art and music and more advance math.

At least Deal offered Algebra 2 in the past. So they have taken that away and now no DCPS middle school offers anything except geometry by 9th.

Talk about lowering standards. Why have Deal families not pushed back in this???

At Deal, you always had to double-block to get to Algebra 2 in 8th. That means giving up another class. What other subject are you planning to sacrifice, if not art or music? History? Science?

There are only so many hours in the day. If you do more math, you have to do less of something else. And middle school is a little young to be dropping core subjects.

+1
And Deal requires three years of foreign language. Art/music/PE + history/civics + ELA + science + language + math = 6 classes.

Why do you need to take both art and music? Why can’t you take one or the other and take Algebra 2 like before?

Why are you prioritizing what basically is electives over math?

Art/music/PE rotate, so they only take up one period total. Every year, the kids take one semester of PE, and then art or music. And not everyone thinks math is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER.

OK but some families with mathy kids do think it’s important.

Why can’t they compress the math into 3 years like some schools in the city. It’s not like the kids can’t handle it.

It’s ridiculous that what is supposed to be one of the best middle schools in DCPS only offers up to geometry in 8th. This is such a low bar.

People who want a hyper focus on extreme math acceleration, to the point where they’d give up other subjects to overload their kid with math, don't send their kids to Deal anymore. They send them to Basis.

Meanwhile as the PP noted, Deal continues to produce Ivy League math majors, because extreme math acceleration in middle school isn’t necessary and doesn't really have a point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Deal super advanced math track was pretty crappy anyway. We loved the teacher but my kid (who received high As in all Deal math classes through Algebra 2) transferred to a top DC private for high school and found that they had giant knowledge gaps from Deal's Algebra 2 class. Entered the private in honors pre-calc and got a C/D on the first test and dropped down to take Algebra 2 for a second time and fill in missing knowledge gaps. Finished up the private school's math sequence with linear algebra and is now a math major at an Ivy league university and a TA in their math dept.

I totally believe it wasn't sufficiently rigorous for Sidwell, but I'm not sure that means it was bad. The math PARCC scores have always been good at Deal for the advanced math classes.

The scores are good for Algebra I and Geometry. They don’t typically test or report Algebra II, which is the one the PP was saying was not very good (and also the one that seems to have been quietly retired).

If the student is in late college now, they took it around 2018-2019. Deal very much tested Algebra II, and you can back out the numbers: 8 students took the test, 3 scored a 4 and 5 scored a 5. That's a 100% proficiency rate, which is even better than the 97% in geometry. Seems like they were doing great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Deal super advanced math track was pretty crappy anyway. We loved the teacher but my kid (who received high As in all Deal math classes through Algebra 2) transferred to a top DC private for high school and found that they had giant knowledge gaps from Deal's Algebra 2 class. Entered the private in honors pre-calc and got a C/D on the first test and dropped down to take Algebra 2 for a second time and fill in missing knowledge gaps. Finished up the private school's math sequence with linear algebra and is now a math major at an Ivy league university and a TA in their math dept.

I totally believe it wasn't sufficiently rigorous for Sidwell, but I'm not sure that means it was bad. The math PARCC scores have always been good at Deal for the advanced math classes.

The scores are good for Algebra I and Geometry. They don’t typically test or report Algebra II, which is the one the PP was saying was not very good (and also the one that seems to have been quietly retired).

If the student is in late college now, they took it around 2018-2019. Deal very much tested Algebra II, and you can back out the numbers: 8 students took the test, 3 scored a 4 and 5 scored a 5. That's a 100% proficiency rate, which is even better than the 97% in geometry. Seems like they were doing great.

Kid is a college freshman. Was made a TA and math grader after getting the highest grade in their freshman fall math class (basically a perfect grade). Point of my post was that Deal Algebra 2 was the low point of their math education. They weren't taught all the material and that degree of acceleration wasn't helpful or necessary. Ended up with perfect SAT math score one try, perfect ACT math one try, 5 on BC AP exam, now doing really well in college.

With our next kid (currently in high school) we purposefully didn't push them ahead to Algebra 2 at Deal. Learned the lesson with kid #1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Deal super advanced math track was pretty crappy anyway. We loved the teacher but my kid (who received high As in all Deal math classes through Algebra 2) transferred to a top DC private for high school and found that they had giant knowledge gaps from Deal's Algebra 2 class. Entered the private in honors pre-calc and got a C/D on the first test and dropped down to take Algebra 2 for a second time and fill in missing knowledge gaps. Finished up the private school's math sequence with linear algebra and is now a math major at an Ivy league university and a TA in their math dept.

I totally believe it wasn't sufficiently rigorous for Sidwell, but I'm not sure that means it was bad. The math PARCC scores have always been good at Deal for the advanced math classes.

The scores are good for Algebra I and Geometry. They don’t typically test or report Algebra II, which is the one the PP was saying was not very good (and also the one that seems to have been quietly retired).

If the student is in late college now, they took it around 2018-2019. Deal very much tested Algebra II, and you can back out the numbers: 8 students took the test, 3 scored a 4 and 5 scored a 5. That's a 100% proficiency rate, which is even better than the 97% in geometry. Seems like they were doing great.

Kid is a college freshman. Was made a TA and math grader after getting the highest grade in their freshman fall math class (basically a perfect grade). Point of my post was that Deal Algebra 2 was the low point of their math education. They weren't taught all the material and that degree of acceleration wasn't helpful or necessary. Ended up with perfect SAT math score one try, perfect ACT math one try, 5 on BC AP exam, now doing really well in college.

With our next kid (currently in high school) we purposefully didn't push them ahead to Algebra 2 at Deal. Learned the lesson with kid #1.

I fully understand your point, but the last pre-COVID Algebra II testing showed a 100% proficiency rate for Algebra II at Deal, so, again, it seems like they were doing fine. Also, wasn't DCPS basically shut down in 2020-2021, when your kid was in 8th grade? Maybe that was partly why they didn't have a great Algebra II experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Deal super advanced math track was pretty crappy anyway. We loved the teacher but my kid (who received high As in all Deal math classes through Algebra 2) transferred to a top DC private for high school and found that they had giant knowledge gaps from Deal's Algebra 2 class. Entered the private in honors pre-calc and got a C/D on the first test and dropped down to take Algebra 2 for a second time and fill in missing knowledge gaps. Finished up the private school's math sequence with linear algebra and is now a math major at an Ivy league university and a TA in their math dept.

I totally believe it wasn't sufficiently rigorous for Sidwell, but I'm not sure that means it was bad. The math PARCC scores have always been good at Deal for the advanced math classes.

The scores are good for Algebra I and Geometry. They don’t typically test or report Algebra II, which is the one the PP was saying was not very good (and also the one that seems to have been quietly retired).

If the student is in late college now, they took it around 2018-2019. Deal very much tested Algebra II, and you can back out the numbers: 8 students took the test, 3 scored a 4 and 5 scored a 5. That's a 100% proficiency rate, which is even better than the 97% in geometry. Seems like they were doing great.

Kid is a college freshman. Was made a TA and math grader after getting the highest grade in their freshman fall math class (basically a perfect grade). Point of my post was that Deal Algebra 2 was the low point of their math education. They weren't taught all the material and that degree of acceleration wasn't helpful or necessary. Ended up with perfect SAT math score one try, perfect ACT math one try, 5 on BC AP exam, now doing really well in college.

With our next kid (currently in high school) we purposefully didn't push them ahead to Algebra 2 at Deal. Learned the lesson with kid #1.

I fully understand your point, but the last pre-COVID Algebra II testing showed a 100% proficiency rate for Algebra II at Deal, so, again, it seems like they were doing fine. Also, wasn't DCPS basically shut down in 2020-2021, when your kid was in 8th grade? Maybe that was partly why they didn't have a great Algebra II experience?

Is the same teacher even still there?

DCPS budgets don't have room for classes of 8 kids. That would definitely get axed at our middle school. Deal's size gives it more flexibility, but it still means some other classes would be larger to allow for one smaller.

Anyway, it's no big deal. It makes more sense to double-up in high school than middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is Deal no longer offering Algebra 2 and geometry is the highest track in 8th?

I don’t know, but my guess would be because it’s unnecessary, and because art and music are important too.

What?? This is BS.

You can offer art and music and more advance math.

At least Deal offered Algebra 2 in the past. So they have taken that away and now no DCPS middle school offers anything except geometry by 9th.

Talk about lowering standards. Why have Deal families not pushed back in this???

At Deal, you always had to double-block to get to Algebra 2 in 8th. That means giving up another class. What other subject are you planning to sacrifice, if not art or music? History? Science?

There are only so many hours in the day. If you do more math, you have to do less of something else. And middle school is a little young to be dropping core subjects.

+1
And Deal requires three years of foreign language. Art/music/PE + history/civics + ELA + science + language + math = 6 classes.

Why do you need to take both art and music? Why can’t you take one or the other and take Algebra 2 like before?

Why are you prioritizing what basically is electives over math?

Art/music/PE rotate, so they only take up one period total. Every year, the kids take one semester of PE, and then art or music. And not everyone thinks math is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER.

OK but some families with mathy kids do think it’s important.

Why can’t they compress the math into 3 years like some schools in the city. It’s not like the kids can’t handle it.

It’s ridiculous that what is supposed to be one of the best middle schools in DCPS only offers up to geometry in 8th. This is such a low bar.

People who want a hyper focus on extreme math acceleration, to the point where they’d give up other subjects to overload their kid with math, don't send their kids to Deal anymore. They send them to Basis.

Meanwhile as the PP noted, Deal continues to produce Ivy League math majors, because extreme math acceleration in middle school isn’t necessary and doesn't really have a point.

This. See comment above that focus should be on going deeper, not faster. Push for honors math not accelerated math.

[Anonymous]

In the DC CAPE data, less than half of middle school algebra students get a 4+. That's where premature acceleration is happening, with 8th graders taking algebra who are not ready. By contrast, 90% of the middle school geometry students get a 4+. Pushing kids into acceleration beyond algebra before they're ready just isn't happening, and you'd see the same if you went back and looked at the algebra 2 data. (With BASIS being the obvious unknown data point because of their testing policies.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. Is it iready? My kid is so sick of that diagnostic test and dreads it. He hates how it jumps around. He does fine but tends to underperform on it.

Mine too. DCPS is failing the kids having them test on these scam systems they pay millions for. It is creating a legacy of trash.

[Anonymous]

My understanding from an administrator is that Deal was eventually prohibited from double blocking by OSSE or DCPS officials. Deal would have otherwise allowed it to continue as a way to prioritize math. Instead, they now send parents notes that kids are eligible to take the next math class at CTY based on their math grade as an alternate way to double up on math, but CTY fills up fast and costs several thousand dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My understanding from an administrator is that Deal was eventually prohibited from double blocking by OSSE or DCPS officials. Deal would have otherwise allowed it to continue as a way to prioritize math. Instead, they now send parents notes that kids are eligible to take the next math class at CTY based on their math grade as an alternate way to double up on math, but CTY fills up fast and costs several thousand dollars.

This is correct. Bottom line is Deal is no longer permitted to let kids skip electives to double block on math. But, kids who want to take Algebra II in 8th grade still can through CTY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My understanding from an administrator is that Deal was eventually prohibited from double blocking by OSSE or DCPS officials. Deal would have otherwise allowed it to continue as a way to prioritize math. Instead, they now send parents notes that kids are eligible to take the next math class at CTY based on their math grade as an alternate way to double up on math, but CTY fills up fast and costs several thousand dollars.

This is DCPS’ way towards equity. Not let Deal kids accelerate since other middle schools cant offer that level of acceleration.