Is new MCPS superintendent going to eliminate Math Acceleration in elementary schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I have seen of the new curriculum is leaps and bounds better than what was there before. At our school, many students (I'm talking 50% of the grade level) were pushed into the next level math so that the school would look good. I suggest you do some research into the Common Core, which are the standards that the math reflects. This curriculum also incorporates 21st century skills so that students are more prepared for the real world once they leave school.

OP Here: You raise an important issue here. I don't think Common Core was really rolled out to parents very well. Teachers may have received training and advanced materials, but I have only just seen this curriculum added to the MCPS web site since the beginning of the school year. It wasn't on the MCPS web site last year as far as I can tell (for the record, I do check out the curriculum documentation on MCPS, so that is how I know). Officially, I have only been informed of this new curriculum since the beginning of this school year (2 weeks now). The letter did not point me to any resources about where I can check out the new curriculum, but I do see it out on MCPS website. The MCPS web site does not show this new curriculum for grades 3 and up, so I probably won't see it until it is already implemented and I can't really project how it will play out. I will look at the curriculum and I hope you are right.

No one has ever addressed to me, however, how will MCPS handle when some kids can do long division and other kids are still working on 3x7? How will MCPS handle kindergaren kids that can read as well as a typcial 2nd grader and others are learning the alphabet. In both these cases, I don't see how putting them in the same class helps.

OP, I will try to say this nicely.
The common core curiculum is not new outside of the US. It has its roots in Russia, then spread to the rest of Europe and China, then to the rest of Asia and other nations. It somehow never made its way to the US until recently. It is not about acceleration in the early grades, but rather deeper understanding of basic principles.
Questions like: Betty, Sue and Tom's total weight is 123 kg, Betty weighs 32 kg, Sue weighs twich as much as Betty. How much does Sue weigh, how much does Tom weigh? for 3rd grade.
These questions do not require long division, but they get the kids thinking.
Anyway, the most important thing to remember is that we in the US have used ability grouping for eons with poor outcomes. Finland starts ability grouping much later than we do (I believe age 14) and their gifted kids do better than our gifted kids.
Bring me the long divion expert, and I bet you I can pluck some questions out of a core text that only involve arithmetic, that will be challenging.
Cool it.

[Anonymous]

Finland is a pretty poor comparison to the U.S. They have very few of the challenges we do, plus they have a much better social support system, so kids don't come to school as ravaged by poverty as ours do. This means that there's much less diversity of ability and preparedness in any one classroom.

Also, having attended secondary schools and universities in Europe, I can affirm that the systems in France and Belgium, at least, don't do much for deep thinking. Kids learn to absorb and produce large amounts of information but I think critical thinking skills are not highly emphasized.

[Anonymous]

This is the Pearson project. Curriculum designed by MCPS teachers will be sold to other systems.

As far as training is concerned, there hasn't been much. It was piloted early on, but now it's much more widespread w/o the support of training. I can only imagine it's due to budgetary constraints.

In theory, it's lovely and mirrors more of an IB approach b/c of its cross-disciplinary connections. However, math is often the problem, as it's very linear. So while 12:51 claimed that it focused on thinking, if you miss the basics, you won't be able to think.

Language arts is different. The elements in English are taught year after year, but at a more complicated level. So there is constant reinforcement of the same concepts

Math, however, is a different story.

12:51, I don't know if you have a dog in this fight, but I hear my math colleagues complain all the time about how little our students know the basics. 5x5, anyone? I doubt a cross-curricular approach will solve that.

And for the reasons above, my children attend private where the basics are taught first, moving from concrete facts to abstract thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the Pearson project. Curriculum designed by MCPS teachers will be sold to other systems.

As far as training is concerned, there hasn't been much. It was piloted early on, but now it's much more widespread w/o the support of training. I can only imagine it's due to budgetary constraints.

In theory, it's lovely and mirrors more of an IB approach b/c of its cross-disciplinary connections. However, math is often the problem, as it's very linear. So while 12:51 claimed that it focused on thinking, if you miss the basics, you won't be able to think.

Language arts is different. The elements in English are taught year after year, but at a more complicated level. So there is constant reinforcement of the same concepts

Math, however, is a different story.

12:51, I don't know if you have a dog in this fight, but I hear my math colleagues complain all the time about how little our students know the basics. 5x5, anyone? I doubt a cross-curricular approach will solve that.

And for the reasons above, my children attend private where the basics are taught first, moving from concrete facts to abstract thinking.

Mine are in private school too, sadly they don't teach basics very well either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Finland is a pretty poor comparison to the U.S. They have very few of the challenges we do, plus they have a much better social support system, so kids don't come to school as ravaged by poverty as ours do. This means that there's much less diversity of ability and preparedness in any one classroom.

Also, having attended secondary schools and universities in Europe, I can affirm that the systems in France and Belgium, at least, don't do much for deep thinking. Kids learn to absorb and produce large amounts of information but I think critical thinking skills are not highly emphasized.

OK, OK, they (Fins) don't have black people, but when comapred to other Scandinavian countries who also don't have blacks, they come out way ahead of those countires too, so they are doing something different. When we compare our white affluent states to them, we still fall short.
Also, the French have some of the most successful mathematicians in the world. Pick another country.

[Anonymous]

Show some stats, please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Show some stats, please.

wrt to what?

[Anonymous]

wrt to France's preeminence in mathematics

If you look at Fields prize winners, you will see French winners but also many Americans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wrt to France's preeminence in mathematics

If you look at Fields prize winners, you will see French winners but also many Americans.

Did you divide by population?
Also, did you look at the historical prizes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wrt to France's preeminence in mathematics

If you look at Fields prize winners, you will see French winners but also many Americans.

France and Belgium outscored us in math at PISA last year.

Finland whipped Norway and Sweden (the other white countries, with few social problems).
Just shows that method matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finland is a pretty poor comparison to the U.S. They have very few of the challenges we do, plus they have a much better social support system, so kids don't come to school as ravaged by poverty as ours do. This means that there's much less diversity of ability and preparedness in any one classroom.

Also, having attended secondary schools and universities in Europe, I can affirm that the systems in France and Belgium, at least, don't do much for deep thinking. Kids learn to absorb and produce large amounts of information but I think critical thinking skills are not highly emphasized.

OK, OK, they (Fins) don't have black people, but when comapred to other Scandinavian countries who also don't have blacks, they come out way ahead of those countires too, so they are doing something different. When we compare our white affluent states to them, we still fall short.
Also, the French have some of the most successful mathematicians in the world. Pick another country.

Interesting because the PP did not say Black people. I am white, but when I think of diversity in MoCo, I not only think of Blacks, but I think of Hispanics, Asians, and other non-Native language speakers. I also think of socioeconomic diversity as well....in fact...at my DS' former ES, Blacks were the true minority and were outnumbered by Asians and Hispanics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finland is a pretty poor comparison to the U.S. They have very few of the challenges we do, plus they have a much better social support system, so kids don't come to school as ravaged by poverty as ours do. This means that there's much less diversity of ability and preparedness in any one classroom.

Also, having attended secondary schools and universities in Europe, I can affirm that the systems in France and Belgium, at least, don't do much for deep thinking. Kids learn to absorb and produce large amounts of information but I think critical thinking skills are not highly emphasized.

OK, OK, they (Fins) don't have black people, but when comapred to other Scandinavian countries who also don't have blacks, they come out way ahead of those countires too, so they are doing something different. When we compare our white affluent states to them, we still fall short.
Also, the French have some of the most successful mathematicians in the world. Pick another country.

Interesting because the PP did not say Black people. I am white, but when I think of diversity in MoCo, I not only think of Blacks, but I think of Hispanics, Asians, and other non-Native language speakers. I also think of socioeconomic diversity as well....in fact...at my DS' former ES, Blacks were the true minority and were outnumbered by Asians and Hispanics.

I know that she did not say black people, but so many people interpret diversity as just that. BTW, why do people think that there are some countries with no poor people? When the word diversity is used in the US, it generally refers to race since every country has its poor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finland is a pretty poor comparison to the U.S. They have very few of the challenges we do, plus they have a much better social support system, so kids don't come to school as ravaged by poverty as ours do. This means that there's much less diversity of ability and preparedness in any one classroom.

Also, having attended secondary schools and universities in Europe, I can affirm that the systems in France and Belgium, at least, don't do much for deep thinking. Kids learn to absorb and produce large amounts of information but I think critical thinking skills are not highly emphasized.

OK, OK, they (Fins) don't have black people, but when comapred to other Scandinavian countries who also don't have blacks, they come out way ahead of those countires too, so they are doing something different. When we compare our white affluent states to them, we still fall short.
Also, the French have some of the most successful mathematicians in the world. Pick another country.

Interesting because the PP did not say Black people. I am white, but when I think of diversity in MoCo, I not only think of Blacks, but I think of Hispanics, Asians, and other non-Native language speakers. I also think of socioeconomic diversity as well....in fact...at my DS' former ES, Blacks were the true minority and were outnumbered by Asians and Hispanics.

I know that she did not say black people, but so many people interpret diversity as just that. BTW, why do people think that there are some countries with no poor people? When the word diversity is used in the US, it generally refers to race since every country has its poor.

Uhhhh...no...YOU interpret it that way. Like I said, if you look at MCPS, even racially....black people are just a piece of the diversity pie. In my son's last ES class....very diverse group....out of 25 kids, 4 were Black, 7 were Hispanic, 6 were Asian (including East Indian) and the rest were White. Pretty diverse group and it would have been diverse without the Black kids.

[Anonymous]

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/82329/education-reform-Finland-US
Finland

The Children Must Play
What the United States could learn from Finland about education reform.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finland is a pretty poor comparison to the U.S. They have very few of the challenges we do, plus they have a much better social support system, so kids don't come to school as ravaged by poverty as ours do. This means that there's much less diversity of ability and preparedness in any one classroom.

Also, having attended secondary schools and universities in Europe, I can affirm that the systems in France and Belgium, at least, don't do much for deep thinking. Kids learn to absorb and produce large amounts of information but I think critical thinking skills are not highly emphasized.

OK, OK, they (Fins) don't have black people, but when comapred to other Scandinavian countries who also don't have blacks, they come out way ahead of those countires too, so they are doing something different. When we compare our white affluent states to them, we still fall short.
Also, the French have some of the most successful mathematicians in the world. Pick another country.

Interesting because the PP did not say Black people. I am white, but when I think of diversity in MoCo, I not only think of Blacks, but I think of Hispanics, Asians, and other non-Native language speakers. I also think of socioeconomic diversity as well....in fact...at my DS' former ES, Blacks were the true minority and were outnumbered by Asians and Hispanics.

I know that she did not say black people, but so many people interpret diversity as just that. BTW, why do people think that there are some countries with no poor people? When the word diversity is used in the US, it generally refers to race since every country has its poor.

Uhhhh...no...YOU interpret it that way. Like I said, if you look at MCPS, even racially....black people are just a piece of the diversity pie. In my son's last ES class....very diverse group....out of 25 kids, 4 were Black, 7 were Hispanic, 6 were Asian (including East Indian) and the rest were White. Pretty diverse group and it would have been diverse without the Black kids.

That's a very nice mix of kids.