New to FCPS - Advanced Math?

[Anonymous]

What happens if a child who was accepted into level IV doesn't pass the advanced math test?

[Anonymous]

There is no advanced math test if you are Level IV. You are automatically in advanced math unless for some reason, you as the parent decide you want to opt him out of advanced math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you read the previous post? Yes, some kids may find the regular AAP math curriculum easy but FCPS does accommodate particularly advanced kids. I wouldn’t knock a school system that allows kids with the ability to take Calculus as a freshman in high school.

Yep. BTDT. FCPS tries to accommodate particularly advanced kids, but the accommodations are clumsy, ineffective, and entirely at the discretion of your local principal. Also, acceleration doesn't help when the pace is much too slow and the material is too shallow. FCPS doesn't have any gifted math classes in ES or MS. They have classes accelerated one year. People expecting any sort of gifted math curriculum will be disappointed with the FCPS offerings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happens if a child who was accepted into level IV doesn't pass the advanced math test?

Kids who are accepted into AAP will be placed in advanced math, even if they're completely average at math and don't truly belong there. The problem fixes itself by middle school, since the AAP kids who aren't strong at math won't qualify for 7th grade algebra and instead will take Math 7 Honors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you read the previous post? Yes, some kids may find the regular AAP math curriculum easy but FCPS does accommodate particularly advanced kids. I wouldn’t knock a school system that allows kids with the ability to take Calculus as a freshman in high school.

Yep. BTDT. FCPS tries to accommodate particularly advanced kids, but the accommodations are clumsy, ineffective, and entirely at the discretion of your local principal. Also, acceleration doesn't help when the pace is much too slow and the material is too shallow. FCPS doesn't have any gifted math classes in ES or MS. They have classes accelerated one year. People expecting any sort of gifted math curriculum will be disappointed with the FCPS offerings.

Totally agree. The extra acceleration is not done well

[Anonymous]

What are you expecting from FCPS math? Are there genius level kids that could easily do calculus even before 9th grade sure? But they are very rare and you can’t expect a large school system to accommodate every single child in the system. No public school really can as it wasn’t designed to meet every child’s individual needs. Public school is designed for the masses. You want more depth more acceleration than that go outside the public school. I guess I’m unclear on what you are looking for for the advanced student beyond acceleration. Unless your telling me that every single FCPS calculus student is unprepared for higher level math because of the lack of depth of FCPS math, I’m just not sure what you are looking for? Should there be a more uniform method of identifying really advanced kids sure but as far as I know most schools will accelerate a small number of kids. Transparency of identification could be a legitimate gripe but it seems your complaints go deeper than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are you expecting from FCPS math?

I was expecting a lot more emphasis on problem solving and creativity, with much less on drilling basic skills or on Dreambox. I was also expecting some projects or some extra material, but none was given. A gifted program should have a gifted level math class and not just gen ed math given one grade earlier.

For kids who are above and beyond, I wish there were more of an opportunity to simply take appropriate level classes elsewhere and opt out of FCPS math altogether. Or I wish they had a better self-paced, online curriculum for elementary school. Taking classes with a higher grade level is a logistical nightmare for everyone involved.