New Math Program - NO Differentiation until Grades 11-12?!?

[Anonymous]

Stuck in Algebra 1 in 9th grade? Oh please. This used to be the norm and still is in many private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Math teacher here. How the heck am I supposed to teach pre-calc and remedial algebra in the same classroom!

According to VDOE, the remedial algebra students learn from the pre-calc kids via osmosis.

Well, now that a bunch of the best math students won't be able to get into TJ we can all expect a lot more osmosis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stuck in Algebra 1 in 9th grade? Oh please. This used to be the norm and still is in many private schools.

Where? I took Geometry in 9th in PG momofuking county in the 90s. Come on!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just because you don't understand how in-class differentiation works or how personalize learning can make tracking obsolete means that you need to keep up with the world of education. It's not the 80s any longer. Your genius child will be just fine.

You mean the thing where my kids teacher sticks him in a breakout room and never visits?

Middle school math teacher here. In class differentiation doesn’t really exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stuck in Algebra 1 in 9th grade? Oh please. This used to be the norm and still is in many private schools.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just because you don't understand how in-class differentiation works or how personalize learning can make tracking obsolete means that you need to keep up with the world of education. It's not the 80s any longer. Your genius child will be just fine.

You mean the thing where my kids teacher sticks him in a breakout room and never visits?

THIS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stuck in Algebra 1 in 9th grade? Oh please. This used to be the norm and still is in many private schools.

there are a lot of "used tos":

1. kids used to learn math by rote only, never really gaining any number fluancy unless you were a very math-y person
2. we used to have a lot more jobs that did not require critical thinking and analytical skills, like paper pushers, and taking a widget from A bin to B bin. Those jobs are few and far between

On track Alg. in 9th grade is ok for many, but the issue is that there are a lot of kids around here who are pretty advanced in math, and they should not be held back.

This track would not allow students to take calculus in HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is now the trend. If you look at San Francisco Unified there is no other option but to take Algebra in 9th grade. If you want your child to be challenged and pass out of Algebra 1 they have to take a University of California approved algebra class and take a test offered by the school district. So if your child takes AOPS Algebra it won't count because it isn't an A-G approved provider. Then you are only advanced 1 year.

More and more districts are not allowing math acceleration.

But how does this improve equity? Bright kids who are not wealthy enough to escape the public school system are stuck with Algebra I in 9th. People who are wealthy will place their kids in private schools, where their kids will get Algebra in 7th or 8th. Wouldn't this just increase the divide between the haves and the have-nots?

I guess the argument is that the schools promote in school equity by holding back some and providing more resources to those who need it via richer experiences for all?

The reality is quite different.

[Anonymous]

To those like me wondering how the Post is not covering this issue... apparently they are too busy covering DCUM. 🙄

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-urban-moms-school-segregation-study/2021/03/31/8320b6e4-9160-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html

I had thought pretty well of Brookings Institute but this study is so ridiculous. Thread on the DC schools page since for some bizarre reason they focused only on the DC schools discussion despite the fact that there are tons of education pages here let alone all the other topic groupings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To those like me wondering how the Post is not covering this issue... apparently they are too busy covering DCUM. 🙄

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-urban-moms-school-segregation-study/2021/03/31/8320b6e4-9160-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html

I had thought pretty well of Brookings Institute but this study is so ridiculous. Thread on the DC schools page since for some bizarre reason they focused only on the DC schools discussion despite the fact that there are tons of education pages here let alone all the other topic groupings.

The article is not wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To those like me wondering how the Post is not covering this issue... apparently they are too busy covering DCUM. 🙄

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-urban-moms-school-segregation-study/2021/03/31/8320b6e4-9160-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html

I had thought pretty well of Brookings Institute but this study is so ridiculous. Thread on the DC schools page since for some bizarre reason they focused only on the DC schools discussion despite the fact that there are tons of education pages here let alone all the other topic groupings.

The article is not wrong.

Disagree. The article seems to assert that parents are trying to racially segregated. They are not. They are trying to SES segregate. You may not like that either but it is not wildly different from people who simply bow out of public schools entirely by doing private and they never get slammed in the same way public school parents do

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To those like me wondering how the Post is not covering this issue... apparently they are too busy covering DCUM. 🙄

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-urban-moms-school-segregation-study/2021/03/31/8320b6e4-9160-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html

I had thought pretty well of Brookings Institute but this study is so ridiculous. Thread on the DC schools page since for some bizarre reason they focused only on the DC schools discussion despite the fact that there are tons of education pages here let alone all the other topic groupings.

I’m very surprised the focused on DC only because there’s so much self segregating in the suburbs. And yes it’s about SES and ESL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I am pro-tracking. I also don’t like that students can enroll in AP or Honors if they just feel like it. Differentiation is impossible with the class sizes we are dealing with.

Oh it’s possible with even larger class sizes as they do in China, Singapore and South Korea. But you don’t have the skills and ability to do that which is a problem. Math teachers in the US suck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To those like me wondering how the Post is not covering this issue... apparently they are too busy covering DCUM. 🙄

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-urban-moms-school-segregation-study/2021/03/31/8320b6e4-9160-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html

I had thought pretty well of Brookings Institute but this study is so ridiculous. Thread on the DC schools page since for some bizarre reason they focused only on the DC schools discussion despite the fact that there are tons of education pages here let alone all the other topic groupings.

Hannah Natanson (a Post education reporter) said it was too far away to cover but she was keeping her eye on it. I haven't yet taken the time to email her back arguing that the time for the public to be informed was while they were making the plans not when they were getting ready to implement them.

Other people can feel free to email her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I am pro-tracking. I also don’t like that students can enroll in AP or Honors if they just feel like it. Differentiation is impossible with the class sizes we are dealing with.

Oh it’s possible with even larger class sizes as they do in China, Singapore and South Korea. But you don’t have the skills and ability to do that which is a problem. Math teachers in the US suck.

My friend grew up in South Korea. Kids would spend hours after school in fee-paying cram schools for more instruction. He said all of the students did this, even kids whose parents had to work multiple jobs to pay for it. Here in this country, not all parents value education (or they say they do but don't back it up with action). They had a much more uniform group of students in schools to teach. So it didn't matter if they had 60 kids in their classes. They were all prepared and ready for instruction on level.