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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

They still do. A friend of mine is from Singapore and she commented that she wished her parents had not been as academically focused because she was enjoying exploring new activities with her kids in Minnesota. Both she and her husband have PhDs and love learning but her description of her childhood was lots of studying and music practice with little down time. She always mentions the malls that are all tutoring operations in Singapore and how they are open until 11 PM 7 days a week.

South Korea and Japan close down airports during testing days so that the sounds of planes taking off and landing don't disturb the kids during testing. Academics are seen in a very different light then they are in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

maybe parents here value education, but balance that with valuing their children's childhoods

[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.

Their model is that everyone is in advanced math, and the children who are not ready are expected to attend cram schools or get the tutoring that they need to keep up. It's not the teacher's responsibility to differentiate downward for the struggling kids. That model would never fly in US public schools.

[Anonymous]

I value my children's childhood, and I don't want them to need extra schooling outside of school hours. That's precisely why I want them challenged in school and not wasting hours each week on math instruction that is remedial for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I value my children's childhood, and I don't want them to need extra schooling outside of school hours. That's precisely why I want them challenged in school and not wasting hours each week on math instruction that is remedial for them.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I value my children's childhood, and I don't want them to need extra schooling outside of school hours. That's precisely why I want them challenged in school and not wasting hours each week on math instruction that is remedial for them.

So do I but now that I know what they aren’t learning, you bet I’m supplementing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I value my children's childhood, and I don't want them to need extra schooling outside of school hours. That's precisely why I want them challenged in school and not wasting hours each week on math instruction that is remedial for them.

So do I but now that I know what they aren’t learning, you bet I’m supplementing.

Same here.

This whole experience hit home how little us being taught and how slowly it goes.

I would have been more aware if tests papers were sent home and my kid had assigned homework.

[Anonymous]

+1 but not everyone has parents who value academics or can help at home so no one can be assigned homework anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

maybe parents here value education, but balance that with valuing their children's childhoods

And then there are the parents who expect schools to teach everything.

[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.

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.

Too far away to cover the math issue? Fairfax County Virginia is too far from Washington DC? WaPo can't survey parents and students in FCPS or those who know the system? beyond that the WaPo could read actual FCPS statistically valid longitudinal studies on cohort groups with and without full day kindergarten or 1 or 2 years of preschool. It could review actual curriculum [like old backback dumps] and see what parents provide because FCPS does not. And what about Perry Stein the writer of the article on The Brookings Institute study of this anonymous message board? https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-urban-moms-school-segregation-study/2021/03/31/8320b6e4-9160-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html

“The corollary of well-off people concentrating in certain schools is that poverty is concentrated in other schools,” said Vanessa Williamson, the study’s lead author. “One of the challenges of segregation — beyond the moral commitment of living in a multiracial society — is the fact that it results in resource hoarding and that is unfair.”

Without further reading the drivel what is the resource hoarding of public money? Or does Williams mean private $ for afterschooling [by parent or tutor or parental provisions of materials] or $ paid for a schools PTA?

Resource hoarding and FCPS. Obviously none of these researchers would like the results on those preK and K studies. Nor would they like the per pupil costs and program budgets. Subjective conclusions that fit the spin don't match objective information.

[Anonymous]

They had no problem offering an opinion on the school board race, but they can't cover this? Okay.

[Anonymous]

More and more people are just going to homeschool. Is that what they want?

I was told by someone on DCUM that I shouldn't be allowed to homeschool my high achieving kids because apparently it's my moral obligation to help the local school districts, even if my own kids get nothing out of it (it's not enough that we're paying for that service that we're not even using).

Parents will eventually realize that "just supplementing" for an hour a day is literally all we do for homeschooling. And then kids have time for doing fun stuff. Parents aren't going to have their kids waste time at school and then teach everything at home.

[Anonymous]

I think the reporter meant “too far away” in time. Like it won’t happen soon.

But I disagree. You have to publicize it now so there can be full debate on the merits before it is implemented.

People don’t understand the psychological stress for kids that suffer when they are not challenged. It is not good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More and more people are just going to homeschool. Is that what they want?

I was told by someone on DCUM that I shouldn't be allowed to homeschool my high achieving kids because apparently it's my moral obligation to help the local school districts, even if my own kids get nothing out of it (it's not enough that we're paying for that service that we're not even using).

Parents will eventually realize that "just supplementing" for an hour a day is literally all we do for homeschooling. And then kids have time for doing fun stuff. Parents aren't going to have their kids waste time at school and then teach everything at home.

Feel free. FCPS isn't a for-profit company looking to retain it's customers. Leave, it's fine. Children enroll in public education every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Feel free. FCPS isn't a for-profit company looking to retain it's customers. Leave, it's fine. Children enroll in public education every year.

But how will it improve the society-wide equity gap if the more affluent kids leave FCPS for private school or homeschooling? FCPS might be able to show more equity on paper, but they aren't doing anything to improve societal ills.