Another article about the magnet programs in Washington Post

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Low expectations when?

Low overall expectations might be soft bigotry but low expectations for a 115 suddenly put in a class of 130s, not so much.

One way to see the kids going into the Blair magnet is that they are on 3 different levels after 8th grade. The group that only had Algebra I, the group that had Geometry and the group that had Algebra II.
Does anyone know how they pick the Algebra I group and how they do in 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade?
When or do they ever catch up?

Once behind, hard to catch up.

DC's math track at RM/IB - H Algebra II (9); Pre-Calc (10)/AP Stats (10); AP Calc BC (11); IB HL Math (12)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your kids will be fine

If you think special programs are what's right for them more power to you

What gets me is what were people doing even say less than 20 years ago when none of these options existed and kids gasp turned out fine

All these special snowflake issues today lol

Actually, 35 years ago in MCPS, there were pull-out gifted and talented classes in the home school. I know because I was in one. Mixed age group 4/5th graders. It is where I first read Macbeth in 4th grade. There was also a kind of differentiated math in MS called "Unified Math," where you learned IM, Alg and Geom all mixed up. Eventually they cut out this math pathway and returned to the regular class structure. This was in the late seventies.

Personally, these kinds of classes were critical for me. Without the grouping with other kids of similar ability, I would have started to hide myself. As it was I spent a large part of my life trying to dumb myself down to fit in - both with teachers and peers. Fortunately, grouping allowed me to find some friends with similar interests and abilities. It also allowed me to go to school and not be nored out of my mind, which, for me, tends to trigger withdrawal and depression. There is only so mich surreptitious teading ahead or reading unassigned work and mental mind games one can get away with in a boring class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Once behind, hard to catch up.

DC's math track at RM/IB - H Algebra II (9); Pre-Calc (10)/AP Stats (10); AP Calc BC (11); IB HL Math (12)

How do you take AP Calculus BC without having taken AP Calculus AB (or any calculus AB)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kids will be fine

If you think special programs are what's right for them more power to you

What gets me is what were people doing even say less than 20 years ago when none of these options existed and kids gasp turned out fine

All these special snowflake issues today lol

Actually, 35 years ago in MCPS, there were pull-out gifted and talented classes in the home school. I know because I was in one. Mixed age group 4/5th graders. It is where I first read Macbeth in 4th grade. There was also a kind of differentiated math in MS called "Unified Math," where you learned IM, Alg and Geom all mixed up. Eventually they cut out this math pathway and returned to the regular class structure. This was in the late seventies.

Personally, these kinds of classes were critical for me. Without the grouping with other kids of similar ability, I would have started to hide myself. As it was I spent a large part of my life trying to dumb myself down to fit in - both with teachers and peers. Fortunately, grouping allowed me to find some friends with similar interests and abilities. It also allowed me to go to school and not be nored out of my mind, which, for me, tends to trigger withdrawal and depression. There is only so mich surreptitious teading ahead or reading unassigned work and mental mind games one can get away with in a boring class.

MCPS was essentially a different school district 35 years ago. Apples and oranges.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/info/neighbor-to-neighbor/Enrollment-Chart.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Once behind, hard to catch up.

DC's math track at RM/IB - H Algebra II (9); Pre-Calc (10)/AP Stats (10); AP Calc BC (11); IB HL Math (12)

How do you take AP Calculus BC without having taken AP Calculus AB (or any calculus AB)?

B/c it's not required - kids can go to AP Calc AB or BC after pre-calc

[Anonymous]

H Algebra II (9); Pre-Calc (10)/AP Stats (10); AP Calc BC (11); IB HL Math (12)

wtf this is what is wrong

signed STEM guy wiht high income who only took AP calc A in 12th grade

man I would kill myself if I had to do that in high school

when do kids have fun anymore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:H Algebra II (9); Pre-Calc (10)/AP Stats (10); AP Calc BC (11); IB HL Math (12)

wtf this is what is wrong

signed STEM guy wiht high income who only took AP calc A in 12th grade

man I would kill myself if I had to do that in high school

when do kids have fun anymore

That's just for math. Imagine 6 other accelerated courses (all AP/IB courses) kids have to take. Magnet is less about getting in, it's more about keeping up/surviving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:H Algebra II (9); Pre-Calc (10)/AP Stats (10); AP Calc BC (11); IB HL Math (12)

wtf this is what is wrong

signed STEM guy wiht high income who only took AP calc A in 12th grade

man I would kill myself if I had to do that in high school

when do kids have fun anymore

+1
It's totally fascinating to me that all the rocket scientists I work with managed to - at most - have one AP calc class in high school and yet are still brilliant mathematical/scientific minds.
And they didn't spend their whole high school career complaining that they were soooooooooooooo bored and miserable and just not challenged.
Why are today's kids utterly miserable unless they're 3 or 4 or 5 years ahead in math. Are they really that much more brilliant in just a generation? I highly doubt that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:H Algebra II (9); Pre-Calc (10)/AP Stats (10); AP Calc BC (11); IB HL Math (12)

wtf this is what is wrong

signed STEM guy wiht high income who only took AP calc A in 12th grade

man I would kill myself if I had to do that in high school

when do kids have fun anymore

Some kids think math *is* fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

+1
It's totally fascinating to me that all the rocket scientists I work with managed to - at most - have one AP calc class in high school and yet are still brilliant mathematical/scientific minds.
And they didn't spend their whole high school career complaining that they were soooooooooooooo bored and miserable and just not challenged.
Why are today's kids utterly miserable unless they're 3 or 4 or 5 years ahead in math. Are they really that much more brilliant in just a generation? I highly doubt that.

But think how much more brilliant they would have been if they'd taken more math classes in high school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

+1
It's totally fascinating to me that all the rocket scientists I work with managed to - at most - have one AP calc class in high school and yet are still brilliant mathematical/scientific minds.
And they didn't spend their whole high school career complaining that they were soooooooooooooo bored and miserable and just not challenged.
Why are today's kids utterly miserable unless they're 3 or 4 or 5 years ahead in math. Are they really that much more brilliant in just a generation? I highly doubt that.

But think how much more brilliant they would have been if they'd taken more math classes in high school!

Or they could've been completely turned off by being overloaded and not being able to have fun.

[Anonymous]

Part of the problem is utilization or how and which residents use them. Many in the county use the programs as people in the District use the charters which a great deal of it comes from not wanting to go to your home school for "what ever" reason. You get this flood of white parents who see it as a way out of the "diverse" school they bought into and it skews the programs applicant pool and further exacerbates the white flight from the eastern or consortium schools or at least the mixable general populations of said schools.

The parents who will be most impacted is the ones who see their home schools as no ok. That said the only real solution is break all of the school boundaries and bus everybody similar to San Fran but that isn't likely to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

+1
It's totally fascinating to me that all the rocket scientists I work with managed to - at most - have one AP calc class in high school and yet are still brilliant mathematical/scientific minds.
And they didn't spend their whole high school career complaining that they were soooooooooooooo bored and miserable and just not challenged.
Why are today's kids utterly miserable unless they're 3 or 4 or 5 years ahead in math. Are they really that much more brilliant in just a generation? I highly doubt that.

But think how much more brilliant they would have been if they'd taken more math classes in high school!

Or they could've been completely turned off by being overloaded and not being able to have fun.

Schools with in schools aren't about making better students. They are about balancing demographics and test scores the bring up the averages in lesser schools with better students. Poor kids are going to fail at a predictable clip and rich kids will not fail at a predictable clip as well all while brilliant kids who work hard will be identified eventually and continue to advance almost irregardless of the actual school environment. But MoCo was convinced that they would sweeten the pot and get the rich kids to volunteer to go to the targeted schools because they couldn't make them other wise. There is a reason there are no real special programs at the W's.

People think the motives are seeing that little Johnny is a math wiz but that is only the sales pitch from the county. They really get make a new program when they need an infusion of higher HHI kids to prop up a school. People sit back and think it is the program that is making the kids but it is the kids that are making the programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Schools with in schools aren't about making better students. They are about balancing demographics and test scores the bring up the averages in lesser schools with better students. Poor kids are going to fail at a predictable clip and rich kids will not fail at a predictable clip as well all while brilliant kids who work hard will be identified eventually and continue to advance almost irregardless of the actual school environment. But MoCo was convinced that they would sweeten the pot and get the rich kids to volunteer to go to the targeted schools because they couldn't make them other wise. There is a reason there are no real special programs at the W's.

People think the motives are seeing that little Johnny is a math wiz but that is only the sales pitch from the county. They really get make a new program when they need an infusion of higher HHI kids to prop up a school. People sit back and think it is the program that is making the kids but it is the kids that are making the programs.

Then why does MCPS have magnet programs at Cold Spring ES, College Gardens ES, Potomac ES, Chevy Chase ES, Clear Spring ES, Hoover MS, and Poolesville HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:H Algebra II (9); Pre-Calc (10)/AP Stats (10); AP Calc BC (11); IB HL Math (12)

wtf this is what is wrong

signed STEM guy wiht high income who only took AP calc A in 12th grade

man I would kill myself if I had to do that in high school

when do kids have fun anymore

+1
It's totally fascinating to me that all the rocket scientists I work with managed to - at most - have one AP calc class in high school and yet are still brilliant mathematical/scientific minds.
And they didn't spend their whole high school career complaining that they were soooooooooooooo bored and miserable and just not challenged.
Why are today's kids utterly miserable unless they're 3 or 4 or 5 years ahead in math. Are they really that much more brilliant in just a generation? I highly doubt that.

Answer is it's a shell game, everything has been re-written and renamed, an Algebra I class used to cover more material than the current MCPS variant. E.g. this bullet point from 2.0 Algebra II:

Unit 1 Topic 3: Exponential & Logarithmic Expressions, Equations, & Functions
In this topic, students extend what they have learned about inverse relationships to exponential and logarithmic
functions (base 2, 10, and e). Students will solve exponential and logarithmic equations graphically, numerically, and
symbolically. This includes solving exponential equations by applying the definition of a logarithm. Note: Students
are not expected to utilize the properties of logarithms to evaluate expressions or solve equations in this course.
Students will extend what they know about key features of graphs and transformations of graphs to exponential and
logarithmic functions. Applications of these functions will be explored throughout this topic.

Time was evaluating expressions involving logarithm was a topic for Algebra I. Now, students two years later in Alg. II are supposed to recognize the graph of a logarithmic function but are explicitly warned against using it algebraically. Which is exactly why there is a mania for magnets and acceleration. Until a student out paces the MCPS mandated curriculum they aren't learning much math.