Craziness of Compacted Math!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In my child's school, they discouraged kids from applying to MS magnet programs if not in compacted. Funny because one magnet is Eastern which is about humanities, so math scores shouldn't matter.

Weird. My child goes to an HGC and they mentioned at the parent open house that they had students who weren't in compacted math who got into the TPMS magnet.

In my experience, the non magnet schools know little about the magnets. For example, a third grade teacher told all of the third grade parents at Back to School night that the HGC curriculum was the same as the home school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parental frustration comes from the fact that the child's math path for the rest of their time in MCPS is being decided based on a mysterious evaluation done when the kid is 8 years old. Now, in some clusters, they apparently will skip kids up into the advanced pathway in middle school. But in many clusters, the kid's math path is set at the end of third grade.
When I was a kid, the last chance for acceleration didn't happen until the end of 7th grade.

This is actually not a fact. It is an exaggerated fear not rooted in reality.

What is a fact: in my kid's middle school, sixth-grade kids were skipped up (to IM) and seventh-grade kids were skipped up (to Algebra I).

did you bother to read the rest of the comment where I said that in some clusters kids do get skipped ahead in middle school? And the fact is also true that it does not happen in our cluster.

How do you know that it doesn't happen in your cluster?

[Anonymous]

I was told by both a fifth grade teacher and middle school teacher that kids would not be allowed to take IM in sixth if they had not taken compacted math in elementary school, no exceptions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was told by both a fifth grade teacher and middle school teacher that kids would not be allowed to take IM in sixth if they had not taken compacted math in elementary school, no exceptions.

But actually there are exceptions.

[Anonymous]

Yes there are exceptions...even when you are told there are no exceptions. There could even be exceptions in your actual school that you are not aware of. This happened to a parent I know. "Absolutely no way to join compacted math after 4th grade. MCPS does not permit it" Except for the two kids at the school that were added she found out later in the year...too late for her child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my child's school, they discouraged kids from applying to MS magnet programs if not in compacted. Funny because one magnet is Eastern which is about humanities, so math scores shouldn't matter.

Weird. My child goes to an HGC and they mentioned at the parent open house that they had students who weren't in compacted math who got into the TPMS magnet.

In my experience, the non magnet schools know little about the magnets. For example, a third grade teacher told all of the third grade parents at Back to School night that the HGC curriculum was the same as the home school.

This has been my experience also, and it would make sense since none of the regular teachers are informed of anything beyond their job (and sometimes not even then! They are rarely informed of their students' IEPs and need for accommodations, which was a shock to me). It's only if they've had a child/relative in magnets or evinced an interest themselves that they can inform you.

Parents fall into the trap of listening to what the regular teachers say about magnets, but they need to enquire delicately where the teachers are getting their information from, and take it with a grain of salt.In our case, DS's regular teacher was honest with us - said she didn't know the first thing about middle school magnets! The best way of getting information is by calling the magnet or HGC coordinators - they're always eager to help - and by asking other parents whose kids go there.

[Anonymous]

08:23 again - and to follow up on what I just wrote, I know of one particular principal (perhaps it's the one at 20:25's school, thankfully it's not at our school) who does her best to dissuade parents from applying to HGCs, which is extremely unprofessional! She is trying to retain the best students at her school without the interests of the children in mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was told by both a fifth grade teacher and middle school teacher that kids would not be allowed to take IM in sixth if they had not taken compacted math in elementary school, no exceptions.

The procedure at most MS is to contact the head of the math department and request to be tested for placement in 6th grade IM. You take test over the summer and they let you know if you passed (and passed is an extremely high bar, I believe 92% or something like that). Good luck

[Anonymous]

Don't assume the compacted math is challenging one. That's just one year ahead curriculum. My DC says most of his friends in the compacted math think it is still boring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't assume the compacted math is challenging one. That's just one year ahead curriculum. My DC says most of his friends in the compacted math think it is still boring.

I'm guessing many of these kids have outside tutoring. Parents are well-meaning, but sometimes, when they put their kids in after school tutoring to get ahead, they do their kids a disservice. Of course, they will find math in school boring now that they've already learned it outside of school.

My DC is in HGC/compacted math. DC says many of the kids (mostly Asian) have outside tutoring, and the kids don't like it. Yes, they get into TP magnet and such, but these parents really shouldn't complain that the curriculum is too easy and the kids are bored. It wouldn't be so boring if they stopped with the outside tutoring. Not all, I know, but at least in some of the cases, this is the situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't assume the compacted math is challenging one. That's just one year ahead curriculum. My DC says most of his friends in the compacted math think it is still boring.

I'm guessing many of these kids have outside tutoring. Parents are well-meaning, but sometimes, when they put their kids in after school tutoring to get ahead, they do their kids a disservice. Of course, they will find math in school boring now that they've already learned it outside of school.

My DC is in HGC/compacted math. DC says many of the kids (mostly Asian) have outside tutoring, and the kids don't like it. Yes, they get into TP magnet and such, but these parents really shouldn't complain that the curriculum is too easy and the kids are bored. It wouldn't be so boring if they stopped with the outside tutoring. Not all, I know, but at least in some of the cases, this is the situation.

Honestly, what does that have to do with it???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't assume the compacted math is challenging one. That's just one year ahead curriculum. My DC says most of his friends in the compacted math think it is still boring.

I'm guessing many of these kids have outside tutoring. Parents are well-meaning, but sometimes, when they put their kids in after school tutoring to get ahead, they do their kids a disservice. Of course, they will find math in school boring now that they've already learned it outside of school.

My DC is in HGC/compacted math. DC says many of the kids (mostly Asian) have outside tutoring, and the kids don't like it. Yes, they get into TP magnet and such, but these parents really shouldn't complain that the curriculum is too easy and the kids are bored. It wouldn't be so boring if they stopped with the outside tutoring. Not all, I know, but at least in some of the cases, this is the situation.

Please don't stereotype. My DS with his other friends (both white and Asian) in HGC have never received outside tutoring. Why do you think people has some tutors if they are ahead? Now my son doesn't care what other think, but he used to feel bad to be seen like that when he was so advanced academically even though he got the talent naturally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't assume the compacted math is challenging one. That's just one year ahead curriculum. My DC says most of his friends in the compacted math think it is still boring.

I'm guessing many of these kids have outside tutoring. Parents are well-meaning, but sometimes, when they put their kids in after school tutoring to get ahead, they do their kids a disservice. Of course, they will find math in school boring now that they've already learned it outside of school.

My DC is in HGC/compacted math. DC says many of the kids (mostly Asian) have outside tutoring, and the kids don't like it. Yes, they get into TP magnet and such, but these parents really shouldn't complain that the curriculum is too easy and the kids are bored. It wouldn't be so boring if they stopped with the outside tutoring. Not all, I know, but at least in some of the cases, this is the situation.

Honestly, what does that have to do with it???

I am Asian, hate math, and I have to say that statistically, for our elementary school, the bolded above is true. Many more Asian children get outside math than other children. I've been at the school for years, know a lot of parents, and this is what I've observed. Practically all of the Asian parents were educated in their home country and are appalled at the low math standards here - which I don't disagree with at all! They ARE low. But my oldest has inherited my disgust for mathematics... I'm not going to torture him. Maybe my youngest will actually like more challenge in math

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't assume the compacted math is challenging one. That's just one year ahead curriculum. My DC says most of his friends in the compacted math think it is still boring.

I'm guessing many of these kids have outside tutoring. Parents are well-meaning, but sometimes, when they put their kids in after school tutoring to get ahead, they do their kids a disservice. Of course, they will find math in school boring now that they've already learned it outside of school.

My DC is in HGC/compacted math. DC says many of the kids (mostly Asian) have outside tutoring, and the kids don't like it. Yes, they get into TP magnet and such, but these parents really shouldn't complain that the curriculum is too easy and the kids are bored. It wouldn't be so boring if they stopped with the outside tutoring. Not all, I know, but at least in some of the cases, this is the situation.

Please don't stereotype. My DS with his other friends (both white and Asian) in HGC have never received outside tutoring. Why do you think people has some tutors if they are ahead? Now my son doesn't care what other think, but he used to feel bad to be seen like that when he was so advanced academically even though he got the talent naturally.

PP here. I am asian. I have observed this among asians I know. And I did state - "not all" - as my DCs don't have outside tutoring either. There was an article about how the prestigious magnet programs in NYC were disproportionately Asian. They found that the tutoring centers in that area were majority Asian - like 90%+. Even around here, these types of centers are majority Asian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't assume the compacted math is challenging one. That's just one year ahead curriculum. My DC says most of his friends in the compacted math think it is still boring.

I'm guessing many of these kids have outside tutoring. Parents are well-meaning, but sometimes, when they put their kids in after school tutoring to get ahead, they do their kids a disservice. Of course, they will find math in school boring now that they've already learned it outside of school.

My DC is in HGC/compacted math. DC says many of the kids (mostly Asian) have outside tutoring, and the kids don't like it. Yes, they get into TP magnet and such, but these parents really shouldn't complain that the curriculum is too easy and the kids are bored. It wouldn't be so boring if they stopped with the outside tutoring. Not all, I know, but at least in some of the cases, this is the situation.

Honestly, what does that have to do with it???

because a lot of the Asian parents are the ones complaining that the curriculum is too slow. I'm Asian btw.