APS Duran School Performance Email - Is Long Branch a Failing School?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This is classic MAGA tactics. They try to take credit for things the Dems did. Like the law that was sponsored by a DEM.

All on a thread that tries to bash Duran. They now say they are happy about something Duran did while lying and saying it was forced by the state law. When it wasn't. Read the actual law. Don't believe their lies.

The notes from the Jan 20, 2025 Math Advisory Committee explicitly say that Math 6 Advanced was recommended in response to the new law. It’s in the very first yellow highlighted section. APS was not going to offer this class without the new law.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/05/Math-Advisory-Committee-Recommendation-2024-25-Updated-April-2025.pdf

Read the law. The law does not require it. The math advisory committee is just a bunch of APE parents now. Hardly experts.

Why are you such a troll? Here’s the discussion from the linked document. It very clearly lays out the requirements in the law and why a new course was created between math 6 and pre-algebra.

“ HB 2686 became state law this spring.1 It requires school districts to enroll all students
who score in the “top 25% in VA” on the 5th grade SOL into an advanced course in 6th grade.
MAC estimates, based on APS’s past SOL scores, that this will result in about 50% of APS’s 6th
graders being placed into an advanced course.
Currently APS offers two courses: Math 6 and 6th grade Prealgebra. Enrollment
recently has been split roughly 85% for Math 6 and 15% for Prealgebra. MAC does not believe
that the extra 35% of student that would be required by state law to be placed into an advanced
course would be successful in 6th grade Prealgebra. This provides APS with 3 options: (1)
Place the 35% of students into a course where they will struggle, (2) water down the course so
that the 35% can be successful but then the 15% are deprived of the course for their level and
neither set of students would be prepared to take Algebra 1 in 7th grade, or (3) create a third
course more suited to this 35% group of students. MAC strongly recommends this 3rd
option.”

That’s the advisory committee’s report. That leaves out some important parts of the law. It’s a false narrative. Why are you pushing it instead of looking to the actual law? I guess you want to push this narrative too. It’s obvious who you are.

You're accusing an APS committee of creating a false narrative that doesn't benefit APS? That makes no sense. If you were paying attention, you'd understand that the committee summary is entirely accurate.

Read the law and compare it to the committee summary. Either the committee is incompetent or pushing a false narrative. You’re on the committee obviously.

The law and the committee summary aren't going to be the same. The committee summary is about implementing the law, whereas the law is the law. No one expects them to be identical. That's not how it works

The report left out a crucial part for implementing. I think intentionally.

The Virginia Department of Education has set implementation guidelines that aren't in the law. That's how legislation and implementation works.

https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/62992/638943908317530000

VDOE tracks the law but the math report doesn't track either one. YOu are a MAGA APE pushing your lies. Anyone who wants the real truth should look to the law or VDOE.

Are you running a false flag operation? Your resistance to reality is making APE look better just because you hate them.

you're so trumpian, you've been called out repeateldy and your lies exposed. why can't you admit APS did something right here? Oh yeah we know why.

You haven’t exposed any lies. You’re just nuts.

Your lies:
That the bill was Youngkin's
That the bill requires Math 6 advanced
that the math report is accurate

anyone can see you are lying. you are persistent Mr. Maga APE!

Youngkin signed the bill and his administration rolled out the implementing guidance. Before Youngkin, the prior dem administration was proposing to greatly curtail advanced math in Virginia public schools.

The law requires districts to offer advanced math to more students, which compelled APS to offer another advanced math class since not all advanced math students are ready for Pre-algebra in 6th. If you are familiar with legislation, you'd know that it wouldn't require a specific class. It has to be implemented.

You haven't identified anything in the Math Advisory Committee minutes that's incorrect.

You accuse me of lying, but I've posted to VDOE and the statute. You just spew names and baseless accusations.

The law was sponsored by a Dem. All Youngkin did was sign it. Of course his admin rolled out the guidance, they had to. That's how it works. Now the new admin will take that over, again because that's how it works. The governor implements the laws.

The law requires automatic opt ins to advanced courses subject to availabilty of the advanced courses. It does not require a district to offer advanced courese and it doesn't require them to offer additional advanced courses.

The math committee makes it sounds like there is a hard requirement to put a certain number of kids in advanced math and says that means there won't be enough spots in the pre algebra or pre algebra wouldn't be the right course, so APS should create a second lower advanced course. But that's not what the law or the VDOE guidance says. The law/VDOE only requires opt ins subject to availability. That's an important point. So if there are not available slots already, it's lot required.

Youngkin campaigned on this issue, so it wasn't that he just signed the bill. It was part of his platform. I'm not a Youngkin fan and I don't think the bill was particularly well written, but I'm super glad it was passed because it is helping students.

The issue with Pre-algebra wasn't availability--there are teachers available to teach the course and it was being offered. The issue was that the additional students weren't prepared for it. So yeah, MAC was correct that those students needed to be offered an advanced or accelerated math option per the law. They looked at three options and chose to offer a new class. I think they know APS parents would have rioted if they'd chosen the option to get rid of Pre-algebra (math 6-7-8) in 6th grade, so APS's feet were to the fire.

I agree with MAC's recomendtion for the new class. But your claim that it was required by the new law is just bogus. This was an APS decision. That's it. It was a good one, but you can't give APS credit. Why not? It's weird unless your true agenda is to undermine public ed. And Dems.

IDC what Youngkin campaigned on. This was not "his law" as you claimed. It is a DEM law. He just didn't veto it, that's all. It's not a Youngkin law and it's not even a republican law. It's a DEM law. But you will never give credit to Dems. Look at the gymnastics you're trying to pull to try to give your guy credit where it's not due.

You can't call it a Democrat law when it was signed by a Republican governor and had two Republican co-sponsors (Mike Cherry and Carrie Coyner). I'm a dem, but am still super upset that the prior dem administration tried to gut advanced math in Virginia.

MAC thought that they were required to take action in view of the new law, and considered three options. You are reading the statue in some bizarre way to say APS could have done nothing, but that's not the interpretation taken by APS, VDOE or MAC. It's just made up by you. Duran followed the law.

APS took actions that were consistent with the law and may have been inspired by the law in some way. But the state, and certainly not Youngkin, did not make APS do anything, contrary to what you tried to claim. APS chose to do this. Why won't you give APS/Duran any credit for this action?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is classic MAGA tactics. They try to take credit for things the Dems did. Like the law that was sponsored by a DEM.

All on a thread that tries to bash Duran. They now say they are happy about something Duran did while lying and saying it was forced by the state law. When it wasn't. Read the actual law. Don't believe their lies.

The notes from the Jan 20, 2025 Math Advisory Committee explicitly say that Math 6 Advanced was recommended in response to the new law. It’s in the very first yellow highlighted section. APS was not going to offer this class without the new law.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/05/Math-Advisory-Committee-Recommendation-2024-25-Updated-April-2025.pdf

Read the law. The law does not require it. The math advisory committee is just a bunch of APE parents now. Hardly experts.

Why are you such a troll? Here’s the discussion from the linked document. It very clearly lays out the requirements in the law and why a new course was created between math 6 and pre-algebra.

“ HB 2686 became state law this spring.1 It requires school districts to enroll all students
who score in the “top 25% in VA” on the 5th grade SOL into an advanced course in 6th grade.
MAC estimates, based on APS’s past SOL scores, that this will result in about 50% of APS’s 6th
graders being placed into an advanced course.
Currently APS offers two courses: Math 6 and 6th grade Prealgebra. Enrollment
recently has been split roughly 85% for Math 6 and 15% for Prealgebra. MAC does not believe
that the extra 35% of student that would be required by state law to be placed into an advanced
course would be successful in 6th grade Prealgebra. This provides APS with 3 options: (1)
Place the 35% of students into a course where they will struggle, (2) water down the course so
that the 35% can be successful but then the 15% are deprived of the course for their level and
neither set of students would be prepared to take Algebra 1 in 7th grade, or (3) create a third
course more suited to this 35% group of students. MAC strongly recommends this 3rd
option.”

That’s the advisory committee’s report. That leaves out some important parts of the law. It’s a false narrative. Why are you pushing it instead of looking to the actual law? I guess you want to push this narrative too. It’s obvious who you are.

You're accusing an APS committee of creating a false narrative that doesn't benefit APS? That makes no sense. If you were paying attention, you'd understand that the committee summary is entirely accurate.

Read the law and compare it to the committee summary. Either the committee is incompetent or pushing a false narrative. You’re on the committee obviously.

The law and the committee summary aren't going to be the same. The committee summary is about implementing the law, whereas the law is the law. No one expects them to be identical. That's not how it works

The report left out a crucial part for implementing. I think intentionally.

The Virginia Department of Education has set implementation guidelines that aren't in the law. That's how legislation and implementation works.

https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/62992/638943908317530000

VDOE tracks the law but the math report doesn't track either one. YOu are a MAGA APE pushing your lies. Anyone who wants the real truth should look to the law or VDOE.

Are you running a false flag operation? Your resistance to reality is making APE look better just because you hate them.

you're so trumpian, you've been called out repeateldy and your lies exposed. why can't you admit APS did something right here? Oh yeah we know why.

You haven’t exposed any lies. You’re just nuts.

Your lies:
That the bill was Youngkin's
That the bill requires Math 6 advanced
that the math report is accurate

anyone can see you are lying. you are persistent Mr. Maga APE!

Youngkin signed the bill and his administration rolled out the implementing guidance. Before Youngkin, the prior dem administration was proposing to greatly curtail advanced math in Virginia public schools.

The law requires districts to offer advanced math to more students, which compelled APS to offer another advanced math class since not all advanced math students are ready for Pre-algebra in 6th. If you are familiar with legislation, you'd know that it wouldn't require a specific class. It has to be implemented.

You haven't identified anything in the Math Advisory Committee minutes that's incorrect.

You accuse me of lying, but I've posted to VDOE and the statute. You just spew names and baseless accusations.

The law was sponsored by a Dem. All Youngkin did was sign it. Of course his admin rolled out the guidance, they had to. That's how it works. Now the new admin will take that over, again because that's how it works. The governor implements the laws.

The law requires automatic opt ins to advanced courses subject to availabilty of the advanced courses. It does not require a district to offer advanced courese and it doesn't require them to offer additional advanced courses.

The math committee makes it sounds like there is a hard requirement to put a certain number of kids in advanced math and says that means there won't be enough spots in the pre algebra or pre algebra wouldn't be the right course, so APS should create a second lower advanced course. But that's not what the law or the VDOE guidance says. The law/VDOE only requires opt ins subject to availability. That's an important point. So if there are not available slots already, it's lot required.

Youngkin campaigned on this issue, so it wasn't that he just signed the bill. It was part of his platform. I'm not a Youngkin fan and I don't think the bill was particularly well written, but I'm super glad it was passed because it is helping students.

The issue with Pre-algebra wasn't availability--there are teachers available to teach the course and it was being offered. The issue was that the additional students weren't prepared for it. So yeah, MAC was correct that those students needed to be offered an advanced or accelerated math option per the law. They looked at three options and chose to offer a new class. I think they know APS parents would have rioted if they'd chosen the option to get rid of Pre-algebra (math 6-7-8) in 6th grade, so APS's feet were to the fire.

I agree with MAC's recomendtion for the new class. But your claim that it was required by the new law is just bogus. This was an APS decision. That's it. It was a good one, but you can't give APS credit. Why not? It's weird unless your true agenda is to undermine public ed. And Dems.

IDC what Youngkin campaigned on. This was not "his law" as you claimed. It is a DEM law. He just didn't veto it, that's all. It's not a Youngkin law and it's not even a republican law. It's a DEM law. But you will never give credit to Dems. Look at the gymnastics you're trying to pull to try to give your guy credit where it's not due.

You can't call it a Democrat law when it was signed by a Republican governor and had two Republican co-sponsors (Mike Cherry and Carrie Coyner). I'm a dem, but am still super upset that the prior dem administration tried to gut advanced math in Virginia.

MAC thought that they were required to take action in view of the new law, and considered three options. You are reading the statue in some bizarre way to say APS could have done nothing, but that's not the interpretation taken by APS, VDOE or MAC. It's just made up by you. Duran followed the law.

APS took actions that were consistent with the law and may have been inspired by the law in some way. But the state, and certainly not Youngkin, did not make APS do anything, contrary to what you tried to claim. APS chose to do this. Why won't you give APS/Duran any credit for this action?

Fine he can have a tiny nugget of credit, but clearly this was not anything they had planned to do on their own given that it was done over the summer, impacting math placement letters.
We are in for a real reckoning soon, the intense equity focus has been a failure for the very people it was intended to help. Many people in Arlington are afraid to admit this because they don’t want to seem Maga or even aligned with APE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is classic MAGA tactics. They try to take credit for things the Dems did. Like the law that was sponsored by a DEM.

All on a thread that tries to bash Duran. They now say they are happy about something Duran did while lying and saying it was forced by the state law. When it wasn't. Read the actual law. Don't believe their lies.

The notes from the Jan 20, 2025 Math Advisory Committee explicitly say that Math 6 Advanced was recommended in response to the new law. It’s in the very first yellow highlighted section. APS was not going to offer this class without the new law.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/05/Math-Advisory-Committee-Recommendation-2024-25-Updated-April-2025.pdf

Read the law. The law does not require it. The math advisory committee is just a bunch of APE parents now. Hardly experts.

Why are you such a troll? Here’s the discussion from the linked document. It very clearly lays out the requirements in the law and why a new course was created between math 6 and pre-algebra.

“ HB 2686 became state law this spring.1 It requires school districts to enroll all students
who score in the “top 25% in VA” on the 5th grade SOL into an advanced course in 6th grade.
MAC estimates, based on APS’s past SOL scores, that this will result in about 50% of APS’s 6th
graders being placed into an advanced course.
Currently APS offers two courses: Math 6 and 6th grade Prealgebra. Enrollment
recently has been split roughly 85% for Math 6 and 15% for Prealgebra. MAC does not believe
that the extra 35% of student that would be required by state law to be placed into an advanced
course would be successful in 6th grade Prealgebra. This provides APS with 3 options: (1)
Place the 35% of students into a course where they will struggle, (2) water down the course so
that the 35% can be successful but then the 15% are deprived of the course for their level and
neither set of students would be prepared to take Algebra 1 in 7th grade, or (3) create a third
course more suited to this 35% group of students. MAC strongly recommends this 3rd
option.”

That’s the advisory committee’s report. That leaves out some important parts of the law. It’s a false narrative. Why are you pushing it instead of looking to the actual law? I guess you want to push this narrative too. It’s obvious who you are.

You're accusing an APS committee of creating a false narrative that doesn't benefit APS? That makes no sense. If you were paying attention, you'd understand that the committee summary is entirely accurate.

Read the law and compare it to the committee summary. Either the committee is incompetent or pushing a false narrative. You’re on the committee obviously.

The law and the committee summary aren't going to be the same. The committee summary is about implementing the law, whereas the law is the law. No one expects them to be identical. That's not how it works

The report left out a crucial part for implementing. I think intentionally.

The Virginia Department of Education has set implementation guidelines that aren't in the law. That's how legislation and implementation works.

https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/62992/638943908317530000

VDOE tracks the law but the math report doesn't track either one. YOu are a MAGA APE pushing your lies. Anyone who wants the real truth should look to the law or VDOE.

Are you running a false flag operation? Your resistance to reality is making APE look better just because you hate them.

you're so trumpian, you've been called out repeateldy and your lies exposed. why can't you admit APS did something right here? Oh yeah we know why.

You haven’t exposed any lies. You’re just nuts.

Your lies:
That the bill was Youngkin's
That the bill requires Math 6 advanced
that the math report is accurate

anyone can see you are lying. you are persistent Mr. Maga APE!

Youngkin signed the bill and his administration rolled out the implementing guidance. Before Youngkin, the prior dem administration was proposing to greatly curtail advanced math in Virginia public schools.

The law requires districts to offer advanced math to more students, which compelled APS to offer another advanced math class since not all advanced math students are ready for Pre-algebra in 6th. If you are familiar with legislation, you'd know that it wouldn't require a specific class. It has to be implemented.

You haven't identified anything in the Math Advisory Committee minutes that's incorrect.

You accuse me of lying, but I've posted to VDOE and the statute. You just spew names and baseless accusations.

The law was sponsored by a Dem. All Youngkin did was sign it. Of course his admin rolled out the guidance, they had to. That's how it works. Now the new admin will take that over, again because that's how it works. The governor implements the laws.

The law requires automatic opt ins to advanced courses subject to availabilty of the advanced courses. It does not require a district to offer advanced courese and it doesn't require them to offer additional advanced courses.

The math committee makes it sounds like there is a hard requirement to put a certain number of kids in advanced math and says that means there won't be enough spots in the pre algebra or pre algebra wouldn't be the right course, so APS should create a second lower advanced course. But that's not what the law or the VDOE guidance says. The law/VDOE only requires opt ins subject to availability. That's an important point. So if there are not available slots already, it's lot required.

Youngkin campaigned on this issue, so it wasn't that he just signed the bill. It was part of his platform. I'm not a Youngkin fan and I don't think the bill was particularly well written, but I'm super glad it was passed because it is helping students.

The issue with Pre-algebra wasn't availability--there are teachers available to teach the course and it was being offered. The issue was that the additional students weren't prepared for it. So yeah, MAC was correct that those students needed to be offered an advanced or accelerated math option per the law. They looked at three options and chose to offer a new class. I think they know APS parents would have rioted if they'd chosen the option to get rid of Pre-algebra (math 6-7-8) in 6th grade, so APS's feet were to the fire.

I agree with MAC's recomendtion for the new class. But your claim that it was required by the new law is just bogus. This was an APS decision. That's it. It was a good one, but you can't give APS credit. Why not? It's weird unless your true agenda is to undermine public ed. And Dems.

IDC what Youngkin campaigned on. This was not "his law" as you claimed. It is a DEM law. He just didn't veto it, that's all. It's not a Youngkin law and it's not even a republican law. It's a DEM law. But you will never give credit to Dems. Look at the gymnastics you're trying to pull to try to give your guy credit where it's not due.

You can't call it a Democrat law when it was signed by a Republican governor and had two Republican co-sponsors (Mike Cherry and Carrie Coyner). I'm a dem, but am still super upset that the prior dem administration tried to gut advanced math in Virginia.

MAC thought that they were required to take action in view of the new law, and considered three options. You are reading the statue in some bizarre way to say APS could have done nothing, but that's not the interpretation taken by APS, VDOE or MAC. It's just made up by you. Duran followed the law.

APS took actions that were consistent with the law and may have been inspired by the law in some way. But the state, and certainly not Youngkin, did not make APS do anything, contrary to what you tried to claim. APS chose to do this. Why won't you give APS/Duran any credit for this action?

Inspired by? Hahaha. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is classic MAGA tactics. They try to take credit for things the Dems did. Like the law that was sponsored by a DEM.

All on a thread that tries to bash Duran. They now say they are happy about something Duran did while lying and saying it was forced by the state law. When it wasn't. Read the actual law. Don't believe their lies.

The notes from the Jan 20, 2025 Math Advisory Committee explicitly say that Math 6 Advanced was recommended in response to the new law. It’s in the very first yellow highlighted section. APS was not going to offer this class without the new law.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/05/Math-Advisory-Committee-Recommendation-2024-25-Updated-April-2025.pdf

Read the law. The law does not require it. The math advisory committee is just a bunch of APE parents now. Hardly experts.

Why are you such a troll? Here’s the discussion from the linked document. It very clearly lays out the requirements in the law and why a new course was created between math 6 and pre-algebra.

“ HB 2686 became state law this spring.1 It requires school districts to enroll all students
who score in the “top 25% in VA” on the 5th grade SOL into an advanced course in 6th grade.
MAC estimates, based on APS’s past SOL scores, that this will result in about 50% of APS’s 6th
graders being placed into an advanced course.
Currently APS offers two courses: Math 6 and 6th grade Prealgebra. Enrollment
recently has been split roughly 85% for Math 6 and 15% for Prealgebra. MAC does not believe
that the extra 35% of student that would be required by state law to be placed into an advanced
course would be successful in 6th grade Prealgebra. This provides APS with 3 options: (1)
Place the 35% of students into a course where they will struggle, (2) water down the course so
that the 35% can be successful but then the 15% are deprived of the course for their level and
neither set of students would be prepared to take Algebra 1 in 7th grade, or (3) create a third
course more suited to this 35% group of students. MAC strongly recommends this 3rd
option.”

That’s the advisory committee’s report. That leaves out some important parts of the law. It’s a false narrative. Why are you pushing it instead of looking to the actual law? I guess you want to push this narrative too. It’s obvious who you are.

You're accusing an APS committee of creating a false narrative that doesn't benefit APS? That makes no sense. If you were paying attention, you'd understand that the committee summary is entirely accurate.

Read the law and compare it to the committee summary. Either the committee is incompetent or pushing a false narrative. You’re on the committee obviously.

The law and the committee summary aren't going to be the same. The committee summary is about implementing the law, whereas the law is the law. No one expects them to be identical. That's not how it works

The report left out a crucial part for implementing. I think intentionally.

The Virginia Department of Education has set implementation guidelines that aren't in the law. That's how legislation and implementation works.

https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/62992/638943908317530000

VDOE tracks the law but the math report doesn't track either one. YOu are a MAGA APE pushing your lies. Anyone who wants the real truth should look to the law or VDOE.

Are you running a false flag operation? Your resistance to reality is making APE look better just because you hate them.

you're so trumpian, you've been called out repeateldy and your lies exposed. why can't you admit APS did something right here? Oh yeah we know why.

You haven’t exposed any lies. You’re just nuts.

Your lies:
That the bill was Youngkin's
That the bill requires Math 6 advanced
that the math report is accurate

anyone can see you are lying. you are persistent Mr. Maga APE!

Youngkin signed the bill and his administration rolled out the implementing guidance. Before Youngkin, the prior dem administration was proposing to greatly curtail advanced math in Virginia public schools.

The law requires districts to offer advanced math to more students, which compelled APS to offer another advanced math class since not all advanced math students are ready for Pre-algebra in 6th. If you are familiar with legislation, you'd know that it wouldn't require a specific class. It has to be implemented.

You haven't identified anything in the Math Advisory Committee minutes that's incorrect.

You accuse me of lying, but I've posted to VDOE and the statute. You just spew names and baseless accusations.

The law was sponsored by a Dem. All Youngkin did was sign it. Of course his admin rolled out the guidance, they had to. That's how it works. Now the new admin will take that over, again because that's how it works. The governor implements the laws.

The law requires automatic opt ins to advanced courses subject to availabilty of the advanced courses. It does not require a district to offer advanced courese and it doesn't require them to offer additional advanced courses.

The math committee makes it sounds like there is a hard requirement to put a certain number of kids in advanced math and says that means there won't be enough spots in the pre algebra or pre algebra wouldn't be the right course, so APS should create a second lower advanced course. But that's not what the law or the VDOE guidance says. The law/VDOE only requires opt ins subject to availability. That's an important point. So if there are not available slots already, it's lot required.

Youngkin campaigned on this issue, so it wasn't that he just signed the bill. It was part of his platform. I'm not a Youngkin fan and I don't think the bill was particularly well written, but I'm super glad it was passed because it is helping students.

The issue with Pre-algebra wasn't availability--there are teachers available to teach the course and it was being offered. The issue was that the additional students weren't prepared for it. So yeah, MAC was correct that those students needed to be offered an advanced or accelerated math option per the law. They looked at three options and chose to offer a new class. I think they know APS parents would have rioted if they'd chosen the option to get rid of Pre-algebra (math 6-7-8) in 6th grade, so APS's feet were to the fire.

I agree with MAC's recomendtion for the new class. But your claim that it was required by the new law is just bogus. This was an APS decision. That's it. It was a good one, but you can't give APS credit. Why not? It's weird unless your true agenda is to undermine public ed. And Dems.

IDC what Youngkin campaigned on. This was not "his law" as you claimed. It is a DEM law. He just didn't veto it, that's all. It's not a Youngkin law and it's not even a republican law. It's a DEM law. But you will never give credit to Dems. Look at the gymnastics you're trying to pull to try to give your guy credit where it's not due.

You can't call it a Democrat law when it was signed by a Republican governor and had two Republican co-sponsors (Mike Cherry and Carrie Coyner). I'm a dem, but am still super upset that the prior dem administration tried to gut advanced math in Virginia.

MAC thought that they were required to take action in view of the new law, and considered three options. You are reading the statue in some bizarre way to say APS could have done nothing, but that's not the interpretation taken by APS, VDOE or MAC. It's just made up by you. Duran followed the law.

APS took actions that were consistent with the law and may have been inspired by the law in some way. But the state, and certainly not Youngkin, did not make APS do anything, contrary to what you tried to claim. APS chose to do this. Why won't you give APS/Duran any credit for this action?

Would Math 6 Advanced exist in APS without this law? No. Obviously not. That's why APS/Duran do not get any credit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is classic MAGA tactics. They try to take credit for things the Dems did. Like the law that was sponsored by a DEM.

All on a thread that tries to bash Duran. They now say they are happy about something Duran did while lying and saying it was forced by the state law. When it wasn't. Read the actual law. Don't believe their lies.

The notes from the Jan 20, 2025 Math Advisory Committee explicitly say that Math 6 Advanced was recommended in response to the new law. It’s in the very first yellow highlighted section. APS was not going to offer this class without the new law.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/05/Math-Advisory-Committee-Recommendation-2024-25-Updated-April-2025.pdf

Read the law. The law does not require it. The math advisory committee is just a bunch of APE parents now. Hardly experts.

Why are you such a troll? Here’s the discussion from the linked document. It very clearly lays out the requirements in the law and why a new course was created between math 6 and pre-algebra.

“ HB 2686 became state law this spring.1 It requires school districts to enroll all students
who score in the “top 25% in VA” on the 5th grade SOL into an advanced course in 6th grade.
MAC estimates, based on APS’s past SOL scores, that this will result in about 50% of APS’s 6th
graders being placed into an advanced course.
Currently APS offers two courses: Math 6 and 6th grade Prealgebra. Enrollment
recently has been split roughly 85% for Math 6 and 15% for Prealgebra. MAC does not believe
that the extra 35% of student that would be required by state law to be placed into an advanced
course would be successful in 6th grade Prealgebra. This provides APS with 3 options: (1)
Place the 35% of students into a course where they will struggle, (2) water down the course so
that the 35% can be successful but then the 15% are deprived of the course for their level and
neither set of students would be prepared to take Algebra 1 in 7th grade, or (3) create a third
course more suited to this 35% group of students. MAC strongly recommends this 3rd
option.”

That’s the advisory committee’s report. That leaves out some important parts of the law. It’s a false narrative. Why are you pushing it instead of looking to the actual law? I guess you want to push this narrative too. It’s obvious who you are.

You're accusing an APS committee of creating a false narrative that doesn't benefit APS? That makes no sense. If you were paying attention, you'd understand that the committee summary is entirely accurate.

Read the law and compare it to the committee summary. Either the committee is incompetent or pushing a false narrative. You’re on the committee obviously.

The law and the committee summary aren't going to be the same. The committee summary is about implementing the law, whereas the law is the law. No one expects them to be identical. That's not how it works

The report left out a crucial part for implementing. I think intentionally.

The Virginia Department of Education has set implementation guidelines that aren't in the law. That's how legislation and implementation works.

https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/62992/638943908317530000

VDOE tracks the law but the math report doesn't track either one. YOu are a MAGA APE pushing your lies. Anyone who wants the real truth should look to the law or VDOE.

Are you running a false flag operation? Your resistance to reality is making APE look better just because you hate them.

you're so trumpian, you've been called out repeateldy and your lies exposed. why can't you admit APS did something right here? Oh yeah we know why.

You haven’t exposed any lies. You’re just nuts.

Your lies:
That the bill was Youngkin's
That the bill requires Math 6 advanced
that the math report is accurate

anyone can see you are lying. you are persistent Mr. Maga APE!

Youngkin signed the bill and his administration rolled out the implementing guidance. Before Youngkin, the prior dem administration was proposing to greatly curtail advanced math in Virginia public schools.

The law requires districts to offer advanced math to more students, which compelled APS to offer another advanced math class since not all advanced math students are ready for Pre-algebra in 6th. If you are familiar with legislation, you'd know that it wouldn't require a specific class. It has to be implemented.

You haven't identified anything in the Math Advisory Committee minutes that's incorrect.

You accuse me of lying, but I've posted to VDOE and the statute. You just spew names and baseless accusations.

The law was sponsored by a Dem. All Youngkin did was sign it. Of course his admin rolled out the guidance, they had to. That's how it works. Now the new admin will take that over, again because that's how it works. The governor implements the laws.

The law requires automatic opt ins to advanced courses subject to availabilty of the advanced courses. It does not require a district to offer advanced courese and it doesn't require them to offer additional advanced courses.

The math committee makes it sounds like there is a hard requirement to put a certain number of kids in advanced math and says that means there won't be enough spots in the pre algebra or pre algebra wouldn't be the right course, so APS should create a second lower advanced course. But that's not what the law or the VDOE guidance says. The law/VDOE only requires opt ins subject to availability. That's an important point. So if there are not available slots already, it's lot required.

Youngkin campaigned on this issue, so it wasn't that he just signed the bill. It was part of his platform. I'm not a Youngkin fan and I don't think the bill was particularly well written, but I'm super glad it was passed because it is helping students.

The issue with Pre-algebra wasn't availability--there are teachers available to teach the course and it was being offered. The issue was that the additional students weren't prepared for it. So yeah, MAC was correct that those students needed to be offered an advanced or accelerated math option per the law. They looked at three options and chose to offer a new class. I think they know APS parents would have rioted if they'd chosen the option to get rid of Pre-algebra (math 6-7-8) in 6th grade, so APS's feet were to the fire.

I agree with MAC's recomendtion for the new class. But your claim that it was required by the new law is just bogus. This was an APS decision. That's it. It was a good one, but you can't give APS credit. Why not? It's weird unless your true agenda is to undermine public ed. And Dems.

IDC what Youngkin campaigned on. This was not "his law" as you claimed. It is a DEM law. He just didn't veto it, that's all. It's not a Youngkin law and it's not even a republican law. It's a DEM law. But you will never give credit to Dems. Look at the gymnastics you're trying to pull to try to give your guy credit where it's not due.

You can't call it a Democrat law when it was signed by a Republican governor and had two Republican co-sponsors (Mike Cherry and Carrie Coyner). I'm a dem, but am still super upset that the prior dem administration tried to gut advanced math in Virginia.

MAC thought that they were required to take action in view of the new law, and considered three options. You are reading the statue in some bizarre way to say APS could have done nothing, but that's not the interpretation taken by APS, VDOE or MAC. It's just made up by you. Duran followed the law.

The Chief patron and the one who introduced it is a DEMOCRAT. There's a long list of co sponsors, Dems and Rs. It had bipartisan support.

YOU called it Youngkin's law before I called it anything. I pointed out that you can't call it Youngkin's law when it was sponsored by a Dem.

So. Many. Lies.

Where did someone call it Youngkin's law? No one said that. But requiring more advanced math classes was 100% a central part of his platform. Look how much it's discussed here:

The Surprising Strategy Behind Youngkin’s Stunner - POLITICO https://share.google/OJt2NAIoPz2PMgNWJ

During the election Dems were being crucified in the media for proposing to reduce math acceleration and rigor for "equity" purposes. You may have not agreed that's what Dems were proposing, but that's how it was being portrayed and is absolutely one of the reasons Youngkin won.

Virginia Pushes Accelerated Math Enrollment | RealClearEducation https://share.google/b2VXGQxdboksA2gbH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is classic MAGA tactics. They try to take credit for things the Dems did. Like the law that was sponsored by a DEM.

All on a thread that tries to bash Duran. They now say they are happy about something Duran did while lying and saying it was forced by the state law. When it wasn't. Read the actual law. Don't believe their lies.

The notes from the Jan 20, 2025 Math Advisory Committee explicitly say that Math 6 Advanced was recommended in response to the new law. It’s in the very first yellow highlighted section. APS was not going to offer this class without the new law.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/05/Math-Advisory-Committee-Recommendation-2024-25-Updated-April-2025.pdf

Read the law. The law does not require it. The math advisory committee is just a bunch of APE parents now. Hardly experts.

Why are you such a troll? Here’s the discussion from the linked document. It very clearly lays out the requirements in the law and why a new course was created between math 6 and pre-algebra.

“ HB 2686 became state law this spring.1 It requires school districts to enroll all students
who score in the “top 25% in VA” on the 5th grade SOL into an advanced course in 6th grade.
MAC estimates, based on APS’s past SOL scores, that this will result in about 50% of APS’s 6th
graders being placed into an advanced course.
Currently APS offers two courses: Math 6 and 6th grade Prealgebra. Enrollment
recently has been split roughly 85% for Math 6 and 15% for Prealgebra. MAC does not believe
that the extra 35% of student that would be required by state law to be placed into an advanced
course would be successful in 6th grade Prealgebra. This provides APS with 3 options: (1)
Place the 35% of students into a course where they will struggle, (2) water down the course so
that the 35% can be successful but then the 15% are deprived of the course for their level and
neither set of students would be prepared to take Algebra 1 in 7th grade, or (3) create a third
course more suited to this 35% group of students. MAC strongly recommends this 3rd
option.”

That’s the advisory committee’s report. That leaves out some important parts of the law. It’s a false narrative. Why are you pushing it instead of looking to the actual law? I guess you want to push this narrative too. It’s obvious who you are.

You're accusing an APS committee of creating a false narrative that doesn't benefit APS? That makes no sense. If you were paying attention, you'd understand that the committee summary is entirely accurate.

Read the law and compare it to the committee summary. Either the committee is incompetent or pushing a false narrative. You’re on the committee obviously.

The law and the committee summary aren't going to be the same. The committee summary is about implementing the law, whereas the law is the law. No one expects them to be identical. That's not how it works

The report left out a crucial part for implementing. I think intentionally.

The Virginia Department of Education has set implementation guidelines that aren't in the law. That's how legislation and implementation works.

https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/62992/638943908317530000

VDOE tracks the law but the math report doesn't track either one. YOu are a MAGA APE pushing your lies. Anyone who wants the real truth should look to the law or VDOE.

Are you running a false flag operation? Your resistance to reality is making APE look better just because you hate them.

you're so trumpian, you've been called out repeateldy and your lies exposed. why can't you admit APS did something right here? Oh yeah we know why.

You haven’t exposed any lies. You’re just nuts.

Your lies:
That the bill was Youngkin's
That the bill requires Math 6 advanced
that the math report is accurate

anyone can see you are lying. you are persistent Mr. Maga APE!

Youngkin signed the bill and his administration rolled out the implementing guidance. Before Youngkin, the prior dem administration was proposing to greatly curtail advanced math in Virginia public schools.

The law requires districts to offer advanced math to more students, which compelled APS to offer another advanced math class since not all advanced math students are ready for Pre-algebra in 6th. If you are familiar with legislation, you'd know that it wouldn't require a specific class. It has to be implemented.

You haven't identified anything in the Math Advisory Committee minutes that's incorrect.

You accuse me of lying, but I've posted to VDOE and the statute. You just spew names and baseless accusations.

The law was sponsored by a Dem. All Youngkin did was sign it. Of course his admin rolled out the guidance, they had to. That's how it works. Now the new admin will take that over, again because that's how it works. The governor implements the laws.

The law requires automatic opt ins to advanced courses subject to availabilty of the advanced courses. It does not require a district to offer advanced courese and it doesn't require them to offer additional advanced courses.

The math committee makes it sounds like there is a hard requirement to put a certain number of kids in advanced math and says that means there won't be enough spots in the pre algebra or pre algebra wouldn't be the right course, so APS should create a second lower advanced course. But that's not what the law or the VDOE guidance says. The law/VDOE only requires opt ins subject to availability. That's an important point. So if there are not available slots already, it's lot required.

Youngkin campaigned on this issue, so it wasn't that he just signed the bill. It was part of his platform. I'm not a Youngkin fan and I don't think the bill was particularly well written, but I'm super glad it was passed because it is helping students.

The issue with Pre-algebra wasn't availability--there are teachers available to teach the course and it was being offered. The issue was that the additional students weren't prepared for it. So yeah, MAC was correct that those students needed to be offered an advanced or accelerated math option per the law. They looked at three options and chose to offer a new class. I think they know APS parents would have rioted if they'd chosen the option to get rid of Pre-algebra (math 6-7-8) in 6th grade, so APS's feet were to the fire.

I agree with MAC's recomendtion for the new class. But your claim that it was required by the new law is just bogus. This was an APS decision. That's it. It was a good one, but you can't give APS credit. Why not? It's weird unless your true agenda is to undermine public ed. And Dems.

IDC what Youngkin campaigned on. This was not "his law" as you claimed. It is a DEM law. He just didn't veto it, that's all. It's not a Youngkin law and it's not even a republican law. It's a DEM law. But you will never give credit to Dems. Look at the gymnastics you're trying to pull to try to give your guy credit where it's not due.

You can't call it a Democrat law when it was signed by a Republican governor and had two Republican co-sponsors (Mike Cherry and Carrie Coyner). I'm a dem, but am still super upset that the prior dem administration tried to gut advanced math in Virginia.

MAC thought that they were required to take action in view of the new law, and considered three options. You are reading the statue in some bizarre way to say APS could have done nothing, but that's not the interpretation taken by APS, VDOE or MAC. It's just made up by you. Duran followed the law.

APS took actions that were consistent with the law and may have been inspired by the law in some way. But the state, and certainly not Youngkin, did not make APS do anything, contrary to what you tried to claim. APS chose to do this. Why won't you give APS/Duran any credit for this action?

Fine he can have a tiny nugget of credit, but clearly this was not anything they had planned to do on their own given that it was done over the summer, impacting math placement letters.
We are in for a real reckoning soon, the intense equity focus has been a failure for the very people it was intended to help. Many people in Arlington are afraid to admit this because they don’t want to seem Maga or even aligned with APE.

+1. I'm consistently perplexed why Duran and his administration seem to only discuss equity in ways that have nothing to do with education. His job is about teaching students. APS's job is providing education. That's the point of public schools and a quality education is what is going to help disadvantaged students succeed in the long term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is classic MAGA tactics. They try to take credit for things the Dems did. Like the law that was sponsored by a DEM.

All on a thread that tries to bash Duran. They now say they are happy about something Duran did while lying and saying it was forced by the state law. When it wasn't. Read the actual law. Don't believe their lies.

The notes from the Jan 20, 2025 Math Advisory Committee explicitly say that Math 6 Advanced was recommended in response to the new law. It’s in the very first yellow highlighted section. APS was not going to offer this class without the new law.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/05/Math-Advisory-Committee-Recommendation-2024-25-Updated-April-2025.pdf

Read the law. The law does not require it. The math advisory committee is just a bunch of APE parents now. Hardly experts.

Why are you such a troll? Here’s the discussion from the linked document. It very clearly lays out the requirements in the law and why a new course was created between math 6 and pre-algebra.

“ HB 2686 became state law this spring.1 It requires school districts to enroll all students
who score in the “top 25% in VA” on the 5th grade SOL into an advanced course in 6th grade.
MAC estimates, based on APS’s past SOL scores, that this will result in about 50% of APS’s 6th
graders being placed into an advanced course.
Currently APS offers two courses: Math 6 and 6th grade Prealgebra. Enrollment
recently has been split roughly 85% for Math 6 and 15% for Prealgebra. MAC does not believe
that the extra 35% of student that would be required by state law to be placed into an advanced
course would be successful in 6th grade Prealgebra. This provides APS with 3 options: (1)
Place the 35% of students into a course where they will struggle, (2) water down the course so
that the 35% can be successful but then the 15% are deprived of the course for their level and
neither set of students would be prepared to take Algebra 1 in 7th grade, or (3) create a third
course more suited to this 35% group of students. MAC strongly recommends this 3rd
option.”

That’s the advisory committee’s report. That leaves out some important parts of the law. It’s a false narrative. Why are you pushing it instead of looking to the actual law? I guess you want to push this narrative too. It’s obvious who you are.

You're accusing an APS committee of creating a false narrative that doesn't benefit APS? That makes no sense. If you were paying attention, you'd understand that the committee summary is entirely accurate.

Read the law and compare it to the committee summary. Either the committee is incompetent or pushing a false narrative. You’re on the committee obviously.

The law and the committee summary aren't going to be the same. The committee summary is about implementing the law, whereas the law is the law. No one expects them to be identical. That's not how it works

The report left out a crucial part for implementing. I think intentionally.

The Virginia Department of Education has set implementation guidelines that aren't in the law. That's how legislation and implementation works.

https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/62992/638943908317530000

VDOE tracks the law but the math report doesn't track either one. YOu are a MAGA APE pushing your lies. Anyone who wants the real truth should look to the law or VDOE.

Are you running a false flag operation? Your resistance to reality is making APE look better just because you hate them.

you're so trumpian, you've been called out repeateldy and your lies exposed. why can't you admit APS did something right here? Oh yeah we know why.

You haven’t exposed any lies. You’re just nuts.

Your lies:
That the bill was Youngkin's
That the bill requires Math 6 advanced
that the math report is accurate

anyone can see you are lying. you are persistent Mr. Maga APE!

Youngkin signed the bill and his administration rolled out the implementing guidance. Before Youngkin, the prior dem administration was proposing to greatly curtail advanced math in Virginia public schools.

The law requires districts to offer advanced math to more students, which compelled APS to offer another advanced math class since not all advanced math students are ready for Pre-algebra in 6th. If you are familiar with legislation, you'd know that it wouldn't require a specific class. It has to be implemented.

You haven't identified anything in the Math Advisory Committee minutes that's incorrect.

You accuse me of lying, but I've posted to VDOE and the statute. You just spew names and baseless accusations.

The law was sponsored by a Dem. All Youngkin did was sign it. Of course his admin rolled out the guidance, they had to. That's how it works. Now the new admin will take that over, again because that's how it works. The governor implements the laws.

The law requires automatic opt ins to advanced courses subject to availabilty of the advanced courses. It does not require a district to offer advanced courese and it doesn't require them to offer additional advanced courses.

The math committee makes it sounds like there is a hard requirement to put a certain number of kids in advanced math and says that means there won't be enough spots in the pre algebra or pre algebra wouldn't be the right course, so APS should create a second lower advanced course. But that's not what the law or the VDOE guidance says. The law/VDOE only requires opt ins subject to availability. That's an important point. So if there are not available slots already, it's lot required.

Youngkin campaigned on this issue, so it wasn't that he just signed the bill. It was part of his platform. I'm not a Youngkin fan and I don't think the bill was particularly well written, but I'm super glad it was passed because it is helping students.

The issue with Pre-algebra wasn't availability--there are teachers available to teach the course and it was being offered. The issue was that the additional students weren't prepared for it. So yeah, MAC was correct that those students needed to be offered an advanced or accelerated math option per the law. They looked at three options and chose to offer a new class. I think they know APS parents would have rioted if they'd chosen the option to get rid of Pre-algebra (math 6-7-8) in 6th grade, so APS's feet were to the fire.

I agree with MAC's recomendtion for the new class. But your claim that it was required by the new law is just bogus. This was an APS decision. That's it. It was a good one, but you can't give APS credit. Why not? It's weird unless your true agenda is to undermine public ed. And Dems.

IDC what Youngkin campaigned on. This was not "his law" as you claimed. It is a DEM law. He just didn't veto it, that's all. It's not a Youngkin law and it's not even a republican law. It's a DEM law. But you will never give credit to Dems. Look at the gymnastics you're trying to pull to try to give your guy credit where it's not due.

You can't call it a Democrat law when it was signed by a Republican governor and had two Republican co-sponsors (Mike Cherry and Carrie Coyner). I'm a dem, but am still super upset that the prior dem administration tried to gut advanced math in Virginia.

MAC thought that they were required to take action in view of the new law, and considered three options. You are reading the statue in some bizarre way to say APS could have done nothing, but that's not the interpretation taken by APS, VDOE or MAC. It's just made up by you. Duran followed the law.

APS took actions that were consistent with the law and may have been inspired by the law in some way. But the state, and certainly not Youngkin, did not make APS do anything, contrary to what you tried to claim. APS chose to do this. Why won't you give APS/Duran any credit for this action?

Fine he can have a tiny nugget of credit, but clearly this was not anything they had planned to do on their own given that it was done over the summer, impacting math placement letters.
We are in for a real reckoning soon, the intense equity focus has been a failure for the very people it was intended to help. Many people in Arlington are afraid to admit this because they don’t want to seem Maga or even aligned with APE.

+1. I'm consistently perplexed why Duran and his administration seem to only discuss equity in ways that have nothing to do with education. His job is about teaching students. APS's job is providing education. That's the point of public schools and a quality education is what is going to help disadvantaged students succeed in the long term.

I think there is a lot of subconscious racism. People think taking away advanced math, as was proposed a few years ago, won’t harm low income minorities because they don’t really think those kids qualify for the classes anyway. In reality, it takes away a potential avenue of upward mobility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is classic MAGA tactics. They try to take credit for things the Dems did. Like the law that was sponsored by a DEM.

All on a thread that tries to bash Duran. They now say they are happy about something Duran did while lying and saying it was forced by the state law. When it wasn't. Read the actual law. Don't believe their lies.

The notes from the Jan 20, 2025 Math Advisory Committee explicitly say that Math 6 Advanced was recommended in response to the new law. It’s in the very first yellow highlighted section. APS was not going to offer this class without the new law.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/05/Math-Advisory-Committee-Recommendation-2024-25-Updated-April-2025.pdf

Read the law. The law does not require it. The math advisory committee is just a bunch of APE parents now. Hardly experts.

Why are you such a troll? Here’s the discussion from the linked document. It very clearly lays out the requirements in the law and why a new course was created between math 6 and pre-algebra.

“ HB 2686 became state law this spring.1 It requires school districts to enroll all students
who score in the “top 25% in VA” on the 5th grade SOL into an advanced course in 6th grade.
MAC estimates, based on APS’s past SOL scores, that this will result in about 50% of APS’s 6th
graders being placed into an advanced course.
Currently APS offers two courses: Math 6 and 6th grade Prealgebra. Enrollment
recently has been split roughly 85% for Math 6 and 15% for Prealgebra. MAC does not believe
that the extra 35% of student that would be required by state law to be placed into an advanced
course would be successful in 6th grade Prealgebra. This provides APS with 3 options: (1)
Place the 35% of students into a course where they will struggle, (2) water down the course so
that the 35% can be successful but then the 15% are deprived of the course for their level and
neither set of students would be prepared to take Algebra 1 in 7th grade, or (3) create a third
course more suited to this 35% group of students. MAC strongly recommends this 3rd
option.”

That’s the advisory committee’s report. That leaves out some important parts of the law. It’s a false narrative. Why are you pushing it instead of looking to the actual law? I guess you want to push this narrative too. It’s obvious who you are.

You're accusing an APS committee of creating a false narrative that doesn't benefit APS? That makes no sense. If you were paying attention, you'd understand that the committee summary is entirely accurate.

Read the law and compare it to the committee summary. Either the committee is incompetent or pushing a false narrative. You’re on the committee obviously.

The law and the committee summary aren't going to be the same. The committee summary is about implementing the law, whereas the law is the law. No one expects them to be identical. That's not how it works

The report left out a crucial part for implementing. I think intentionally.

The Virginia Department of Education has set implementation guidelines that aren't in the law. That's how legislation and implementation works.

https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/62992/638943908317530000

VDOE tracks the law but the math report doesn't track either one. YOu are a MAGA APE pushing your lies. Anyone who wants the real truth should look to the law or VDOE.

Are you running a false flag operation? Your resistance to reality is making APE look better just because you hate them.

you're so trumpian, you've been called out repeateldy and your lies exposed. why can't you admit APS did something right here? Oh yeah we know why.

You haven’t exposed any lies. You’re just nuts.

Your lies:
That the bill was Youngkin's
That the bill requires Math 6 advanced
that the math report is accurate

anyone can see you are lying. you are persistent Mr. Maga APE!

Youngkin signed the bill and his administration rolled out the implementing guidance. Before Youngkin, the prior dem administration was proposing to greatly curtail advanced math in Virginia public schools.

The law requires districts to offer advanced math to more students, which compelled APS to offer another advanced math class since not all advanced math students are ready for Pre-algebra in 6th. If you are familiar with legislation, you'd know that it wouldn't require a specific class. It has to be implemented.

You haven't identified anything in the Math Advisory Committee minutes that's incorrect.

You accuse me of lying, but I've posted to VDOE and the statute. You just spew names and baseless accusations.

The law was sponsored by a Dem. All Youngkin did was sign it. Of course his admin rolled out the guidance, they had to. That's how it works. Now the new admin will take that over, again because that's how it works. The governor implements the laws.

The law requires automatic opt ins to advanced courses subject to availabilty of the advanced courses. It does not require a district to offer advanced courese and it doesn't require them to offer additional advanced courses.

The math committee makes it sounds like there is a hard requirement to put a certain number of kids in advanced math and says that means there won't be enough spots in the pre algebra or pre algebra wouldn't be the right course, so APS should create a second lower advanced course. But that's not what the law or the VDOE guidance says. The law/VDOE only requires opt ins subject to availability. That's an important point. So if there are not available slots already, it's lot required.

Youngkin campaigned on this issue, so it wasn't that he just signed the bill. It was part of his platform. I'm not a Youngkin fan and I don't think the bill was particularly well written, but I'm super glad it was passed because it is helping students.

The issue with Pre-algebra wasn't availability--there are teachers available to teach the course and it was being offered. The issue was that the additional students weren't prepared for it. So yeah, MAC was correct that those students needed to be offered an advanced or accelerated math option per the law. They looked at three options and chose to offer a new class. I think they know APS parents would have rioted if they'd chosen the option to get rid of Pre-algebra (math 6-7-8) in 6th grade, so APS's feet were to the fire.

I agree with MAC's recomendtion for the new class. But your claim that it was required by the new law is just bogus. This was an APS decision. That's it. It was a good one, but you can't give APS credit. Why not? It's weird unless your true agenda is to undermine public ed. And Dems.

IDC what Youngkin campaigned on. This was not "his law" as you claimed. It is a DEM law. He just didn't veto it, that's all. It's not a Youngkin law and it's not even a republican law. It's a DEM law. But you will never give credit to Dems. Look at the gymnastics you're trying to pull to try to give your guy credit where it's not due.

You can't call it a Democrat law when it was signed by a Republican governor and had two Republican co-sponsors (Mike Cherry and Carrie Coyner). I'm a dem, but am still super upset that the prior dem administration tried to gut advanced math in Virginia.

MAC thought that they were required to take action in view of the new law, and considered three options. You are reading the statue in some bizarre way to say APS could have done nothing, but that's not the interpretation taken by APS, VDOE or MAC. It's just made up by you. Duran followed the law.

APS took actions that were consistent with the law and may have been inspired by the law in some way. But the state, and certainly not Youngkin, did not make APS do anything, contrary to what you tried to claim. APS chose to do this. Why won't you give APS/Duran any credit for this action?

Fine he can have a tiny nugget of credit, but clearly this was not anything they had planned to do on their own given that it was done over the summer, impacting math placement letters.
We are in for a real reckoning soon, the intense equity focus has been a failure for the very people it was intended to help. Many people in Arlington are afraid to admit this because they don’t want to seem Maga or even aligned with APE.

+1. I'm consistently perplexed why Duran and his administration seem to only discuss equity in ways that have nothing to do with education. His job is about teaching students. APS's job is providing education. That's the point of public schools and a quality education is what is going to help disadvantaged students succeed in the long term.

I think there is a lot of subconscious racism. People think taking away advanced math, as was proposed a few years ago, won’t harm low income minorities because they don’t really think those kids qualify for the classes anyway. In reality, it takes away a potential avenue of upward mobility.

It's self reinforcing. The only kids in APS middle school who are prepared for pre-algebra in 6th grade right now are those whose parents gave them opportunities outside of school. But it doesn't have to be that way. APS could offer differentiation in elementary school if they wanted so kids could learn advanced math in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. Then students who can't afford outside programs or tutors could be prepared too.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This is classic MAGA tactics. They try to take credit for things the Dems did. Like the law that was sponsored by a DEM.

All on a thread that tries to bash Duran. They now say they are happy about something Duran did while lying and saying it was forced by the state law. When it wasn't. Read the actual law. Don't believe their lies.

The notes from the Jan 20, 2025 Math Advisory Committee explicitly say that Math 6 Advanced was recommended in response to the new law. It’s in the very first yellow highlighted section. APS was not going to offer this class without the new law.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/05/Math-Advisory-Committee-Recommendation-2024-25-Updated-April-2025.pdf

Read the law. The law does not require it. The math advisory committee is just a bunch of APE parents now. Hardly experts.

Why are you such a troll? Here’s the discussion from the linked document. It very clearly lays out the requirements in the law and why a new course was created between math 6 and pre-algebra.

“ HB 2686 became state law this spring.1 It requires school districts to enroll all students
who score in the “top 25% in VA” on the 5th grade SOL into an advanced course in 6th grade.
MAC estimates, based on APS’s past SOL scores, that this will result in about 50% of APS’s 6th
graders being placed into an advanced course.
Currently APS offers two courses: Math 6 and 6th grade Prealgebra. Enrollment
recently has been split roughly 85% for Math 6 and 15% for Prealgebra. MAC does not believe
that the extra 35% of student that would be required by state law to be placed into an advanced
course would be successful in 6th grade Prealgebra. This provides APS with 3 options: (1)
Place the 35% of students into a course where they will struggle, (2) water down the course so
that the 35% can be successful but then the 15% are deprived of the course for their level and
neither set of students would be prepared to take Algebra 1 in 7th grade, or (3) create a third
course more suited to this 35% group of students. MAC strongly recommends this 3rd
option.”

That’s the advisory committee’s report. That leaves out some important parts of the law. It’s a false narrative. Why are you pushing it instead of looking to the actual law? I guess you want to push this narrative too. It’s obvious who you are.

You're accusing an APS committee of creating a false narrative that doesn't benefit APS? That makes no sense. If you were paying attention, you'd understand that the committee summary is entirely accurate.

Read the law and compare it to the committee summary. Either the committee is incompetent or pushing a false narrative. You’re on the committee obviously.

The law and the committee summary aren't going to be the same. The committee summary is about implementing the law, whereas the law is the law. No one expects them to be identical. That's not how it works

The report left out a crucial part for implementing. I think intentionally.

The Virginia Department of Education has set implementation guidelines that aren't in the law. That's how legislation and implementation works.

https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/62992/638943908317530000

VDOE tracks the law but the math report doesn't track either one. YOu are a MAGA APE pushing your lies. Anyone who wants the real truth should look to the law or VDOE.

Are you running a false flag operation? Your resistance to reality is making APE look better just because you hate them.

you're so trumpian, you've been called out repeateldy and your lies exposed. why can't you admit APS did something right here? Oh yeah we know why.

You haven’t exposed any lies. You’re just nuts.

Your lies:
That the bill was Youngkin's
That the bill requires Math 6 advanced
that the math report is accurate

anyone can see you are lying. you are persistent Mr. Maga APE!

Youngkin signed the bill and his administration rolled out the implementing guidance. Before Youngkin, the prior dem administration was proposing to greatly curtail advanced math in Virginia public schools.

The law requires districts to offer advanced math to more students, which compelled APS to offer another advanced math class since not all advanced math students are ready for Pre-algebra in 6th. If you are familiar with legislation, you'd know that it wouldn't require a specific class. It has to be implemented.

You haven't identified anything in the Math Advisory Committee minutes that's incorrect.

You accuse me of lying, but I've posted to VDOE and the statute. You just spew names and baseless accusations.

The law was sponsored by a Dem. All Youngkin did was sign it. Of course his admin rolled out the guidance, they had to. That's how it works. Now the new admin will take that over, again because that's how it works. The governor implements the laws.

The law requires automatic opt ins to advanced courses subject to availabilty of the advanced courses. It does not require a district to offer advanced courese and it doesn't require them to offer additional advanced courses.

The math committee makes it sounds like there is a hard requirement to put a certain number of kids in advanced math and says that means there won't be enough spots in the pre algebra or pre algebra wouldn't be the right course, so APS should create a second lower advanced course. But that's not what the law or the VDOE guidance says. The law/VDOE only requires opt ins subject to availability. That's an important point. So if there are not available slots already, it's lot required.

Youngkin campaigned on this issue, so it wasn't that he just signed the bill. It was part of his platform. I'm not a Youngkin fan and I don't think the bill was particularly well written, but I'm super glad it was passed because it is helping students.

The issue with Pre-algebra wasn't availability--there are teachers available to teach the course and it was being offered. The issue was that the additional students weren't prepared for it. So yeah, MAC was correct that those students needed to be offered an advanced or accelerated math option per the law. They looked at three options and chose to offer a new class. I think they know APS parents would have rioted if they'd chosen the option to get rid of Pre-algebra (math 6-7-8) in 6th grade, so APS's feet were to the fire.

I agree with MAC's recomendtion for the new class. But your claim that it was required by the new law is just bogus. This was an APS decision. That's it. It was a good one, but you can't give APS credit. Why not? It's weird unless your true agenda is to undermine public ed. And Dems.

IDC what Youngkin campaigned on. This was not "his law" as you claimed. It is a DEM law. He just didn't veto it, that's all. It's not a Youngkin law and it's not even a republican law. It's a DEM law. But you will never give credit to Dems. Look at the gymnastics you're trying to pull to try to give your guy credit where it's not due.

You can't call it a Democrat law when it was signed by a Republican governor and had two Republican co-sponsors (Mike Cherry and Carrie Coyner). I'm a dem, but am still super upset that the prior dem administration tried to gut advanced math in Virginia.

MAC thought that they were required to take action in view of the new law, and considered three options. You are reading the statue in some bizarre way to say APS could have done nothing, but that's not the interpretation taken by APS, VDOE or MAC. It's just made up by you. Duran followed the law.

APS took actions that were consistent with the law and may have been inspired by the law in some way. But the state, and certainly not Youngkin, did not make APS do anything, contrary to what you tried to claim. APS chose to do this. Why won't you give APS/Duran any credit for this action?

Fine he can have a tiny nugget of credit, but clearly this was not anything they had planned to do on their own given that it was done over the summer, impacting math placement letters.
We are in for a real reckoning soon, the intense equity focus has been a failure for the very people it was intended to help. Many people in Arlington are afraid to admit this because they don’t want to seem Maga or even aligned with APE.

+1. I'm consistently perplexed why Duran and his administration seem to only discuss equity in ways that have nothing to do with education. His job is about teaching students. APS's job is providing education. That's the point of public schools and a quality education is what is going to help disadvantaged students succeed in the long term.

I think there is a lot of subconscious racism. People think taking away advanced math, as was proposed a few years ago, won’t harm low income minorities because they don’t really think those kids qualify for the classes anyway. In reality, it takes away a potential avenue of upward mobility.

It's self reinforcing. The only kids in APS middle school who are prepared for pre-algebra in 6th grade right now are those whose parents gave them opportunities outside of school. But it doesn't have to be that way. APS could offer differentiation in elementary school if they wanted so kids could learn advanced math in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. Then students who can't afford outside programs or tutors could be prepared too.

Plenty of kids, make it to pre-algebra in 6th without any outside help or tutoring. Mine did and so did some of his friends. I do think a APS should allow for more differentiation starting in elementary school.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Then what happens when your student is put in special ed setting but starts to fall behind due to slower pacing. Are you okay with that? When is that time going to be made up?

PP suggested increased funding and resources for higher-need classrooms. Smaller class sizes, more tutoring, summer school, etc.

But the fact remains, slow forward progress is better than no progress at all. It certainly beats sitting in a classroom and having to move on to the next topic despite not understanding the material that’s already been presented.

Increased funding and resources from where?

Indeed. APS and Arlington County encourage the increasing influx of English learners and other very high need students with no ceiling, barely checking on residency twice in 12 years, but at some point the system is too strained to function. APS says it’s totally fine, but it’s obviously not if they don’t have money to fix the buildings etc. etc.

Residency is verified in kindergarten, 6th grade, and 9th grade.

It’s K, 5th, 8th.
And it’s not nearly often enough considering the 30K per student per year spend.

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Anonymous wrote:So… upon review of VA’s math standards (elementary anyway), it’s pretty obvious that they just… aren’t that rigorous.

Purchase ANY decent math curriculum and consistently use it. Many of them surpass VA’s standards!

Then complain to the state. Get VA to align to common core. This isn’t an APS issue.

Huh? No need to complain to the state when many math programs DO cover (and exceed!) current standards. APS just needs to pick one and teachers need to actually use it.

Envision is crap, but there are many good options.

You should complain to the state because the state standards are not rigorous enough and the issue with unaligned curriculum would go aware if VA went to common core.

There's no rule against exceeding the state standard. That's a minimum.

It gets hard to match up when the local curriculum is different from the state's. And also there's the issue with curriculum literally not matching. There are tons that match common core. But there are some who want to undermine public ed and get vouchers so maybe that's just you instead of looking to the real source of the problem which is Youngkin.

APS not having math curriculum has nothing to do with Youngkin or vouchers. It was the situation before Youngkin and will be after Youngkin. It's an APS issue. Duran knows math test scores are falling across the district and across all demographics, as measured by MAP, SOL and NWEA scores. Yet he literally sent an email saying he was going to watch and wait. That's not okay.

State standards being different than than off the shelf curriculums has been an issue for ages. You can work with the publisher to get a special edition made or put together your own rubric to tell teachers how to match the curriculum to standards. But APS hasn't provided a solution for teachers and isn't even looking for a way to do so because they don't think falling test scores are a problem.

APS only got its act together and dropped Lucy Caulkins after there was nationwide uproar that compelled it to act. Parents need to speak up and tell Syphax to get off its duff and do its job. This isn't an unsolvable problem. APS administrators are just lazy and would prefer to talk more about DEI and make excuses instead of doing their jobs.

yes it's been an issue for ages but youngkin is gov and has been for 4 years and didnt' fix it

Youngkin pushed for more advanced math classes and harder SOL standards. That's something. We now have Math 6 Intensified, a very needed course, only because of Youngkin. I'm not a Republican but am very glad APS now offers that course. There was too big a gap between Math 6 and Pre-algebra, leaving many kids either bored or underwater.

Math 6 intensified wasn't because of Youngkin. Duran finally gave us more intensified classes in middle school. But you will never give him credit for that or anything else will you?

You are wrong. Math 6 Intensified was added over the summer, in a rush, in order to meet requirements in a new law passed by Youngkin's administration. APS was forced into it.

Math 6 intensified is not new this year. I don’t recall when it was added but kids were in it for at least the last 2 years, based on what my friends with older kids tell me. Math 6 advanced was added over the summer because the VA legislature passed a law last spring requiring all kids who score in the top X% of VA SOLs to be in an “advanced math” class. Math 6 intensified is a lot, 3 years in one, so math 6 advanced was created to be something between that and regular Math 6.

This is all incorrect. The class that is math 6-7-8 is called Pre-Algebra for 6th grade, not Math 6 Intensified. There was a new class added over the summer because of Youngkin 's new law. It fills be gap between Math 6 and Pre-algebra. It's absolutely new and a class APS resisted adding it for years until they were forced to do so by this new law.

We're saying the same thing. Math 6 Advanced is the class added over the summer to, as you say, fill the gap.

You're correct that Math 6 Intensified is the name of an older class. Pre-Algebra for 6th grade is the name of the most advanced math class for 6th graders this year, not sure if it was called that the last two years. But again, the existence of an advanced math class and a "regular" math class is NOT new this year. The new class this year was the THIRD class to fill the gap between the other two. It was added because of legislation VA passed Spring 2025.

No it's not. You're still wrong. There was nothing between Math 6 and Pre-algebra last year for 6th graders. Now there is a class in between, and only because of the new law.

This conversation started as a disagreement about whether there was any advanced math for 6th graders in APS prior to Youngkin. It got confusing because of mixed up class names. There were 2 math classes for 6th graders last year: pre-algebra and Math 6. Now there are 3 math classes for 6th graders: pre-algebra, Math 6 Advanced, and Math 6.

The first person said "We now have Math 6 Intensified, a very needed course, only because of Youngkin." As has been pointed out, there is no "Math 6 Intensified." I think some posters thought "Math 6 Intensified" was the name of the math class that was/is more advanced than Math 6, which is actually pre-algebra and which existed before this past summer. The poster probably meant "Math 6 Advanced."

See this comment: "Math 6 intensified wasn't because of Youngkin. Duran finally gave us more intensified classes in middle school. But you will never give him credit for that or anything else will you?" This poster probably meant to reference pre-algebra and thought the poster they responded to thought there had only been one math class for all 6 graders before this past summer.

Then someone replied "You are wrong. Math 6 Intensified was added over the summer." This person probably meant to reference Math 6 Advanced which was added over the summer. The PP they responded to correct there had been 2 math classes before this summer.

Then "Math 6 intensified is not new this year...." This person probably meant pre-algebra.

Then someone wrote "There was a new class added over the summer because of Youngkin 's new law. It fills be gap between Math 6 and Pre-algebra." This new class is Math 6 Advanced, and yes, it fills in between Math 6 and pre-algebra.

Bottom line, there were two math classes for 6th graders before this year. Now there is a third, between the other two, and yes, this 3rd class is due to the new law.

You missed the whole point of the conversation. Someone said "yes it's been an issue for ages but youngkin is gov and has been for 4 years and didnt' fix it" in reference to math. I said he made an improvement with the new law, which forced APS to add a new advanced math classes for 6th graders. The someone else posted that the class wasnt added because of Youngkin but that Duran was already adding intensified classes. That's just flat out wrong.

Last year there were two math classes for 6th graders: Math 6 and Pre-algebra for 6th graders. That.meant that 5-10% of 6th graders were taking an advanced math class. Because of the new law passed by Youngkin, APS was forced to offer a new math class so now 40-50% of 6th graders are taking an advanced math class. That's a HUGE improvement and something APS refused to do for years, despite being asked by parents.

Where does that new math class track on their very rigid pathway? The published pathways (APS website) are unchanged thus far.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This is classic MAGA tactics. They try to take credit for things the Dems did. Like the law that was sponsored by a DEM.

All on a thread that tries to bash Duran. They now say they are happy about something Duran did while lying and saying it was forced by the state law. When it wasn't. Read the actual law. Don't believe their lies.

The notes from the Jan 20, 2025 Math Advisory Committee explicitly say that Math 6 Advanced was recommended in response to the new law. It’s in the very first yellow highlighted section. APS was not going to offer this class without the new law.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/05/Math-Advisory-Committee-Recommendation-2024-25-Updated-April-2025.pdf

Read the law. The law does not require it. The math advisory committee is just a bunch of APE parents now. Hardly experts.

Why are you such a troll? Here’s the discussion from the linked document. It very clearly lays out the requirements in the law and why a new course was created between math 6 and pre-algebra.

“ HB 2686 became state law this spring.1 It requires school districts to enroll all students
who score in the “top 25% in VA” on the 5th grade SOL into an advanced course in 6th grade.
MAC estimates, based on APS’s past SOL scores, that this will result in about 50% of APS’s 6th
graders being placed into an advanced course.
Currently APS offers two courses: Math 6 and 6th grade Prealgebra. Enrollment
recently has been split roughly 85% for Math 6 and 15% for Prealgebra. MAC does not believe
that the extra 35% of student that would be required by state law to be placed into an advanced
course would be successful in 6th grade Prealgebra. This provides APS with 3 options: (1)
Place the 35% of students into a course where they will struggle, (2) water down the course so
that the 35% can be successful but then the 15% are deprived of the course for their level and
neither set of students would be prepared to take Algebra 1 in 7th grade, or (3) create a third
course more suited to this 35% group of students. MAC strongly recommends this 3rd
option.”

That’s the advisory committee’s report. That leaves out some important parts of the law. It’s a false narrative. Why are you pushing it instead of looking to the actual law? I guess you want to push this narrative too. It’s obvious who you are.

You're accusing an APS committee of creating a false narrative that doesn't benefit APS? That makes no sense. If you were paying attention, you'd understand that the committee summary is entirely accurate.

Read the law and compare it to the committee summary. Either the committee is incompetent or pushing a false narrative. You’re on the committee obviously.

The law and the committee summary aren't going to be the same. The committee summary is about implementing the law, whereas the law is the law. No one expects them to be identical. That's not how it works

The report left out a crucial part for implementing. I think intentionally.

The Virginia Department of Education has set implementation guidelines that aren't in the law. That's how legislation and implementation works.

https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/62992/638943908317530000

VDOE tracks the law but the math report doesn't track either one. YOu are a MAGA APE pushing your lies. Anyone who wants the real truth should look to the law or VDOE.

Are you running a false flag operation? Your resistance to reality is making APE look better just because you hate them.

you're so trumpian, you've been called out repeateldy and your lies exposed. why can't you admit APS did something right here? Oh yeah we know why.

You haven’t exposed any lies. You’re just nuts.

Your lies:
That the bill was Youngkin's
That the bill requires Math 6 advanced
that the math report is accurate

anyone can see you are lying. you are persistent Mr. Maga APE!

Youngkin signed the bill and his administration rolled out the implementing guidance. Before Youngkin, the prior dem administration was proposing to greatly curtail advanced math in Virginia public schools.

The law requires districts to offer advanced math to more students, which compelled APS to offer another advanced math class since not all advanced math students are ready for Pre-algebra in 6th. If you are familiar with legislation, you'd know that it wouldn't require a specific class. It has to be implemented.

You haven't identified anything in the Math Advisory Committee minutes that's incorrect.

You accuse me of lying, but I've posted to VDOE and the statute. You just spew names and baseless accusations.

The law was sponsored by a Dem. All Youngkin did was sign it. Of course his admin rolled out the guidance, they had to. That's how it works. Now the new admin will take that over, again because that's how it works. The governor implements the laws.

The law requires automatic opt ins to advanced courses subject to availabilty of the advanced courses. It does not require a district to offer advanced courese and it doesn't require them to offer additional advanced courses.

The math committee makes it sounds like there is a hard requirement to put a certain number of kids in advanced math and says that means there won't be enough spots in the pre algebra or pre algebra wouldn't be the right course, so APS should create a second lower advanced course. But that's not what the law or the VDOE guidance says. The law/VDOE only requires opt ins subject to availability. That's an important point. So if there are not available slots already, it's lot required.

Youngkin campaigned on this issue, so it wasn't that he just signed the bill. It was part of his platform. I'm not a Youngkin fan and I don't think the bill was particularly well written, but I'm super glad it was passed because it is helping students.

The issue with Pre-algebra wasn't availability--there are teachers available to teach the course and it was being offered. The issue was that the additional students weren't prepared for it. So yeah, MAC was correct that those students needed to be offered an advanced or accelerated math option per the law. They looked at three options and chose to offer a new class. I think they know APS parents would have rioted if they'd chosen the option to get rid of Pre-algebra (math 6-7-8) in 6th grade, so APS's feet were to the fire.

I agree with MAC's recomendtion for the new class. But your claim that it was required by the new law is just bogus. This was an APS decision. That's it. It was a good one, but you can't give APS credit. Why not? It's weird unless your true agenda is to undermine public ed. And Dems.

IDC what Youngkin campaigned on. This was not "his law" as you claimed. It is a DEM law. He just didn't veto it, that's all. It's not a Youngkin law and it's not even a republican law. It's a DEM law. But you will never give credit to Dems. Look at the gymnastics you're trying to pull to try to give your guy credit where it's not due.

You can't call it a Democrat law when it was signed by a Republican governor and had two Republican co-sponsors (Mike Cherry and Carrie Coyner). I'm a dem, but am still super upset that the prior dem administration tried to gut advanced math in Virginia.

MAC thought that they were required to take action in view of the new law, and considered three options. You are reading the statue in some bizarre way to say APS could have done nothing, but that's not the interpretation taken by APS, VDOE or MAC. It's just made up by you. Duran followed the law.

APS took actions that were consistent with the law and may have been inspired by the law in some way. But the state, and certainly not Youngkin, did not make APS do anything, contrary to what you tried to claim. APS chose to do this. Why won't you give APS/Duran any credit for this action?

Fine he can have a tiny nugget of credit, but clearly this was not anything they had planned to do on their own given that it was done over the summer, impacting math placement letters.
We are in for a real reckoning soon, the intense equity focus has been a failure for the very people it was intended to help. Many people in Arlington are afraid to admit this because they don’t want to seem Maga or even aligned with APE.

+1. I'm consistently perplexed why Duran and his administration seem to only discuss equity in ways that have nothing to do with education. His job is about teaching students. APS's job is providing education. That's the point of public schools and a quality education is what is going to help disadvantaged students succeed in the long term.

I think there is a lot of subconscious racism. People think taking away advanced math, as was proposed a few years ago, won’t harm low income minorities because they don’t really think those kids qualify for the classes anyway. In reality, it takes away a potential avenue of upward mobility.

No one proposed taking away advanced math.

That was a Republican talking point.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This is classic MAGA tactics. They try to take credit for things the Dems did. Like the law that was sponsored by a DEM.

All on a thread that tries to bash Duran. They now say they are happy about something Duran did while lying and saying it was forced by the state law. When it wasn't. Read the actual law. Don't believe their lies.

The notes from the Jan 20, 2025 Math Advisory Committee explicitly say that Math 6 Advanced was recommended in response to the new law. It’s in the very first yellow highlighted section. APS was not going to offer this class without the new law.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/05/Math-Advisory-Committee-Recommendation-2024-25-Updated-April-2025.pdf

Read the law. The law does not require it. The math advisory committee is just a bunch of APE parents now. Hardly experts.

Why are you such a troll? Here’s the discussion from the linked document. It very clearly lays out the requirements in the law and why a new course was created between math 6 and pre-algebra.

“ HB 2686 became state law this spring.1 It requires school districts to enroll all students
who score in the “top 25% in VA” on the 5th grade SOL into an advanced course in 6th grade.
MAC estimates, based on APS’s past SOL scores, that this will result in about 50% of APS’s 6th
graders being placed into an advanced course.
Currently APS offers two courses: Math 6 and 6th grade Prealgebra. Enrollment
recently has been split roughly 85% for Math 6 and 15% for Prealgebra. MAC does not believe
that the extra 35% of student that would be required by state law to be placed into an advanced
course would be successful in 6th grade Prealgebra. This provides APS with 3 options: (1)
Place the 35% of students into a course where they will struggle, (2) water down the course so
that the 35% can be successful but then the 15% are deprived of the course for their level and
neither set of students would be prepared to take Algebra 1 in 7th grade, or (3) create a third
course more suited to this 35% group of students. MAC strongly recommends this 3rd
option.”

That’s the advisory committee’s report. That leaves out some important parts of the law. It’s a false narrative. Why are you pushing it instead of looking to the actual law? I guess you want to push this narrative too. It’s obvious who you are.

You're accusing an APS committee of creating a false narrative that doesn't benefit APS? That makes no sense. If you were paying attention, you'd understand that the committee summary is entirely accurate.

Read the law and compare it to the committee summary. Either the committee is incompetent or pushing a false narrative. You’re on the committee obviously.

The law and the committee summary aren't going to be the same. The committee summary is about implementing the law, whereas the law is the law. No one expects them to be identical. That's not how it works

The report left out a crucial part for implementing. I think intentionally.

The Virginia Department of Education has set implementation guidelines that aren't in the law. That's how legislation and implementation works.

https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/62992/638943908317530000

VDOE tracks the law but the math report doesn't track either one. YOu are a MAGA APE pushing your lies. Anyone who wants the real truth should look to the law or VDOE.

Are you running a false flag operation? Your resistance to reality is making APE look better just because you hate them.

you're so trumpian, you've been called out repeateldy and your lies exposed. why can't you admit APS did something right here? Oh yeah we know why.

You haven’t exposed any lies. You’re just nuts.

Your lies:
That the bill was Youngkin's
That the bill requires Math 6 advanced
that the math report is accurate

anyone can see you are lying. you are persistent Mr. Maga APE!

Youngkin signed the bill and his administration rolled out the implementing guidance. Before Youngkin, the prior dem administration was proposing to greatly curtail advanced math in Virginia public schools.

The law requires districts to offer advanced math to more students, which compelled APS to offer another advanced math class since not all advanced math students are ready for Pre-algebra in 6th. If you are familiar with legislation, you'd know that it wouldn't require a specific class. It has to be implemented.

You haven't identified anything in the Math Advisory Committee minutes that's incorrect.

You accuse me of lying, but I've posted to VDOE and the statute. You just spew names and baseless accusations.

The law was sponsored by a Dem. All Youngkin did was sign it. Of course his admin rolled out the guidance, they had to. That's how it works. Now the new admin will take that over, again because that's how it works. The governor implements the laws.

The law requires automatic opt ins to advanced courses subject to availabilty of the advanced courses. It does not require a district to offer advanced courese and it doesn't require them to offer additional advanced courses.

The math committee makes it sounds like there is a hard requirement to put a certain number of kids in advanced math and says that means there won't be enough spots in the pre algebra or pre algebra wouldn't be the right course, so APS should create a second lower advanced course. But that's not what the law or the VDOE guidance says. The law/VDOE only requires opt ins subject to availability. That's an important point. So if there are not available slots already, it's lot required.

Youngkin campaigned on this issue, so it wasn't that he just signed the bill. It was part of his platform. I'm not a Youngkin fan and I don't think the bill was particularly well written, but I'm super glad it was passed because it is helping students.

The issue with Pre-algebra wasn't availability--there are teachers available to teach the course and it was being offered. The issue was that the additional students weren't prepared for it. So yeah, MAC was correct that those students needed to be offered an advanced or accelerated math option per the law. They looked at three options and chose to offer a new class. I think they know APS parents would have rioted if they'd chosen the option to get rid of Pre-algebra (math 6-7-8) in 6th grade, so APS's feet were to the fire.

I agree with MAC's recomendtion for the new class. But your claim that it was required by the new law is just bogus. This was an APS decision. That's it. It was a good one, but you can't give APS credit. Why not? It's weird unless your true agenda is to undermine public ed. And Dems.

IDC what Youngkin campaigned on. This was not "his law" as you claimed. It is a DEM law. He just didn't veto it, that's all. It's not a Youngkin law and it's not even a republican law. It's a DEM law. But you will never give credit to Dems. Look at the gymnastics you're trying to pull to try to give your guy credit where it's not due.

You can't call it a Democrat law when it was signed by a Republican governor and had two Republican co-sponsors (Mike Cherry and Carrie Coyner). I'm a dem, but am still super upset that the prior dem administration tried to gut advanced math in Virginia.

MAC thought that they were required to take action in view of the new law, and considered three options. You are reading the statue in some bizarre way to say APS could have done nothing, but that's not the interpretation taken by APS, VDOE or MAC. It's just made up by you. Duran followed the law.

The Chief patron and the one who introduced it is a DEMOCRAT. There's a long list of co sponsors, Dems and Rs. It had bipartisan support.

YOU called it Youngkin's law before I called it anything. I pointed out that you can't call it Youngkin's law when it was sponsored by a Dem.

So. Many. Lies.

Where did someone call it Youngkin's law? No one said that. But requiring more advanced math classes was 100% a central part of his platform. Look how much it's discussed here:

The Surprising Strategy Behind Youngkin’s Stunner - POLITICO https://share.google/OJt2NAIoPz2PMgNWJ

During the election Dems were being crucified in the media for proposing to reduce math acceleration and rigor for "equity" purposes. You may have not agreed that's what Dems were proposing, but that's how it was being portrayed and is absolutely one of the reasons Youngkin won.

Virginia Pushes Accelerated Math Enrollment | RealClearEducation https://share.google/b2VXGQxdboksA2gbH

Yes, we all know that Youngkin is a lying POS.

Great job parroting baseless Republican lies.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is classic MAGA tactics. They try to take credit for things the Dems did. Like the law that was sponsored by a DEM.

All on a thread that tries to bash Duran. They now say they are happy about something Duran did while lying and saying it was forced by the state law. When it wasn't. Read the actual law. Don't believe their lies.

The notes from the Jan 20, 2025 Math Advisory Committee explicitly say that Math 6 Advanced was recommended in response to the new law. It’s in the very first yellow highlighted section. APS was not going to offer this class without the new law.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/05/Math-Advisory-Committee-Recommendation-2024-25-Updated-April-2025.pdf

Read the law. The law does not require it. The math advisory committee is just a bunch of APE parents now. Hardly experts.

Why are you such a troll? Here’s the discussion from the linked document. It very clearly lays out the requirements in the law and why a new course was created between math 6 and pre-algebra.

“ HB 2686 became state law this spring.1 It requires school districts to enroll all students
who score in the “top 25% in VA” on the 5th grade SOL into an advanced course in 6th grade.
MAC estimates, based on APS’s past SOL scores, that this will result in about 50% of APS’s 6th
graders being placed into an advanced course.
Currently APS offers two courses: Math 6 and 6th grade Prealgebra. Enrollment
recently has been split roughly 85% for Math 6 and 15% for Prealgebra. MAC does not believe
that the extra 35% of student that would be required by state law to be placed into an advanced
course would be successful in 6th grade Prealgebra. This provides APS with 3 options: (1)
Place the 35% of students into a course where they will struggle, (2) water down the course so
that the 35% can be successful but then the 15% are deprived of the course for their level and
neither set of students would be prepared to take Algebra 1 in 7th grade, or (3) create a third
course more suited to this 35% group of students. MAC strongly recommends this 3rd
option.”

That’s the advisory committee’s report. That leaves out some important parts of the law. It’s a false narrative. Why are you pushing it instead of looking to the actual law? I guess you want to push this narrative too. It’s obvious who you are.

You're accusing an APS committee of creating a false narrative that doesn't benefit APS? That makes no sense. If you were paying attention, you'd understand that the committee summary is entirely accurate.

Read the law and compare it to the committee summary. Either the committee is incompetent or pushing a false narrative. You’re on the committee obviously.

The law and the committee summary aren't going to be the same. The committee summary is about implementing the law, whereas the law is the law. No one expects them to be identical. That's not how it works

The report left out a crucial part for implementing. I think intentionally.

The Virginia Department of Education has set implementation guidelines that aren't in the law. That's how legislation and implementation works.

https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/62992/638943908317530000

VDOE tracks the law but the math report doesn't track either one. YOu are a MAGA APE pushing your lies. Anyone who wants the real truth should look to the law or VDOE.

Are you running a false flag operation? Your resistance to reality is making APE look better just because you hate them.

you're so trumpian, you've been called out repeateldy and your lies exposed. why can't you admit APS did something right here? Oh yeah we know why.

You haven’t exposed any lies. You’re just nuts.

Your lies:
That the bill was Youngkin's
That the bill requires Math 6 advanced
that the math report is accurate

anyone can see you are lying. you are persistent Mr. Maga APE!

Youngkin signed the bill and his administration rolled out the implementing guidance. Before Youngkin, the prior dem administration was proposing to greatly curtail advanced math in Virginia public schools.

The law requires districts to offer advanced math to more students, which compelled APS to offer another advanced math class since not all advanced math students are ready for Pre-algebra in 6th. If you are familiar with legislation, you'd know that it wouldn't require a specific class. It has to be implemented.

You haven't identified anything in the Math Advisory Committee minutes that's incorrect.

You accuse me of lying, but I've posted to VDOE and the statute. You just spew names and baseless accusations.

The law was sponsored by a Dem. All Youngkin did was sign it. Of course his admin rolled out the guidance, they had to. That's how it works. Now the new admin will take that over, again because that's how it works. The governor implements the laws.

The law requires automatic opt ins to advanced courses subject to availabilty of the advanced courses. It does not require a district to offer advanced courese and it doesn't require them to offer additional advanced courses.

The math committee makes it sounds like there is a hard requirement to put a certain number of kids in advanced math and says that means there won't be enough spots in the pre algebra or pre algebra wouldn't be the right course, so APS should create a second lower advanced course. But that's not what the law or the VDOE guidance says. The law/VDOE only requires opt ins subject to availability. That's an important point. So if there are not available slots already, it's lot required.

Youngkin campaigned on this issue, so it wasn't that he just signed the bill. It was part of his platform. I'm not a Youngkin fan and I don't think the bill was particularly well written, but I'm super glad it was passed because it is helping students.

The issue with Pre-algebra wasn't availability--there are teachers available to teach the course and it was being offered. The issue was that the additional students weren't prepared for it. So yeah, MAC was correct that those students needed to be offered an advanced or accelerated math option per the law. They looked at three options and chose to offer a new class. I think they know APS parents would have rioted if they'd chosen the option to get rid of Pre-algebra (math 6-7-8) in 6th grade, so APS's feet were to the fire.

I agree with MAC's recomendtion for the new class. But your claim that it was required by the new law is just bogus. This was an APS decision. That's it. It was a good one, but you can't give APS credit. Why not? It's weird unless your true agenda is to undermine public ed. And Dems.

IDC what Youngkin campaigned on. This was not "his law" as you claimed. It is a DEM law. He just didn't veto it, that's all. It's not a Youngkin law and it's not even a republican law. It's a DEM law. But you will never give credit to Dems. Look at the gymnastics you're trying to pull to try to give your guy credit where it's not due.

You can't call it a Democrat law when it was signed by a Republican governor and had two Republican co-sponsors (Mike Cherry and Carrie Coyner). I'm a dem, but am still super upset that the prior dem administration tried to gut advanced math in Virginia.

MAC thought that they were required to take action in view of the new law, and considered three options. You are reading the statue in some bizarre way to say APS could have done nothing, but that's not the interpretation taken by APS, VDOE or MAC. It's just made up by you. Duran followed the law.

APS took actions that were consistent with the law and may have been inspired by the law in some way. But the state, and certainly not Youngkin, did not make APS do anything, contrary to what you tried to claim. APS chose to do this. Why won't you give APS/Duran any credit for this action?

Bullcrap.

APS was already adding intensified classes before the lying POS Youngkin took office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is classic MAGA tactics. They try to take credit for things the Dems did. Like the law that was sponsored by a DEM.

All on a thread that tries to bash Duran. They now say they are happy about something Duran did while lying and saying it was forced by the state law. When it wasn't. Read the actual law. Don't believe their lies.

The notes from the Jan 20, 2025 Math Advisory Committee explicitly say that Math 6 Advanced was recommended in response to the new law. It’s in the very first yellow highlighted section. APS was not going to offer this class without the new law.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2025/05/Math-Advisory-Committee-Recommendation-2024-25-Updated-April-2025.pdf

This math committee report that you posted is so interesting. Looking at the committee membership, I see two members who are listed as "public participant." I think this means they are not APS parents. One name is one I recall being a very vocal Arlington Parents for Education supporter back in 2020. Why would APE have its members on APS committee when they don't even have their own kids in the public schools?

Would like to see an answer to why APE plants non public school parents on APS committees and also why these Truly Terrible parents constantly troll here. Otherwise I will assume that the people who say APE is pushing for vouchers for their private school kids are correct. I guess this is all part of a campaign to destroy our public schools. Really sad.

100%

Truly Terrible parents send their kids to school in Alexandria, but are happy to shovel out the lies in Arlington.

They want APS to subsidize their kids' private school.