LCPS Math placement for 5th graders, rising 6th graders

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of 9th and 6th graders in LCPS, both bright honors students, there has been no discouragement of taking Algebra in 8th or even in 7th. My 9th grader took it in 7th and did great and is currently in A2T. My current 6th grader is in Foundations and has already been told that she may take Algebra or Pre Algebra next year - her choice. She has had a high A average all year in Foundations.

No one has discouraged anything.

Good that it has worked for your kids. There are different types of discouragement. LCPS has been explicit in discouraging 6th grade Algebra 1 in public statements and actions. However, there are other types of discouragement that are not explicit, like raising eligibility thresholds. Over the last five years or so, LCPS brought down the share of kids taking middle school Algebra 1 from roughly 80% to 60%, motivated by the 2016 SOL revision which emphasized algebra readiness/9th grade Algebra 1 and anticipation of the former VMPI. This is implicit discouragement. The concern is whether this trend will continue which is generating the interest in this year's selection process. Hopefully your 6th grader's positive experience applies to others as well.

Another factor might be the school closures have lowered the performance level. My kids elementary I observed over two years, the 2021-2022 cohort was not as strong in math. 2020-2021 would have sent several kids to 6th grade algebra if it were allowed.

Yes, good point. That is likely a factor as well. The difficulty is that many factors converged at once. In theory, shares may retrace some this year as covid shocks ease. However, will districts will take advantage of the accelerated shares being down and opt to keep them down? As another PP noted, LCPS acknowledged around the time of VMPI that they had begun to decelerate their program. They also had math teachers participate in a book study on how to differentiate in heterogenous classes. We'll see if their views change now or not. It would be interesting to see what the testing thresholds/criteria for entering 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Algebra 1 have been since 2015 and how they've evolved as a way of gauging the impact of explicit policy change. Do posters with older kids remember what the prior testing thresholds were? Ideally, districts would make these thresholds public and transparent; it would help families have a better understanding of the fundamental skills needed to qualify for acceleration and would inspire confidence in the objectivity of the process.

[Anonymous]

LCPS was tracking performance of kids and how they did on the testing to get into algebra.
The 6th graders were usually among the best students in the class. Not sure about every school, but there was no leeway in my kid's school for those who didn't meet the cutoff.
They used the same criteria for 2020-2021 6th graders as previous years. If the numbers dropped, it wasn't because of a change in policy at LCPS. The deceleration was because of VMPI. The video presented to parents of 5th graders and middle schoolers was labeled something like math options and introducing VMPI. This chart was available six months before it made national news and was the focus of talked about at a school board meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why have both prealgebra and Foundations of Algebra? If a kid can go to Algebra 1 in 7th from either class, it seems like both are providing prealgebra skills. Does prealgebra cover additional material or is it the same material as Foundations but it goes deeper into the topics?

Most kids will go from Foundations to pre Algebra. Very few will skip Pre and go straight to Algebra but it’s possible. Foundations takes the Math7 SOL at the end of the year, pre Algebra takes the Math8 SOL at the end of the year.

The new honors track for standard honors kids is:

6th - Foundations
7th - Pre Algebra
8th - Algebra 1
9th - Geometry

To do something more accelerated than the above now requires additional hoops. In my daughters MS this year there about ten 6th graders total taking pre Algebra and none taking Algebra 1. They made it much harder to accelerate more than 1 year (which is the above standard honors track.)

In my daughters cohort (now 7th grade) - we had 1 kid take algebra in 6th. Most of the kids were dumped into Math 6 with a good percentage taking foundations. My kid fell into foundations - which was a waste. Pre-algebra is basically a repeat of what she learned last year. Would have prefer her to go directly to algebra, but not willing to do all the paperwork

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why have both prealgebra and Foundations of Algebra? If a kid can go to Algebra 1 in 7th from either class, it seems like both are providing prealgebra skills. Does prealgebra cover additional material or is it the same material as Foundations but it goes deeper into the topics?

Most kids will go from Foundations to pre Algebra. Very few will skip Pre and go straight to Algebra but it’s possible. Foundations takes the Math7 SOL at the end of the year, pre Algebra takes the Math8 SOL at the end of the year.

The new honors track for standard honors kids is:

6th - Foundations
7th - Pre Algebra
8th - Algebra 1
9th - Geometry

To do something more accelerated than the above now requires additional hoops. In my daughters MS this year there about ten 6th graders total taking pre Algebra and none taking Algebra 1. They made it much harder to accelerate more than 1 year (which is the above standard honors track.)

In my daughters cohort (now 7th grade) - we had 1 kid take algebra in 6th. Most of the kids were dumped into Math 6 with a good percentage taking foundations. My kid fell into foundations - which was a waste. Pre-algebra is basically a repeat of what she learned last year. Would have prefer her to go directly to algebra, but not willing to do all the paperwork

My 6th grader’s Foundations teacher is sending most of her strong students straight to Algebra.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why have both prealgebra and Foundations of Algebra? If a kid can go to Algebra 1 in 7th from either class, it seems like both are providing prealgebra skills. Does prealgebra cover additional material or is it the same material as Foundations but it goes deeper into the topics?

Most kids will go from Foundations to pre Algebra. Very few will skip Pre and go straight to Algebra but it’s possible. Foundations takes the Math7 SOL at the end of the year, pre Algebra takes the Math8 SOL at the end of the year.

The new honors track for standard honors kids is:

6th - Foundations
7th - Pre Algebra
8th - Algebra 1
9th - Geometry

To do something more accelerated than the above now requires additional hoops. In my daughters MS this year there about ten 6th graders total taking pre Algebra and none taking Algebra 1. They made it much harder to accelerate more than 1 year (which is the above standard honors track.)

In my daughters cohort (now 7th grade) - we had 1 kid take algebra in 6th. Most of the kids were dumped into Math 6 with a good percentage taking foundations. My kid fell into foundations - which was a waste. Pre-algebra is basically a repeat of what she learned last year. Would have prefer her to go directly to algebra, but not willing to do all the paperwork

What school is this? How many of these kids were in algebra in 7th grade?

[Anonymous]

I have been informed that parents of kids that score higher than 90% on the test for precalc admission are supposed to be informed that their kid is eligible to take algebra in 6th grade if they wish.

Appeals are also available for those who don't meet the 90% threshold, or for those who don't get 82% to get into prealgebra.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been informed that parents of kids that score higher than 90% on the test for precalc admission are supposed to be informed that their kid is eligible to take algebra in 6th grade if they wish.

Appeals are also available for those who don't meet the 90% threshold, or for those who don't get 82% to get into prealgebra.

My child got above 90% but we were not informed of the option for algebra. Is this via mail or email? His teacher is relatively new and does not seem to know much about it. Who should we contact?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been informed that parents of kids that score higher than 90% on the test for precalc admission are supposed to be informed that their kid is eligible to take algebra in 6th grade if they wish.

Appeals are also available for those who don't meet the 90% threshold, or for those who don't get 82% to get into prealgebra.

My child got above 90% but we were not informed of the option for algebra. Is this via mail or email? His teacher is relatively new and does not seem to know much about it. Who should we contact?

Your school’s AP. He/She is typically responsible for all testing. If not, they will be able to point you in the right direction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been informed that parents of kids that score higher than 90% on the test for precalc admission are supposed to be informed that their kid is eligible to take algebra in 6th grade if they wish.

Appeals are also available for those who don't meet the 90% threshold, or for those who don't get 82% to get into prealgebra.

My child got above 90% but we were not informed of the option for algebra. Is this via mail or email? His teacher is relatively new and does not seem to know much about it. Who should we contact?

Your school’s AP. He/She is typically responsible for all testing. If not, they will be able to point you in the right direction.

They will give you a form to fill out to send to the gifted coordinator, I think the name is Wendy King. She will coordinate and get info on other scores for all the kids at a school who are appealing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been informed that parents of kids that score higher than 90% on the test for precalc admission are supposed to be informed that their kid is eligible to take algebra in 6th grade if they wish.

Appeals are also available for those who don't meet the 90% threshold, or for those who don't get 82% to get into prealgebra.

My child got above 90% but we were not informed of the option for algebra. Is this via mail or email? His teacher is relatively new and does not seem to know much about it. Who should we contact?

Your school’s AP. He/She is typically responsible for all testing. If not, they will be able to point you in the right direction.

They will give you a form to fill out to send to the gifted coordinator, I think the name is Wendy King. She will coordinate and get info on other scores for all the kids at a school who are appealing.

You can also contact the gifted coordinator directly, and cc the principal or asst principal.
Better question is to consider whether you want to be in the advanced class.
If the kid is not able to get above 90 on the SOL7 perhaps they would be better off in prealgebra, than trying to do algebra.
On the other hand, the SOL7 they are given is 33 questions, so missing 4 questions will drop them below 90.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone confirm that their child scored more than 90, and was notified about Algebra 1 in 6th grade by their school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been informed that parents of kids that score higher than 90% on the test for precalc admission are supposed to be informed that their kid is eligible to take algebra in 6th grade if they wish.

Appeals are also available for those who don't meet the 90% threshold, or for those who don't get 82% to get into prealgebra.

My child got above 90% but we were not informed of the option for algebra. Is this via mail or email? His teacher is relatively new and does not seem to know much about it. Who should we contact?

Curious if you were able to inquire about algebra.