Jeb Bush's org behind the new MSDE MS math minutes increase (which will likely cut MS electives)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The continued problem with using other countries as the basis for making changes, is that holistic changes are not made. For example, less standardize testing before HS. Or nationalized K-12 curriculum and teachers training. etc.

The #1 problem with USA "competitiveness" is that other countries don't bother to try to raise the floor of performance. They have cuts for school.

We do, the rich people send their smart kids to private and "developmentally challenged" to public schools.

Rich people send their dumb kids to private school, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If math homework counts as instruction (i.e., if you include instructions with the problem sets), then 15 minutes of math homework a day is doable. My kids are doing at least that amount now (5th and 7th grades). I don't remember when they started having math homework though, maybe 3rd grade? So doing this with the early grades will be the issue, but I think the elementary schedule may allow for more flexibility in adding that time during the day, than sorting out MS periods.

I guess I need to read the actual policy and see how they define math instruction.

Nope, none of these "creative ideas" about counting math homework/IXL or putting math in electives or doing math during advisory periods will count. The language explicitly says that all math courses K-8 need to be scheduled for 300 minutes a week:

"Beginning SY 2027-2028, LEAs shall adhere to a minimum daily requirement of 60 cumulative instructional minutes or the equivalent of 300 weekly minutes for all math courses in kindergarten through grade 8. Exemplar schedule models aligned to MTSS will be provided in
guidance."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If math homework counts as instruction (i.e., if you include instructions with the problem sets), then 15 minutes of math homework a day is doable. My kids are doing at least that amount now (5th and 7th grades). I don't remember when they started having math homework though, maybe 3rd grade? So doing this with the early grades will be the issue, but I think the elementary schedule may allow for more flexibility in adding that time during the day, than sorting out MS periods.

I guess I need to read the actual policy and see how they define math instruction.

Nope, none of these "creative ideas" about counting math homework/IXL or putting math in electives or doing math during advisory periods will count. The language explicitly says that all math courses K-8 need to be scheduled for 300 minutes a week:

"Beginning SY 2027-2028, LEAs shall adhere to a minimum daily requirement of 60 cumulative instructional minutes or the equivalent of 300 weekly minutes for all math courses in kindergarten through grade 8. Exemplar schedule models aligned to MTSS will be provided in
guidance."

So if "math instruction" must entail classroom time led by math teachers... wouldn't this ~33% (225 --> 300) increase in weekly minutes require a commensurate increase in math teachers? Is there a big pool of unemployed math teachers and a pot of money to pay them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If math homework counts as instruction (i.e., if you include instructions with the problem sets), then 15 minutes of math homework a day is doable. My kids are doing at least that amount now (5th and 7th grades). I don't remember when they started having math homework though, maybe 3rd grade? So doing this with the early grades will be the issue, but I think the elementary schedule may allow for more flexibility in adding that time during the day, than sorting out MS periods.

I guess I need to read the actual policy and see how they define math instruction.

Nope, none of these "creative ideas" about counting math homework/IXL or putting math in electives or doing math during advisory periods will count. The language explicitly says that all math courses K-8 need to be scheduled for 300 minutes a week:

"Beginning SY 2027-2028, LEAs shall adhere to a minimum daily requirement of 60 cumulative instructional minutes or the equivalent of 300 weekly minutes for all math courses in kindergarten through grade 8. Exemplar schedule models aligned to MTSS will be provided in
guidance."

So if "math instruction" must entail classroom time led by math teachers... wouldn't this ~33% (225 --> 300) increase in weekly minutes require a commensurate increase in math teachers? Is there a big pool of unemployed math teachers and a pot of money to pay them?

Yes, correct. Maybe they figure they can train all the soon-to-be-/aid-off middle-school music and art and foreign language teachers to fill those positions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they would eliminate PE as a requirement I might be more okay with this. 😏

Or gender studies. Totally unnecessary

MCPS middle schools don't have "gender studies" as a core course, but thanks for showing up here and being an idiot. Don't you have some memes to post on Facebook?

Its part of health class. My son had 3 periods on gender identity and such.

[Anonymous]

An obvious solution for middle school, which should be in the law, is that students who are struggling in math or English should have an extra after-hours support class, or use an elective slot for resource class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If math homework counts as instruction (i.e., if you include instructions with the problem sets), then 15 minutes of math homework a day is doable. My kids are doing at least that amount now (5th and 7th grades). I don't remember when they started having math homework though, maybe 3rd grade? So doing this with the early grades will be the issue, but I think the elementary schedule may allow for more flexibility in adding that time during the day, than sorting out MS periods.

I guess I need to read the actual policy and see how they define math instruction.

I think the elementary schools are already largely conforming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An obvious solution for middle school, which should be in the law, is that students who are struggling in math or English should have an extra after-hours support class, or use an elective slot for resource class.

Agreed. But here's another problem: MCPS's resource classes tend to be crap and not actually lead to improvements in proficiency for kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they would eliminate PE as a requirement I might be more okay with this. 😏

Or gender studies. Totally unnecessary

MCPS middle schools don't have "gender studies" as a core course, but thanks for showing up here and being an idiot. Don't you have some memes to post on Facebook?

Its part of health class. My son had 3 periods on gender identity and such.

So kids learn about gender identity during health class (mine didn't mention this), but that's not a class in "gender studies." If it's part of the human sexuality unit, PP can always have their kid opt out. But this isn't a helpful solution for the math instruction problem, since PE/health is mandatory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If math homework counts as instruction (i.e., if you include instructions with the problem sets), then 15 minutes of math homework a day is doable. My kids are doing at least that amount now (5th and 7th grades). I don't remember when they started having math homework though, maybe 3rd grade? So doing this with the early grades will be the issue, but I think the elementary schedule may allow for more flexibility in adding that time during the day, than sorting out MS periods.

I guess I need to read the actual policy and see how they define math instruction.

I think the elementary schools are already largely conforming.

If I'm reading my 5th grader's schedule on parentvue correctly, he has 28 minutes of math. I think the periods vary depending on whether it's a "specials" day (ie, on the 2 days without music/art/PE, the class periods may be longer). That said, math is never a full 60 minutes per day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If math homework counts as instruction (i.e., if you include instructions with the problem sets), then 15 minutes of math homework a day is doable. My kids are doing at least that amount now (5th and 7th grades). I don't remember when they started having math homework though, maybe 3rd grade? So doing this with the early grades will be the issue, but I think the elementary schedule may allow for more flexibility in adding that time during the day, than sorting out MS periods.

ParentVue is totally incorrect for my kids’ ES, but I don’t know what is typical. Most of their day is math or ELA with 30 minutes a day for science or SS.
I guess I need to read the actual policy and see how they define math instruction.

I think the elementary schools are already largely conforming.

If I'm reading my 5th grader's schedule on parentvue correctly, he has 28 minutes of math. I think the periods vary depending on whether it's a "specials" day (ie, on the 2 days without music/art/PE, the class periods may be longer). That said, math is never a full 60 minutes per day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s an idea: instead of cutting an elective, cut advisory. It’s easily the most pointless part of the day.

I think they could just have students use 75 minutes of the advisory periods in the week to do IXL. Our school already devotes a full advisory period to IXL.

No additional teaching required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The continued problem with using other countries as the basis for making changes, is that holistic changes are not made. For example, less standardize testing before HS. Or nationalized K-12 curriculum and teachers training. etc.

The #1 problem with USA "competitiveness" is that other countries don't bother to try to raise the floor of performance. They have cuts for school.

BS I’m the one percent in this country almost all of my kids all graduated from public MOCO

No private competes in math or science only one of mine went private to Andover that was because he wanted boarding .

One

We do, the rich people send their smart kids to private and "developmentally challenged" to public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they would eliminate PE as a requirement I might be more okay with this. 😏

Or gender studies. Totally unnecessary

MCPS middle schools don't have "gender studies" as a core course, but thanks for showing up here and being an idiot. Don't you have some memes to post on Facebook?

Its part of health class. My son had 3 periods on gender identity and such.

So kids learn about gender identity during health class (mine didn't mention this), but that's not a class in "gender studies." If it's part of the human sexuality unit, PP can always have their kid opt out. But this isn't a helpful solution for the math instruction problem, since PE/health is mandatory.

It’s usually not done under human sexuality so it can’t be opted out of. I believe that’s how MoCo handles it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they would eliminate PE as a requirement I might be more okay with this. 😏

Or gender studies. Totally unnecessary

MCPS middle schools don't have "gender studies" as a core course, but thanks for showing up here and being an idiot. Don't you have some memes to post on Facebook?

Its part of health class. My son had 3 periods on gender identity and such.

So kids learn about gender identity during health class (mine didn't mention this), but that's not a class in "gender studies." If it's part of the human sexuality unit, PP can always have their kid opt out. But this isn't a helpful solution for the math instruction problem, since PE/health is mandatory.

It’s usually not done under human sexuality so it can’t be opted out of. I believe that’s how MoCo handles it.

When they had those gender studies they were told to keep quiet and absolutely no talking or laughing or else they will get an F and fail the class. When I went to the open house math class, that was so eye opening. Half the class was talking, the other half was playing on the chromebooks. MCPS priorities.