Compact math is really not compact math anymore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember when compacted math was rolled out (my older child was in the first cohort) it was supposed to only be for a very small percentage of students. It now seems to be open to a very large percentage of kids. My younger child is in 7th and every single one of her friends (other than one) is in Algebra.

Our school has 2 compacted math classes (about 50 kids) and 1 grade level math class (about 25 kids).

Our school mix compacted math with non-compacted math in one math classroom! Always political correct!

That is actually not allowed and against what MCPS wants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can assure you with kids prior to 2.0 that your compact math class is nothing but a sham. It is old school basic math level.

Kids used to finish Math 7/IM under accelerated math curriculum and went to Algebra 1 in 6th. And kids on level finished Math 6 and went to IM in 6th.

Going into IM in 6th was the basic overall target. So getting back to that is average. Nothing special.

Your advanced peers in high school right now are tracking AP Calc BC in sophomore or junior year.

And the math teachers in MCPS said that this was overacceleration for most kids.

http://www.gazette.net/stories/11182009/potonew194846_32535.shtml

Because as parents found out their kids were not placed in the highest math class, they would fight until their child would get in there. There were many kids (probably similar to the now ongoing issues with increasing too many kids in compact math) that were just not ready for that level, but it even the class sizes more and teachers would just try their best.

This is the fault of the parents and the school system for trying to advance kids that had overbearing parents at home helping them. Once they get to Algebra and above and the parents can't help as much, they start to fade.

My child and most of her peers have gone right up that track and have done extremely well. Are you saying those kids now don't deserve the same track because the kids they kept adding to be politically correct, couldn't hang?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is 7th and 8th grade math combined?

Kids who take Algebra in 7th grade never take 7th grade math. 8th grade math doesn't really exist. On target is taking Algebra in 8th and MCPS's goal is that all students take Algebra by 8th.

I know a student who has a learning disability and she has to take Algebra in 8th plus, instead of an elective, she has to take another period where she gets math help. Plus she has to stay for math tutoring after school. So three hours of math a day just so she can complete math by end of 8th. And because of her learning disability, despite all of that hard work, she gets Cs in math.

That is terrible. Poor girl. What do they do for immigrants or refugees that have no basic math skills. Force them into Algebra?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember when compacted math was rolled out (my older child was in the first cohort) it was supposed to only be for a very small percentage of students. It now seems to be open to a very large percentage of kids. My younger child is in 7th and every single one of her friends (other than one) is in Algebra.

I agree. It used to be 10-20 kids max. Now it 30-50 kids. These kids aren’t getting smarter and smarter. . The curriculum is going slower.

Otherwise, the number of kids each year would fluctuate, not steadily increase

This is the biggest issue here. Every school is increasing every single year, double digit increases in most cases and some schools like College Gardens decided everyone will take compact math (which is so obnoxious.)

Are we slowing down the curriculum to allow more kids in or are we just allowing more kids to enter and have the top kids that really should be in the class sitting around help the kids struggling once again like a normal classroom?

This is the ONE thing advance students get their entire 6 years in elementary school get. The one thing unless they want to be bussed away from their home school. It really bothers me that we have to turn it into an "everyone" thing. And I say this as a parent of a child that I think probably shouldn't be in compact math, but they are. And I am not taking her out because she is in a district where more than 50% are taking it, and the ones that are not in it, are struggling in math and really not on grade level. It seems like compact math is for grade level and above and that is unfortunate. As a volunteer in the school, there are kids that are so bored and are always ask to help other kids. They are the ones whose reading groups meet maybe once a week so the below levels can meet every day. Compact math should be the one hour a day, they should get that chance to be challenged and not have to be bored and help. If MCPS wants to increase the kids, just give it two levels or go back to tracked math every single grade like before 2.0. Putting every kid on the same level, who obviously have different math capabilities, does not work.

Just for the record, not everyone is taking compact at CGES. Goal is everyone, reality is different (80% of DC's class). I agree with the rest of your post

[Anonymous]

I agree that the curriculum, at least so far is very very slow and basic. We are underwhelmed. Still finishing the HW in 5-10min max.

[Anonymous]

When I was in MCPS, Algebra in 9th grade was technically “on grade level” - that is why Algebra is a HS class that goes on your HS transcript and for which you had to take the HS exam (back when there was one). Algebra in 8th was the “normal” honors track and Algebra in 7th was the super advanced that very few kids did. Those kids had to bus to the HS for geometry in 8th grade. Algebra in 6th was unheard of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Because as parents found out their kids were not placed in the highest math class, they would fight until their child would get in there. There were many kids (probably similar to the now ongoing issues with increasing too many kids in compact math) that were just not ready for that level, but it even the class sizes more and teachers would just try their best.

This is the fault of the parents and the school system for trying to advance kids that had overbearing parents at home helping them. Once they get to Algebra and above and the parents can't help as much, they start to fade.

My child and most of her peers have gone right up that track and have done extremely well. Are you saying those kids now don't deserve the same track because the kids they kept adding to be politically correct, couldn't hang?

I am saying that the last time MCPS accelerated to that extent, before Curriculum 2.0, it didn't work. Maybe it would be different this time, although I don't know why it would be.

To echo another PP - when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was in school, Algebra I in 9th grade was on-grade level, Algebra I in 8th grade was the advanced track, and nobody took Algebra I in 7th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember when compacted math was rolled out (my older child was in the first cohort) it was supposed to only be for a very small percentage of students. It now seems to be open to a very large percentage of kids. My younger child is in 7th and every single one of her friends (other than one) is in Algebra.

Our school has 2 compacted math classes (about 50 kids) and 1 grade level math class (about 25 kids).

Our school mix compacted math with non-compacted math in one math classroom! Always political correct!

That is actually not allowed and against what MCPS wants.

Where can I find the county says it's not allowed? We really want to know. Now the kids are still doing group learning within classroom at 4th grade. some kids are on math 4 and some kids are on math 4/5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who is MCPS fooling? My daughter in high school learned this compact math curriculum in 2nd grade. My middle schooler in 3rd. My now 4th grader is learning these extremely basic items (subtracting) right now.

Is the goal to just add more kids and continue to dumb down the curriculum each year? I don’t get it. It is not advanced. I feel like it is the high school “honors” courses. We all know they are now just “not remedial” How do truly advanced kids stand out in this type of system?

Yes, yes, yes.

We need to get ALL the MCPS proficient in the basics. So the basics will be taught and re-taught until the bottom kids are proficient. The county's goal is to get higher average proficiency scores and prepare everyone for Montgomery County Community College.
High school offers differentiation, K-8 most certainly does not - unless you are in an HGC/CES or a magnet program. If you have higher aspirations than MoCo community college or what more depth or breadth of subject-matter, that's on you. The fact that you're asking around, means that MCPS believes you have the time and income to supplement your children's education whilst they focus on the poorly performing students. As you know there are a lot of them in MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that the curriculum, at least so far is very very slow and basic. We are underwhelmed. Still finishing the HW in 5-10min max.

+1

I just came to look up here if anyone is thinking compact math is too easy. Nice to see I am not the only one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, yes, yes.

We need to get ALL the MCPS proficient in the basics. So the basics will be taught and re-taught until the bottom kids are proficient. The county's goal is to get higher average proficiency scores and prepare everyone for Montgomery County Community College.
High school offers differentiation, K-8 most certainly does not - unless you are in an HGC/CES or a magnet program. If you have higher aspirations than MoCo community college or what more depth or breadth of subject-matter, that's on you. The fact that you're asking around, means that MCPS believes you have the time and income to supplement your children's education whilst they focus on the poorly performing students. As you know there are a lot of them in MoCo.

You could post this 10 gazillion times on DCUM, and it still wouldn't make it true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, yes, yes.

We need to get ALL the MCPS proficient in the basics. So the basics will be taught and re-taught until the bottom kids are proficient. The county's goal is to get higher average proficiency scores and prepare everyone for Montgomery County Community College.
High school offers differentiation, K-8 most certainly does not - unless you are in an HGC/CES or a magnet program. If you have higher aspirations than MoCo community college or what more depth or breadth of subject-matter, that's on you. The fact that you're asking around, means that MCPS believes you have the time and income to supplement your children's education whilst they focus on the poorly performing students. As you know there are a lot of them in MoCo.

You could post this 10 gazillion times on DCUM, and it still wouldn't make it true.

I hated it when Superintendent Starr kept harping on MoCo Community College this and that. Pretty clear who he was catering to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, yes, yes.

We need to get ALL the MCPS proficient in the basics. So the basics will be taught and re-taught until the bottom kids are proficient. The county's goal is to get higher average proficiency scores and prepare everyone for Montgomery County Community College.
High school offers differentiation, K-8 most certainly does not - unless you are in an HGC/CES or a magnet program. If you have higher aspirations than MoCo community college or what more depth or breadth of subject-matter, that's on you. The fact that you're asking around, means that MCPS believes you have the time and income to supplement your children's education whilst they focus on the poorly performing students. As you know there are a lot of them in MoCo.

You could post this 10 gazillion times on DCUM, and it still wouldn't make it true.

I hated it when Superintendent Starr kept harping on MoCo Community College this and that. Pretty clear who he was catering to.

Damn you, Joshua Starr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Whom was he catering to? Montgomery College is definitely in my kids' college plans. 15 credit hours of undergraduate prequisites for $2,589 at Montgomery College, compared to $10,595 at College Park? Heck yes.)

[Anonymous]

MCPS has always done a terrible job at balancing things for special ed, kids in need, disabilities, at grade level, and advanced kids. The influx of poor immigrants in the past 10 years has basically meant that the shift is to only help the bottom and that was why 2.0 was implemented. They only did compact math to shut a bunch of tiger moms up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has always done a terrible job at balancing things for special ed, kids in need, disabilities, at grade level, and advanced kids. The influx of poor immigrants in the past 10 years has basically meant that the shift is to only help the bottom and that was why 2.0 was implemented. They only did compact math to shut a bunch of tiger moms up.

No, it wasn't. It was implemented because Maryland adopted the Common Core State Standards.