MCPS New Math Pathway, No AIM6 in MS

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Well it's about time they stopped trying to make everything cookie cutter. Its the sad truth that kids in some schools are better prepared than others. Punishing those who work harder is going to be the death of this entire county... and I say that as a progressive liberal. What we've been doing isn't fixing the problem.


Middle-class kids with educated parents are ahead in math because they work harder?


Lets be real, most MC in MoCo are not real middle class. However, those of us who know MCPS curriculum sucked all along supplemented. My child is ahead not because of the school, but because we supplemented all through ES to make sure they were where they needed to be for MS.
Anonymous
+1. We are all South Koreans now...
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Well it's about time they stopped trying to make everything cookie cutter. Its the sad truth that kids in some schools are better prepared than others. Punishing those who work harder is going to be the death of this entire county... and I say that as a progressive liberal. What we've been doing isn't fixing the problem.


"As a progressive liberal," you should understand that population-level statistics are not the same as individual statistics.

You seem to think that a high-needs, low-income, global majority school just shouldn't offer certain math courses (or other classes). But you are confusing two things: 1) What is the average level of preparation for an average kid in this school?; and 2) Are there children in every school that need accelerated work?

The answer to the second question is YES, there are kids at every single MCPS middle school who can access the AIM/IM curriculum and should have access to it. Maybe Westland offers 6 sections of AIM and Col. Lee offers 2, but every child who needs it, should be able to access it.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Well it's about time they stopped trying to make everything cookie cutter. Its the sad truth that kids in some schools are better prepared than others. Punishing those who work harder is going to be the death of this entire county... and I say that as a progressive liberal. What we've been doing isn't fixing the problem.


"As a progressive liberal," you should understand that population-level statistics are not the same as individual statistics.

You seem to think that a high-needs, low-income, global majority school just shouldn't offer certain math courses (or other classes). But you are confusing two things: 1) What is the average level of preparation for an average kid in this school?; and 2) Are there children in every school that need accelerated work?

The answer to the second question is YES, there are kids at every single MCPS middle school who can access the AIM/IM curriculum and should have access to it. Maybe Westland offers 6 sections of AIM and Col. Lee offers 2, but every child who needs it, should be able to access it.



Exactly this! There might be fewer students who qualify, but any child who does qualify should have access to the higher-level classes!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Math 6+ is accelerated or AIM.


This is incorrect, as seen by the schools that are offering both 6+ and AIM. 6+ is accelerated compared to the normal LearnZillion curriculum, but AIM is accelerated beyond that.

Normal LearnZillion math curriculum: Math 6 --> Math 7 --> Math 8 --> Algebra in 9th grade
Accelerated LZ: Math 6+ --> Math 7+ --> Algebra in 8th grade
MCPS accelerated: compacted math 5/6 in 5th grade --> AIM --> Algebra in 7th grade


Before the LearnZillion curriculum was implemented, the on-grade level pathway was Math 6 --> IM --> Algebra in 8th. Switching to the 6+ and 7+ options gets to the same place, but with the compacting spread over both 6th and 7th grade.
Anonymous
I'm normally pretty supportive of MCPS, which is heads and shoulders better than the rural school district where I grew up, but this thread illustrates one of the biggest issues with the district from my point of view.

Someone needs to be the boss. Every school rolling out their own set of course offerings is bizarre, and begging for a civil right lawsuit if it indeed turns out that predominantly white/Asian schools are offering acceleration that is not available in global majority schools.

I assume that somewhere in the morass of MCPS administration, there is someone whose job is called "Head of Middle School Math."

THAT PERSON needs to tell schools what they are offering, and how to reflect that information in the course catalog.

This is basic "how to run a large organization." Yes, maybe the McDonalds in Detroit serves fries and the McDonalds in Atlanta serves fries and hush puppies, but the core product is the same.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Well it's about time they stopped trying to make everything cookie cutter. Its the sad truth that kids in some schools are better prepared than others. Punishing those who work harder is going to be the death of this entire county... and I say that as a progressive liberal. What we've been doing isn't fixing the problem.


Middle-class kids with educated parents are ahead in math because they work harder?


Lets be real, most MC in MoCo are not real middle class. However, those of us who know MCPS curriculum sucked all along supplemented. My child is ahead not because of the school, but because we supplemented all through ES to make sure they were where they needed to be for MS.

Well, this proved that MCPS was right to switch to universal screenings for CES and MS magnets.
Anonymous
It looks to be a real mess this year, just based on the school examples provided. I really don't understand why they are considering not offering AIM6 at all schools. It especially is glaring when Eastern explicitly states offering Algebra I to 6th graders while there are other schools that are only offering 2 options (none of which are truly advanced).
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I did some quick searching on DCC schools, and then added other schools I could think of. This information can't easily be found on all schools' websites. What I think is strange is how they use slightly different names for all these classes. Looks like lots of DCC schools not offering AIM.

Argyle:
Acc Math 6
Math investigations (for compacted math students)

Cabin John:
Math 6+
Applied IM

Eastern:
Math 6,
Math 6+
AIM
Algebra I

Farquhar:
MATH 6 (1005)
ACCELERATED MATH 6 PLUS COURSE (1003)

Lee:
Math 6
Math 6+

Loiderman:
Math 6+
Math 7

Newport Mill:
LearnZillion/Illustrative Mathematics 6 (1005)
Accelerated Mathematics 6 Plus Course (AMP+) (1015)

North Bethesda
Grade 6 Math
Applied Investigations in Mathematics

Parkland
Mathematics 6
IM 6/7

Silver Spring International MS
math pathways for 6th graders starting in fall '21 are:
LearnZillion Math 6-->on track for Algebra 1 in 9th
LearnZillion Math 7-->on track for Algebra 1 in 8th
Applied Investigations in Math 6 (AIM)-->on track for Algebra 1 in 7th

Silver Creek MS
Grade 6 Math
Applied Investigations in Math 6 (AIM)
Takoma Park
Grade 6 Math
Accelerated Math 6 Plus
AIM

Westland:
AIM
Accelerated Math 6 +
Math 6
Math 180


Wow, thanks for putting this together. This is an eye opener to the inequalities at MCPS. I can’t believe I actually believed that the curriculum would be the same throughout MCPS and it didn’t really matter which school we were in.


Stop hyperventilating! Both AIM and IM lead to Algebra in grade 7. So, all but four in this list have an *announced* path to get to algebra in 7th grade. The other four have an announced path to get to algebra in 8th. (BTW, Furquhar is not in DCC; So, six out of nine DCC schools have official pathway to get to algebra in 7th.) Usually these classes are based on demand, and there are always exceptions. I know kids in DCC who got accelerated outside the officially announced paths because they were above grade level.

Curriculum IS the same all over.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:It looks to be a real mess this year, just based on the school examples provided. I really don't understand why they are considering not offering AIM6 at all schools. It especially is glaring when Eastern explicitly states offering Algebra I to 6th graders while there are other schools that are only offering 2 options (none of which are truly advanced).

You can't just register for Algebra I at Eastern. It's only a handful of kids. It's not another pathway but an exception that is made for some students. Don't forget one of the gifted magnets is at this school.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I did some quick searching on DCC schools, and then added other schools I could think of. This information can't easily be found on all schools' websites. What I think is strange is how they use slightly different names for all these classes. Looks like lots of DCC schools not offering AIM.

Argyle:
Acc Math 6
Math investigations (for compacted math students)

Cabin John:
Math 6+
Applied IM

Eastern:
Math 6,
Math 6+
AIM
Algebra I

Farquhar:
MATH 6 (1005)
ACCELERATED MATH 6 PLUS COURSE (1003)

Lee:
Math 6
Math 6+

Loiderman:
Math 6+
Math 7

Newport Mill:
LearnZillion/Illustrative Mathematics 6 (1005)
Accelerated Mathematics 6 Plus Course (AMP+) (1015)

North Bethesda
Grade 6 Math
Applied Investigations in Mathematics

Parkland
Mathematics 6
IM 6/7

Silver Spring International MS
math pathways for 6th graders starting in fall '21 are:
LearnZillion Math 6-->on track for Algebra 1 in 9th
LearnZillion Math 7-->on track for Algebra 1 in 8th
Applied Investigations in Math 6 (AIM)-->on track for Algebra 1 in 7th

Silver Creek MS
Grade 6 Math
Applied Investigations in Math 6 (AIM)
Takoma Park
Grade 6 Math
Accelerated Math 6 Plus
AIM

Westland:
AIM
Accelerated Math 6 +
Math 6
Math 180


Wow, thanks for putting this together. This is an eye opener to the inequalities at MCPS. I can’t believe I actually believed that the curriculum would be the same throughout MCPS and it didn’t really matter which school we were in.


Stop hyperventilating! Both AIM and IM lead to Algebra in grade 7. So, all but four in this list have an *announced* path to get to algebra in 7th grade. The other four have an announced path to get to algebra in 8th. (BTW, Furquhar is not in DCC; So, six out of nine DCC schools have official pathway to get to algebra in 7th.) Usually these classes are based on demand, and there are always exceptions. I know kids in DCC who got accelerated outside the officially announced paths because they were above grade level.

Curriculum IS the same all over.


One reason to take this list with a grain of salt: Newport Mill offers the restructured accelerated pathway (in place of compact 5/6->IM->Algebra 1 in seventh grade), which seems to be: compact 5/6 in 5th grade -> LZ Math 7 in 6th grade -> Algebra 1 -> Geometry. Check out https://drive.google.com/file/d/1joqZamZK-0_AAR_uzbS2OrN-BWMB9fd4/view

While they don't say explicitly (or I missed it) that LZ Math 7 in 6th grade will lead to Algebra 1 in 7th grade, they do clearly state that LZ Math AMP 6+ in 6th grade will lead to Algebra 1 in 8th grade. And LZ Math 7 is obviously more accelerated compared to LZ Math AMP 6+.

Interestingly, Newport Mill, in addition to IM/Algebra 1/Geometry - courses that one would normally expect any MCPS middle school to offer - seems to offer Algebra 2 even! See https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/newportmillms/departments/math/math/ But this may be a bit outdated since the 2021-22 catalog does not have algebra 2.

Another reason - check out Furquhar and Loiderman web sites. They have teachers teaching Geometry in eighth grade and IM/AIM in sixth grade. Are they suddenly going to stop offering Geometry in eighth grade?! That does not make any sense.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm not going to freak out until we hear this from MCPS.

If nothing else, it doesn't make any sense. If *everyone* is having learning loss, then the kids currently in Math 5 won't be ready for Math 6 anyway.

But we know learning loss is concentrated among the kids who were struggling anyway. It's not equally distributed across the entire county. So putting kids who have finished Math 5/6 into Math 6 with kids who haven't been in school since Math 4 is just going to create more problems than it solves.


You make so much sense, but MCPS is not making a lot of sense these days so who knows what they are planning. I will flip out if my child has to repeat Math 6 next year.


Our middle school is calling it math6+ for those who were in compacted then they would take math 7+ and algebra in 8th. But it looks like math 6+ is still math 6, just more in depth. Also these kids will end up being a whole year behind in math by high school.


Math 6+ was originally presented as being *in addition to* AIM.

What do you mean that the kids would be behind, by the way? Algebra in 9th is the national norm for "on track" kids, and Algebra in 8th is the national norm for "advanced" kids.


It’s not the norm for advanced students in our W pyramid. DC is currently in 8th and is in hon geometry, algebra is 7th.


Algebra 1 in 7th is the norm for advanced students in MCPS - Period.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I did some quick searching on DCC schools, and then added other schools I could think of. This information can't easily be found on all schools' websites. What I think is strange is how they use slightly different names for all these classes. Looks like lots of DCC schools not offering AIM.

Argyle:
Acc Math 6
Math investigations (for compacted math students)

Cabin John:
Math 6+
Applied IM

Eastern:
Math 6,
Math 6+
AIM
Algebra I

Farquhar:
MATH 6 (1005)
ACCELERATED MATH 6 PLUS COURSE (1003)

Lee:
Math 6
Math 6+

Loiderman:
Math 6+
Math 7

Newport Mill:
LearnZillion/Illustrative Mathematics 6 (1005)
Accelerated Mathematics 6 Plus Course (AMP+) (1015)

North Bethesda
Grade 6 Math
Applied Investigations in Mathematics

Parkland
Mathematics 6
IM 6/7

Silver Spring International MS
math pathways for 6th graders starting in fall '21 are:
LearnZillion Math 6-->on track for Algebra 1 in 9th
LearnZillion Math 7-->on track for Algebra 1 in 8th
Applied Investigations in Math 6 (AIM)-->on track for Algebra 1 in 7th

Silver Creek MS
Grade 6 Math
Applied Investigations in Math 6 (AIM)
Takoma Park
Grade 6 Math
Accelerated Math 6 Plus
AIM

Westland:
AIM
Accelerated Math 6 +
Math 6
Math 180


Wow, thanks for putting this together. This is an eye opener to the inequalities at MCPS. I can’t believe I actually believed that the curriculum would be the same throughout MCPS and it didn’t really matter which school we were in.


Stop hyperventilating! Both AIM and IM lead to Algebra in grade 7. So, all but four in this list have an *announced* path to get to algebra in 7th grade. The other four have an announced path to get to algebra in 8th. (BTW, Furquhar is not in DCC; So, six out of nine DCC schools have official pathway to get to algebra in 7th.) Usually these classes are based on demand, and there are always exceptions. I know kids in DCC who got accelerated outside the officially announced paths because they were above grade level.

Curriculum IS the same all over.


No one is hyperventilating, and it appears your DC is probably in the schools that do offer Algebra in 7th. While its nice to know exceptions can be made, it’s not guaranteed.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Math 6+ is accelerated or AIM.


This is incorrect, as seen by the schools that are offering both 6+ and AIM. 6+ is accelerated compared to the normal LearnZillion curriculum, but AIM is accelerated beyond that.

Normal LearnZillion math curriculum: Math 6 --> Math 7 --> Math 8 --> Algebra in 9th grade
Accelerated LZ: Math 6+ --> Math 7+ --> Algebra in 8th grade
MCPS accelerated: compacted math 5/6 in 5th grade --> AIM --> Algebra in 7th grade


Before the LearnZillion curriculum was implemented, the on-grade level pathway was Math 6 --> IM --> Algebra in 8th. Switching to the 6+ and 7+ options gets to the same place, but with the compacting spread over both 6th and 7th grade.


It will get switched around next year.

And, those sites aren't always accurate. We are at a school you listed and we have Algebra in 6th.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I did some quick searching on DCC schools, and then added other schools I could think of. This information can't easily be found on all schools' websites. What I think is strange is how they use slightly different names for all these classes. Looks like lots of DCC schools not offering AIM.

Argyle:
Acc Math 6
Math investigations (for compacted math students)

Cabin John:
Math 6+
Applied IM

Eastern:
Math 6,
Math 6+
AIM
Algebra I

Farquhar:
MATH 6 (1005)
ACCELERATED MATH 6 PLUS COURSE (1003)

Lee:
Math 6
Math 6+

Loiderman:
Math 6+
Math 7

Newport Mill:
LearnZillion/Illustrative Mathematics 6 (1005)
Accelerated Mathematics 6 Plus Course (AMP+) (1015)

North Bethesda
Grade 6 Math
Applied Investigations in Mathematics

Parkland
Mathematics 6
IM 6/7

Silver Spring International MS
math pathways for 6th graders starting in fall '21 are:
LearnZillion Math 6-->on track for Algebra 1 in 9th
LearnZillion Math 7-->on track for Algebra 1 in 8th
Applied Investigations in Math 6 (AIM)-->on track for Algebra 1 in 7th

Silver Creek MS
Grade 6 Math
Applied Investigations in Math 6 (AIM)
Takoma Park
Grade 6 Math
Accelerated Math 6 Plus
AIM

Westland:
AIM
Accelerated Math 6 +
Math 6
Math 180


Wow, thanks for putting this together. This is an eye opener to the inequalities at MCPS. I can’t believe I actually believed that the curriculum would be the same throughout MCPS and it didn’t really matter which school we were in.


Stop hyperventilating! Both AIM and IM lead to Algebra in grade 7. So, all but four in this list have an *announced* path to get to algebra in 7th grade. The other four have an announced path to get to algebra in 8th. (BTW, Furquhar is not in DCC; So, six out of nine DCC schools have official pathway to get to algebra in 7th.) Usually these classes are based on demand, and there are always exceptions. I know kids in DCC who got accelerated outside the officially announced paths because they were above grade level.

Curriculum IS the same all over.


No one is hyperventilating, and it appears your DC is probably in the schools that do offer Algebra in 7th. While its nice to know exceptions can be made, it’s not guaranteed.


All MCPS schools offer Algebra in 7th. The question is do they offer it in 6th.
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