New Math Program - NO Differentiation until Grades 11-12?!?

[Anonymous]

People without a Maths degree in college should not have kids??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I am pro-tracking. I also don’t like that students can enroll in AP or Honors if they just feel like it. Differentiation is impossible with the class sizes we are dealing with.

I know teachers take a lot of shit from DCUM and, if this is forced through, it's going to be a whole bunch of crap rolling downhill on y'all when Larlo doesn't get the differentiation that his parents think he should, so I just want to say now, as a parent, that I think it's nuts to ask y'all to do this with 25-32 kids in a class and have already written VDOE to say so. I hope that teachers also have a feedback mechanism and can tell VDOE how poorly this would work in practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents need to be good at Maths and teach their kids themselves.

If VDOE would like me to homeschool my child while they provide SEL and socialization, then they need to greatly reduce school hours requirements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I am pro-tracking. I also don’t like that students can enroll in AP or Honors if they just feel like it. Differentiation is impossible with the class sizes we are dealing with.

I know teachers take a lot of shit from DCUM and, if this is forced through, it's going to be a whole bunch of crap rolling downhill on y'all when Larlo doesn't get the differentiation that his parents think he should, so I just want to say now, as a parent, that I think it's nuts to ask y'all to do this with 25-32 kids in a class and have already written VDOE to say so. I hope that teachers also have a feedback mechanism and can tell VDOE how poorly this would work in practice.

You would think VEA would be all over this, but that might look bad given their political stances.

Same with VAPTA.

Reason number 14532 that it would be better if the teacher's associations and PTA weren't so entangled with politics and activism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents need to be good at Maths and teach their kids themselves.

I can get my kids through Algebra I and part of Geometry and Statistics. I should not have to learn Calculus to teach my kid. I'm a liberal arts major and last took calc in 1995. I certainly hope someone who teaches for a living could do better than I could.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I am pro-tracking. I also don’t like that students can enroll in AP or Honors if they just feel like it. Differentiation is impossible with the class sizes we are dealing with.

I know teachers take a lot of shit from DCUM and, if this is forced through, it's going to be a whole bunch of crap rolling downhill on y'all when Larlo doesn't get the differentiation that his parents think he should, so I just want to say now, as a parent, that I think it's nuts to ask y'all to do this with 25-32 kids in a class and have already written VDOE to say so. I hope that teachers also have a feedback mechanism and can tell VDOE how poorly this would work in practice.

You would think VEA would be all over this, but that might look bad given their political stances.

Same with VAPTA.

Reason number 14532 that it would be better if the teacher's associations and PTA weren't so entangled with politics and activism.

I think that you can be pro-equity and against the specific tactics being used in VMPI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tracking kids early leaves some kids behind FOREVER. My kid is gifted in math. Does he need to be in a separate class. No he does not. Public schooling is not for every snowflake. It's for ALL kids. For once can you broaden your circle of concern beyond your own child?


No?

That's your problem. Not the state's. Grow up.

Forcing dumb kids into the same class as smart kids means the dumb kids grow resentful and the smart kids grow bored and have their potential stunted.

The result of this will be parents with means moving their kids into charter or private schools. Those without the means will be stuck with the dumbed down curriculum and peers for their children.

Both my kids are in advanced math and I hope this doesn’t pass but damn PP calling kids dumb.

PP actually illustrates why I don't want my "dumb" kid in a heterogenous class, other than the fact that they will get less instructional time in a wide-spread class. (And they're not actually "dumb" - we've spent a small fortune on educational testing, and they're actually above average intelligence but have a processing disorder that interferes with classroom performance.) It's not just the "smart" kids who will be disgruntled by my kid not moving as fast, but their parents are going to be reinforcing to them that my child is not smart and not as good as the "smart" kids are... which comes to school and impacts my kids' self-esteem and happiness in school environment. DCUM is really eye-opening in terms of what assholes academically competitive parents are, and I don't need that as part of my kid's life when they're already working twice as hard to achieve grade-level performance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tracking kids early leaves some kids behind FOREVER. My kid is gifted in math. Does he need to be in a separate class. No he does not. Public schooling is not for every snowflake. It's for ALL kids. For once can you broaden your circle of concern beyond your own child?


No?

That's your problem. Not the state's. Grow up.

The needs of a young elementary student like yours are vastly different than the needs of older elementary, middle school and certainly 9th and 10th graders.

[Anonymous]

VOTE.

VOTE.

There is an election in November for statewide offices.

Vote out the idiots you elected last time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I am pro-tracking. I also don’t like that students can enroll in AP or Honors if they just feel like it. Differentiation is impossible with the class sizes we are dealing with.

I know teachers take a lot of shit from DCUM and, if this is forced through, it's going to be a whole bunch of crap rolling downhill on y'all when Larlo doesn't get the differentiation that his parents think he should, so I just want to say now, as a parent, that I think it's nuts to ask y'all to do this with 25-32 kids in a class and have already written VDOE to say so. I hope that teachers also have a feedback mechanism and can tell VDOE how poorly this would work in practice.

You would think VEA would be all over this, but that might look bad given their political stances.

Same with VAPTA.

Reason number 14532 that it would be better if the teacher's associations and PTA weren't so entangled with politics and activism.

I think that you can be pro-equity and against the specific tactics being used in VMPI.

PP, and I agree. What I don't think can be done is the nuanced conversation that it takes to say that happening in any of the organizations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tracking kids early leaves some kids behind FOREVER. My kid is gifted in math. Does he need to be in a separate class. No he does not. Public schooling is not for every snowflake. It's for ALL kids. For once can you broaden your circle of concern beyond your own child?


No?

That's your problem. Not the state's. Grow up.

Forcing dumb kids into the same class as smart kids means the dumb kids grow resentful and the smart kids grow bored and have their potential stunted.

The result of this will be parents with means moving their kids into charter or private schools. Those without the means will be stuck with the dumbed down curriculum and peers for their children.

Both my kids are in advanced math and I hope this doesn’t pass but damn PP calling kids dumb.

PP actually illustrates why I don't want my "dumb" kid in a heterogenous class, other than the fact that they will get less instructional time in a wide-spread class. (And they're not actually "dumb" - we've spent a small fortune on educational testing, and they're actually above average intelligence but have a processing disorder that interferes with classroom performance.) It's not just the "smart" kids who will be disgruntled by my kid not moving as fast, but their parents are going to be reinforcing to them that my child is not smart and not as good as the "smart" kids are... which comes to school and impacts my kids' self-esteem and happiness in school environment. DCUM is really eye-opening in terms of what assholes academically competitive parents are, and I don't need that as part of my kid's life when they're already working twice as hard to achieve grade-level performance.

Yes all of this. My 98% percentile kid with slow processing speed doesn’t need this bs from peers.

This is a TERRIBLE idea all around and Qarni is absolutely screwing this up. I am really hoping that Virginia higher ed makes it clear what a problem this will cause. It’s absolutely counter to any reliable or meaningful math education research.

[Anonymous]

Possible media contacts who might have interest in this:

(mentioned before) Washington Post: Hannah Natanson (education reporter),[e-mail] Twitter: @hannah_natanson; on Facebook as Hannah Natanson

Connection Newspapers (NoVA), Editor: Mary Kimm, [e-mail]

Fairfax Times: Editor, Chase Gregory, [e-mail]
Fox5 DC: Tisha Lewis,[e-mail]; Twitter: @tishalewis; on Facebook as Tisha Lewis Fox 5 DC

WJLA: Kellye Lynn,[e-mail]; Twitter: @abc7kellye; on Facebook as Kellye Lynn

WJLA: Heather Graf,[e-mail]; Twitter: @ABC7HeatherGraf; on Facebook as Heather Graf

NBC 4 Washington: Julie Carey, (bureau chief for NoVA; both kids went to TJ),[e-mail]; Twitter: @juliecareynbc; on Facebook as Julie Carey

NBC 4 Washington: Drew Wilder (NoVA reporter):[e-mail]; Twitter: @drewwilderTV; on Facebook at Drew Wilder

WUSA9 CBS: Bruce Leshan; [e-mail]; Twitter @bruceleshan; on Facebook at Bruce Leshan TV

Wall Street Journal: Nancy Keates; [e-mail]; Twitter @nkeates

Wall Street Journal: Valerie Bauerlein; [e-mail]; Twitter @vbauerlein

Propublica: Alec MacGillis; [e-mail]; Twitter @alecmacgillis

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tracking kids early leaves some kids behind FOREVER. My kid is gifted in math. Does he need to be in a separate class. No he does not. Public schooling is not for every snowflake. It's for ALL kids. For once can you broaden your circle of concern beyond your own child?


No?

That's your problem. Not the state's. Grow up.

Public Education should be like Public Housing or Public Food assistance: there when you need it and can't afford anything better. We're far too diverse to have a one-size-fits-all program. Make public school adequate, and give vouchers for those who'd rather teach their kids themselves or send them to a private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how do we stop this at the state and county level?

Contact your state legislators and tell them to oppose.

Contact Ralph Northam and tell him to oppose.

Fill out the feedback form or send an email to the listed email address with your best arguments why it's a bad idea.

Contact local media outlets and make them aware of this change so more people know about it.

Contact the Democratic candidates for governor and see if any of them will oppose. The Rs already do, I believe.

Especially the bolded.
On a FCPS discussion facebook group some people are talking about asking our local SB questions about this or getting assurances from them. Those are useless in my view since this is state-level driven plus whatever assurances our SB gives now could be overridden by mandates from the state and/or replaced by what a new SB thinks that gets elected after this passes at the VA level.

Regrettably I think the biggest thing that needs done is to make state-level Democrats nervous that this could cut into the huge majorities they run up in NOVA to carry the state - and so risk turning VA red in the governor's race and/or next legislature election cycle. Not that NOVA as a whole would go red but they need the overwhelming share up here to offset the super red parts of most of the rest of the state.

First quoted PP, and I agree. The Ds need to see that this will impact elections. A bunch of delegates are up this fall, so those people are the most likely to respond to constituent pressure.

Yep. I'm voting D at the federal level, and R for any local politician who is close to palatable. It's all I can do.

[Anonymous]

VMPI webinar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK0JTkqqAws

Previous changes website had a part explaining that kids will not be missing out on multivariable calculus in high school.

Around 18:00 they start bashing the need for calculus.

Please post other time spots to highlight. I'd like to make a list that people can forward and have people understand what the changes are.