MCPS is cuttting compacted math and cohorted literacy enrichment
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Anonymous
I'm that PP, and here's my issue with that progression. Current system Right now, your standard "bright" kid who took compacted math in 4th grade will end up in Honors Pre-Calculus in 10th grade. That's a real crucible year for a lot of kids, and it's not uncommon for kids to take the "off-ramp" in 10th and drop down to On-Level Pre-Calculus. Whether they did Honors or On-Level, the kids who finished Pre-Calculus then choose between Calculus AB and Calculus BC. This is another "off-ramp" of sorts because kids who did okay in Honors Pre-Calculus but are not interested in STEM will often take Calculus AB their junior year. The kids who want a STEM career or for whom math comes a bit easier take BC immediately after Pre-Calculus. It's pretty uncommon to take AB and then BC because it means repeating the entire B section. A kid who is good at math isn't going to want or need that repeated material. Proposed new system The proposed new system seems "off" in two ways. First, Pre-Calculus is moved to 9th grade for the vast majority of kids. Now, we know that under the current system even kids who were "compacted" struggle mightily in Pre-Calculus, and MCPS wants to move it a year earlier AND put more kids into that class? But then they screw it up a different way, by projecting those kids out to taking Calculus AB in 10th and BC in 11th. That's a stupid progression and I suspect they know it. It forces "bright-but-not math-oriented" kids into Calculus a year earlier than the current progression, and it ALSO screws over kids ready for BC directly after Pre-Calculus. What they are trying to cover up is that they don't have enough math available for kids to take in HS if they take Pre-Calculus in 9th. That's why I said parents need to keep their eye on the ball here. They are stretching Calculus into two years so that you don't notice that a math-oriented kid will run out of math classes in 11th grade. |
Anonymous
I don't disagree with you. But that means that MCPS needs to use better measures to identify kids for acceleration. Not drop it altogether (which is what effectively is being done when a teacher has to accelerate only some students in the class, while the other are at grade level) |
Anonymous
Why didn't they pilot benchmark before rolling it out to everyone? |
Anonymous
Here's the problem -- right now, kids are doing algebra 1, geometry (honors or on-level), and algebra 2 (honors or on-level), before moving into pre-calc. And pre-calc has two levels -- regular (which prepares for AB) and honors (which prepared for BC, though kids can certainly take AB if they need to). Moving forward, there will only be a two-year sequence -- integrated algebra 1 and 2, which will only be on-level. This is not an accelerated course; they are taking out standards. So kids will definitely not be ready for honors pre-calculus, because they will not have covered all the content. And MCPS is not going to add a third class, or make pre-calculus longer to cover the missing standards. I'm sure some kids will be able to go to BC while missing the standards, particularly with outside acceleration that many kids will be doing moving forward. But MCPS doesn't want to advertise that. |
Anonymous
I was thinking it seemed like fit is always for reading skills not math |
Anonymous
The sign would be the retakes. It took us a little while to realize that you can't rely on report card grades to determine how your student is doing in a class. One of our kids would regularly bring back As and you'd think didn't have an issue. It was when realizing that they didn't have a grasp of concepts was when we looked more closely and found out that they were constantly resubmitting assignments and quizzes. Also based on our own kids, I'd say the MCAP tests accurately reflects their knowledge and understanding of the concepts. I see too many posts on here where people say they are okay that their kids don't do well on the MCAP because the majority of the school system is not proficient, their kids had an off day, it's a hard test not aligned to the curriculum, etc. If your kid is constantly resubmitting assignments or is not scoring proficient on the MCAP tests, that is a sign that there is an issue. These middle schools that have a large number of Algebra I test takers but low proficiency rates shows that there is question on student placement in the courses and how it is taught. For example Argyle with less then 5 percent, Tilden 38.8, White Oak 5.4, Parkland 26.3, etc. But don't punish the kids that are able to do well such as the kids Pyle, Julius West, Cabin John, etc. by holding them back and risk them getting bored and uninterested in class. |
Anonymous
I believe they did cohorts but then covid happened and everybody had to switch to benchmark because 2.0 was not set to teach online |
Anonymous
Because they were replacing an even worse curriculum, 2.0, and it was the pandemic where piloting would have been hard. |
Anonymous
Mcps was doing curriculum 2.0 for a really long time They adopted Eureka in 2019. I think that had msde not change the guidelines they probably would have continued with eureka. They also adopted Benchmark in fall of 2019 using a cohort model. Covid happened and everybody had to adopt benchmark. They adopted ckla in 2024(?) due to political pressure about making sure the curriculum was aligned to science of reading. |
Anonymous
+1,000 They are identifying a problem and refusing to solve it |
Anonymous
Yes, supplement outside. MCPS does not have textbooks and jump from from one topic to another. My older kid has been with RSM for over 5 years. That has been the best decision ever. I cannot afford private school but supplementing is manageable. I have seen how the RSM over the recent years. |
Anonymous
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I have a smart kid & a learning struggle kid. I never fully rely on report card grades to evaluate their academic performance. For the smart kid, I expect all As on report cards and I look at the MAP M & MAP R score. For the learning struggle one, I mainly look at the report cards, and compliment on all progress.
These all recent changes changes in mcps do not impact much on my learning struggle kid. It mainly harms more on those that needs enrichment or acceleration like my smart one. |
Anonymous
and that's MCPS's goal. It's a race to the bottom. |
Anonymous
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The fact that folks are complaining about no enrichment with CKLA tells you all that you need to know about how "differentiation" will work as a strategy. Any teacher worth their salt would have a wonderful time providing enrichment and inventive writing assignments with the CKLA units.
In fact, before Core Knowledge had a corporate spin, teachers would submit units based on the free curriculum to the website (not sure if those still exist somewhere on the Internet.) These were incredibly creative and enjoyable and I used many in my early teaching days (now teach high school). Just providing an additional section of "Close Reading" with a worksheet is not the point of a cohort class, and I'm not surprised that the cohort model has not received rave reviews. This will only get worse under a mixed classroom model. The SUBSTANCE of CKLA is great; again, it's the implementation and choices within a packaged curriculum that stink. |
Anonymous
And it's going to be even harder for a teacher to provide acceleration (not just enrichment) in math in a multi-level class. This plan is awful. -DP |