grouping by ability in middle schools?

[Anonymous]

DC is starting at a mcps middle school and just got her schedule - of course the first thing she did is compare schedules with her friends, and unfortunately none are in her classes (which she was prepared for as it is a large middle school and she is coming from a small feeder elementary school). What I noticed, though, is that the kids who had been in the advanced reading and G&T classes are all in the same classes in middle school. Obviously I am only seeing a small sample size, but it got me wondering if there is unofficial grouping by ability in middle school classes - e.g., were all of the advanced readers placed into english classes together, are all of the kids coming from the HGC placed into classes together, etc. I know that math is a separate matter because the kids are in IM and some are in math 6. I plan to ask about this at back to school night, but I am also asking here because I suspect the official "party line" is that there is not ability grouping, but I am wondering if in practice it does happen.

[Anonymous]

My son went to middle school orientation today and is in classes with friends who went to HGC (he did not) and a friend who went to the learning center. He is is advanced reading and advanced science, and advanced math. His friends are all of the place academically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I plan to ask about this at back to school night, but I am also asking here because I suspect the official "party line" is that there is not ability grouping, but I am wondering if in practice it does happen.

I wouldn't guess that back-to-school night is the time when you'd be able uncover real dirt that disproves the party line! The teachers only have a few minutes to summarize what they want parents to know. Let them do their spiels undisturbed, and dig for dirt another time.

[Anonymous]

Op here - thanks. To clarify, other than IM math which all the kids who took compacted math now take, there were no other official "advanced" classes offered at DC's middle school to opt or qualify into as a sixth grader (the english and world studies classes are called advanced english and advanced word studies, but everyone takes them). But I wondered if there is an unofficial "advanced" version of all of the classes that certain kids are placed into. Based on your response, sounds like that would not be the case at your child's middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I plan to ask about this at back to school night, but I am also asking here because I suspect the official "party line" is that there is not ability grouping, but I am wondering if in practice it does happen.

I wouldn't guess that back-to-school night is the time when you'd be able uncover real dirt that disproves the party line! The teachers only have a few minutes to summarize what they want parents to know. Let them do their spiels undisturbed, and dig for dirt another time.

OP again - don't worry, I am not the type to slow down the teacher schpiel at BTSN . I want to get in and out as fast as everyone else!

[Anonymous]

I think at Westland they mix everyone up but they say they give more challenging assignments to some kids (and I am not sure what happens with math options these days)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think at Westland they mix everyone up but they say they give more challenging assignments to some kids (and I am not sure what happens with math options these days)

Same for JW, except for math. I don't know if they are supposed to differentiate within a math class. I know they have different math tracks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here - thanks. To clarify, other than IM math which all the kids who took compacted math now take, there were no other official "advanced" classes offered at DC's middle school to opt or qualify into as a sixth grader (the english and world studies classes are called advanced english and advanced word studies, but everyone takes them). But I wondered if there is an unofficial "advanced" version of all of the classes that certain kids are placed into. Based on your response, sounds like that would not be the case at your child's middle school.

I thought there was advanced english and regular english and advanced science and regular science....why call it advanced?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, it's important to really start tracking them in in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Kids are in groups based on language classes at our local middle.

[Anonymous]

In my sons middle school there was a higher level English class and of course advanced math (algebra I and geometry) along with foreign language which all count as HS credit courses.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes it seems that way because all the kids that take band and french and the highest math end up in the same English class...even though they do not group by ability

[Anonymous]

I've scanned my class lists (which were printed at 7 this morning). I think that many of my more gifted students are clustered in 2 class periods because they take a specific math course. It affects their entire schedule.

[Anonymous]

I have been told there is no grouping. Math of course is by level. And there are kids that are tracked remedial who would not be taking advanced. But the general population of Advanced English, Advanced Science, etc is not grouped. But of course the fact that may of these kids are also taking language and higher level math does tend to make it fit in their schedules for having other classes together. But there are no intential grouping for these other subjects. In fact at our MS they pull kids from different English classes at CT time and give them some more challenging assisnments. So these would be the most Advanced kids and there are some from each class.

[Anonymous]

My experience with MCPS is 20 years old. Back then in Jr High, we had Honors, Regular, and Remedial levels.

Are honors classes in middle school no longer offered? Now you have to wait until high school?