Lottery season reminder: your kids don't need to hear about DCUM stuff

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much none of the area private schools offer 8th grade advanced algebra. If your kid is a perfect fit for Basis or has rights to Deal and is strong at math, great do advanced algebra. But labeling that a non-negotiable for a good enough middle school for academically minded families seems like cherry-picking an arbitrary data point or moving the goalposts.

100%. Unless your kid is a math genius, +1 grade level is sufficient. Acceleration for the sake of it is dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much none of the area private schools offer 8th grade advanced algebra. If your kid is a perfect fit for Basis or has rights to Deal and is strong at math, great do advanced algebra. But labeling that a non-negotiable for a good enough middle school for academically minded families seems like cherry-picking an arbitrary data point or moving the goalposts.

Yes, parents get obsessed with accelerated math but there's little evidence that it's key to string academics. Most well regarded private schools focus on mastery over acceleration. A true math whiz will be able to work ahead on their own anyway. Most kids are not math whizzes, even the very bright, academic ones. And they are better served by a more typical pace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much none of the area private schools offer 8th grade advanced algebra. If your kid is a perfect fit for Basis or has rights to Deal and is strong at math, great do advanced algebra. But labeling that a non-negotiable for a good enough middle school for academically minded families seems like cherry-picking an arbitrary data point or moving the goalposts.

Yes, parents get obsessed with accelerated math but there's little evidence that it's key to string academics. Most well regarded private schools focus on mastery over acceleration. A true math whiz will be able to work ahead on their own anyway. Most kids are not math whizzes, even the very bright, academic ones. And they are better served by a more typical pace.

Totally disagree with above. Some kids are great in math and love it and actually want to go deeper and can go faster. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that and if a school can meet their needs with double advance math great. They don’t need to be bored and unchallenged in just advance math.

But you need to have a goo screening process and not let in kids who should not be there in or say yes to parents who try to push their kid in.

Private schools have small classes and don’t have enough cohort to have multi-level math classes. But bigger schools do have enough

[Anonymous]

Algebra in middle school is essential for stronger students. 8th grade Geometry is desirable. Advanced Algebra is somewhere in between unnecessary and undesirable for all but very gifted math students. It is not needed to take full advantage of high school math or to be highly successful in very advanced math in college. The pendulum swung in favor of math acceleration for awhile and is now swinging back some based on data students were either not fully mastering all of the early fundamentals and/or simply retaking the same math coursework in high school (which a lot of the area private high schools will make you do).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Playing the lottery is not elitist. Believing that a title 1 school could never possibly be any good is. I hear a lot of the only middle schools in DC that are any good at all and should ever be considered are Deal, Hardy, Latin, Basis, and DCI.

Babe. No one said playing the lottery is elitist. This is about SOME parents talking about schools in a way that is elitist and then the kids go to school and tell their peers, and the kids who are going to those “bad” schools (depending on how “bad” is defined), make kids unnecessarily anxious and upset about going to said school. Especially when the rumors about the school are horribly exaggerated. This happened to my kids and ended up loving the school they went to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much none of the area private schools offer 8th grade advanced algebra. If your kid is a perfect fit for Basis or has rights to Deal and is strong at math, great do advanced algebra. But labeling that a non-negotiable for a good enough middle school for academically minded families seems like cherry-picking an arbitrary data point or moving the goalposts.

Two big differences. First, academic tracking is how you get the peer group in academically heterogenous public schools. Expensive DC private schools already have it via their admissions policies.

Second, the private schools are already so ahead in terms of college admissions, and less in need of merit aid, that students are less in need of distinguishing themselves via advanced math. Like, do my kids need to be doing precalculus by 10th grade? Of course not in any intrinsic sense, but if they're capable of it, I'm going to encourage it more than if I could just write a check for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much none of the area private schools offer 8th grade advanced algebra. If your kid is a perfect fit for Basis or has rights to Deal and is strong at math, great do advanced algebra. But labeling that a non-negotiable for a good enough middle school for academically minded families seems like cherry-picking an arbitrary data point or moving the goalposts.

Yes, parents get obsessed with accelerated math but there's little evidence that it's key to string academics. Most well regarded private schools focus on mastery over acceleration. A true math whiz will be able to work ahead on their own anyway. Most kids are not math whizzes, even the very bright, academic ones. And they are better served by a more typical pace.

You obviously don’t have a mathy kid.

No, you don’t need to be a math whiz to do accelerated math at all. Lots of above average kid who is good in math and like math can easily do this. There is definitely enough of these kids in this town.

People like you who settle for making excuses for DCPS not providing adequate courses and challenge for kids is exactly why DCPS sucks. No wonder the families with higher performing kids move to the burbs, go private, or cluster at the few middle schools that do offer accelerated math.

What is even worst is that most DCPS middle schools and high schools offer no advance math, none. General track takes you to pre-Calclus in 12th which is what most kids do. The “advance” track is Calculus in 12th which is really just regular track while the other track is remedial. But then, there is no point in offering any advance track if 95% of the kids are not even on grade level in math. Enjoy sending your kid there PP.

[Anonymous]

This is not intended as a grand defense of dcps. But most dcps middle schools do offer at least algebra and a lot of them offer geometry. Kids do get tracked into those math classes. That said, a lot of kids start middle school very behind in math, find math challenging, take additional more focused/remedial math classes to help get up to speed, and might end 8th grade with a pre-Algebra 8th grade math class.

[Anonymous]

Middle school can feel high stakes when in upper elementary school. But it is 3 years that go incredibly fast. My child in DC had friends who were happy at a large number of different middle schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not intended as a grand defense of dcps. But most dcps middle schools do offer at least algebra and a lot of them offer geometry. Kids do get tracked into those math classes. That said, a lot of kids start middle school very behind in math, find math challenging, take additional more focused/remedial math classes to help get up to speed, and might end 8th grade with a pre-Algebra 8th grade math class.

This is not true. Majority of DCPS middle schools do not offer geometry at all. A few offer algebra if that.

[Anonymous]

CAPE middle school math scores. The following schools offer algebra: Wells, Hardy, OA, Brookland, CHML, Browne, Deal, Eliot-Hine, John Francis, Hart, Johnson, Kramer, MacFarland, Kelley Miller, Sousa, Stuart-Hovson, Jefferson, McKinley, CHEC, and Cardozo.

The following had geometry: Hardy, OA, Deal, Eliot-Hine, Sousa, Jefferson, and CHEC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not intended as a grand defense of dcps. But most dcps middle schools do offer at least algebra and a lot of them offer geometry. Kids do get tracked into those math classes. That said, a lot of kids start middle school very behind in math, find math challenging, take additional more focused/remedial math classes to help get up to speed, and might end 8th grade with a pre-Algebra 8th grade math class.

This is not true. Majority of DCPS middle schools do not offer geometry at all. A few offer algebra if that.

The majority of DCPS middle schools do not have students who could be prepared for geometry classes at that point.

Let's get real here and accept we are only talking about a small subset of DCPS schools.

But just for example, Stuart Hobson offers both Algebra I and Geometry via their advanced math track. I have been told a small subset of students at Eliot-Hine also do geometry in 8th. I don't know about Jefferson Academy but their website says they will offer Geometry for kids who are ready for it. So for parents on the Hill, the IB schools largely do offer math tracking with advanced options through Geometry. So perhaps the level of angst people are apparently putting on 3rd graders on the Hill regarding the lottery for BASIS and Latin is a bit much? And OP and others are right that talking about this in your home as though S-H or E-H will be some horrible consolation prize if their kids don't get into one of the "good" charters via lottery is a bad idea, and leads to toxic, elitist, self-defeating attitudes in really young kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not intended as a grand defense of dcps. But most dcps middle schools do offer at least algebra and a lot of them offer geometry. Kids do get tracked into those math classes. That said, a lot of kids start middle school very behind in math, find math challenging, take additional more focused/remedial math classes to help get up to speed, and might end 8th grade with a pre-Algebra 8th grade math class.

This is not true. Majority of DCPS middle schools do not offer geometry at all. A few offer algebra if that.

From the SY24-25 CAPE data, all 20 DCPS middle schools offered Algebra I. 7 offered Geometry, but only 3 of those had more than 10 students enrolled (Deal, Hardy, Eliot-Hine).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CAPE middle school math scores. The following schools offer algebra: Wells, Hardy, OA, Brookland, CHML, Browne, Deal, Eliot-Hine, John Francis, Hart, Johnson, Kramer, MacFarland, Kelley Miller, Sousa, Stuart-Hovson, Jefferson, McKinley, CHEC, and Cardozo.

The following had geometry: Hardy, OA, Deal, Eliot-Hine, Sousa, Jefferson, and CHEC

So, no overwhelming majority of schools do not offer geometry.

Here is the other thing. You can name a course whatever you want but is it really covering what is needed, rigorous, and are the students mastering the subjects.

PP why don’t you give us the CAPE algebra scores of 4 and above for all the schools above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not intended as a grand defense of dcps. But most dcps middle schools do offer at least algebra and a lot of them offer geometry. Kids do get tracked into those math classes. That said, a lot of kids start middle school very behind in math, find math challenging, take additional more focused/remedial math classes to help get up to speed, and might end 8th grade with a pre-Algebra 8th grade math class.

This is not true. Majority of DCPS middle schools do not offer geometry at all. A few offer algebra if that.

The majority of DCPS middle schools do not have students who could be prepared for geometry classes at that point.

Let's get real here and accept we are only talking about a small subset of DCPS schools.

But just for example, Stuart Hobson offers both Algebra I and Geometry via their advanced math track. I have been told a small subset of students at Eliot-Hine also do geometry in 8th. I don't know about Jefferson Academy but their website says they will offer Geometry for kids who are ready for it. So for parents on the Hill, the IB schools largely do offer math tracking with advanced options through Geometry. So perhaps the level of angst people are apparently putting on 3rd graders on the Hill regarding the lottery for BASIS and Latin is a bit much? And OP and others are right that talking about this in your home as though S-H or E-H will be some horrible consolation prize if their kids don't get into one of the "good" charters via lottery is a bad idea, and leads to toxic, elitist, self-defeating attitudes in really young kids?

Why don’t you tell us if SH actually has a geometry class this year and if so, exactly how many kids are in the class.

Same for EH.