Compacted Math

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Median quantitative score at Cold Spring is crazy high.

All of the fourth-graders in my kid's HGC are in compacted math, and my kid is not at Cold Spring.

[Anonymous]

I have a child at Pine Crest. There are about a dozen students who are not in 4/5 math in 4th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forgive this question from a humanities major: what do people do with all this math? I am not even clear why a year after calculus in high school is needed.

OK, I'll try not to be snarky here.. but what do you think all the STEM majors study in college? Advanced math and science. If you are not going to be a STEM major, then I agree, no need for higher math after Calc., but a lot of top tier LA colleges also want to see that a person has been sufficiently challenged in math. I think for most majors in college, you need to have taken Calc.

Science majors only need Calculus I for BA Calculus II for BS. So most scientists have never had higher level math classes than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forgive this question from a humanities major: what do people do with all this math? I am not even clear why a year after calculus in high school is needed.

OK, I'll try not to be snarky here.. but what do you think all the STEM majors study in college? Advanced math and science. If you are not going to be a STEM major, then I agree, no need for higher math after Calc., but a lot of top tier LA colleges also want to see that a person has been sufficiently challenged in math. I think for most majors in college, you need to have taken Calc.

Science majors only need Calculus I for BA Calculus II for BS. So most scientists have never had higher level math classes than that.

Engineering major go past Calc II.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forgive this question from a humanities major: what do people do with all this math? I am not even clear why a year after calculus in high school is needed.

OK, I'll try not to be snarky here.. but what do you think all the STEM majors study in college? Advanced math and science. If you are not going to be a STEM major, then I agree, no need for higher math after Calc., but a lot of top tier LA colleges also want to see that a person has been sufficiently challenged in math. I think for most majors in college, you need to have taken Calc.

Science majors only need Calculus I for BA Calculus II for BS. So most scientists have never had higher level math classes than that.

Engineering major go past Calc II.

Yeah exactly not necessary for vast majority of careers even many STEM careers.

[Anonymous]

My child is in Math 4/5 for next year. How many sections of it are there usually in a school? We have 4 3rd grades this year and each is big (around 26-28 kids). Just curious how it's done. We just got invited 2 weeks ago to do it. Teacher said she did very well on recent MAP M.

[Anonymous]

We are in an ES in the Wootton cluster. Is the compacted math curriculum different per cluster? Our cluster is very competitive so I would expect it would be more challenging than other places around the county where the students are weaker than we have in our cluster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is in Math 4/5 for next year. How many sections of it are there usually in a school? We have 4 3rd grades this year and each is big (around 26-28 kids). Just curious how it's done. We just got invited 2 weeks ago to do it. Teacher said she did very well on recent MAP M.

We also have 4 4th grades (came from 4 3rd grades) with similar class sizes. There is one section of compacted math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in an ES in the Wootton cluster. Is the compacted math curriculum different per cluster? Our cluster is very competitive so I would expect it would be more challenging than other places around the county where the students are weaker than we have in our cluster.

No. The curriculum is all the same. Maybe the teacher will provide more challenging extra work, but the actual curriculum is the same.

I can see how the pressure cooker environment at W clusters start from ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forgive this question from a humanities major: what do people do with all this math? I am not even clear why a year after calculus in high school is needed.

OK, I'll try not to be snarky here.. but what do you think all the STEM majors study in college? Advanced math and science. If you are not going to be a STEM major, then I agree, no need for higher math after Calc., but a lot of top tier LA colleges also want to see that a person has been sufficiently challenged in math. I think for most majors in college, you need to have taken Calc.

Science majors only need Calculus I for BA Calculus II for BS. So most scientists have never had higher level math classes than that.

Engineering major go past Calc II.

Yeah exactly not necessary for vast majority of careers even many STEM careers.

1. Majority of STEM graduate students at top tier universities in this country are foreigners.
2. In MCPS, the high school math is seriously rushed. Majority of students do not get enough depth on what they learn.
3. Most people have not realized that math is not only for STEM but also for average joe/jane. For instance, there are people talking about that algebra 2 is useless. These are very short sighted.

Please let me elaborate.
For many of us, our retirement fund is crucial when we get old. The retirement fund is now in the "market". Do average people understand the "market"? Absolutely no. In this way, people do not have any good solid clue on their future. In fact, one of the "market" makers' most lethal weapons is math. Algebra 2 is a must have base for solving differential equations, which happen to be a key element for analyzing the "market". I am afraid that people arguing too much math is useless must have no idea on what Ito Integral or Black-Sholes is.

Do we want to erect a barrier in front of our kids? Do we want to have people deciding the future of this country know nothing about "market" or "economy"? The answer is ....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in an ES in the Wootton cluster. Is the compacted math curriculum different per cluster? Our cluster is very competitive so I would expect it would be more challenging than other places around the county where the students are weaker than we have in our cluster.

It is identical and very lame and not challenging at all. I have to supplement all the time... So do not hold your breath.
I feel that my youngest child suffered tremendously academically due to 2.0. Older kids were fine and challenged.

Mom of 5th grader who is going to Robert Frost next year, and just got ES in math almost for picking nose.
By the way curriculum is really lame because it makes kids more confused than challenged.
Often kids do not get correct answers since approach that is studied is so convoluted and kids even do not get what is asked and why.

P.S. I am not Asian, and I have Math degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in an ES in the Wootton cluster. Is the compacted math curriculum different per cluster? Our cluster is very competitive so I would expect it would be more challenging than other places around the county where the students are weaker than we have in our cluster.

It is identical and very lame and not challenging at all. I have to supplement all the time... So do not hold your breath.
I feel that my youngest child suffered tremendously academically due to 2.0. Older kids were fine and challenged.

Mom of 5th grader who is going to Robert Frost next year, and just got ES in math almost for picking nose.
By the way curriculum is really lame because it makes kids more confused than challenged.
Often kids do not get correct answers since approach that is studied is so convoluted and kids even do not get what is asked and why.

P.S. I am not Asian, and I have Math degree.

Wow, for a W cluster, that's pretty sad. My compacted math kid in a non W cluster gets ES in math (including on report card), but he has to solve lots of problems, and get them right to get credit. I've seen some of the math packets Dc's brought home. Lots of challenging questions, and not just equations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in an ES in the Wootton cluster. Is the compacted math curriculum different per cluster? Our cluster is very competitive so I would expect it would be more challenging than other places around the county where the students are weaker than we have in our cluster.

It is identical and very lame and not challenging at all. I have to supplement all the time... So do not hold your breath.
I feel that my youngest child suffered tremendously academically due to 2.0. Older kids were fine and challenged.

Mom of 5th grader who is going to Robert Frost next year, and just got ES in math almost for picking nose.
By the way curriculum is really lame because it makes kids more confused than challenged.
Often kids do not get correct answers since approach that is studied is so convoluted and kids even do not get what is asked and why.

P.S. I am not Asian, and I have Math degree.

Wow, for a W cluster, that's pretty sad. My compacted math kid in a non W cluster gets ES in math (including on report card), but he has to solve lots of problems, and get them right to get credit. I've seen some of the math packets Dc's brought home. Lots of challenging questions, and not just equations.

PP here.. oh, and I am Asian, and in a STEM field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is in Math 4/5 for next year. How many sections of it are there usually in a school? We have 4 3rd grades this year and each is big (around 26-28 kids). Just curious how it's done. We just got invited 2 weeks ago to do it. Teacher said she did very well on recent MAP M.

At our similarly sized school there was one section of compacted out of four. I'd think all bets are off for next year because the goal is to expand the program somewhat. I do know that at our school some students were later told they should have been in compacted but there was no room in the class. Not sure how this problem can ever be avoided, it's always a matter of juggling class sizes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in an ES in the Wootton cluster. Is the compacted math curriculum different per cluster? Our cluster is very competitive so I would expect it would be more challenging than other places around the county where the students are weaker than we have in our cluster.

It is identical and very lame and not challenging at all. I have to supplement all the time... So do not hold your breath.
I feel that my youngest child suffered tremendously academically due to 2.0. Older kids were fine and challenged.

Mom of 5th grader who is going to Robert Frost next year, and just got ES in math almost for picking nose.
By the way curriculum is really lame because it makes kids more confused than challenged.
Often kids do not get correct answers since approach that is studied is so convoluted and kids even do not get what is asked and why.

P.S. I am not Asian, and I have Math degree.

You really need to learn to use definite and indefinite articles. It's distracting and it makes your posts less persuasive.