Compact math is really not compact math anymore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has always done a terrible job at balancing things for special ed, kids in need, disabilities, at grade level, and advanced kids. The influx of poor immigrants in the past 10 years has basically meant that the shift is to only help the bottom and that was why 2.0 was implemented. They only did compact math to shut a bunch of tiger moms up.

Yeah,this seems to be the case. I'm an immigrant (a barely-middle-class one, though, by DCUM's standards), and I'm weeping comparing this curriculum to what regular kids study at the equivalent grade of their neighborhood school back in my home country. Friggin' weeping. And we don't have much spare income to pay for APluses and The Art-of-Problem-Solvings.

Before we moved here, I couldn't have imagined in my worst nightmare that this country does such a poor job educating its populace. Well, of course, there are, and always have been, the elites with their 40K prep schools and subsequent Ivies. But a regular middle-class kid who wants to learn and is able to do the work required that public education should be catering to, is so shortchanged, it's disheartening..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has always done a terrible job at balancing things for special ed, kids in need, disabilities, at grade level, and advanced kids. The influx of poor immigrants in the past 10 years has basically meant that the shift is to only help the bottom and that was why 2.0 was implemented. They only did compact math to shut a bunch of tiger moms up.

Yeah,this seems to be the case. I'm an immigrant (a barely-middle-class one, though, by DCUM's standards), and I'm weeping comparing this curriculum to what regular kids study at the equivalent grade of their neighborhood school back in my home country. Friggin' weeping. And we don't have much spare income to pay for APluses and The Art-of-Problem-Solvings.

Before we moved here, I couldn't have imagined in my worst nightmare that this country does such a poor job educating its populace. Well, of course, there are, and always have been, the elites with their 40K prep schools and subsequent Ivies. But a regular middle-class kid who wants to learn and is able to do the work required that public education should be catering to, is so shortchanged, it's disheartening..

What country?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has always done a terrible job at balancing things for special ed, kids in need, disabilities, at grade level, and advanced kids. The influx of poor immigrants in the past 10 years has basically meant that the shift is to only help the bottom and that was why 2.0 was implemented. They only did compact math to shut a bunch of tiger moms up.

No, it wasn't. It was implemented because Maryland adopted the Common Core State Standards.

Because it is a slower curriculum that would help their poor performing students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has always done a terrible job at balancing things for special ed, kids in need, disabilities, at grade level, and advanced kids. The influx of poor immigrants in the past 10 years has basically meant that the shift is to only help the bottom and that was why 2.0 was implemented. They only did compact math to shut a bunch of tiger moms up.

Yeah,this seems to be the case. I'm an immigrant (a barely-middle-class one, though, by DCUM's standards), and I'm weeping comparing this curriculum to what regular kids study at the equivalent grade of their neighborhood school back in my home country. Friggin' weeping. And we don't have much spare income to pay for APluses and The Art-of-Problem-Solvings.

Before we moved here, I couldn't have imagined in my worst nightmare that this country does such a poor job educating its populace. Well, of course, there are, and always have been, the elites with their 40K prep schools and subsequent Ivies. But a regular middle-class kid who wants to learn and is able to do the work required that public education should be catering to, is so shortchanged, it's disheartening..

Sorry, but you probably came from a country that values education. Most Americans value entitlement and not working hard and getting something anyway. Why do you think so many illegal immigrants are hiking up north. Freebies. And we welcome them with open arms. Nice in theory. Detrimental to our education system who already has so many poor families. Public education is free child-care to most. Nothing more and nothing less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has always done a terrible job at balancing things for special ed, kids in need, disabilities, at grade level, and advanced kids. The influx of poor immigrants in the past 10 years has basically meant that the shift is to only help the bottom and that was why 2.0 was implemented. They only did compact math to shut a bunch of tiger moms up.

No, it wasn't. It was implemented because Maryland adopted the Common Core State Standards.

Because it is a slower curriculum that would help their poor performing students.

(I always wonder whether it's 5 conspiracy theorists on this forum, or 500. I hope it's 5.)

Helping poor-performing students is a good goal. Do you disagree?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has always done a terrible job at balancing things for special ed, kids in need, disabilities, at grade level, and advanced kids. The influx of poor immigrants in the past 10 years has basically meant that the shift is to only help the bottom and that was why 2.0 was implemented. They only did compact math to shut a bunch of tiger moms up.

No, it wasn't. It was implemented because Maryland adopted the Common Core State Standards.

Because it is a slower curriculum that would help their poor performing students.

I think the problem is that all of the “enrichment” is supposed to be “going deeper into the same standard.” But no one knows how to do that or what it means. Everyone does know that it means you can’t teach second graders multiplication and division. So they don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has always done a terrible job at balancing things for special ed, kids in need, disabilities, at grade level, and advanced kids. The influx of poor immigrants in the past 10 years has basically meant that the shift is to only help the bottom and that was why 2.0 was implemented. They only did compact math to shut a bunch of tiger moms up.

Yeah,this seems to be the case. I'm an immigrant (a barely-middle-class one, though, by DCUM's standards), and I'm weeping comparing this curriculum to what regular kids study at the equivalent grade of their neighborhood school back in my home country. Friggin' weeping. And we don't have much spare income to pay for APluses and The Art-of-Problem-Solvings.

Before we moved here, I couldn't have imagined in my worst nightmare that this country does such a poor job educating its populace. Well, of course, there are, and always have been, the elites with their 40K prep schools and subsequent Ivies. But a regular middle-class kid who wants to learn and is able to do the work required that public education should be catering to, is so shortchanged, it's disheartening..

What country?

NP. We're from England, and thoroughly unimpressed. My kids get home pretty spent and don't want to do Singapore Math or spelling with mum at 5 or 6pm. They do love their summer camps at Landon School and Holton Arms though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has always done a terrible job at balancing things for special ed, kids in need, disabilities, at grade level, and advanced kids. The influx of poor immigrants in the past 10 years has basically meant that the shift is to only help the bottom and that was why 2.0 was implemented. They only did compact math to shut a bunch of tiger moms up.

No, it wasn't. It was implemented because Maryland adopted the Common Core State Standards.

Because it is a slower curriculum that would help their poor performing students.

I think the problem is that all of the “enrichment” is supposed to be “going deeper into the same standard.” But no one knows how to do that or what it means. Everyone does know that it means you can’t teach second graders multiplication and division. So they don’t.

You don't, but that doesn't mean nobody does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has always done a terrible job at balancing things for special ed, kids in need, disabilities, at grade level, and advanced kids. The influx of poor immigrants in the past 10 years has basically meant that the shift is to only help the bottom and that was why 2.0 was implemented. They only did compact math to shut a bunch of tiger moms up.

Yeah,this seems to be the case. I'm an immigrant (a barely-middle-class one, though, by DCUM's standards), and I'm weeping comparing this curriculum to what regular kids study at the equivalent grade of their neighborhood school back in my home country. Friggin' weeping. And we don't have much spare income to pay for APluses and The Art-of-Problem-Solvings.

Before we moved here, I couldn't have imagined in my worst nightmare that this country does such a poor job educating its populace. Well, of course, there are, and always have been, the elites with their 40K prep schools and subsequent Ivies. But a regular middle-class kid who wants to learn and is able to do the work required that public education should be catering to, is so shortchanged, it's disheartening..

What country?

NP. We're from England, and thoroughly unimpressed. My kids get home pretty spent and don't want to do Singapore Math or spelling with mum at 5 or 6pm. They do love their summer camps at Landon School and Holton Arms though.

Have you thought about sending your kids there? They have great financial aid. It is night and day to public school.

[Anonymous]

I think the problem is that all of the “enrichment” is supposed to be “going deeper into the same standard.” But no one knows how to do that or what it means. Everyone does know that it means you can’t teach second graders multiplication and division. So they don’t.

This X100. The problem is that MCPS relied on the idiotic curriculum department to come up with its own curriculum. We've been in school districts on the west coast that didn't offer acceleration very far but do offer test in advanced math classes. The advanced math classes were actually really challenging and the grading was hard. Entrance was decided by a separate and very difficult, long placement test that kids had to take at the end AND beginning of the year each year. It was great. Here accelerated math is a joke.

If you want your kid to be challenged in math and learn use math challenge websites and just do IX nightly. The key to using IXL is to make sure your kids finish the challenge questions. Most kids can work way ahead of their grade level picking and choosing among the topics and then only answering up to 70% of the questions. The last 10% are more challenging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NP. We're from England, and thoroughly unimpressed. My kids get home pretty spent and don't want to do Singapore Math or spelling with mum at 5 or 6pm. They do love their summer camps at Landon School and Holton Arms though.

Have you thought about sending your kids there? They have great financial aid. It is night and day to public school.

For $42,975 (Holton Arms) and Landon School ($39,220 - a bargain!) per year for grades 3-6, one would certainly hope so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has always done a terrible job at balancing things for special ed, kids in need, disabilities, at grade level, and advanced kids. The influx of poor immigrants in the past 10 years has basically meant that the shift is to only help the bottom and that was why 2.0 was implemented. They only did compact math to shut a bunch of tiger moms up.

Yeah,this seems to be the case. I'm an immigrant (a barely-middle-class one, though, by DCUM's standards), and I'm weeping comparing this curriculum to what regular kids study at the equivalent grade of their neighborhood school back in my home country. Friggin' weeping. And we don't have much spare income to pay for APluses and The Art-of-Problem-Solvings.

Before we moved here, I couldn't have imagined in my worst nightmare that this country does such a poor job educating its populace. Well, of course, there are, and always have been, the elites with their 40K prep schools and subsequent Ivies. But a regular middle-class kid who wants to learn and is able to do the work required that public education should be catering to, is so shortchanged, it's disheartening..

I’m a child of immigrants and I agree completely. We are in the same boat. Can’t afford private school and have been so disheartened by what we’ve seen in our public ES so far.

My parents couldn’t help me as a kid, so I owe my success to a strong public education system (from a different state). Now, I see what my kids are doing in school and what my family overseas is doing and MCPS does NOT come out shining,

We do low-cost supplementing at home and hope to fill in the gaps that way. But it is tough that the regular middle class families seem to be losing out here for sure. The wealthy flee to private and the focus is on the lower-income families in order to get them up to speed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I think the problem is that all of the “enrichment” is supposed to be “going deeper into the same standard.” But no one knows how to do that or what it means. Everyone does know that it means you can’t teach second graders multiplication and division. So they don’t.

This X100. The problem is that MCPS relied on the idiotic curriculum department to come up with its own curriculum. We've been in school districts on the west coast that didn't offer acceleration very far but do offer test in advanced math classes. The advanced math classes were actually really challenging and the grading was hard. Entrance was decided by a separate and very difficult, long placement test that kids had to take at the end AND beginning of the year each year. It was great. Here accelerated math is a joke.

If you want your kid to be challenged in math and learn use math challenge websites and just do IX nightly. The key to using IXL is to make sure your kids finish the challenge questions. Most kids can work way ahead of their grade level picking and choosing among the topics and then only answering up to 70% of the questions. The last 10% are more challenging.

Exactly, acceleration without depth is worse just taking things at normal pace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NP. We're from England, and thoroughly unimpressed. My kids get home pretty spent and don't want to do Singapore Math or spelling with mum at 5 or 6pm. They do love their summer camps at Landon School and Holton Arms though.

Have you thought about sending your kids there? They have great financial aid. It is night and day to public school.

For $42,975 (Holton Arms) and Landon School ($39,220 - a bargain!) per year for grades 3-6, one would certainly hope so.

I pay $12K a year after financial aid. This includes everything including daily breakfast, snacks, and lunches. No packing lunches and getting fantastic healthy food is a huge burden off my back. Once a week after school music lesson included as well. They also have free proctored homework zone until 4:35pm so I don’t have to pay for after school care. I also save a ton in clothing as a few uniform pieces suffice for the week. Ratios are anywhere from 10-15 kids per teacher. No standardized testing. Teachers that think outside the box. Take classes outside for lessons. Daily PE or sports. Art a few times a week. A greenhouse garden, etc....

We probably pay $5K a year when you figure after-care, weekly private music lesson, and 2 warm meals a day. Well worth it. Daughter is thriving and happy. Her anxiety is completely gone. So we probably would be using that 5K in therapy and meds. Don’t judge. 25% of families are on FA and they are generous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has always done a terrible job at balancing things for special ed, kids in need, disabilities, at grade level, and advanced kids. The influx of poor immigrants in the past 10 years has basically meant that the shift is to only help the bottom and that was why 2.0 was implemented. They only did compact math to shut a bunch of tiger moms up.

Yeah,this seems to be the case. I'm an immigrant (a barely-middle-class one, though, by DCUM's standards), and I'm weeping comparing this curriculum to what regular kids study at the equivalent grade of their neighborhood school back in my home country. Friggin' weeping. And we don't have much spare income to pay for APluses and The Art-of-Problem-Solvings.

Before we moved here, I couldn't have imagined in my worst nightmare that this country does such a poor job educating its populace. Well, of course, there are, and always have been, the elites with their 40K prep schools and subsequent Ivies. But a regular middle-class kid who wants to learn and is able to do the work required that public education should be catering to, is so shortchanged, it's disheartening..

Geez.Not sure if you are talking about MCPS compact math which is the topic of this thread but Compact Math gets a 7th grader to Algebra. Does that make them dummies to you?