MCPS is cuttting compacted math and cohorted literacy enrichment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have they said they are planning cluster grouping for both CKLA and math or just math?

They have mentioned cluster grouping for CKLA, but I think that is basically the same as what was supposed to be going on for "Model 2" this year which didn't seem to work well.

[Anonymous]

You might want to check out Jeannie Oakes work on tracking and the ultimate problems it causes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have they said they are planning cluster grouping for both CKLA and math or just math?

They have mentioned cluster grouping for CKLA, but I think that is basically the same as what was supposed to be going on for "Model 2" this year which didn't seem to work well.

Correct. Model 2 for all. Supposedly the cluster grouping has been happening this year. If so, we haven’t seen any enrichment in our kid’s class.

[Anonymous]

One of the ironies of cluster grouping is that it actually makes on-ramps to acceleration harder, because the kids in "group 2" under cluster grouping (above average but not highly gifted kids) are explicitly *not* supposed to be in the same classrooms as *group 1"/highly gifted kids. This theoretically gives them a chance to shine and thrive outside of the highly gifted kids' shadows, which is all well and good in a regular classroom I suppose, but if you're talking about math acceleration and the next-highest kids are prohibited from being in the only classrooms where math acceleration is happening, they don't exactly get those flexible on-ramps to acceleration that the state is talking so much about, do they?

[Anonymous]

Not sure if it is a rumor or petition or for real, but I hear that mcps is considering to use mcap math result to determine rising 5th grader (current enrolled compacted math 4th grader) to stay in compacted math for 2026-2027 year. They plan to cut down numbers of kids that should not belong in compacted math from the get go since the math curriculum is too fast and too challenging for some of them to keep up.

Is this for real?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if it is a rumor or petition or for real, but I hear that mcps is considering to use mcap math result to determine rising 5th grader (current enrolled compacted math 4th grader) to stay in compacted math for 2026-2027 year. They plan to cut down numbers of kids that should not belong in compacted math from the get go since the math curriculum is too fast and too challenging for some of them to keep up.

Is this for real?

Yes, try reading some of the posts in this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if it is a rumor or petition or for real, but I hear that mcps is considering to use mcap math result to determine rising 5th grader (current enrolled compacted math 4th grader) to stay in compacted math for 2026-2027 year. They plan to cut down numbers of kids that should not belong in compacted math from the get go since the math curriculum is too fast and too challenging for some of them to keep up.

Is this for real?

What they've said specifically is that "current Grade 4 students already participating in the current Compact Math 4/5 sequence who have consistently demonstrated proficiency across multiple data points, including MCAP performance, will remain in their existing math cohort as they enter Grade 5 next year"

There's no further detail than that...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if it is a rumor or petition or for real, but I hear that mcps is considering to use mcap math result to determine rising 5th grader (current enrolled compacted math 4th grader) to stay in compacted math for 2026-2027 year. They plan to cut down numbers of kids that should not belong in compacted math from the get go since the math curriculum is too fast and too challenging for some of them to keep up.

Is this for real?

What they've said specifically is that "current Grade 4 students already participating in the current Compact Math 4/5 sequence who have consistently demonstrated proficiency across multiple data points, including MCAP performance, will remain in their existing math cohort as they enter Grade 5 next year"

There's no further detail than that...

Thank you for clarification. My current 4th grader in Compact Math was tested Level 4 in MCAP math in Grade 3. Not sure when MCAP math result will be released since it was completed 3 weeks ago. I just hope that he will continue to get something in Grade 5 for math next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if it is a rumor or petition or for real, but I hear that mcps is considering to use mcap math result to determine rising 5th grader (current enrolled compacted math 4th grader) to stay in compacted math for 2026-2027 year. They plan to cut down numbers of kids that should not belong in compacted math from the get go since the math curriculum is too fast and too challenging for some of them to keep up.

Is this for real?

What they've said specifically is that "current Grade 4 students already participating in the current Compact Math 4/5 sequence who have consistently demonstrated proficiency across multiple data points, including MCAP performance, will remain in their existing math cohort as they enter Grade 5 next year"

There's no further detail than that...

Thank you for clarification. My current 4th grader in Compact Math was tested Level 4 in MCAP math in Grade 3. Not sure when MCAP math result will be released since it was completed 3 weeks ago. I just hope that he will continue to get something in Grade 5 for math next year.

I'm likely giving MCPS too much credit, but I imagine as long as students are scoring a 3 or 4 on MCAP this year and are above grade level on MAP (I would say if they are above 206 they're likely fine as that's 50th percentile for 5th grade) they're probably going to receive compacted next year.

My bigger concern is they haven't clarified yet how they're going to do compacted. I doubt they're going to invest a ton into developing a compacted implementation guideline given its only for one year, so I feel no certainty they'll actually get through the rest of 5th and all of 6th next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if it is a rumor or petition or for real, but I hear that mcps is considering to use mcap math result to determine rising 5th grader (current enrolled compacted math 4th grader) to stay in compacted math for 2026-2027 year. They plan to cut down numbers of kids that should not belong in compacted math from the get go since the math curriculum is too fast and too challenging for some of them to keep up.

Is this for real?

What they've said specifically is that "current Grade 4 students already participating in the current Compact Math 4/5 sequence who have consistently demonstrated proficiency across multiple data points, including MCAP performance, will remain in their existing math cohort as they enter Grade 5 next year"

There's no further detail than that...

Thank you for clarification. My current 4th grader in Compact Math was tested Level 4 in MCAP math in Grade 3. Not sure when MCAP math result will be released since it was completed 3 weeks ago. I just hope that he will continue to get something in Grade 5 for math next year.

MCPS receives the results in the summer and can move students if needed before school starts. But 3 or 4 is proficient and that should not be hard for CM students to meet.

[Anonymous]

They will probably require current 3rd graders to have a 4 on MCAP and/or a fairly high MAP or CogAT score (I would guess 95th percentile or higher) to get whatever acceleration is provided next year.

The bar will probably be lower for this year's 4th graders finishing up as a cohort, though. I don't think they will lower it as far as 50th percentile-- I think 85th percentile was what was required to originally qualify and they will probably let them stay as long as they maintain that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You might want to check out Jeannie Oakes work on tracking and the ultimate problems it causes.

Her research was done 40 years ago, well before Yale discovered 15-20 percent of students were walking around with dyslexia, often without proper diagnosis or remediation. Now, a child with the correct accommodations could access that upper track even without perfect reading skills - which have nothing to do with IQ. Better systems are in place to allow children access to the upper tracks. More could even be added. Certainly 60% of a cohort should not be in compacted math. But don’t completely cut it, adjust the requirements and make sure all students have the correct accommodations to access the on-ramps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if it is a rumor or petition or for real, but I hear that mcps is considering to use mcap math result to determine rising 5th grader (current enrolled compacted math 4th grader) to stay in compacted math for 2026-2027 year. They plan to cut down numbers of kids that should not belong in compacted math from the get go since the math curriculum is too fast and too challenging for some of them to keep up.

Is this for real?

What they've said specifically is that "current Grade 4 students already participating in the current Compact Math 4/5 sequence who have consistently demonstrated proficiency across multiple data points, including MCAP performance, will remain in their existing math cohort as they enter Grade 5 next year"

There's no further detail than that...

This is what happens already for Grade5 and into MS.

[Anonymous]

Looks like MCPS is starting to put out definitions for the different cluster groups. They emphasize that it is not defined by any one factor, but it looks like the MAP scores they're looking for for the top/accelerated group would be at around 90th+ percentile, the second group at 80th percentile MAP scores, the grade level group 40th-80th percentile, below-level 20th-40th, and far below-level (the group that cannot be combined with the top group) as below 20th percentile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks like MCPS is starting to put out definitions for the different cluster groups. They emphasize that it is not defined by any one factor, but it looks like the MAP scores they're looking for for the top/accelerated group would be at around 90th+ percentile, the second group at 80th percentile MAP scores, the grade level group 40th-80th percentile, below-level 20th-40th, and far below-level (the group that cannot be combined with the top group) as below 20th percentile.

I'd like to see the distributions at each of those levels within MCPS... the percentiles are national rep, not MCPS and MCPS tends to have higher scores generally...