Algebra 1 at 6 grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any test/pre-screening/evaluation by MCPS? Or just by individual middle school? Thx...

Most MCPS schools don't do this, but a few in the wealthier areas will accelerate kids with 250+ map-m.

My kid got a 5th grade winter MAP of 270. Should I push for this? (I’m not inclined to)

When mine was in 5th, they also scored in the 270s. Our home school doesn't offer this as an option. Sure, they could've easily handled Algebra, but it gave them more time to absorb the material. By the end of the 6th, they were scoring in the 290s, so they seemed to be doing fine. They're headed to Blair SMCS and will probably be in the same class with kids a year ahead of them. In the end, it made no difference.

It's done to keep the kids at the home school vs. leaving for private or other situations.

Just so it’s clear the above is NOT the reason people try to prevent this. The real reasons are that AlgII and above require more abstract thing and more application of skills. Allowing kids to mature helps with this. Also, Maryland requires 4yrs of math in HS. Students taking Alg1 in 6th will most likely have to go to the HS in 8th for Alg2. A class that typically has a range of 9th-11th graders. Some of ya’ll nor your kids are prepared for what goes on in HS. Further, the student will then be taking Calculus in 10th grade. So the question becomes what are they going to take Jr/Sr year especially if they aren’t planning to major in something that requires really advance math.

And, what about the kids who are planning a major requiring math. Yes, we are preparing our kids. Worse case they take classes at MC or UMD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here, you can see what schools have it if you scroll down to the math spreadsheet and look at what schools offer Algebra 2, but that is not fully accurate as some schools bus the kids to the local high school.

https://www.mccpta.org/curriculum.html

Per that doc https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PHEd8FGE1Y2bSdatnyu1lvj8zikffYtG/htmlview
, Alg 2 in the catalog at 17 of 40 middle schools (2 magnets):

Silver Spring
A. Mario Loiederman
Eastern
Silver Spring International
White Oak

Potomac
Cabin John
Herbert Hoover

Bethesda
Earle B. Wood
North Bethesda
Thomas W. Pyle

Kensington
Newport Mill

Rockville
Francis Scott Key
Redland
Robert Frost

Gaithersburg
Forest Oak

Germantown
Kingsview

Magnet:
Roberto W Clemente Middle
Takoma Park Middle

This must be from before C2.0 since they haven't had Algebra 2 at TPMS in like a decade.

That is completely untrue! They have algebra 2 right now at TPMS.

What they won’t do is put kids into algebra 1 in 6th grade based on scores or achievements. They will only do it if they already took AIM in fifth. That small group of kids then ends up taking algebra 2 in 8th. Just like they are doing RIGHT NOW!

Stop making stuff up. My kid never took aim.

Then your kid is very special. The magnet coordinator and the previous one have been very clear that no one does algebra in 6th grade if they haven’t done AIM in 5th and even then they strongly discourages it.

Correct, one of the only accurate statements in this thread.

It's not relevant as the kids we are talking about are not at Tacoma Park. You seem to miss that MCPS doesn't revolve around just that school and how they do things.

My kid is special to me, not MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here, you can see what schools have it if you scroll down to the math spreadsheet and look at what schools offer Algebra 2, but that is not fully accurate as some schools bus the kids to the local high school.

https://www.mccpta.org/curriculum.html

Per that doc https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PHEd8FGE1Y2bSdatnyu1lvj8zikffYtG/htmlview
, Alg 2 in the catalog at 17 of 40 middle schools (2 magnets):

Silver Spring
A. Mario Loiederman
Eastern
Silver Spring International
White Oak

Potomac
Cabin John
Herbert Hoover

Bethesda
Earle B. Wood
North Bethesda
Thomas W. Pyle

Kensington
Newport Mill

Rockville
Francis Scott Key
Redland
Robert Frost

Gaithersburg
Forest Oak

Germantown
Kingsview

Magnet:
Roberto W Clemente Middle
Takoma Park Middle

This must be from before C2.0 since they haven't had Algebra 2 at TPMS in like a decade.

That is completely untrue! They have algebra 2 right now at TPMS.

What they won’t do is put kids into algebra 1 in 6th grade based on scores or achievements. They will only do it if they already took AIM in fifth. That small group of kids then ends up taking algebra 2 in 8th. Just like they are doing RIGHT NOW!

Stop making stuff up. My kid never took aim.

Then your kid is very special. The magnet coordinator and the previous one have been very clear that no one does algebra in 6th grade if they haven’t done AIM in 5th and even then they strongly discourages it.

Correct, one of the only accurate statements in this thread.

It's not relevant as the kids we are talking about are not at Tacoma Park. You seem to miss that MCPS doesn't revolve around just that school and how they do things.

My kid is special to me, not MCPS.

In that poster's defense, you responded directly to a thread that was specifically about TPMS. That sub-thread was specifically about the process by which the TPMS magnet will let a child move to Algebra in 6th. You jumped in by saying "Stop making stuff up. My kid never took aim (sic)" but you did it in a discusion about TPMS and then got salty when people assumed you were talking about that school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any test/pre-screening/evaluation by MCPS? Or just by individual middle school? Thx...

Most MCPS schools don't do this, but a few in the wealthier areas will accelerate kids with 250+ map-m.

My kid got a 5th grade winter MAP of 270. Should I push for this? (I’m not inclined to)

When mine was in 5th, they also scored in the 270s. Our home school doesn't offer this as an option. Sure, they could've easily handled Algebra, but it gave them more time to absorb the material. By the end of the 6th, they were scoring in the 290s, so they seemed to be doing fine. They're headed to Blair SMCS and will probably be in the same class with kids a year ahead of them. In the end, it made no difference.

It's done to keep the kids at the home school vs. leaving for private or other situations.

Just so it’s clear the above is NOT the reason people try to prevent this. The real reasons are that AlgII and above require more abstract thing and more application of skills. Allowing kids to mature helps with this. Also, Maryland requires 4yrs of math in HS. Students taking Alg1 in 6th will most likely have to go to the HS in 8th for Alg2. A class that typically has a range of 9th-11th graders. Some of ya’ll nor your kids are prepared for what goes on in HS. Further, the student will then be taking Calculus in 10th grade. So the question becomes what are they going to take Jr/Sr year especially if they aren’t planning to major in something that requires really advance math.

And, what about the kids who are planning a major requiring math. Yes, we are preparing our kids. Worse case they take classes at MC or UMD.

Even if they are planning to major in math, those classes will still be there when those kids get to college. It's not a substantial admissions advantage to take M/V Calculus in high school, in the current climate, because it is usually correlated with being located in an affluent school district or having hyper-involved parents. Neither of those things is opening any doors for any majors at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any test/pre-screening/evaluation by MCPS? Or just by individual middle school? Thx...

Most MCPS schools don't do this, but a few in the wealthier areas will accelerate kids with 250+ map-m.

My kid got a 5th grade winter MAP of 270. Should I push for this? (I’m not inclined to)

When mine was in 5th, they also scored in the 270s. Our home school doesn't offer this as an option. Sure, they could've easily handled Algebra, but it gave them more time to absorb the material. By the end of the 6th, they were scoring in the 290s, so they seemed to be doing fine. They're headed to Blair SMCS and will probably be in the same class with kids a year ahead of them. In the end, it made no difference.

It's done to keep the kids at the home school vs. leaving for private or other situations.

Just so it’s clear the above is NOT the reason people try to prevent this. The real reasons are that AlgII and above require more abstract thing and more application of skills. Allowing kids to mature helps with this. Also, Maryland requires 4yrs of math in HS. Students taking Alg1 in 6th will most likely have to go to the HS in 8th for Alg2. A class that typically has a range of 9th-11th graders. Some of ya’ll nor your kids are prepared for what goes on in HS. Further, the student will then be taking Calculus in 10th grade. So the question becomes what are they going to take Jr/Sr year especially if they aren’t planning to major in something that requires really advance math.

And, what about the kids who are planning a major requiring math. Yes, we are preparing our kids. Worse case they take classes at MC or UMD.

Even if they are planning to major in math, those classes will still be there when those kids get to college. It's not a substantial admissions advantage to take M/V Calculus in high school, in the current climate, because it is usually correlated with being located in an affluent school district or having hyper-involved parents. Neither of those things is opening any doors for any majors at this point.

We can all agree that learning more math than MCPS wants to offer is not for everyone. MCPS serves 15K students per grade level, so catering to the extreme outlier edges is a pain in the neck, even before getting into all the political strife.

But that doesn't change the fact that there are 100 or more kids in each grade who can handle deep / advanced math, and who prove it in AoPS classes, AMC/AIME contests and more.


TPMS offers Magnet versions of AIM/Alg/Geom that enrich deeply without advancing.
They teach probably and set theory and number theory and
other "abstract things" that some papers and MCPS claim middle schoolers can't handle.

That's great. If other schools offered that, it would probably satisfy a lot of people. But they don't, so kids who are good at math are trapped being bored in class and annoying their classmates and teacher, being stuck sitting through lies like "negative numbers don't exist" in elementary school and "square root of -1 does not exist" in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any test/pre-screening/evaluation by MCPS? Or just by individual middle school? Thx...

Most MCPS schools don't do this, but a few in the wealthier areas will accelerate kids with 250+ map-m.

My kid got a 5th grade winter MAP of 270. Should I push for this? (I’m not inclined to)

When mine was in 5th, they also scored in the 270s. Our home school doesn't offer this as an option. Sure, they could've easily handled Algebra, but it gave them more time to absorb the material. By the end of the 6th, they were scoring in the 290s, so they seemed to be doing fine. They're headed to Blair SMCS and will probably be in the same class with kids a year ahead of them. In the end, it made no difference.

It's done to keep the kids at the home school vs. leaving for private or other situations.

Just so it’s clear the above is NOT the reason people try to prevent this. The real reasons are that AlgII and above require more abstract thing and more application of skills. Allowing kids to mature helps with this. Also, Maryland requires 4yrs of math in HS. Students taking Alg1 in 6th will most likely have to go to the HS in 8th for Alg2. A class that typically has a range of 9th-11th graders. Some of ya’ll nor your kids are prepared for what goes on in HS. Further, the student will then be taking Calculus in 10th grade. So the question becomes what are they going to take Jr/Sr year especially if they aren’t planning to major in something that requires really advance math.

And, what about the kids who are planning a major requiring math. Yes, we are preparing our kids. Worse case they take classes at MC or UMD.

Even if they are planning to major in math, those classes will still be there when those kids get to college. It's not a substantial admissions advantage to take M/V Calculus in high school, in the current climate, because it is usually correlated with being located in an affluent school district or having hyper-involved parents. Neither of those things is opening any doors for any majors at this point.

There are a lot more classes to take in college after MV calc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here, you can see what schools have it if you scroll down to the math spreadsheet and look at what schools offer Algebra 2, but that is not fully accurate as some schools bus the kids to the local high school.

https://www.mccpta.org/curriculum.html

Per that doc https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PHEd8FGE1Y2bSdatnyu1lvj8zikffYtG/htmlview
, Alg 2 in the catalog at 17 of 40 middle schools (2 magnets):

Silver Spring
A. Mario Loiederman
Eastern
Silver Spring International
White Oak

Potomac
Cabin John
Herbert Hoover

Bethesda
Earle B. Wood
North Bethesda
Thomas W. Pyle

Kensington
Newport Mill

Rockville
Francis Scott Key
Redland
Robert Frost

Gaithersburg
Forest Oak

Germantown
Kingsview

Magnet:
Roberto W Clemente Middle
Takoma Park Middle

This must be from before C2.0 since they haven't had Algebra 2 at TPMS in like a decade.

That is completely untrue! They have algebra 2 right now at TPMS.

What they won’t do is put kids into algebra 1 in 6th grade based on scores or achievements. They will only do it if they already took AIM in fifth. That small group of kids then ends up taking algebra 2 in 8th. Just like they are doing RIGHT NOW!

Stop making stuff up. My kid never took aim.

Then your kid is very special. The magnet coordinator and the previous one have been very clear that no one does algebra in 6th grade if they haven’t done AIM in 5th and even then they strongly discourages it.

Correct, one of the only accurate statements in this thread.

It's not relevant as the kids we are talking about are not at Tacoma Park. You seem to miss that MCPS doesn't revolve around just that school and how they do things.

My kid is special to me, not MCPS.[/quoIte]

It is exactly relevant since a PP poster was making false claims about TPMS and that's what was being discussed. Further, you're clearly not from Montgomery County and can't spell Takoma Park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any test/pre-screening/evaluation by MCPS? Or just by individual middle school? Thx...

Most MCPS schools don't do this, but a few in the wealthier areas will accelerate kids with 250+ map-m.

My kid got a 5th grade winter MAP of 270. Should I push for this? (I’m not inclined to)

When mine was in 5th, they also scored in the 270s. Our home school doesn't offer this as an option. Sure, they could've easily handled Algebra, but it gave them more time to absorb the material. By the end of the 6th, they were scoring in the 290s, so they seemed to be doing fine. They're headed to Blair SMCS and will probably be in the same class with kids a year ahead of them. In the end, it made no difference.

It's done to keep the kids at the home school vs. leaving for private or other situations.

Just so it’s clear the above is NOT the reason people try to prevent this. The real reasons are that AlgII and above require more abstract thing and more application of skills. Allowing kids to mature helps with this. Also, Maryland requires 4yrs of math in HS. Students taking Alg1 in 6th will most likely have to go to the HS in 8th for Alg2. A class that typically has a range of 9th-11th graders. Some of ya’ll nor your kids are prepared for what goes on in HS. Further, the student will then be taking Calculus in 10th grade. So the question becomes what are they going to take Jr/Sr year especially if they aren’t planning to major in something that requires really advance math.

And, what about the kids who are planning a major requiring math. Yes, we are preparing our kids. Worse case they take classes at MC or UMD.

Even if they are planning to major in math, those classes will still be there when those kids get to college. It's not a substantial admissions advantage to take M/V Calculus in high school, in the current climate, because it is usually correlated with being located in an affluent school district or having hyper-involved parents. Neither of those things is opening any doors for any majors at this point.

We can all agree that learning more math than MCPS wants to offer is not for everyone. MCPS serves 15K students per grade level, so catering to the extreme outlier edges is a pain in the neck, even before getting into all the political strife.

But that doesn't change the fact that there are 100 or more kids in each grade who can handle deep / advanced math, and who prove it in AoPS classes, AMC/AIME contests and more.


TPMS offers Magnet versions of AIM/Alg/Geom that enrich deeply without advancing.
They teach probably and set theory and number theory and
other "abstract things" that some papers and MCPS claim middle schoolers can't handle.

That's great. If other schools offered that, it would probably satisfy a lot of people. But they don't, so kids who are good at math are trapped being bored in class and annoying their classmates and teacher, being stuck sitting through lies like "negative numbers don't exist" in elementary school and "square root of -1 does not exist" in middle school.

There's a rumor that McKnight was piloting a Magnet for All to build on her success with Honors for All.

[Anonymous]

Unless your child has a true love for math, pushing for extra acceleration is part of the race to nowhere.

MCPS has traditionally been a year ahead of other parts of the country as the baseline, normal acceleration (Algebra in 7th) is 2 years ahead. Alg in 6th is 3 years ahead of the national norm.

[Anonymous]

If you take Algebra 1 in 6th grade but have to take 4 years of high school in math regardless (state law) what do you even take?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you take Algebra 1 in 6th grade but have to take 4 years of high school in math regardless (state law) what do you even take?

If you don't want to "slow down," then:

9th- Pre-Calculus
10th - Calculus
11th - M/V Calculus (at school if offered, at MC if not)
12th - AP Statistics

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you take Algebra 1 in 6th grade but have to take 4 years of high school in math regardless (state law) what do you even take?

multivariate calc, diffy q's, linear algebra, complex analysis, discrete math, ap stats etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you take Algebra 1 in 6th grade but have to take 4 years of high school in math regardless (state law) what do you even take?

multivariate calc, diffy q's, linear algebra, complex analysis, discrete math, ap stats etc

Part of that list is approximately only at magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you take Algebra 1 in 6th grade but have to take 4 years of high school in math regardless (state law) what do you even take?

multivariate calc, diffy q's, linear algebra, complex analysis, discrete math, ap stats etc

Part of that list is approximately only at magnet.

which anyone can sign-up for who meets the pre-reqs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you take Algebra 1 in 6th grade but have to take 4 years of high school in math regardless (state law) what do you even take?

multivariate calc, diffy q's, linear algebra, complex analysis, discrete math, ap stats etc

Part of that list is approximately only at magnet.

which anyone can sign-up for who meets the pre-reqs

at least it's not limited to a few wealthy Potomac schools