Not being in Math 4/5?
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Anonymous
Yes, this is what I have heard. They don't want parents to have access because of the risk of kids getting prepped for the test. |
Anonymous
What school? You seem to be fortunate to have a principal who communicates these things. Reading the lawsuit's findings regarding communication to parents sounded EXACTLY like our school (not Sligo Creek). In other words, no communication to parents of kids who were not selected. |
Anonymous
The school board opinion basically says the same thing. It seems that the parent's problem is more with how the curriculum has changed. I am not sure why he is so set on getting his child in over his head. |
Anonymous
| The decision made in 3 rd grade impacts your kids through high school with the new math tracking - so I would fight for getting my kids in the compact classes. |
Anonymous
Having read the appeal, I don't think the board is saying they can't have the test. The board said that the plaintiff didn't follow up the failure to provide the test under the Public Information Act with an appeal. Since plaintiff didn't follow the PIA process, board cannot remedy anything. I also think the plaintiff used the wrong process to file to see the test, plaintiff should have used FERPA, which clearly states that this test would be an educational record that student's family has access to. I have used FERPA to see "secure" tests. The only thing you have to do is sign a non-disclosure form. |
Anonymous
You would fight even if it was not the right placement for your child? Also, I think that there will be opportunities to advance later. |
Anonymous
BTW, if kids can succeed on the test with "preparation," then they deserve access to the class. If the test is supposed to test some kind of "native intelligence or ability," then if it is accurate, one shouldn't be able to prep a kid. If the test, tests what a child has learned, then it shouldn't matter whether the student learned in school, on his/her own, or via test prep. |
Anonymous
 Really. If you think your snowflake should have been tested then talk to your principal, but it's not that hard to identify the kids who seem ready for more challenging math. I'm not a teacher, but the difference in abilities was pretty clear to me after volunteering in math just a handful of times.
Wrong. PP may be on to something. At DCs school 65% of the kids in CM5 are boys. This strongly suggests that there is gender bias in the selection procedure. Although I agree that there is likely racial and gender bias in the selection procedure (as well as selection bias against gifted/ld kids), the 65% stat doesn't necessary mean that the bias is entirely in the selection procedure. It could be a reflection of post-selection acceptance of the acceleration offer, i.e. more boys and their families decide to take the acceleration than girls, or it could be a reflection of bias in the classroom and/or home environment where boys may be taught/encouraged differently than girls. Having had 2 kids go thru the selection process for accelerated math and various gifted programs, I know there are serious biases in the selection procedure. |
Anonymous
Wrong. PP may be on to something. At DCs school 65% of the kids in CM5 are boys. This strongly suggests that there is gender bias in the selection procedure. Although I agree that there is likely racial and gender bias in the selection procedure (as well as selection bias against gifted/ld kids), the 65% stat doesn't necessary mean that the bias is entirely in the selection procedure. It could be a reflection of post-selection acceptance of the acceleration offer, i.e. more boys and their families decide to take the acceleration than girls, or it could be a reflection of bias in the classroom and/or home environment where boys may be taught/encouraged differently than girls. Having had 2 kids go thru the selection process for accelerated math and various gifted programs, I know there are serious biases in the selection procedure. The only students in my child's HGC class who aren't in compacted math are boys. All of the girls are in CM. And there are more girls in the HGC than boys. |
Anonymous
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The only students in my child's HGC class who aren't in compacted math are boys. All of the girls are in CM. And there are more girls in the HGC than boys.
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Anonymous
NP here. My kid was in compacted Math 4/5 last year in HGC. It was the biggest disappointment ever. I do not care if my kid is accelerated or not, but I expect mastery of concepts at grade level. The teaching was so damn spotty, the teachers so ill-prepared and clueless, the process, curriculum not at all transparent, that these kids learned NOTHING. Now most of the HGC parents are taking outside help, not because these kids cannot handle the math that is being taught - but because we want them to actually ignore what is being taught and actually learn grade level Math of previous years. Frankly - Math has been a pile of horse manure for the past year in HGC. I do not understand why you would fight tooth and nail to get your kids into the compacted Math? Sit with a textbook and teach them Math - and then also teach them to write BCR explaining the process of arriving at the solution - so that they can handle the MCPS requirements. As it is US schools were lagging behind in Math - now they are even further behind. Reminds me of the movie "Idiocracy"! |
Anonymous
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PP@9:44, it sounds to me as though the problem last year was the teachers, not the curriculum. Which HGC was this?
(Also, "BCR" was a term for the MSAs. No more BCRs under Curriculum 2.0. Hooray!) |
Anonymous
My child is also in compacted math at an HGC. I've heard that the CM is actually better at our home school. People at the home school rave about the CM but I actually don't know what is being done differently (except that the class size is smaller). |
Anonymous
As the parent of an LD child who is highly gifted and very good at math, I think long division is an excellent example, but not in the way you mean. My DC has difficulty doing long division correctly and quickly because of his LD's -- difficulty remembering math facts consistently and quickly (linked to an expressive language deficit), difficulty writing the computation (due to dysgraphia), difficulty working a computation quickly (due to slow processing). When my DC took the acceleration test, his teacher failed to give him any of the accommodations specified in his IEP. He is supposed to get extra time, a scribe, and a non-distracted environment, none of which happened. Instead, the teacher sent selected kids into the hallway to take the exam on the floor. DC described how classes would troop thru the hallway from the nearby stairwell while he was taking the exam. If you ask DC to perform in class without the needed accommodations, he looks "dumb". If you provide accommodations, DC can perform. Since the school had previously failed to select DC for acceleration in 1st grade under the pre-C2.0 curriculum (because they misattributed the LDs as disobedience, lack of motivation and lack of ability), and I had been fighting MCPS for over a year for the IEP, by the time we got to the compacted 4/5/6 selection process, the school selected DC for testing. He just scraped by the selection process; I'm sure his "test score" was artificially low due to lack of accommodations but that his overall score was inflated by the teacher who knew pretty well by then that I would contest any decision not to place DC in the compacted course. The compacted 4/5/6 procedure should be fully transparent. All kids with IEPs and 504s should receive accommodations. All kids should be tested so as to avoid unconscious bias. Parents should receive all data generated in the testing procedure. Schools must comply with FERPA and make all elements of the selection process available to parents who request it. Frankly, in cases of dispute, students should be given access to the compacted course. There is a long history of gatekeeping to MCPS advanced classes which over time has been shown to be unnecessary (think of the fights over AP access, IB access, and access to higher math classes, all of which resulted in greater inclusion). |
Anonymous
There are BCRs under C2.0. In fact, there are more of them and they are everywhere, even in math. Everytime C2.0 asks a child to "explain your answer," it's effectively a BCR. But, now the new "explanation questions" do not come with any rubric or instruction to kids about how to structure the answers, so many kids have no real understanding of what kind of "explanation" is desired. Yes, they can now draw pictures to "explain" in math, but it is not at all clear what kind of answer is being sought. |