New middle school math pathway

[Anonymous]

I attended the parent night for the middle school that my child will attend next year and was surprised to see a new math pathway offered that allows acceleration for students who weren't in compacted math in elementary school. The pathways shown were:

compacted math in elementary school --> AIM (applied investigations in math) in 6th --> Algebra 1 --> Honors Geometry (existing accelerated pathway)
Math 5 in 5th (non compacted) --> Math 6 --> Math 7 --> Math 8 (one of the existing non-accelerated pathways)
Math 5 in 5th --> Math 6 --> Math 7 --> Algebra 1 (partially new -- used to do IM in 7th grade before Algebra 1)
Math 5 in 5th --> Math 6+ (new class, combines 6th grade standards with half of 7th grade standards) --> Math 7+ (half of 7th/all of 8th grade math) --> Algebra 1 (new pathway)

So it's a new way for kids to get to Algebra in 8th by basically compacting 6th-8th grade math into two years (6th and 7th grade). It uses the Illustrative Math curriculum that's being used in middle schools. It looks like this will eliminate IM for 7th and 8th graders, while keeping AIM for 6th graders (at least for now -- I could see them changing that in the future to somehow use the Illustrative Math curriculum to cover the appropriate content).

There's a description in the Westland course bulletin here (Westland is not my kid's middle school, but I went looking for a written description and found this -- see page 12): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WPKJItDnIu1JaqxJw5JHwdxhdFBAOW3s/view

I think it looks like a good option to allow flexibility for kids to accelerate in middle school without skipping course content.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure this is new OP. They have been trying to phase out parts of the Math 6/7/8 pathway and this sounds like a step in that direction. I don't remember the specifics but I thought they had talked about this before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure this is new OP. They have been trying to phase out parts of the Math 6/7/8 pathway and this sounds like a step in that direction. I don't remember the specifics but I thought they had talked about this before.

OP here. Yes, it seems like this is a continuation of what they were working towards, but it's the first time I'd seen the 6+ and 7+ course listings and descriptions as a way to compact middle school math into 2 years. I guess the new curriculum is what led to these new course listings.

[Anonymous]

Did they mention if it has something to do with the new curriculum? This move towards acceleration and compacting is annoying. Most other districts and private schools are focusing more on depth than going faster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did they mention if it has something to do with the new curriculum? This move towards acceleration and compacting is annoying. Most other districts and private schools are focusing more on depth than going faster.

Algebra in 8th grade has been the "on grade level" path for a while. But the new 6+ and 7+ classes use the new curriculum so they are a new way to get to Algebra in 8th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they mention if it has something to do with the new curriculum? This move towards acceleration and compacting is annoying. Most other districts and private schools are focusing more on depth than going faster.

Algebra in 8th grade has been the "on grade level" path for a while. But the new 6+ and 7+ classes use the new curriculum so they are a new way to get to Algebra in 8th.

+1 Algebra in 7th has been the standard accelerated pathway; Algebra in 8th the normal math pathway, Algebra in 9th the behind in math pathway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did they mention if it has something to do with the new curriculum? This move towards acceleration and compacting is annoying. Most other districts and private schools are focusing more on depth than going faster.

Thank you! There are a lot of very relevant topics in middle school math, and I see no reason to rush it unless the student has very good number sense and picks up on concepts quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did they mention if it has something to do with the new curriculum? This move towards acceleration and compacting is annoying. Most other districts and private schools are focusing more on depth than going faster.

You probably don't have kids in MCPS. Algebra 1 in 8th grade has the normal course. It's not accelerating nor going faster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they mention if it has something to do with the new curriculum? This move towards acceleration and compacting is annoying. Most other districts and private schools are focusing more on depth than going faster.

Thank you! There are a lot of very relevant topics in middle school math, and I see no reason to rush it unless the student has very good number sense and picks up on concepts quickly.

It is not rushing, it is the normal pathway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they mention if it has something to do with the new curriculum? This move towards acceleration and compacting is annoying. Most other districts and private schools are focusing more on depth than going faster.

Thank you! There are a lot of very relevant topics in middle school math, and I see no reason to rush it unless the student has very good number sense and picks up on concepts quickly.

It is not rushing, it is the normal pathway.

The Pathway at the top of this thread is not accurate. MCPS and national data has shown that as the push to acerbate increases, the long term success decreases. National guidance and MCPS middle schools are moving to have more students in the on grade level courses and double-up on math courses in high school if they want to take Calculus.

Many colleges are also reevaluating the need for calculus and shifting more towards Stats: very few college majors benefit from a Calc background while almost all college majors need stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they mention if it has something to do with the new curriculum? This move towards acceleration and compacting is annoying. Most other districts and private schools are focusing more on depth than going faster.

Thank you! There are a lot of very relevant topics in middle school math, and I see no reason to rush it unless the student has very good number sense and picks up on concepts quickly.

It is not rushing, it is the normal pathway.

The Pathway at the top of this thread is not accurate. MCPS and national data has shown that as the push to acerbate increases, the long term success decreases. National guidance and MCPS middle schools are moving to have more students in the on grade level courses and double-up on math courses in high school if they want to take Calculus.

Many colleges are also reevaluating the need for calculus and shifting more towards Stats: very few college majors benefit from a Calc background while almost all college majors need stats.

Really? Can you elaborate what steps MCPS is taking to this end? Can you point to any source?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they mention if it has something to do with the new curriculum? This move towards acceleration and compacting is annoying. Most other districts and private schools are focusing more on depth than going faster.

Thank you! There are a lot of very relevant topics in middle school math, and I see no reason to rush it unless the student has very good number sense and picks up on concepts quickly.

It is not rushing, it is the normal pathway.

The Pathway at the top of this thread is not accurate. MCPS and national data has shown that as the push to acerbate increases, the long term success decreases. National guidance and MCPS middle schools are moving to have more students in the on grade level courses and double-up on math courses in high school if they want to take Calculus.

Many colleges are also reevaluating the need for calculus and shifting more towards Stats: very few college majors benefit from a Calc background while almost all college majors need stats.

What do you mean by this? I'm the OP and the pathways listed are the four options that were shown at the middle school presentation last night. Do you mean that those aren't really the pathways that MCPS offers? Or do you mean they aren't the most useful, developmentally appropriate pathways? I'd kind of agree with that -- I'd rather push to have students take classes focused on statistics or interpreting datasets rather than calculus, but that's a separate discussion.

[Anonymous]

No idea what you are talking about with pathways. That much be specific to your school. In 6th you can take math 6, AIM or IM depending on what your school offers (which is pre-algebra), or Algebra (if you school offers it).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No idea what you are talking about with pathways. That much be specific to your school. In 6th you can take math 6, AIM or IM depending on what your school offers (which is pre-algebra), or Algebra (if you school offers it).

That's true this year. Not true for next year -- options for next year are Math 6, Math 6+, or AIM (or, at a few schools in select cases, Algebra 1). Math 6+ and 7+ are new classes based on the Illustrative Math accelerated curriculum. The old IM class seems to be going away, although AIM is staying for 6th graders who took compacted math.

[Anonymous]

The 'Accelerated Math 6+' class is included on the Grade 6 Academics page on the MCPS website now:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/middleschool/grade6.aspx