Anonymous wrote:Eureka has been implemented in our school this year. Several kids are struggling particularly in the older grades. We are working with the parent guides and online resources but still struggling. Do any schools provide additional after school support? Thinking of advocating for this at our school but wonder if other schools are doing something similar. Trying to get a sense of what it would entail or any barriers that might exist. Would this be an additional cost to the school? Would they need to find teachers willing to volunteer their time? Please share suggestions.

At least at the Middle School level, the "old" MCPS curriculum 2.0 "borrowed" heavily from Eureka Math (formerly known as EngageNY). I used to recommend EurekaMath to parents that wanted additional, reasonably aligned work. Indeed my biggest worry was that, with MCPS C2.0 leaning so heavily on EngageNY, I might inadvertently give away test materials. Don't know if that applied at the elementary school level to such a large extent, but I do know that I would occasionally see Eureka Math/EngageNY worksheets under the MCPS C2.0 guise even at the Elementary level.

I don't know if MCPS has suggested the Eureka Math "Homework Helper" workbooks, but you might want to give them a shot. They are reasonably cheap; full year book is about $20.

Then it sounds like they need to be educated on what rights they have to protect themselves in their schools. What the heck is the Teachers Union doing?

Nothing. MCPS Teachers don't realize that MCEA is what is known as a "Yellow Union"; it often just does Admin's bidding. When MCPS clearly violates the contracts, the Union response has often LITERALLY been, "we asked MCPS if it was a violation, and THEY said NO. So what can we do?"

Every school I've been at, things are so cordial that Admin is actually often present during Union Votes. A real union would not allow that.

I'd actually support a strong union, but the current lap-dog union makes me happy about Janus v. AFSCME.

Anonymous wrote:PP, that was magrathean's logic. I assumed both scenarios were for the AP same class You don't take AP test with just the "honors" calculus.

Exactly. An advantage of the AP, even if one doesn't care about the potential college level credit, is that college admissions knows that a 5 is a 5 is a 5 on the AP no matter what high school taken at, while an "A" in one "honors" class may be mean less understanding than a "C" in some other "regular" class depending on the rigor, district, school, teacher, etc.

AP Calc AB will be more rigorous, with the potential for getting a semester's worth of college credit if one scores high enough on the Calc AB Test given in May.
I am sure there is a correlation between the grade the teacher gives (A, B, C, etc) and one's score on the national test (5/4/3/2), but I bet it is reasonably weak. Better to get a "5" on the AP test and a "C" in the class than an "A" in the class and a "2" on the AP Test.

Whether one gets college credit depends on two things; the given college, and the test score. A 5 on the test will get you a waived semester of calculus (but no credit) at a top tier school, while a 3 may get you credit for a year of math at a lower tier school.

If your student feels prepared for the AP Calc, I'd recommend it over Honors Calc. I wouldn't be too worried about the Honors vs Regular PreCalc. As I understand it, Honors covers a bit more early on with limits, which would be a help. The other differences I am familiar with (Honors PreCalc supposedly covers polar coordinates and complex numbers) are not critical for the fundamentals of calculus in either AP or Honors Calculus

Is DTSS downtown Silver Spring? If so, the answer is yes, Stonegate would be a better fit for a bookish math focused student than a number of DTSS ES. Visit the school, and specifically ask to visit as many of the potential different teachers as possible during instruction time. Feel free to be as pleasantly insistent on getting your child put in the class you and your child feel is the best fit.

My experience (mostly middle school) is that about 5-10% of students are gone that week, many teachers plan for that with less intense academic pursuits the last few days. Most parents send the courtesy letter/email informing the teacher/admin ahead of time of the absence and ask if there is any critical work the student should needs to get done, either before or after the absence. And most teachers happily let the student make up the work either before or after; biggest issue is if the absence is over days when standardized tests or formative assessments are being given. For logistical reasons and more, missing such days are frowned on if avoidable.

The absence is marked in the attendance log as "DNC", which is code for "unlawful absence - do not call". "Unlawful" merely means not for one of the approved types of absences like illness, or medical appointments.

I have never ever heard of any legal repercussions for any reasonable length absence of which the school is informed ahead of time. Of course there can always be a first time