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Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:pettifogger wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Do you know who the instructor will be? I find that to be the single most important factor. My DD took geometry in 8th grade, and her teacher was excellent. The course work was difficult, much different than my high school geometry days! I can’t imagine squeezing it into a summer session. My DD’s friends are taking geometry now in 9th grade and it’s a breeze. Different teacher, not as in depth. It would be fine in the summer.
If both classes were honors level, FCPS has a standard curriculum. Maybe one was honors and one wasn’t? Maybe teachers allowed more retakes or granted partial credit?
I'm a HS math teacher. The standards are the same, but the implementation can be completely different.
"Find the area of a regular hexagon with side length 5"
"Find an expression for the area of a regular hexagon with side length x+5"
"Find the area of a regular hexagon with side length x+5 if it is equal to the area of a right triangle with side lengths 2x+3 and x-7"
All meet the same standard. All are drastically different levels of difficulty.
I would argue they are not really different, at least not conceptually. #1 and #2 are both the same thing, just a different expression for the side length. #3 is just not a very good question because it tries to superficially complicate things without adding any extra geometric insight: Students should already know how to write an expression for the area of a right triangle if given both legs; it's just the triangle area formula. Then equate that to the area of the hexagon, which the problem statement makes obvious. As for the messy resulting algebraic equation, it's just a quadratic with radicals and certainly not worth solving by hand. Sure, maybe #3 is more tedious, but I would not call it any deeper conceptually than the others.
Apologies for the tediousness, I teach algebra 1 and 2 and was trying to geometry-ize an example I haven't done since I was in high school, lol
It still illustrates the point that the same standard can be assessed at a simple level, a mid level, or a "tedious" level, all while hitting the exact same standard that the course requires. It's not an extended standard, it's just a different level of difficulty of the same question. It's why a honors math at school A looks different than honors math at school B--it depends on what the team thinks is appropriate. In summer geometry it's probably even more dependent on the teacher since there aren't CTs planning common lessons to keep things equivalent across classrooms.
Of course honors has additional standards and (hopefully!) deeper thinking questions too, but even at a surface level problems can assess the same standard at 100 different levels of difficulty.
This is a spiral, and is useful for maintaining geometry knowledge through later subjects.
Not intended, but it does add something conceptually. The 3rd question has no solution, if the students thinks about the answers.
This is because the quadratic has two solutions, but for each of them the two side lengths for the right triangle are negative.
Getting into the weeds here, but I disagree that the 3rd question is about geometry; it is mostly just tedious algebra. There is no additional geometry knowledge that is needed besides the basic understanding of how to find the area of a regular hexagon and a right triangle. This type of problem might be ok in an algebra class if the ambiguity is fixed (which two sides of the triangle, the legs? Or a leg and hypotenuse), and if students can use a calculator or computer to numerically find the two roots of the quadratic. Assuming they do so, what are they supposed to really learn from it? They learn that they need to check for extraneous solutions and discard them if they produce negative lengths, but no actual geometry. A better problem that does not need a calculator might be: A regular hexagon is inscribed in a circle and has an area of 6*sqrt(3). Find the area of the circle.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Do you know who the instructor will be? I find that to be the single most important factor. My DD took geometry in 8th grade, and her teacher was excellent. The course work was difficult, much different than my high school geometry days! I can’t imagine squeezing it into a summer session. My DD’s friends are taking geometry now in 9th grade and it’s a breeze. Different teacher, not as in depth. It would be fine in the summer.
If both classes were honors level, FCPS has a standard curriculum. Maybe one was honors and one wasn’t? Maybe teachers allowed more retakes or granted partial credit?
I'm a HS math teacher. The standards are the same, but the implementation can be completely different.
"Find the area of a regular hexagon with side length 5"
"Find an expression for the area of a regular hexagon with side length x+5"
"Find the area of a regular hexagon with side length x+5 if it is equal to the area of a right triangle with side lengths 2x+3 and x-7"
All meet the same standard. All are drastically different levels of difficulty.
I would argue they are not really different, at least not conceptually. #1 and #2 are both the same thing, just a different expression for the side length. #3 is just not a very good question because it tries to superficially complicate things without adding any extra geometric insight: Students should already know how to write an expression for the area of a right triangle if given both legs; it's just the triangle area formula. Then equate that to the area of the hexagon, which the problem statement makes obvious. As for the messy resulting algebraic equation, it's just a quadratic with radicals and certainly not worth solving by hand. Sure, maybe #3 is more tedious, but I would not call it any deeper conceptually than the others.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Is 14 a good score for a sixth grader?
That's actually a complicated question. Is it a good score for an AAP/advanced math 6th grader who hasn't prepped for contests and isn't doing something like RSM or AoPS? Absolutely! It's well above the average score for 6th graders taking the test, who are already a highly self-selected group.
Is it a good score for kids who have done a lot of contest prep and are taking outside math contests? It's a respectable score, but it's not particularly impressive.
Thank you, yes AAP 6th grader, who has not prepped anything except for Noetic and that also once in a while.
How do I help him now?
If money isn't a problem, enroll him in an AoPS math contest class, either online (cheaper), or at a a local academy around this area. If he is particularly motivated to do well, you might be able to get away with just buying AoPS book with their solution manuals and he can self study from them. Also have him work on past AMC 8/Mathcounts contest problems. All of the past AMCs as well as many other contest problems can be found on the AoPS site for free.
Anonymous wrote:I am aware of all the programs out there that accelerate kids in math/writing (AoPS, Kumon, Curie, CTY—the list is long). Are there any well regarded programs that nurture creativity in children? I’m not interested in acceleration. Thanks!
For math, try looking at material from mathematical circles. They focus much more on the 'why' instead of the 'how', and try to develop beautiful ideas via problems that are accessible to kids. There is still a lot of thinking, exploration, and problem solving, but its in a more collaborative environment as compared to something like math competitions. At a math circle students generally work together and the problems might feel a bit more puzzly than average. While math competitions also tend to have troves of really nice problems which require a lot ingenuity/creativity to solve, some math contest problems tend to be overly technical, which can end up turning off some kids who are new to problem solving.
The only issue is that in this area there are very few math circles around. American University has an online only circle that will open again in the spring, and I believe the Fairfax Math Circle (FMC) will also have a spring program. Personally, I would just buy books: The Mathematical Circles Library series of books are wonderful (they're all published by AMS, the American Mathematics Society with the specific purpose of teaching problem solving by exploring beautiful mathematical ideas). For middle schoolers (and perhaps some late elementary kids), the Mathematical Circle Diaries by Anna Burago (both volumes) are absolutely fantastic. I've been blown away by the quality of the interesting problems presented, as well as the insightful explanations, which are even better than many of the math contest questions out there. The one caveat is that the material is challenging and you need to work on it together with your child and give them guidance/encouragement as they will not be able to do it fully solo.
https://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Circle-Diaries-Year-Curriculum/dp/0821887459
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:DC is a Sophomore at TJ. It's just not a right fit and DC is miserable. Wants to finish this year and transfer in the summer to BS.
Not sure if we let DC push it through this year in a toxic environment (mostly bad teachers) or pull DC out now.
Grades are ok - A's and B's
Will moving to the base school reflect badly on DC college applications?
Please be kind. This is a stressful situation for us
OP, can you clarify what do you mean by "toxic environment (mostly bad teachers)" Toxic environment mainly created by teachers seems like a strong claim and I'm curious as to how teachers would create that. Others on this thread are mentioning that some classes and teachers are significantly more challenging than others with respect to workload, but I would certainly not think of this as toxic to kids. Unless the teachers hate their kids and don't want them to succeed, I have a hard time imagining how are teachers toxic? Maybe some are not as good at teaching the material than others? Still, that's normal at any school; always a few amazing teachers, a few duds, and most in between.
OP here - it's not about the hard work. Even if my DC will move to a BS, the classes will still need the hours of study and may actually end up taking more than the current 3 APs.
So many teachers brag about how many students failed their classes in the past. If they failed - in my opinion - YOU failed as well. It was YOUR JOB to teach them, and you didn't.
Making tests needlessly difficult and testing outside the scope. What is the point of providing the scope if you don't intend to use it?
So much negativity and demotivating kids that they are letting go of their own positivity. I am seeing that happen with my own DC, who was so upbeat and positive about things.
I don't know.. I'm highly skeptical that teachers are 'bragging' about kids having failed in the past. It's much more likely they actually care about their students and are trying to let them know early on in the course that they will need to put hours of effort and study each week to do well.
In the past, whenever I've retaught math classes containing difficult material, I have always given kids a summary of the data from prior iterations of the course at the beginning of the year. I explained to them in a frank way that the material is more difficult than it seems, that they will need to put significant effort to be able to get an A (i.e completing all their homework, asking lots questions, doing all the assigned reading, and stopping by for help when stuck, doing extra practice problems if they don't feel comfortable with the material, etc), and that if they skip over these things, they could fail as was the case in the past. Is this toxic? I am sad when kids fail because overwhelmingly it is because they did not want (or have the time/priority, etc) to put the effort needed to master the material. Frankly, the only other alternative is to just water down the course and exams, but I think that would be a disservice to the students. I believe that they are capable of doing very well, but they have been exposed to very little rigor in the typical FCPS school and really need to learn how to learn. At some point they need to pick up this skill, and the earlier it happens the better it will be for them, especially in college and beyond.
Are you sure it was a test and not a group assignment/group project that was worth a big portion of the grade? I haven't heard of a group test but would also be curious as to the actual intent, as well as how do you know it was a 'test'. What was the math topic or topics? Were there many simple questions or one difficult multi step question that the kids had to work together to figure out how to start? Were they assigned different roles (i.e one presents, one does a write-up), etc? Were the kids orally tested individually after turning it in? Note that all of these sound like they would occur during a group project/assignment, and not a test. A test by commonly accepted definition is individual.
Anonymous wrote:pettifogger wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I like Beast Academy a lot, but I am not convinced that it is the best tool for someone struggling with math. The modal BA student is someone who finds the pace of math at his or her school much too slow, though occasionally a more average student will use it at a lower level to help shore up concepts.
Instead, I would support developing your daughter's "number sense" intuition through use a of a program like Kumon or Rod and Staff Math (disclaimer: Christian), whose focus is on fluid calculation. The more conceptual Singapore Math US Ed. would possibly make for another good option, possibly with the addition of the "Extra Practice" workbooks, which provide, well, extra practice on top of the main textbook/workbook combo.
If she starts breezing through the above, then maybe the problem was that she got off track during virtual school and Beast Academy really would be a good fit. But given the situation as described, I wouldn't try that first.
If even R&S or Kumon do not seem to stick, then it might be worth looking at some of the "tools" used for dyscalculia. People I know who work with that population tend to be big fans of Ronit Bird.
OP, here. I missed this before and appreciate the thoughtful answer. Needing to excel is definitely NOT the problem. However, I worried that Kumon was too rote memorization. She can memorize facts and even strategies. But, I think because it's all memorization, being flexible with strategies and understanding what it all means is lost.
I think of Kumon & R&S as akin to musicians practicing scales. The major way to get an intuitive feel for something is to do a lot of it. The greater power of memorization, fluidity in calculation, etc is that it frees up mental resources -- when presented with an problem, you don't have to waste any of your IQ points on the cognitive load of figuring out, say, 9x8 - you can dedicate your full powers to the core issue.
But! Thinking more holistically, I think Singapore Math probably would be better fit for you -- I suspect it's not just number sense that is involved in your above-average kid underperforming at math, and number sense may grow with time and a reasonable amount of practice. I suggest US Edition because it is older and there is a LOT of materials and resources out there to help the parent (and they are available in used copies, so it's cheaper).
I have to disagree with the above with respect to Kumon as developing an "intuitive feel". From what I have seen, the reason that people think of Kumon as "drill and kill" is that it is an endless drill of very similar, basic, exercises, like pages and pages of them!. There are only scales, no actual problems to be solved, imagine forcing your child to only do that each day without playing a musical piece, they are surely likely to quit.
On the other hand, there are some kids who actually do like the repetitiveness and the measurable progress, and more who could use the practice, and I think these are underestimated aspects. Repetitiveness helps intuition by more or less eventually letting things happen automatically in the background of one's mind. Kumon's math program is also strictly supplementary -- the "music" would be in whatever one's main curriculum is. It's not something I would recommend to most "good at math" students -- certainly for older elementary and above, I wouldn't expect much, if any, overlap in student needs between AoPS and Kumon, outside of to shore up a particular area of weakness (my mathy kid has had to work his way through more than a few pages of Kumon workbooks, though he's ever needed to do a whole workbook, and probably wouldn't be suited to their in-person centers).
We're in agreement, some kids need extra practice either because they don't get enough of it (perhaps not enough at school, or they're doing a curriculum such as AoPS which is almost all problem solving with minimal very basic exercises, etc), or some kids really need drill at particular times in their development (maybe multiplication, fractions). However in these instances Kumon isn't special; any materials providing extra practice will achieve the goal and pretty easy to pull from various random workbooks or worksheets. I think the structure of their program is just overkill and would certainly not fit most kids. It could very much actually teach them to give up more easily when they encounter non drill like problems where they have to pause and think for a bit before finding the solution.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I like Beast Academy a lot, but I am not convinced that it is the best tool for someone struggling with math. The modal BA student is someone who finds the pace of math at his or her school much too slow, though occasionally a more average student will use it at a lower level to help shore up concepts.
Instead, I would support developing your daughter's "number sense" intuition through use a of a program like Kumon or Rod and Staff Math (disclaimer: Christian), whose focus is on fluid calculation. The more conceptual Singapore Math US Ed. would possibly make for another good option, possibly with the addition of the "Extra Practice" workbooks, which provide, well, extra practice on top of the main textbook/workbook combo.
If she starts breezing through the above, then maybe the problem was that she got off track during virtual school and Beast Academy really would be a good fit. But given the situation as described, I wouldn't try that first.
If even R&S or Kumon do not seem to stick, then it might be worth looking at some of the "tools" used for dyscalculia. People I know who work with that population tend to be big fans of Ronit Bird.
OP, here. I missed this before and appreciate the thoughtful answer. Needing to excel is definitely NOT the problem. However, I worried that Kumon was too rote memorization. She can memorize facts and even strategies. But, I think because it's all memorization, being flexible with strategies and understanding what it all means is lost.
I think of Kumon & R&S as akin to musicians practicing scales. The major way to get an intuitive feel for something is to do a lot of it. The greater power of memorization, fluidity in calculation, etc is that it frees up mental resources -- when presented with an problem, you don't have to waste any of your IQ points on the cognitive load of figuring out, say, 9x8 - you can dedicate your full powers to the core issue.
But! Thinking more holistically, I think Singapore Math probably would be better fit for you -- I suspect it's not just number sense that is involved in your above-average kid underperforming at math, and number sense may grow with time and a reasonable amount of practice. I suggest US Edition because it is older and there is a LOT of materials and resources out there to help the parent (and they are available in used copies, so it's cheaper).
I have to disagree with the above with respect to Kumon as developing an "intuitive feel". From what I have seen, the reason that people think of Kumon as "drill and kill" is that it is an endless drill of very similar, basic, exercises, like pages and pages of them!. There are only scales, no actual problems to be solved, imagine forcing your child to only do that each day without playing a musical piece, they are surely likely to quit.
Anonymous wrote:pettifogger wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Third algebra 2 teacher, confirming everything stated above.
I usually spend 2.5 days reviewing factoring (algebra 1 spends weeks on it), give a short quiz, and then move on to the actual factoring applications that are in our curriculum. This year I’ve spent 5 days on it so far this year and kids are still struggling. So many of them didn’t get anything out of virtual (thanks, photomath) and those choices are coming back to haunt them this year.
I added extra days here because this skill is so critical to the rest of the year, but I can’t do it for every unit. Kids are going to have to get help outside class, whether from me, khan academy, or an outside tutor.
The vitrual math classesare really going to hit the class of 2026 hard on their SATs and PSAT.
Algebra is the most crucial subject for those tests.
I pulled my kid from fcps and put her in Catholoc for 8th. They had been going in person since August 2020 and had not switched to computer math. Everything was pencil to paper.in Algebra I. Best decision ever.
My kid was so behind for the entire first semester, in spite of testing in the mid 90s on the Iowa the Catholic school used for placement. It seems that she learned almost nothing from virtual pre Algebra in 2020/21 at her fcps middle school. The Catholic school kids were miles ahead of her. It took all year to catch up, but she only had a middle grade in Algebra.
She retook Algebra I online over the summer to raise the grade. Based on what she learned in Catholic school, she did very well in the condensed summer class and felt much more confident in her math knowledge and skills.
My suggestion would be to drop them down to non honors if theh are struggling, and maybe consider some sort of in person (not online) Algebra supplemental class like at Kumon, that starts from the very basic.
Fundamental algebra skills and knowledge are way too important to miss.
Distance learning sucked. We are going to reap the consequences for years down the road for most of the kids, but especially those who learned to read and write 2020-2022, those who were middle schoolers learning algebra, and the teens who are dealing with the emotional scars of those 2 wasted years.
Honestly, my blood is boiling reading all the messages from teachers saying that kids just have to work harder because they didn't learn the material. The kids did not learn the material because virtual teaching -- which teachers overwhelmingly wanted for the 20-21 school year -- was terrible for many kids.
Terrible because so many CHEATED. Sorry you cheated, kids!
Sorry you cheated. We teachers and admin knew about it and let it go. We knew you didn’t learn the materials and passed you with flying colors.sorry parents those grades were meaningless, and we didn’t warn you so now your kids are struggling this year.
My kid is OK (not great) but so many parents of my kids’ friends were blindsided.
My kid in AAP did very well and didn’t cheat during his virtual year which was 5th grade. That said, it was obvious there were gaps in math and the pace was slower. I tried to fill in with workbooks over the summer but it wasn’t enough. I knew then this would affect him so that he wouldn’t be able to take Algebra in 7th. Too many gaps. He still isn’t great with long division and long division with decimals. The next year (2021-2022 school year) math was hard and I had to help him a lot with homework, but he got it. This year in 7th he’s been totally fine on his own. But he is not in Algebra - he will be next year for 8th.
This is a mostly useless skill, especially division by decimals so I wouldn't worry about it. Just understand that division is trying to split a number into a bunch of groups and one algorithm for doing that is to repeatedly subtract from the original number and assign the quantity subtracted equally to each group. This main idea naturally leads to subtracting as much as you can (start by subtracting multiples of the divisor from the dividend, until you can no longer do it, leaving you with a remainder). Armed with this idea, your kid can come up with their own division algorithm and perform it in their own way, putting them in a great position to actually understand the standard division algorithm taught in school, which the overwhelming majority of all kids (and almost all adults!) don't fully understand.
To be ready for algebra, focus on understanding fractions really well, understand how to skip count extremely well including with fractions, understand place value very well, understand that division is defined as multiplication by the reciprocal, understand the distributive property really well and be able to explain why it works (i.e using geometry to split a rectangle into smaller rectangles), understand what an equation is and that if two quantities are equal certain operations can be done to both sides of an equation to leave it unchanged (i.e balance/scale analogy), understand what prime factorization is and be able to simplify fractions using prime factorization, be able to actually solve application problems involving fractions, understanding that ratios are just fractions, understand that one can think of multiplication intuitively as repeated addition and exponents as repeated multiplication, know a little bit about what a 'square root' is, (i.e the square root of a number is defined as the positive number that we can multiply by itself to obtain the number under the square root, understand the difference between expressions and equations, understand what an inequality is, understand how to represent an unknown quantity with a variable, and that's about it.
Well, yes, but I have kids in Calc BC who have never divided a function by a function. Makes it very difficult to teach integration by parts if I have to spend instructional time going over long division with numbers, then adding variables to it, then synthetic substitution, etc when all I want them to do is to simplify an integral so it is easier to deal with. Aggghh.
The root cause isn't division, it's just lack of number sense and problem solving skills spanning from as early as elementary, as well as various gaps in conceptual understanding (never mind a complete lack of basic geometric sense). Kids who have these skills can easily pick up a standard algorithm such as polynomial division. Kids who don't will need to put significant time and effort to get it (and one would hope they do so, if they were motivated to take Calc BC in the first place).
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Look it's very easy. This all started with the NAACP. Some/Most Democrats bend over backward for this organization, frankly because they are deathly afraid to be called racist.
You might not like Asra's approach but it's what needs to be done. Democrats need to be afraid that they will be called racist if they ever go against asians
That's all the democratic party is a bunch of spineless politicians afraid of special interest groups and kowtowing to increasingly extreme and radical demands to appear woke.
To be fair many republicans do the same thing with the insane MAGA crowd.
It's why unaffiliated is dramatically increasing. Both parties suck.
The problem is that Asra looks like a clown show because she's advocating on behalf of a people who are relatively VERY well off in the Northern Virginia area from her estate in Great Falls. Her message resonates with other rich folks but when she tries to compare their struggle to that of African-Americans in this country, she comes off as incredibly tone deaf to everyone who is NOT in her affinity group.
If you need evidence of how out of touch she is, look at the videos that she posts where she's shrieking like a lunatic. Any normal person would want to distance themselves from that sort of self-incriminating footage as much as possible, but she uses it as leverage to gain the sympathy of other folks who, like her, believe that Black people are inferior and undeserving.
If anything is out of touch, it's the TJ Alumni Action Group types pretending that admitting a few more Black kids to TJ is going to meaningfully address the "struggle of African Americans in this county."
FCPS just released Class of 2022 SAT scores. It's not pretty. Black kids continue to have the lowest scores of any group in the county. The average at Mount Vernon, of the schools with the largest percentage of Black kids, was only 988.
But, sure, keep pretending your efforts to replace merit at TJ with tokenism are going to move the needle in any meaningful way. It makes you feel good and as a bonus you get to toss grenades at the highest performing group, Asian students, whose parents often came this country with nothing.
1) A few more spots at TJ isn't going to address the struggle of African-Americans in this country. You're conflating arguments. My point was that Asra is a clown for comparing her struggles to theirs. That's not a controversial statement.
2) No one is tossing grenades at Asian students who has any decision-making power. Some idiots on here are, to be sure, but no one cares about them. What is happening is simply a long-term, still-in-progress adjustment to a process that demonstrably FAVORED Asian students through an over-emphasis on an outdated mode of evaluation that was compromised by a nine-figure prep complex that created huge advantages for families with disposable time, income, and the willingness to invest their resources to create imbalances in the process.
3) There are a staggering amount of Asian parents on this board who seem to want their children to get bonus points for the fact that they came to America with nothing. You are to be commended for the fact that you came to America and built a life for yourself through what undoubtedly was a huge struggle for you and a huge risk for your family. My father did the exact same thing.
But just as my parents provided a very comfortable life for me through THEIR hard work, your children likely have a lot of advantages that others don't through yours. Their lives will almost certainly be very comfortable as a result, irrespective of whether or not they matriculate to TJ or an Ivy League school or whatever. If I'm evaluating applications, I'm looking at context; what did this child do in the context of their circumstances? And while I think FCPS still has work to do in this area to identify the top students at each middle school (reinstituting teacher recs, conducting interviews, liaising with students services folks, etc), their attempt in this area is admirable.
Your kid is not being punished for your success - they're simply no longer being rewarded for it. And I can understand how that feels like a jab at you, given how many parents in that community seem to view TJ and college admissions acceptances as an accomplishment for the family (read: the parents) rather than for the student - but it's not. Schools aren't admitting parents; they're admitting kids.
You make a good argument and I agree with some of your points but what's missing is any acknowledgment that there always has been and continues to be a lot of discrimination against Asians in the United States. Not a day goes by when my child is not being made fun of or stereotyped for how they look. My child's good friend is Hispanic but white Hispanic with blond hair and when they talk about discrimination the friend shrugs and says they have not experienced any of it because of how they look. Why is my child's experience devalued?
It isn't... it just has nothing to do with getting into an elite school. The ugly historic discrimination that has been suffered by Asian-Americans in this country is something that we should all be ashamed of - but "my kid gets made fun of because of how they look" doesn't equate to "we have no money because my parents can't get a high paying job because people think Black folks are inherently dumber".
You really don’t get it do you? Asians also lose out on jobs too because people stereotype them as lower class, stupid because of accents, or other horrible ideas about race. Do you a white person actually have any idea what it is like? It goes far beyond being teased or bullied but the fact that you brush that off as not a big deal shows your ignorance. How dare you.
…what year do you think it is?
When corrected for education, Asians are the race least likely to be promoted to management or be elected to office.
Well that's because they do the real work that requires brains behind the scenes, management and politicians are mostly filled with dumba$$es. Many Asians could do those jobs easily, but they would not find their lives fulfilled by practicing deception on a daily basis or spouting off random feel good BS. The world advances on the backs of scientists, researchers, engineers and not very many folks here in the US are cut out to do those jobs. Politicians and managers? They're a dime a dozen.
The test was used as a means to eliminate many from consideration without even looking at achievements. Unfortunately only the wealthy could afford to buy advanced access to the test questions. The process was broken.
Fake news. The only thing they bought was lots of prep offered by various cram schools. And why shouldn't they, when in this area schools do a terrible job of teaching anything resembling math? You can see that by driving around and seeing how many different math prep companies exist (not just prep for TJ). There are too many to name and that speaks to how horrible the education in schools really is. If schools did an adequate job, math prep wouldn't be a huge business.
These math prep places exist to feed off the insecurities of recent immigrants. They aren't necessary or frankly wanted here. Acceleration by focusing on math for an extra 1-2 hours plus a day doesn't mean you are smart. I would wager at least the top 1/3 of students would be as least as "Advanced" if they were spending additional time on math.
Untrue, recent immigrants is a very small portion. One can see droves of UMC folks from the area (drive by McLean and Vienna and check out the crowds dropping kids off afterschool, and not all of them are there to get ahead, many are getting instruction to stay on level in school). At this point, it's well understood by many folks that something is wrong with how math is taught in schools in this area and it's not working for many kids... as a result these places are booming. Supply and demand.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Third algebra 2 teacher, confirming everything stated above.
I usually spend 2.5 days reviewing factoring (algebra 1 spends weeks on it), give a short quiz, and then move on to the actual factoring applications that are in our curriculum. This year I’ve spent 5 days on it so far this year and kids are still struggling. So many of them didn’t get anything out of virtual (thanks, photomath) and those choices are coming back to haunt them this year.
I added extra days here because this skill is so critical to the rest of the year, but I can’t do it for every unit. Kids are going to have to get help outside class, whether from me, khan academy, or an outside tutor.
The vitrual math classesare really going to hit the class of 2026 hard on their SATs and PSAT.
Algebra is the most crucial subject for those tests.
I pulled my kid from fcps and put her in Catholoc for 8th. They had been going in person since August 2020 and had not switched to computer math. Everything was pencil to paper.in Algebra I. Best decision ever.
My kid was so behind for the entire first semester, in spite of testing in the mid 90s on the Iowa the Catholic school used for placement. It seems that she learned almost nothing from virtual pre Algebra in 2020/21 at her fcps middle school. The Catholic school kids were miles ahead of her. It took all year to catch up, but she only had a middle grade in Algebra.
She retook Algebra I online over the summer to raise the grade. Based on what she learned in Catholic school, she did very well in the condensed summer class and felt much more confident in her math knowledge and skills.
My suggestion would be to drop them down to non honors if theh are struggling, and maybe consider some sort of in person (not online) Algebra supplemental class like at Kumon, that starts from the very basic.
Fundamental algebra skills and knowledge are way too important to miss.
Distance learning sucked. We are going to reap the consequences for years down the road for most of the kids, but especially those who learned to read and write 2020-2022, those who were middle schoolers learning algebra, and the teens who are dealing with the emotional scars of those 2 wasted years.
Honestly, my blood is boiling reading all the messages from teachers saying that kids just have to work harder because they didn't learn the material. The kids did not learn the material because virtual teaching -- which teachers overwhelmingly wanted for the 20-21 school year -- was terrible for many kids.
Terrible because so many CHEATED. Sorry you cheated, kids!
Sorry you cheated. We teachers and admin knew about it and let it go. We knew you didn’t learn the materials and passed you with flying colors.sorry parents those grades were meaningless, and we didn’t warn you so now your kids are struggling this year.
My kid is OK (not great) but so many parents of my kids’ friends were blindsided.
My kid in AAP did very well and didn’t cheat during his virtual year which was 5th grade. That said, it was obvious there were gaps in math and the pace was slower. I tried to fill in with workbooks over the summer but it wasn’t enough. I knew then this would affect him so that he wouldn’t be able to take Algebra in 7th. Too many gaps. He still isn’t great with long division and long division with decimals. The next year (2021-2022 school year) math was hard and I had to help him a lot with homework, but he got it. This year in 7th he’s been totally fine on his own. But he is not in Algebra - he will be next year for 8th.
This is a mostly useless skill, especially division by decimals so I wouldn't worry about it. Just understand that division is trying to split a number into a bunch of groups and one algorithm for doing that is to repeatedly subtract from the original number and assign the quantity subtracted equally to each group. This main idea naturally leads to subtracting as much as you can (start by subtracting multiples of the divisor from the dividend, until you can no longer do it, leaving you with a remainder). Armed with this idea, your kid can come up with their own division algorithm and perform it in their own way, putting them in a great position to actually understand the standard division algorithm taught in school, which the overwhelming majority of all kids (and almost all adults!) don't fully understand.
To be ready for algebra, focus on understanding fractions really well, understand how to skip count extremely well including with fractions, understand place value very well, understand that division is defined as multiplication by the reciprocal, understand the distributive property really well and be able to explain why it works (i.e using geometry to split a rectangle into smaller rectangles), understand what an equation is and that if two quantities are equal certain operations can be done to both sides of an equation to leave it unchanged (i.e balance/scale analogy), understand what prime factorization is and be able to simplify fractions using prime factorization, be able to actually solve application problems involving fractions, understanding that ratios are just fractions, understand that one can think of multiplication intuitively as repeated addition and exponents as repeated multiplication, know a little bit about what a 'square root' is, (i.e the square root of a number is defined as the positive number that we can multiply by itself to obtain the number under the square root, understand the difference between expressions and equations, understand what an inequality is, understand how to represent an unknown quantity with a variable, and that's about it.
Anonymous wrote:So, I have a 7th grader in my A2H this year and he’s struggling. A lot. The kid is a numbers wiz, has fabulous logical sense, but his brain literally isn’t developed enough to handle the abstract concepts we are covering. He’s only 12. Unfortunately, there’s nowhere for him to go now—he’s on the super advanced track and there’s no way to slow it down.
This is the risk of super advancing :/
Obviously there are some kids who can do calculus at age 5, but for the average super smart kid, speeding ahead is a race to nowhere.
I've had mostly the opposite experience. Almost all the 6th and 7th graders taking algebra 2 have done very well (significantly better on average than older students in the class). I've also found that kids with good number sense and a well developed feel for logical thinking have easily been able to grasp mathematical concepts. Algebra 2 concepts are not too particularly abstract. On the other hand, the kids who have done poorly were mainly 1) not willing to put effort to understand the material (i.e didn't regularly do the weekly assigned reading and homework), 2) did not care to ask for help and take advantage of coming a bit early before start of class or stay a few mins after to ask questions.
Anonymous wrote:A question I guess - would it be cheating for her to look online to try to figure out how to do the problems she gets stuck on? Or that is to be expected given the non-teaching approach? DD does not want to cheat of course but I’m also not sure what she’s supposed to do besides go online for answers if the teacher won’t help the kids figure things out .
- OP
OP, from reading this thread and your descriptions, I'm not fully convinced that the teacher will simply not help kids understand things. I have a feeling that there's more to this than meets the eye. For instance, I teach an AoPS course and some of the homework questions are pretty challenging. We have numerous instances of kids who just skip the problems, even though in class I am literally begging them to ask for help rather than wait a week for the next class (we have a message board where they can post a question whenever they are stuck on a problem and they often get a response within hours). However if they do not make any kind of effort to describe where they are stuck, what they have tried to do so far, etc. it's very hard to guide them. So I am curious as to how she has asked for help, has she tried something and explained to the teacher why it didn't work? Or did she start by saying something like "I don't know what to do" which would likely invite a response from the teacher as "have you looked at the notes/reading"? Teachers have very little time for 1 on 1 during class so they expect that students made some effort to understand/explain what they tried and show where they are stuck before they can effectively help. I think you should explore this in detail with her and try to pinpoint exactly what the problem is, and how she asked for help/what was the problem. I find it very hard to believe that teachers want students not to succeed, I imagine at TJ they are passionate about what they teach and want to impart that to students, but also expect them to make an initial effort to understand on their own.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have no idea. My child said he would volunteer, under the supervision of his chess tutor, to provide free chess lessons to younger kids in the community. National Junior Honor Society rejected this as community service.
That’s bc part of the service hours requirement is identifying a real (authentic) need. See here:
https://www.fcps.edu/activities/service-learning
Has your kid determined that there was a big gap in this and the need was genuine, that’s step one.
Mentoring/teaching younger kids is not an authentic need?
Anonymous wrote:pettifogger wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:taking both makes absolutely no sense.
Why? My kid is taking BC this year after AB last year. I encouraged it. In math, there is nothing quite like practice and I live that she is reinforcing concepts again.
Most kids would find it quite boring as most of the material in BC is a repeat of AB.
But if you are going into stem wouldn't this be better than taking statistics senior year? Or do you take BC over the summer and then linear algebra senior year? Generally curious. My son got a B in Precalc honors so is taking AB this year as a junior but wants to major in STEM.
With respect to college/STEM, I would say that learning the material well/getting an A is more important than which class to take. If he doesn't mind seeing the same calculus concepts for at least half a year all over again, then taking BC is fine, but it would be very good to be able to get an A in the class for STEM/college purposes (Something to consider: Would a kid be able to earn an A if he is unmotivated by over half of year of material because he thinks he already learned it and knows it?). Otherwise, taking AP stats instead is also fine, and might be easier to get an A with less effort. I don't think BC is really a requirement as most kids take calc again in college regardless, as others said, especially in STEM majors. AP stats does have more of a reputation for being watered down than BC calc, so there's that as well, but it could also be dependent on who teaches it (a more rigorous college level stats course would definitely make use of calculus to help elucidate statistical concepts, similar to physics... I don't believe AP stats uses calculus). As for your suggestion of taking BC over the summer and linear algebra senior year, that would be the most challenging/aggressive path, but I'd caution it unless your son shows strong interest in putting a lot of effort and is actually interested in doing that (you mentioned B in precalc, which suggests he would have to work very very hard to get A's, especially in linear algebra).