Reply to Algebra in 9th

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "Algebra in 9th"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm confused also. I have a 6th grader who does great in math but it isn't her favorite thing so we've kept her in Gen Ed math for elementary, and would be fine with reg Math 7 next year.

Reading the middle school course catalog, the descriptions for Math 7 and Math 7H both say they prepare for Algebra 1, and both are listed as acceptable pre-reqs under Algebra 1 and Algebra 1 HN. It seems like going from regular Math 7 to Algebra would be skipping something, yet most FCPS 8th graders take it. So maybe regular Math 8 is a lot of repeat of Math 7? Hopefully someone can weigh in.

[/quote]

I'm in Arlington and we have the 6-8 middle school model; but Arlington revised its middle school pathways last year so that fewer students would be in the most advanced track and, so we were told, taking Algebra before high school.  The problem has been an insufficiently solid foundation and students struggling and falling off the advanced path in high school.  So for reasons unexplained, the two Math 6 options became math 6 and a math 6-7-8 course.

Technically, students don't skip material.  It's more likely that they move through it much faster and therefore do not have as much time to master individual topics or to get as much practice and understanding before moving on.  So now Arlington has Math 6 students that they are pushing back into essentially the old advanced pathway with a combined Math 7-8 class in 7th.  There has been no explained theory as to why this resolves the original problem, and since this is only the first year of the new pathway there is absolutely no data to demonstrate if it continues the same problems.

I'm not a professional; but I'm a firm believer that it's better to have an easier go at math and have confidence in one's math ability than to push too hard and turn students further away from enjoying, liking, or even tolerating math.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics