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[quote=Anonymous][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.  [b]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.  [/b]

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]

The bolded coupled with some notoriously bad MS math teachers.  My kid and several of his friends were very advanced heading into MS and the instruction for 2 solid years was plain awful.  Watching videos while math teachers knitted during class.  I can honestly say he regressed and I had not idea as he was getting As when he was telling me how bad it was and how the kids didn't understand anything.  IT took a bunch of them not doing very well on the Algebra year Final to make most parents realize repeating Algebra in 8th and hoping for new/different teachers was the best.  Pushing ahead into Intensified Geometry with such a shitty base would spell disaster down the road.  I am a STEM professional with a graduate degree---and, TRUST ME, nobody was taking sophomore level Multivariable Calculus Junior year in college which is what APS' path is.  In fact, their data shows kids on that path ended up doing worse overall and only 70 kids total completed that path. If you know how enormous APS MS/HS population is--you would realize what a tiny percentage that is.

I have some friends winging it.  Their kids needed tutors in 7th just to hang in Algebra---but most of these kids just want to get the math out of the way because they don't want to pursue STEM careers and don't want to have to take the Math in HS.  The parents I know that are STEM oriented---engineers, biologists, Doctors, etc., are more concerned about a SOLID math foundation before pushing ahead because they know how bad it is to have a shaky foundation in those fields.  Math builds.  It's like having sand for a house foundation if you move on before you are proficient.  Again, THE GRADE, does not determine the proficiency level---when quizzed later they retained nothing.[/quote]

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