Reply to Does compact math get your ready for IM?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Compact math has got to be the slowest "enriched" math class I have ever seen.

My other child went thru the previous system and was on Math 7 in 5th grade and went to Algebra 1 for 6th.  So we have no idea what IM is or if this new compact math class gets them ready for whatever IM is in 6th and Algebra 1 in 7th.   We keep hearing some kids are able to move into IM in 6th that never took compact math.  So if kids can go right into IM after completing 5th grade math - is IM just a review of 6th grade math the compact kids learned?  Is there a way kids can skip IM and go to Algebra 1 in 6th?  I just seems pretty random and no one at the math meeting could truly even explain what IM is.  [/quote]

The accelerated pathway is 4th (4/5 compacted), 5th (5/6 compacted), 6th (IM-pre-algebra which is 7/8 compacted) 7th (Algebra I)
So no OP IM is not a repeat of 5/6. They take lots of things learned earlier in math and make them more abstract. Like if you have a number to the power of something in the numerator and the same number to the power of something else in the denominator how do you re-write the fraction using variables?

IMHO, it's not that impossible to skip Math 6 if you have a child who is bright and can learn and practice on her own. This is why you see it happen occasionally. But it's another thing entirely to skip, completely skip (and I don't mean teaching your child all this at home) from pre-algebra and leap from Math 5/6 straight to Algebra.
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The very last students who went through MCPS pre-2.0 graduated last year.  Some of those students were able to take pre-algebra while still in their home elementary school.  My DC wasn't one of those, but in HS she had friends on this track.  There are the parents who repeat the MCPS line, that this was too much acceleration, and students were missing fundamentals.  And certainly that may have happened in cases.  But for the most part, the students who had this opportunity did very well because of it.  Both because they got to work on math at the level that kept them engaged and because they escaped without being guinea pigs for the 2.0 HS sequence.[/quote]

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