Reply to Does compact math get your ready for IM?

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[quote=Anonymous][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]

OP here.  Yes, this was my daughter.  She is a freshman in college.  I didn't realize they were the last class that got to do that. We loved that math track prior to 2.0 and she did excellent in it.  She even took 2 math classes junior year.  I guess her Math 7 was considered pre-algebra and that is why she went into Algebra 1 at 6th.  No one asked.  That was where she was placed.

So what people are saying is that now kids can skip Math 6 and go right into IM, but no one can skip IM.   But that Math 5/6 goes too fast and doesn't allow them to digest the concepts. So it almost seems better to not take compacted math?    I guess my biggest pet peeve is how slow the math is in elementary school.  I mean the absolute first time my daughter was taught time was mid year 2nd grade.  Multiplication wasn't until the very end of 3rd and only because she was in a pull away group.  So if 4/5 is slow and 5/6 is too fast.  Ugh!!  I just wish they went at a move even pace.  I wish they tracked the kids in math classes, than pull away groups.  The smarter groups were hardly ever pulled.  And the review books we had for my older daughter?  My youngest couldn't do half of the old work books 2-4th grade. Not just the math workbooks she had in school (yes they actually had physical workbooks!!)  But even the ones purchased from Barnes and Noble.  So we really needed to supplement.  I guess she just got the shaft being in 2.0.  [/quote]

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