Reply to new TJ principal streamlines math courses

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Getting rid of RS1 is a great loss. Nobody in math department thinks it is a good idea. But principal did not ask for input. It might be just for the ratings - getting everyone into AP Precalc increases the number of AP courses taken per student. Ratings. Why would TJ student need AP Precalc. No STEM program in any college would count it for credit. Similar changes in Science. Wonderful  unique Geosystems gone to be replaced by standard AP Environmental Science. Like in any base school. These are not good changes. [/quote]
You're misinformed. These changes were thoughtfully implemented by the new principal with input from TJ math teachers, upperclassmen, and alumni parents. You may be getting mixed up with the previous principal, who lacked understanding of TJ's coursework and showed little interest in enhancing academic rigor. In contrast, fortunately, the new principal is a TJ alumnus with extensive STEM teaching and leadership experience.

RS1, as a standalone semester course, lacked a clear purpose. It was a watered down  intro to statistics that consumed valuable freshman time, often to their frustration. Now, the basic aspects of RS1 has been integrated into a revamped, two-semester version of the new Math 3.

Previously, students who wanted to pursue RS2 (TJ’s AP Statistics) often found RS1 redundant, noting that its topics were covered in the first few weeks of RS2 anyway. Moreover, neither RS1 nor RS2 provided adequate preparation for RS3, TJ’s advanced statistics course.

This feedback was largely ignored by the previous principal,  mostly due to lack of math or stem background. The new principal, however, asked the math department to redesign the statistics sequence. Their suggestion was to convert RS1 into a rigorous, in-depth semester course, with RS2 continuing as the follow-on with ap stats. Together, these now form the revised TJ AP Statistics track.

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Rather, I believe it is you who is misinformed. The principal went in with the highly focused idea of putting as many AP courses into the curriculum as he could. He jammed them in as fast as he possibly could without listening to anybody except himself.[/quote]

I don't think parents or kids are happy with the math department. Show me where we signed on to have to hire teachers to teach our kids math because TJ teachers don't do so?

And before another person cries "rigor" I went to MIT and our Professor Mattuck, aka dropped-acid-with-Nash-at-Princeton, was a phenomenal lecturer. This Curie bullsh&t isn't the way MIT teaches so why would TJ teach this way?[/quote]

My child is extremely happy with the math department and with each and every one of the math teachers they had a class with. When I attended the back to school night and met the teachers, I was really impressed with many of the teachers and particularly Chemistry, Physics, History and Math teachers. I cannot be more thankful for these teachers.

The teachers thoroughly cover all the concepts and teach them exceptionally well. Some teach exactly like they teach at MIT - those are the words the Physics teacher used who taught at MIT.

If a child needs tutors it is due to one of two reasons:

1. Child is not paying attention in class and/or not doing the follow up homework exercises, or

2. Child is likely not a fit at TJ for any number of reasons.

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Yes only kids who have spent years in AoPS and RSM need apply.... <sarcasm>[/quote]

Those programs pride themselves on teaching this type of thinking. My kid has done both, he does RSM now, and both programs are clear that they include problems that the kids will struggle with so that they learn to ask questions. They problems they work on in class and homework are intentionally multi-step problems. Whether you like it or not, many of the kids applying to TJ have been doing some sort of outside enrichment because they like math and they like science. They have been exposed to this type of thought process, and they don't find it challenging. DS joined his AoPS class halfway into the year during COVID. He didn't miss a step and was on par with the kids who had been in the class all year. This is how his brain works. Parents with kids applying to TJ should know that there are a good number of kids applying with a similar background. They do math competitions and science competitions for fun, and they win or are in the 99th percentile. Those are their peers at TJ. If you are expecting that the school is not aware of that and expecting kids to be at that level, then you are crazy. That is the point of TJ, teaching bright kids who are strong in STEM and interested in STEM. The classes are going to move faster and the expectation is that the kids will pick up the material more quickly.

It sounds like kids who are smart and have not been as focused on STEM outside of school have to work harder, but is that a surprise?

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This is just patently not true. There are a ton of parents in the freshman chat complaining about the math format. You're basically guaranteed to have a C when the quiz format is 4 points. Not everyone at TJ does competitions and that shouldn't be an expectation.[/quote]

And yet they do.  My kid struggled as a freshman in Algebra 2.  He had to get used to the idea that math was hard.  It isn't a handful of algorithms and a few disjointed concepts.  He got C's early on and ended with a B+, it was a lesson learned and I am grateful he learned that lesson in 9th grade and not in college or on the job.

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I think the leg up that the RSM, AoPS, Curie kids is that they are used to the concept that math is hard and that it is applied. The work that they get in those programs is more then learning the algorithms but applications and multi-step processes. They discuss the problems and realize that there are multiple approaches. At least, that is what my kid got in AoPS and now RSM. I suppose you could hope that they introduce that concept in Algebra 1 and Geometry in MS but I suspect that would cause heart burn as well. I know kids working hard for their Bs in Algebra 1, adding in another layer of difficulty would sink them. And FCPS just made it easier to take Algebra 1H in 7th grade and Algebra in 8th.

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Multi-step and multiple approaches are taught starting in elementary school. The whole insane moaning about "Common Core" is from parents who don't like the multiple approaches [/quote]

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