Reply to Old VMPI plans & FCPS’s E3 Math Pilot

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Reply to "Old VMPI plans & FCPS’s E3 Math Pilot"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We are at a pilot school (I have a level 3 4th grader who would have done advanced math in 4th grade if we weren't piloting E3), and I had a lot of concerns, but they have all been addressed and I feel good about E3 math. First of all, we were told clearly by our principal and an FCPS math curriculum specialist that 5th and 6th grade advanced math is NOT changing. There will still be tracked advanced math, where 5th graders learn the 6th grade curriculum and take the 6th grade SOL, available to all students who qualify through SOL scores, teacher rec, beginning of the year pre-test, etc.

The change is that kids aren't tracked ahead in 3rd and 4th grade, instead they get extensions in the classroom. Yes, this puts a lot on the teachers. Because we're a pilot program, we do have a math specialist assigned to our school who lesson plans with the 3rd and 4th grade teams to develop extensions. There also seems to be more math in the Level 3 pull outs than there used to be. E3 philosophy is to go deeper into content rather than covering more skills at a surface level. They said they were finding gaps appear down the road, even showing up in high school, for students who jump and skip a year of content (which all advanced math kids do at some point), and this new curriculum, which will eventually extend all the way down to Kindergarten (NOT up to replace the current advanced math path), is supposed to fill in those gaps so that every student with the ability is ready for the jump to advanced math.

Like I said, I was REALLY not a fan of piloting this program, but I was impressed with the presentation from FCPS and relieved that advanced math in 5th grade and up isn't changing. I guess we'll see how my 4th grader does on the math SOL this year, after using this new curriculum. [/quote]
There are trade-offs to going slower in Grades 3-4. It means that kids will have more rapid compaction of content in upper elementary than would otherwise have had. The higher the grade, the more complicated the concepts and the tougher to compact for kids. That was why FCPS initially chose to begin acceleration in Grades 3/4 so the ramping up was more gradual and later elementary would be less rushed. [/quote]

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