Reply to Lottery season reminder: your kids don't need to hear about DCUM stuff

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Stuart Hobson and John Francis should probably add Geometry.  That would bring the number of DCPS middle schools with at least some students taking Geometry up from 7 to 9.  SH previously had Geometry but then decided that the added acceleration was not necessarily helping its students.  They were learning algebra better with another year of pre-algebra.  There are lots of areas where DCPS might warrant criticism but math is tracked at every middle school.[/quote]

Well then it sounds like to me that having Geometry was not the issue.  The issue was that students were being put in the class who should not have been in it at all.  They did not master Algebra and so likely struggled and couldn’t hack it.

What you need to do is gatekeep entrance to advance math.  You can’t just let anybody in.  That helps no one because not only will the kids struggle but you drag the whole class down and slows it way down.  You also can’t go deep if the kids can’t grasp basic concepts.

DCI does a good job of gatekeeping all their levels of advance math, because one of the criteria’s that they use is standardized test scores in addition to grades and teachers rec. 
Basis uses comps as a way of advancing or not.
[b]
The issue is that DCPS won’t use objective data like standardized tests or any entrance testing due to “equity”.[/b]  I mean look at the fiasco with Wall admissions now.

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Not true -- your example, Francis, uses standardized math scores to let kids onto the Algebra track. The math class is the one thing that is actually pretty good. [/quote]

What test do they use and what is the criteria for entrance?  Why don’t they offer Geometry?[/quote]

DCPS schools use iReady. They have a percentile cutoff of math classes. [/quote]

What is the percentile cut off and is this iready score based on kids across the country taking it or only DC kids?

Is above the only criteria to be in the class?  Is there fluidity and kids are moved down after school starts who can’t handle it?

Why don’t they offer any advance math like geometry?

If you are a parent there, you should have transparency about above and answers to above.

[/quote]

This feels very aggressive.

Yes, iReady is a really common standardized test that is used across the country, including in Fairfax County, to determine math placement.

We are not a parent at Francis because my kid got a spot at a high quality charter middle school, but we looked very closely at the school bc it's our feeder.

The math was not the problem there, the math teachers are excellent and they are tracked using teat scores. The other classes were actually more worrying bc the school can't create tracks so all the rest of them are gen ed.

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