Reply to Compacted 4/5 math

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It is a response to the roll out of curriculum 2.0 for this year's 3rd graders (meaning, next year's 4th graders).  This year, 3rd graders weren't allowed any acceleration and MCPS finally realized that this wasn't going to work.  Next year, they will have 4/5 in order to address that problem (so kids won't be artificially slowed down next year).

I agree with the pp's question about why MCPS would suddenly require parental permission for acceleration of this kind.  I wonder what that is really about.  There just isn't a precedent for that type of parental approval.  Yes, parents have always been able to speak with the school and change placements when appropriate, but never before to my knowledge has there been a front-end parental approval required.  The skeptic in me wonders what this is about.[/quote]j

I don't know that asking for parental permission is a new thing.  Our school was accelerating pre-C2.0 and always asked the parent's to sign off on it.  Maybe there was no blanket policy on this, but certainly our principal did it.  It was probably a cover-your-butt move, but who can blame the principal?  If the kid does badly later and the parents signed off on it.....

Also, I do think parents need to be included in these decisions.  A student who takes compacted 4/5/6 math will end up taking Algebra in 7th grade and Geometry in 8th grade.  Those are both HS credit classes that go on the transcript.  Also, the student will end up taking Calculus in 11th grade and a second AP or college math class in HS.  The parent is the one who can think globally about whether the child is mature enough to handle this kind of pressure and whether it meshes with other student and family commitments.

For example, for my eldest DC -- a good, highly organized student, this accelerated pathway is fine.  For DC#2, who has ADD and other challenges, this pathway might not be the best (even though DC#2 has been selected for it).  It's hard to see DC#2 carrying both a foreign language and a HS math class in middle school when his ADD is likely to make juggling 7 different classes quite difficult.  It really should be our personal family choice whether to accelerate or not after the school recommends whether it thinks the student can or can't be successful.  [/quote]

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