Reply to Ideas for a viable accelerated math approach to advocate for?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It sounds like MCCPTA is pushing for bussing to nearby schools as the solution for this.  I'm skeptical that's going to fly, given the budget constraints.

I'm concerned because it feels like parents are not reading between the lines here.  No one has been able to come up with a good low-cost solution for this besides "put full-sized classrooms of kids into accelerated math in ES, whether they need it/are able to handle it or not," which MCPS is clearly not going to do anymore.  Budgets are too tight to expect any more-expensive solutions to be implemented.  Unless there is a creative affordable strategy we can come up with, I think accelerated math in ES is dead.[/quote]

What I don't understand is why keeping the compacted math track would introduce any additional budget burden over the current budget request? Just let the rising 4th grader who should be accelerated to take 4/5, and rising 5/6 grader to take the new 5/6 (there are a couple unit overlapping or skipping, where the new curriculum vendor promised to help bridging), and let the rising 6th grader graduating from the compacted math to take 7th grader course or pre-algebra so to seamlessly merge with the new math pathway.[/quote]

The issue is that many schools right now are including way too many kids who shouldn't be in compacted math into compacted math right now, in order to make their 4/5 and 5/6 classes roughly the size of their other math classes.  If they do it that way, there's no budget impact, but you have a lot of kids going at a fast pace and not really fully understanding the concepts they're speeding through, which comes back to bite them.  If MCPS left things as-is there wouldn't be a cost impact, but they clearly don't want to and I don't blame them.  It's hard enough to get below-level kids to score proficient in math; it's not good for anyone to push above-average kids through math too fast to the extent that they're now scoring below-level by the time they get to algebra (when they would likely have been on or above level if they just went at a normal pace.)

But if you cut the number of kids in compacted math significantly, to the kids who really need and thrive in compacted math-- which is maybe half of them or so-- no one has been able to come up with an affordable way to do that (unless you keep the staffing the same and make the on-level math classes much larger, which doesn't cost money but is also obviously not something MCPS is going to support.)  Which is presumably why MCPS has come up with this doomed cluster-grouping plan.  [/quote]

This accurately states the challenge and my solution would be 1) Update the CES to accommodate  reading and/or math for students where they don’t have a large enough in school peer group.  Keep everyone else at their home schools. 2)Factor the math specialist and coaches into teaching the compacted class. 3)Set real criteria for acceleration and remaining in an accelerated class to stop the parental jockeying.[/quote]

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