Reply to Compacted Math- FYI

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is such a slap in the face for Kidd who succeed and are clearly able to thrive in a compacted math setting but who didn’t have the tutors  as prep to secure that 90+ percentile score. And why now? After all these kids have endured for the last year?

So lame and completely antithetical to what this school district is supposed to strive for.[/quote]

MCPS is looking down the road. A child who is scoring in the 70th percentile in 4th grade is probably not going to be ready for Algebra in 7th. Kids who are scoring in 90th percentile and up are not doing so based on prepping - they have mastered the material and are ready for the next thing. Yes, maybe some are getting tutoring but the kids getting PREPPED are in the 99th percentile. The kids in the 91st or so, who are ready for 5/6? Those are just kids who have mastered the work in front of them.

Folks are being very myopic on this thread. If MCPS holds itself to this standard, a lot of kids are going to be in Math 5 next year rather than 5/6. That means they will enter middle school with a strong grounding to prepare them for Pre-Algebra in 7th and Algebra in 8th.  That is a perfectly acceptable track and is, in fact, the "advanced" track in many other parts of the country. Why not take that extra year and do Algebra in 8th with the rest of the United States?

Don't let your ego about your kid being "one of the smart ones" get in the way of an actual math track that will give them the grounding they need to succeed down the road in middle and high school. [/quote]

I don´t think I hear a lot of concern about kids being the ¨smart ones¨ on this thread.  I hear concern about kids who are doing the work who will be set back on their track based on testing.  Nobody likes a cut score, because everyone´s circumstances are different.  Also, MCPS is using the pandemic to change philosophy about acceleration.  They have gone from ¨the more the merrier, let´s put all of College Gardens into 4/5¨ to performance based measures - ¨we will cut you from the course if you don´t perform."  We just want kids to learn the math, right?  [/quote]

I really don't think this is a dramatic change, though. It only feels that way because we were all prepped by a troll to expect a cut-off of 251 so everyone was watching the thread and freaking out. What MCPS is saying this year is not that different than what MCPS said the year my oldest started compacted math. High MAP scores + good grades in the existing math class. I can't remember the exact cut-off for compacted, but I do think it matters a lot that the curriculum has been dramatically scaled back this year. A child getting As on a reduced curriculum just isn't ready to pick up the 5/6 curriculum next year as though nothing happened.

I also think MCPS may be realizing they made a mistake with the College Gardens approach. That cohort is this year's 7th graders unless I'm mistaken. That's just about the right time for MCPS to figure out that the "more is better" approach has produced some kids who are not ready for Algebra because they lack the foundational skills. [/quote]

What is the College Gardens approach?[/quote]

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