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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Spare us your OT yikes. Have you ever set foot in SH?

My kid tested out of 6th grade math at SH, took pre-algebra in 6th, algebra in 7th this year.  That's BASIS level math. SH tracks extensively for math for the small number of kids who can handle acceleration.  [b]If your kid is advanced in math at SH they wind up in math classes with a dozen kids and great teachers.[/b]  Really.
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12 students per teacher for privileged math classes does not sound very equitable.[/quote]

Actually, [b]all [/b]children being appropriately challenged in math is equitable. [/quote]

Are they though, when most of the other kids are getting low results in math? This sounds more like resource hoarding by the few at the expense of everyone else.[/quote]

If they aren't being challenged, forbidding an advanced math class isn't going to fix it. If the advanced students have to be in with students who are getting lower results, that means the teacher of that classroom has to differentiate across a really wide range of grade levels, and the students at lower levels get less attention and focus than they would otherwise.  Or the upper level kids just have to be bored, I guess, maybe that's what equity means to you but I don't think it's very good.

Ideally each class would have a more cost-effective class size of 20-25 kids, and I have no doubt that Stuart-Hobson would like to build its math program to that level. But as long as kids are coming in way below grade level, it's going to be hard to get them up to "advanced" in the three years they spend at Stuart-Hobson. You can talk about "de-tracking" etc. and implement various improvements, but the bottom line is that three years is a very short time to catch up when some kids are at the 3rd grade level and others are already ready for pre-algebra or even Algebra 1.

If you want an advanced math class to exist, so that students of all races and backgrounds can have their appropriate level of challenge, then there has to be an advanced math class, or at least a group within a class. Otherwise low-income kids just don't get to be in advanced math classes at all. Is that equitable?[/quote]

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