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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our school had a presentation from the county tonight, and it almost felt like they were trying to talk us all out of doing it.

Takeaways:

No materials are being provided to teachers by the county except mathspace accounts.

No data will be provided to parents on skipped standards or weak prealgebra skills until MAP data comes in a few weeks, and then they aren’t sure how much information that will provide since it hasn’t been used in elementary before.

The threshold to take algebra this year in 6th is lower than in the past. They could not explain why it was chosen, what the numbers mean, or why they think children at that threshold will be successful.

There is no plan going forward to streamline 3/4/5th grade so that future kids don’t skip 2 years of math to take algebra in 6th. The goal is to get everyone regardless of AAP on a track to algebra in 8th and just move to algebra earlier if they score high on whatever tests.

They chose to automatically opt in instead of have parents opt in because “not all parents read school communications” (our parent community was ticked at this and very much argued that going forward families should not be auto enrolled). Feedback was “county is just trying to remove all barriers to algebra 1 in 6th grade”.

I’m disheartened at how poorly this is being done.

I felt bad, the presenters clearly thought the program was unnecessary and have been handed this mandate from Reid. But at the same time…man, it’s horribly done.[/quote]

[b]This is completely contrary to what we were told just last week. At that session, we were assured that Dr. Hunter and her team would provide teachers with all curriculum materials—since many have never taught this course before—and that Mathspace would be used only as a supplement, not as the sole resource. They also said that both formative and summative assessments would be developed and provided by the instructional team. If yesterday’s session at your school communicated something different, then a lot has changed in just a week.[/b]

I’m also still waiting for clarification on a critical issue: whether students will need a 7th grade Math SOL score on file in order to retake Algebra 1 HN in 7th grade if they choose to expunge their grade. The deadline to opt out is tomorrow, and I still don’t have an answer. Right now, the stated requirements for Algebra 1 HN in 7th grade are (1) being in an advanced math program or having taken 7th grade math [b]and[/b] (2) earning an advanced pass on the 7th grade SOL. But students in this pilot won’t have that SOL score, because they’ll be taking the Algebra 1 SOL instead.  https://www.fcps.edu/academics/advanced-academic-programs-aap/middle/honors-grades-7-8

It is extremely problematic that FCPS keeps touting expungement as a safeguard while leaving this question unresolved. It points to how poorly thought out the implementation of this pilot has been. Parents who assume their child can simply expunge and retake Algebra 1 HN in 7th grade should beware: unless FCPS removes the 7th grade SOL requirement, these students may be pushed into taking Algebra 1 HN in 8th grade instead—when they otherwise would have had the right to take it in 7th.

For families where STEM math sequencing is important, this creates a serious risk. And, given how FCPS tends to handle these issues, I worry we won’t get a definitive answer until June—at which point they may simply announce that any student who wants to retake Algebra 1 HN in 7th will be required to take the 7th grade SOL in July (make-up session) and earn an advanced pass, despite not having studied 7th grade math during the year.

A total mess.[/quote]

Was Dr. Hunter at your meeting? She was "unable to attend" ours, so it was just two Ellens (1 said she'd been in the position 1 month, the other said 9 months. Read: We aren't responsible for this cluster!) I'd put more faith in Dr. Hunter's own words.

One of the Ellens said "FCPS has always provided a full suite of resources to all our teachers. Middle and high school teachers just don't like to use them and make their own. Our elementary school teachers have a history of using what the county provides." Except we know that's a lie and middle and high school math teachers have NOT gotten a full suite of resources, they have random links in a pdf and a log in to mathspace, so if that is what is being given to elementary teachers, God speed.[/quote]

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