Reply to Williamsburg Pre-Algebra, 931?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Wow you folks are obsessed.  Summer hasn’t even started yet[/quote]

I was one of the people who asked last year – it’s annoying that there are no *announced* guidelines or policies.  I asked at our elementary last year and got a totally BS answer that I knew was incorrect (they’ll evaluate kids at the beginning of the school year and decide where to place them in the first month or so of school), and when I tried to clarify, was shut down with “most kids don’t benefit from accelerated math and it’s highly inappropriate to parent place.”

Just announce the process/guidelines and that will cut down on a significant amount of speculation.  [/quote]

100% this. Although the website says parents will be notified in late June/early July. They do evaluate kids at the beginning of the school year though.

I bet they don't publish anything because it is not a fixed line. I also bet the scores for placement vary depending on the school.  Especially if pp is correct and higher scores are based on outside tutoring/help. S. Arlington/lower income schools are less likely to have that help and there is still a pre-algebra class at these schools. I know for a fact that at our school we had no kids score as high as some of the numbers being through around here, but our MS still has a pre-algebra class. Especially when you add in the Spanish schools which may have a different space due to language (especially when kids are more behind these past couple years due to covid). [/quote]
That makes sense. There may be some kids who can score highly on the test but not meet other readiness markers like attendance or study skills/work ethic. Automatically placing them would be a disservice [/quote]
That might apply to some kids but in general, if a kid is scoring above the SOL/MI threshold for acceleration, it's unlikely they have issues with attendance. Scoring high on a test of knowledge (not aptitude) requires a kid to have worked with the material consistently. 
A better approach is follow a PP's advice and do what FCPS does. Offer kids more challenging math material in ES so that all kids have the opportunity to accelerate in school. Then more kids would be able to meet the thresholds.  Failing to offer more challenging material is ES will lead families that are able to seek enrichment outside of school, which will lead to widening gaps in the number of kids meeting accelerated math thresholds according to the SES level of the MS.[/quote]
Our schools (one SA, one option) both provided opportunities for enrichment/acceleration. [/quote]

Enrichment is not acceleration. Our SA ES was very clear that enrichment is fine but nothing above grade level was allowed. They can only go deeper, not faster/higher. Kids in a school with that approach who aren’t learning on their own or from a parent/tutor/outside vendor outside of school hours are NOT going to meet the score threshold. The economic/ethnic makeup of the accelerated class at our MS bears this out. APS is doing equity wrong and it pisses me off. It’s widening gaps, not closing them![/quote]

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