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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Not reasonable to blame UMC parents with children in DCPS elementary programs for voting with their feet to charters, the burbs and privates for MS in view of the fact that DCPS has made 2 catastrophic decisions about its MS programs over the years:

Decision #1: DCPS leaders have fought both academic tracking and test-in MS programs tooth and nail. They currently allow a few MS schools to offer at-grade level classes for math and maybe ELA, that's it. 
Decision #2: DCPS  has let its only MS program that draws most of its in-boundary families--Deal--to become terribly overcrowded. This year, Deal has more than 600 more students than the facility was built for.

It's much too easy to point the finger at parents who run from DCPS after 4th or 5th grade, calling them racist, elitist etc.

If any one of the 3 DCPS Capitol Hill middle schools offered a full menu of bona fide honors classes--in science, social studies, math and ELA--from 6th-8th grade, we'd be there in a minute. None does, so we hope for Latin or BASIS.[/quote]

I don't disagree with any of this and agree it's too easy to blame racism or elitism when often parents are just trying to find a viable option for their kids that creates a path to HS and college. That's not too much to ask.

We are IB for Eastern and my DH was totally hung-ho about us doing SH and then Eastern and couldn't understand why I was not sold until I recently mentioned that Eastern doesn't even offer AP Calculus. DH is a proud graduate of public schools who also happens to be an engineer and loved math growing up. Even his rural, underfunded, football-obsessed HS had AP Calculus and Physics, and taking those classes got him on path to a job he loves.

Suddenly he gets it. No one wants to limit their children that much. [/quote]

So I don't know much about Eastern, but don't they have the IB diploma which would basically have a math option at the same level as AP Calculus. [/quote]

It's still a relatively new program and I don't know enough about how many kids are enrolled in it and what the grade 11 and 12 offerings are to say. In theory, yes, but if the program is undersubscribed, can they guarantee a qualified math teacher at that level for the program? I think it's great Eastern is doing the program but it does make the entire thing opaque. I also know that in theory, you don't have to do the IB diploma to take IB content as honors courses, but again, it's a question of staffing and whether they can fill classes. There is a huge difference between taking an AP Calc (or the equivalent in IB) class or doing that level coursework in a mixed-level math class where most of your classmates are not doing the same work. This is the whole issue with MS and HS in DCPS -- if you can't guarantee even at-grade-level peers, much less accelerated peers, how can you guarantee coursework for kids who are at-grade-level or above? The refusal to commit to kids who need this coursework causes families to look elsewhere, and then it never gets better.[/quote]

Come on people.  There is no advanced math being taught with rigor.  Just look at Eastern’PARCC math scores.  0% kids are even on grade level.  The overwhelming majority 86%, are not only below grade level but way below grade level at PARCC 1 and 2.

You can name a course however you want it.  I wouldn’t rely on course titles.  You need to look at the kids performance and peer groups performance.  There is no way I would send a kid on grade level there let alone a kid above grade level.  Easy A’s with no effort and totally unprepared for any competitive high school.[/quote]

Also these numbers will of course be much worst now with the pandemic and huge learning loss.[/quote]

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