Reply to How's the year been? (Asking as we debate leaving private for public)

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Reply to "How's the year been? (Asking as we debate leaving private for public)"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This year hasn’t been great for us. My kid did fine in the pandemic because we heavily supplemented. That meant DC was above grade level this year, especially considering learning loss in the pandemic. Result has been that DC is not progressing at all this year—scores are actually down from last year. Basically kids above grade level are ignored in class. The one exception is compacted math.

I would stay in private if you can afford it. [/quote]
You are assuming that advanced kids are taught above grade level
At private when that is not always the case. So much depends on the private and public options in question. [/quote]

We tried to switch to private for this year for MS.  The ones with openings/would consider our child (or questionable openings where they might have some if they want your child) could not do the same math track and we'd have to pay extra for it or get a tutor/outside class.  They start Algebra much later.[/quote]

It depends on the school.  My small Catholic parochial (under $10K per year) has several eighth grade students doing Geometry.  Last year there were a few kids doing Algebra II in 8th.  This is a tiny school with only one class per grade.  It's been great having my daughter in small math and reading groups throughout her K-8 experience.  There are only 9 students in her math class.[/quote]

Catholic parochial’s are some of the bottom of the barrel and I am a Catholic. The kids you mentioned doing geometry I bet wouldn’t be able to in public and guarantee they are learning this from supplementing out. [/quote]

Nope.  My daughter is one of them.  Never had to supplement anything and she has to work hard at it.  She was lucky to be in person through the 2020-21 year, so she is not behind in math like the majority of MCPS and most public schools for that matter.[/quote]

I will add, unlike MCPS who pushes students up even if they didn't master material, my daughter will have to take a math placement test to move into Algebra 2.  MCPS just pushes kids through who passed by the skin of their teeth by either cheating or getting 50% on assignments for doing nothing.
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Our private pushes kids through in math too. In fact, they don’t have the amount of math paths that public offers so they have to get pushed on with what the private has. You are full is it. [/quote]

Private math stinks at some well regarded schools. Our private added some kids of a certain gender to the "highest math group(Algebra 1 in 7th grade)" to "balance it" out so that it was not mostly one gender of advanced math students in that grade. Those kids who were added to balance the gender proportion were not ready for that level, some got very low scores on tests initially and learned at a standard but not advanced pace, their parents complained it was too hard and then the class pace slowed down to accommodate them instead of putting them back in the regular track where those students actually belonged. Then the truly advanced kids felt bored, not surprisingly, and their needs were not met as intended by the groupings in the first place. In fact all the course curriculum was not covered as it was planned to be. I know this from conversations with other parents, things the teacher implied, in fact two of the incorrectly tracked kids parents themselves said they were surprised their child was put in the highest group and simultaneously complained the teacher was too hard and made a fuss about it to the head of middle school. It was a mess and all to give the appearance that all math groups were 50/50 male /female, etc. Totally not based solely on ability as it should be. Benefitted no one in the group. Not worth 35k a year in my opinion. [/quote]

I had similar situation but opposite.  Advanced math was all one gender (male).  My daughter was not challenged in her grade level math class and was actually tasked to help others in class when she finished her classwork.  When I learned this, I asked to have her moved up.  They eventually did (this was back in 5th grade) and she has kept up just fine.  They don't dumb down the curriculum...if anything, they discourage moving people up for concern of them not being able to handle the work.  Nobody has moved up to higher level math since 5th or 6th grade.[/quote]

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