Reply to LCPS Math placement for 5th graders, rising 6th graders

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a parent of 9th and 6th graders in LCPS, both bright honors students, there has been no discouragement of taking Algebra in 8th or even in 7th. My 9th grader took it in 7th and did great and is currently in A2T. My current 6th grader is in Foundations and has already been told that she may take Algebra or Pre Algebra next year - her choice. She has had a high A average all year in Foundations.

No one has discouraged anything. [/quote]
Good that it has worked for your kids. There are different types of discouragement. LCPS has been explicit in discouraging 6th grade Algebra 1 in public statements and actions. However, there are other types of discouragement that are not explicit, like raising eligibility thresholds. Over the last five years or so, LCPS brought down the share of kids taking middle school Algebra 1 from roughly 80% to 60%, motivated by the 2016 SOL revision which emphasized algebra readiness/9th grade Algebra 1 and anticipation of the former VMPI. This is implicit discouragement. The concern is whether this trend will continue which is generating the interest in this year's selection process. Hopefully your 6th grader's positive experience applies to others as well.[/quote]
Another factor might be the school closures have lowered the performance level.  My kids elementary I observed over two years, the 2021-2022 cohort was not as strong in math.  2020-2021 would have sent several kids to 6th grade algebra if it were allowed.[/quote]
Yes, good point. That is likely a factor as well. The difficulty is that many factors converged at once. In theory, shares may retrace some this year as covid shocks ease. However, will districts will take advantage of the accelerated shares being down and opt to keep them down? As another PP noted, LCPS acknowledged around the time of VMPI that they had begun to decelerate their program. They also had math teachers participate in a book study on how to differentiate in heterogenous classes. We'll see if their views change now or not. It would be interesting to see what the testing thresholds/criteria for entering 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Algebra 1 have been since 2015 and how they've evolved as a way of gauging the impact of explicit policy change. Do posters with older kids remember what the prior testing thresholds were? Ideally, districts would make these thresholds public and transparent; it would help families have a better understanding of the fundamental skills needed to qualify for acceleration and would inspire confidence in the objectivity of the process. [/quote]

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