Reply to Not being in Math 4/5?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I for one am very appreciative of the PP who posted the opinion appealling the CM placement decision.  If it's the father himself, kudos to him.
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Why? I mean, it sounds like the school district repeatedly met with him, etc. and gave him plenty of info to show his kid shouldn't be in CM.  Why did he keep pursuing this?[/quote]

Because the father was convinced that his kid was advanced since he could do advanced math at home.  I stated previously, just because a kid can do advanced math doesn't mean he really understands it because some advanced math can be learned simply by rote.  From what I can see, being in compacted 4/5 math is not the same as being able to do long division quickly, for example.   Again, doing long division can be learned by rote.   Under 2.0, you have to show clear understanding of certain concepts by explaining it, with words or diagrams. [/quote]

As the parent of an LD child who is highly gifted and very good at math, I think long division is an excellent example, but not in the way you mean.

My DC has difficulty doing long division correctly and quickly because of his LD's -- difficulty remembering math facts consistently and quickly (linked to an expressive language deficit), difficulty writing the computation (due to dysgraphia), difficulty working a computation quickly (due to slow processing).

When my DC took the acceleration test, his teacher failed to give him any of the accommodations specified in his IEP.  He is supposed to get extra time, a scribe, and a non-distracted environment, none of which happened.  Instead, the teacher sent selected kids into the hallway to take the exam on the floor.  DC described how classes would troop thru the hallway from the nearby stairwell while he was taking the exam.

If you ask DC to perform in class without the needed accommodations, he looks "dumb".  If you provide accommodations, DC can perform.

Since the school had previously failed to select DC for acceleration in 1st grade under the pre-C2.0 curriculum (because they misattributed the LDs as disobedience, lack of motivation and lack of ability), and I had been fighting MCPS for over a year for the IEP, by the time we got to the compacted 4/5/6 selection process, the school selected DC for testing.  He just scraped by the selection process; I'm sure his "test score" was artificially low due to lack of accommodations but that his overall score was inflated by the teacher who knew pretty well by then that I would contest any decision not to place DC in the compacted course.

The compacted 4/5/6 procedure should be fully transparent.  All kids with IEPs and 504s should receive accommodations.  All kids should be tested so as to avoid unconscious bias.  Parents should receive all data generated in the testing procedure.  Schools must comply with FERPA and make all elements of the selection process available to parents who request it.

Frankly, in cases of dispute, students should be given access to the compacted course.

There is a long history of gatekeeping to MCPS advanced classes which over time has been shown to be unnecessary (think of the fights over AP access, IB access, and access to higher math classes, all of which resulted in greater inclusion).  [/quote]

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