Reply to Why is the math so terrible? Can parents do anything?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

You can claim the track is "projected" on average to be ahead by one year but it still does not benefit the smart kids.  You are no longer allowed to take Algebra I in 6th grade. They dumb down the curriculum in elementary school so you can not make that pathway.

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If you're saying that the entire math curriculum has been "dumbed down" because a very small number of students who previously would have taken Algebra I in 6th grade and calculus in 10th grade now must take Algebra I in 7th grade and calculus in 11th grade -- well, ok. But I disagree with you.[/quote]

It is dumbed down for the smarter kids, yes.  And at my daughter's ES school there were over 20 of 97 kids that went on to Algebra 1 years ago.  It wasn't that small of a number.  There are just many more uneducated children coming into the MCPS system these days and shrinking the percentage of these kids.  Not the actual number but percentage.  But that is not those kid's fault but yet they have to pay that price.  [/quote]

That's rare.

When my son was at Westland, I was in the office one day and happened to see the clipboard of kids who rode the bus to BCC in Algebra 2 (the kids who would have taken Algebra 1 in 6th).  The list was maybe 12 kids, or about 1% of the student body.  Now, there might have been more kids who took Algebra 1 in sixth and repeated a class along the way somewhere, but of kids who started on that track, and stayed on that track, there were 12 kids.

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What's your point?  That those 12 kids don't count?  Seems to me that if they're ready and willing, we should teach them.  And if it's just 12 kids, it doesn't seem that logistically hard to continue to provide that.[/quote]

My point is that if a middle school, one with a reputation for advanced kids, usually has about 1% of their kids on that track, it would be rare for an elementary school to have more than 20% of their kids on that track, as reported by the PP.  Do you disagree?

It's important to note that under the old system, in order to make it to Algebra 1 in sixth you needed to take the highest level of math offered to elementary schoolers (2 years ahead) and then skip the year between 5th (when they'd take math 7) and sixth (which would otherwise be IM).  Under the new system, a kid who takes the highest level of math in 5th (compacted 5/6 math) would need to skip a year (math 7 which is now preAlgebra) to get to Algebra.  I don't know if they allow this or not.  The old pathway (skipping IM) wasn't listed as an option in many places, but it definitely happened.  Since I don't have a middle schooler anymore, I don't know if the skip is still allowed.[/quote]

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