Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a high school math teacher, they SHOULD eliminate Algebra in 6th and 7th grade. The course at that level is so watered down that the kids who enter my high school Algebra 2 and up courses are way behind in both Algebra skills and Algebra concepts. One example: They may be able to factor basic quadratic equations where "a" = 1, but have no idea how to do it when the factoring gets a lot more complicated, and have very little idea of the mathematical concepts behind factoring in general, so that they can apply those concepts to solve the more complicated factoring problems. I much prefer my Algebra 2 students to have taken Algebra 1 in 8th at the earliest, or ninth, because they have more mature brains and can usually learn the math faster and the concepts more in depth. I don't have to spend so much time reviewing Algebra 1 concepts that I can't get all the way through the Algebra 2 course, which then means I have to spend too much time reviewing Algebra 2 concepts in Trig/PreCal, etc.

I have long heard this from math teachers. That the push to have algebra so early ends up backfiring later.

It's not an "equity" thing -- it just doesn't work.

And OP is disgusting to continuing to harp on "equity" as some sort of boogeyman. Most people WANT equity in our schools -- society will be better for it.

Glen Youngkin was the worst thing to happen to Virginia education in probably a century. Thank GOD the Democrats will pick up seats next month in the legislature and keep him in check.

Yes, the pushback on uber-acceleration started many years ago with math departments seeing poor performance. Then the Republicans tried to politicize it by pushing lies.

Anonymous wrote:LCPS adopted VMPI before the rest of the state.

One of their LCPS math staff sent an e-mail 'I support eliminating tracking for equity reasons.' They eliminated algebra in 6th grade, and she said she wanted to eliminate prealgebra in 6th grade as well.

There was parent pressure to reverse this, and they yielded a little bit after VMPI was eliminated by Youngkin(at least in name).
The numbers accepted to 6th and 7th grade algebra are down, but this could be due to COVID based learning declines.

Fairfax has been piloting E3 to cut back on advanced math, and Loudoun may adopt this as well with this board.

So much misinformation. Stop pushing lies to try to win a few votes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a MS/HS parent who was really worried about it when they started talking about it, I have to say its been a total nothing burger. My current 7th grader was offered all of the same options as my high schooler, and just as many 7th graders are taking Algebra as they did before. Its a distinction without a difference.

That's because people voted for Youngkin in 2021. Had they not, Virginia would be in the same boat as California, which is what Prof. Conrad warns us about. And that's not empty speculation: these groups were working closely together.

100% Republican lies

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a MS/HS parent who was really worried about it when they started talking about it, I have to say its been a total nothing burger. My current 7th grader was offered all of the same options as my high schooler, and just as many 7th graders are taking Algebra as they did before. Its a distinction without a difference.

That's because people voted for Youngkin in 2021. Had they not, Virginia would be in the same boat as California, which is what Prof. Conrad warns us about. And that's not empty speculation: these groups were working closely together.

^ This is exactly the crux. People forget that ! You might not agree with his politics but he has helped fight the equity reformers

Agreed. He saw this nonsense and picked up a few extra votes.

BTW, if you're listening to NPR, Brian Conrad is on tonight's On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti. He's on the show. All authors of the CMF, including Boaler, declined. Wonder why, haha.

Anonymous wrote:As a high school math teacher, they SHOULD eliminate Algebra in 6th and 7th grade. The course at that level is so watered down that the kids who enter my high school Algebra 2 and up courses are way behind in both Algebra skills and Algebra concepts. One example: They may be able to factor basic quadratic equations where "a" = 1, but have no idea how to do it when the factoring gets a lot more complicated, and have very little idea of the mathematical concepts behind factoring in general, so that they can apply those concepts to solve the more complicated factoring problems. I much prefer my Algebra 2 students to have taken Algebra 1 in 8th at the earliest, or ninth, because they have more mature brains and can usually learn the math faster and the concepts more in depth. I don't have to spend so much time reviewing Algebra 1 concepts that I can't get all the way through the Algebra 2 course, which then means I have to spend too much time reviewing Algebra 2 concepts in Trig/PreCal, etc.

Seems like this is more to do with the way that those courses are taught, rather than the students’ aptitude. My kid took Algebra I in 6th and has done extremely well in every math course since then. Got through Algebra II in middle school and has been at a private school since 9th taking all proof-based math courses. He is loving them and doing great, taking linear algebra now. He was frustrated at the slow pace of math courses before algebra. There may not be a majority of students like this but it’s important to allow this path for kids who need it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a MS/HS parent who was really worried about it when they started talking about it, I have to say its been a total nothing burger. My current 7th grader was offered all of the same options as my high schooler, and just as many 7th graders are taking Algebra as they did before. Its a distinction without a difference.

That's because people voted for Youngkin in 2021. Had they not, Virginia would be in the same boat as California, which is what Prof. Conrad warns us about. And that's not empty speculation: these groups were working closely together.

^ This is exactly the crux. People forget that ! You might not agree with his politics but he has helped fight the equity reformers

Anonymous wrote:As a high school math teacher, they SHOULD eliminate Algebra in 6th and 7th grade. The course at that level is so watered down that the kids who enter my high school Algebra 2 and up courses are way behind in both Algebra skills and Algebra concepts. One example: They may be able to factor basic quadratic equations where "a" = 1, but have no idea how to do it when the factoring gets a lot more complicated, and have very little idea of the mathematical concepts behind factoring in general, so that they can apply those concepts to solve the more complicated factoring problems. I much prefer my Algebra 2 students to have taken Algebra 1 in 8th at the earliest, or ninth, because they have more mature brains and can usually learn the math faster and the concepts more in depth. I don't have to spend so much time reviewing Algebra 1 concepts that I can't get all the way through the Algebra 2 course, which then means I have to spend too much time reviewing Algebra 2 concepts in Trig/PreCal, etc.

I'm working with gifted middle school students, and my own child has been taking Algebra I in 6th. I've looked at every single homework sheet they've done.
It is not true that these students don't know how to factor a quadratic. They had to do endless worksheets (every day about 15-25 homework problems from the textbook), including factoring quadratics using ad-hoc rules with integer coefficients, using the quadratic formula with arbitrary rational a, b, and c. My criticism of the course (the way the school taught it) was rather that it completely lacked problem solving. Every single homework was straight-up book problems: factor this, solve this. Not a single problem required multiple steps or the synthesis and combination of concepts. Not a single problem couldn't be solved in 2 minutes or less. Not a single problem required thinking before writing. I am afraid that this wouldn't be different had the course be taught in 8th grade or later.

Also, I probably think that the current numbers of takers are both too low and too high, and that more rigorous assessment should take place. I think they're too low for 6th graders (I think they were discussed in another thread, it's about 0.1% or so of students in VA but probably should be triple that), but too high for 7th graders (about 10% or so, but probably should be half that.) We need to accept that the distribution of abilities is not uniform but follows a Gaussian and not everybody is Lake Wobegon. But eliminate access to early math we cannot. We must fix it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a high school math teacher, they SHOULD eliminate Algebra in 6th and 7th grade. The course at that level is so watered down that the kids who enter my high school Algebra 2 and up courses are way behind in both Algebra skills and Algebra concepts. One example: They may be able to factor basic quadratic equations where "a" = 1, but have no idea how to do it when the factoring gets a lot more complicated, and have very little idea of the mathematical concepts behind factoring in general, so that they can apply those concepts to solve the more complicated factoring problems. I much prefer my Algebra 2 students to have taken Algebra 1 in 8th at the earliest, or ninth, because they have more mature brains and can usually learn the math faster and the concepts more in depth. I don't have to spend so much time reviewing Algebra 1 concepts that I can't get all the way through the Algebra 2 course, which then means I have to spend too much time reviewing Algebra 2 concepts in Trig/PreCal, etc.

I have long heard this from math teachers. That the push to have algebra so early ends up backfiring later.

It's not an "equity" thing -- it just doesn't work.

And OP is disgusting to continuing to harp on "equity" as some sort of boogeyman. Most people WANT equity in our schools -- society will be better for it.

Glen Youngkin was the worst thing to happen to Virginia education in probably a century. Thank GOD the Democrats will pick up seats next month in the legislature and keep him in check.

Haaah! Fat chance loser.

Anonymous wrote:As a high school math teacher, they SHOULD eliminate Algebra in 6th and 7th grade. The course at that level is so watered down that the kids who enter my high school Algebra 2 and up courses are way behind in both Algebra skills and Algebra concepts. One example: They may be able to factor basic quadratic equations where "a" = 1, but have no idea how to do it when the factoring gets a lot more complicated, and have very little idea of the mathematical concepts behind factoring in general, so that they can apply those concepts to solve the more complicated factoring problems. I much prefer my Algebra 2 students to have taken Algebra 1 in 8th at the earliest, or ninth, because they have more mature brains and can usually learn the math faster and the concepts more in depth. I don't have to spend so much time reviewing Algebra 1 concepts that I can't get all the way through the Algebra 2 course, which then means I have to spend too much time reviewing Algebra 2 concepts in Trig/PreCal, etc.

I have long heard this from math teachers. That the push to have algebra so early ends up backfiring later.

It's not an "equity" thing -- it just doesn't work.

And OP is disgusting to continuing to harp on "equity" as some sort of boogeyman. Most people WANT equity in our schools -- society will be better for it.

Glen Youngkin was the worst thing to happen to Virginia education in probably a century. Thank GOD the Democrats will pick up seats next month in the legislature and keep him in check.

As a high school math teacher, they SHOULD eliminate Algebra in 6th and 7th grade. The course at that level is so watered down that the kids who enter my high school Algebra 2 and up courses are way behind in both Algebra skills and Algebra concepts. One example: They may be able to factor basic quadratic equations where "a" = 1, but have no idea how to do it when the factoring gets a lot more complicated, and have very little idea of the mathematical concepts behind factoring in general, so that they can apply those concepts to solve the more complicated factoring problems. I much prefer my Algebra 2 students to have taken Algebra 1 in 8th at the earliest, or ninth, because they have more mature brains and can usually learn the math faster and the concepts more in depth. I don't have to spend so much time reviewing Algebra 1 concepts that I can't get all the way through the Algebra 2 course, which then means I have to spend too much time reviewing Algebra 2 concepts in Trig/PreCal, etc.

LCPS adopted VMPI before the rest of the state.

One of their LCPS math staff sent an e-mail 'I support eliminating tracking for equity reasons.' They eliminated algebra in 6th grade, and she said she wanted to eliminate prealgebra in 6th grade as well.

There was parent pressure to reverse this, and they yielded a little bit after VMPI was eliminated by Youngkin(at least in name).
The numbers accepted to 6th and 7th grade algebra are down, but this could be due to COVID based learning declines.

Fairfax has been piloting E3 to cut back on advanced math, and Loudoun may adopt this as well with this board.

Anonymous wrote:As a MS/HS parent who was really worried about it when they started talking about it, I have to say its been a total nothing burger. My current 7th grader was offered all of the same options as my high schooler, and just as many 7th graders are taking Algebra as they did before. Its a distinction without a difference.

That's because people voted for Youngkin in 2021. Had they not, Virginia would be in the same boat as California, which is what Prof. Conrad warns us about. And that's not empty speculation: these groups were working closely together.

As a MS/HS parent who was really worried about it when they started talking about it, I have to say its been a total nothing burger. My current 7th grader was offered all of the same options as my high schooler, and just as many 7th graders are taking Algebra as they did before. Its a distinction without a difference.

The LCPS curriculum is nothing like CA. Stop spreading misinformation to try to win a few votes. It’s disgusting.

Just a reminder to vote current school board out! Came across this article on how incredibly harmful equity based school curriculum is based on what’s happened in California and this is coming for us in Loudoun with our current school board

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/california-math-framework-algebra/675509/

“Unfortunately, not every state has a critical mass of academic experts and private-sector tech practitioners to push back when school systems try to rebrand an inferior math education as something new and innovative. The students who are most reliant upon public schools are the most harmed when districts embrace policies based on superficial appeals to equity or false promises about future job opportunities. When only the children of families with resources beyond the public schools are gaining preparation for the lucrative degrees and secure jobs of the future, public education is failing in a primary duty.”