Teachers in the county have been saying for years that emphasis on accelerating students in math in the early years causes problems in later years for a large number of students because they don't spend enough time on the basic skills of arithmetic. Yet instead of listening to what the teachers are and have been saying, we repeatedly get comments such as: the teachers are not being rigorous enough. Why are people so reluctant to believe what teachers have to say on this subject?

The fact that students taking AP exams are doing well is irrelevant to this issue. The students doing well on AP exams are not the same students failing the countywide finals. These are the kids who get the concepts the first time around and don't need additional time with basic arithmetic. But they also represent a small number of the entire student population.

A public education program should in the first instance serve the majority of the students. Then focus on the students at the top and bottom of the class. Somehow we seem to have flipped the system, with people who represent the interests of the minority number of students at the top demanding more resources at the expense of the majority of students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is all silly. We need to rethink math. What is the rush for taking algebra in 7th grade when 99% of the work force won't us anything beyond algebra in the real world?

Now that is a silly comment. By the time on kids grow up, a large percentage of the work force will need modern computer science and other post-algebra mathematical skills to be and remain gainfully employed.

You live in a fantasy world... Doctors teachers lawyers accountants even most scientists will NEVER EVER have to use anything beyond algebra. In the small chance that they do they'll be a program or app for it.

The fact that MoCo kids are still doing very well on the AP's make me think that these tests are just not good. I have more cofidence in the AP test writers than MoCo/Pearson.

Anonymous wrote:This is all silly. We need to rethink math. What is the rush for taking algebra in 7th grade when 99% of the work force won't us anything beyond algebra in the real world?

Now that is a silly comment. By the time on kids grow up, a large percentage of the work force will need modern computer science and other post-algebra mathematical skills to be and remain gainfully employed.

This is all silly. We need to rethink math. What is the rush for taking algebra in 7th grade when 99% of the work force won't us anything beyond algebra in the real world?

And yet the kids in MoCo are passing AP exams at very high rates.

I'd say the final and/or midterm need to hold more weight. Obviously the other work which can be collaborative or flat out copied is boosting grades.

Anonymous wrote:Ah math.... You'd think you teach the basics and rules well enough that students can learn and apply it in various settings... But no, they can't. Not in MoCo.

Virginia has the same problem. They can't accelerate kids fast enough in math -- middle schoolers taking Algebra II Trig in the library. What is the rush?

Ah math.... You'd think you teach the basics and rules well enough that students can learn and apply it in various settings... But no, they can't. Not in MoCo.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the interesting things I saw was that tests during the year are created by the teacher, but the final is a standard county wide test. It's possible that some schools aren't being very rigorous during the year and/or simply aren't emphasizing the right things.

Or the county is emphasizing the wrong things.

Yes, that could be true as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the interesting things I saw was that tests during the year are created by the teacher, but the final is a standard county wide test. It's possible that some schools aren't being very rigorous during the year and/or simply aren't emphasizing the right things.

Some schools? Try ALL the schools, if you are correct. This failure rate was across the board.

No, it said that some schools had failure rates around 20% or so and some had 97% on the same exam. There was a large difference.

Anonymous wrote:One of the interesting things I saw was that tests during the year are created by the teacher, but the final is a standard county wide test. It's possible that some schools aren't being very rigorous during the year and/or simply aren't emphasizing the right things.

Some schools? Try ALL the schools, if you are correct. This failure rate was across the board.

Anonymous wrote:One of the interesting things I saw was that tests during the year are created by the teacher, but the final is a standard county wide test. It's possible that some schools aren't being very rigorous during the year and/or simply aren't emphasizing the right things.

Or the county is emphasizing the wrong things.

One of the interesting things I saw was that tests during the year are created by the teacher, but the final is a standard county wide test. It's possible that some schools aren't being very rigorous during the year and/or simply aren't emphasizing the right things.

Interesting story today in the Post about the incredible number of kids failing their math finals (after having gotten good grades all year). What's up? Grade inflation? Too much math too soon?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/montgomery-considers-multiple-factors-in-math-exam-failure-rates/2013/05/19/3a8af27a-be4e-11e2-9b09-1638acc3942e_story.html