Anonymous wrote:Did your student successfully take advanced algebra in middle school pp? Advanced Algebra even at Deal typically requires summer acceleration work too. Not every student at Basis is being accelerated into 8th grade Advanced Algebra either.

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Anonymous wrote:Stuart Hobson and John Francis should probably add Geometry. That would bring the number of DCPS middle schools with at least some students taking Geometry up from 7 to 9. SH previously had Geometry but then decided that the added acceleration was not necessarily helping its students. They were learning algebra better with another year of pre-algebra. There are lots of areas where DCPS might warrant criticism but math is tracked at every middle school.

Well then it sounds like to me that having Geometry was not the issue. The issue was that students were being put in the class who should not have been in it at all. They did not master Algebra and so likely struggled and couldn’t hack it.

What you need to do is gatekeep entrance to advance math. You can’t just let anybody in. That helps no one because not only will the kids struggle but you drag the whole class down and slows it way down. You also can’t go deep if the kids can’t grasp basic concepts.

DCI does a good job of gatekeeping all their levels of advance math, because one of the criteria’s that they use is standardized test scores in addition to grades and teachers rec.
Basis uses comps as a way of advancing or not.

The issue is that DCPS won’t use objective data like standardized tests or any entrance testing due to “equity”. I mean look at the fiasco with Wall admissions now.

Not true -- your example, Francis, uses standardized math scores to let kids onto the Algebra track. The math class is the one thing that is actually pretty good.

What test do they use and what is the criteria for entrance? Why don’t they offer Geometry?

DCPS schools use iReady. They have a percentile cutoff of math classes.

What is the percentile cut off and is this iready score based on kids across the country taking it or only DC kids?

Is above the only criteria to be in the class? Is there fluidity and kids are moved down after school starts who can’t handle it?

Why don’t they offer any advance math like geometry?

If you are a parent there, you should have transparency about above and answers to above.

This feels very aggressive.

Yes, iReady is a really common standardized test that is used across the country, including in Fairfax County, to determine math placement.

We are not a parent at Francis because my kid got a spot at a high quality charter middle school, but we looked very closely at the school bc it's our feeder.

The math was not the problem there, the math teachers are excellent and they are tracked using teat scores. The other classes were actually more worrying bc the school can't create tracks so all the rest of them are gen ed.

To your standards, math might not have been the problem but to mine it is also a problem.

I would argue having only Algebra in middle school is gen ed. Anything below that is remedial.

My kid consistently scores in the top 5% in math on standardized tests. Above would be a non-starter.

It’s all relative isn’t it what each family’s views is if a school can provide an adequate education for their child.

Not only in math but in everything else most DCPS schools are just not for many kids in this city.

OK. if you read carefully, you'll see that my child was lucky to get a spot at a good charter where they are learning a lot.

However, if we hadn't gotten the spot, we would have gone to Francis and it would have been fine. My kids are CTY qualified because they have 99th percentile scores, so I could have them take Geometry the summer after 8th grade and be lined up with their peers for high school. They would have had a very good shot at one of the application schools.

They could read 1000 books at home and learn about history and science and english.

There are plenty of bright kids at Francis. Francis is getting more popular with the Ross community every year, and half of the Ross kids get 5s on CAPE ELA and 25% 5s on CAPE Math. 84% get 4/5 on CAPE ELA, and 82% get 4/5 on Math. These are smart kids.

Would Francis have required more parenting from me through middle school? Yes. and the high school piece would have been stressful until it was resolved. But we would have done it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stuart Hobson and John Francis should probably add Geometry. That would bring the number of DCPS middle schools with at least some students taking Geometry up from 7 to 9. SH previously had Geometry but then decided that the added acceleration was not necessarily helping its students. They were learning algebra better with another year of pre-algebra. There are lots of areas where DCPS might warrant criticism but math is tracked at every middle school.

Well then it sounds like to me that having Geometry was not the issue. The issue was that students were being put in the class who should not have been in it at all. They did not master Algebra and so likely struggled and couldn’t hack it.

What you need to do is gatekeep entrance to advance math. You can’t just let anybody in. That helps no one because not only will the kids struggle but you drag the whole class down and slows it way down. You also can’t go deep if the kids can’t grasp basic concepts.

DCI does a good job of gatekeeping all their levels of advance math, because one of the criteria’s that they use is standardized test scores in addition to grades and teachers rec.
Basis uses comps as a way of advancing or not.

The issue is that DCPS won’t use objective data like standardized tests or any entrance testing due to “equity”. I mean look at the fiasco with Wall admissions now.

Not true -- your example, Francis, uses standardized math scores to let kids onto the Algebra track. The math class is the one thing that is actually pretty good.

What test do they use and what is the criteria for entrance? Why don’t they offer Geometry?

DCPS schools use iReady. They have a percentile cutoff of math classes.

What is the percentile cut off and is this iready score based on kids across the country taking it or only DC kids?

Is above the only criteria to be in the class? Is there fluidity and kids are moved down after school starts who can’t handle it?

Why don’t they offer any advance math like geometry?

If you are a parent there, you should have transparency about above and answers to above.

This feels very aggressive.

Yes, iReady is a really common standardized test that is used across the country, including in Fairfax County, to determine math placement.

We are not a parent at Francis because my kid got a spot at a high quality charter middle school, but we looked very closely at the school bc it's our feeder.

The math was not the problem there, the math teachers are excellent and they are tracked using teat scores. The other classes were actually more worrying bc the school can't create tracks so all the rest of them are gen ed.

To your standards, math might not have been the problem but to mine it is also a problem.

I would argue having only Algebra in middle school is gen ed. Anything below that is remedial.

My kid consistently scores in the top 5% in math on standardized tests. Above would be a non-starter.

It’s all relative isn’t it what each family’s views is if a school can provide an adequate education for their child.

Not only in math but in everything else most DCPS schools are just not for many kids in this city.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stuart Hobson and John Francis should probably add Geometry. That would bring the number of DCPS middle schools with at least some students taking Geometry up from 7 to 9. SH previously had Geometry but then decided that the added acceleration was not necessarily helping its students. They were learning algebra better with another year of pre-algebra. There are lots of areas where DCPS might warrant criticism but math is tracked at every middle school.

Well then it sounds like to me that having Geometry was not the issue. The issue was that students were being put in the class who should not have been in it at all. They did not master Algebra and so likely struggled and couldn’t hack it.

What you need to do is gatekeep entrance to advance math. You can’t just let anybody in. That helps no one because not only will the kids struggle but you drag the whole class down and slows it way down. You also can’t go deep if the kids can’t grasp basic concepts.

DCI does a good job of gatekeeping all their levels of advance math, because one of the criteria’s that they use is standardized test scores in addition to grades and teachers rec.
Basis uses comps as a way of advancing or not.

The issue is that DCPS won’t use objective data like standardized tests or any entrance testing due to “equity”. I mean look at the fiasco with Wall admissions now.

Not true -- your example, Francis, uses standardized math scores to let kids onto the Algebra track. The math class is the one thing that is actually pretty good.

What test do they use and what is the criteria for entrance? Why don’t they offer Geometry?

DCPS schools use iReady. They have a percentile cutoff of math classes.

What is the percentile cut off and is this iready score based on kids across the country taking it or only DC kids?

Is above the only criteria to be in the class? Is there fluidity and kids are moved down after school starts who can’t handle it?

Why don’t they offer any advance math like geometry?

If you are a parent there, you should have transparency about above and answers to above.

This feels very aggressive.

Yes, iReady is a really common standardized test that is used across the country, including in Fairfax County, to determine math placement.

We are not a parent at Francis because my kid got a spot at a high quality charter middle school, but we looked very closely at the school bc it's our feeder.

The math was not the problem there, the math teachers are excellent and they are tracked using teat scores. The other classes were actually more worrying bc the school can't create tracks so all the rest of them are gen ed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the PPs that you shouldn't be shielding your kids from these conversations. Reality is OK. My kids know the US News rankings, the test scores of different schools, the college results, and talk about how their old school is "mediocre," which it was.

Saying "all the schools are equally great!" becomes gaslighting at some point. When they grow up and have friends who went to a variety of schools, they will realize how good or bad their school was.

Re: amplify science, it's especially important that they know to be skeptical of the curriculum so they don't end up learning things inaccurately.

Your MS is aware of US News rankings and calls their old school mediocre?

I went to a better public HS than most people I've ever met not from my area and let me tell you the only thing I learned when I grew up is how meaningless most of this was and that parental support and financial security was far more important.

Sorry but you can’t support all the subjects in middle and high school. Even tutoring isn’t going to fully make up the deficit of what peers are learning at much better and more rigorous schools. That is just reality.

I guess if you have a trust fund it doesn’t matter. But for the rest of us who are middle and upper middle class, stakes are much higher now and college is much more competitive.

Peers aren't necessarily learning more is the point. A lot of school rankings are because of testing and resources, which they get from wealthy parents. There is absolutely inequity in schools, tons and tons of it, but US News rankings aren't going to reflect that. They're going to mostly reflect the resources of the kids they serve.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the PPs that you shouldn't be shielding your kids from these conversations. Reality is OK. My kids know the US News rankings, the test scores of different schools, the college results, and talk about how their old school is "mediocre," which it was.

Saying "all the schools are equally great!" becomes gaslighting at some point. When they grow up and have friends who went to a variety of schools, they will realize how good or bad their school was.

Re: amplify science, it's especially important that they know to be skeptical of the curriculum so they don't end up learning things inaccurately.

Your MS is aware of US News rankings and calls their old school mediocre?

I went to a better public HS than most people I've ever met not from my area and let me tell you the only thing I learned when I grew up is how meaningless most of this was and that parental support and financial security was far more important.

Sorry but you can’t support all the subjects in middle and high school. Even tutoring isn’t going to fully make up the deficit of what peers are learning at much better and more rigorous schools. That is just reality.

I guess if you have a trust fund it doesn’t matter. But for the rest of us who are middle and upper middle class, stakes are much higher now and college is much more competitive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the PPs that you shouldn't be shielding your kids from these conversations. Reality is OK. My kids know the US News rankings, the test scores of different schools, the college results, and talk about how their old school is "mediocre," which it was.

Saying "all the schools are equally great!" becomes gaslighting at some point. When they grow up and have friends who went to a variety of schools, they will realize how good or bad their school was.

Re: amplify science, it's especially important that they know to be skeptical of the curriculum so they don't end up learning things inaccurately.

Your MS is aware of US News rankings and calls their old school mediocre?

I went to a better public HS than most people I've ever met not from my area and let me tell you the only thing I learned when I grew up is how meaningless most of this was and that parental support and financial security was far more important.

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the PPs that you shouldn't be shielding your kids from these conversations. Reality is OK. My kids know the US News rankings, the test scores of different schools, the college results, and talk about how their old school is "mediocre," which it was.

Saying "all the schools are equally great!" becomes gaslighting at some point. When they grow up and have friends who went to a variety of schools, they will realize how good or bad their school was.

Re: amplify science, it's especially important that they know to be skeptical of the curriculum so they don't end up learning things inaccurately.