Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school rotates two CM classrooms along with two classrooms participating in the new ELC program. My son was just complaining this morning that some of the kids in class can not keep up and wonders why they are there because last year "they were in the lower groups" while in regular 3rd grade math. Sad that he is frustrated with CM because they cannot move faster because MCPS feels the need to try and bolster their Math numbers at the cost of the children.

MCPS just can't win. If they don't accelerate lots of kids, that's bad. If they do accelerate lots of kids, that's bad too.

DP... if they accelerate a child who is not ready for it, then yes, it's bad. Why are they doing it? Parents complaining a lot that their kid can do it, even if they really can't? Administrators want to push URM kids who aren't ready into it to make the URM numbers look better? IDK. But, in either case, it's not helping the student.

Yes. Are you new to DCUM? When MCPS was doing a lot of accelerating, parents complained on DCUM that MCPS was pushing their kids. When MCPS was going to maybe stop accelerating, parents complained on DCUM that MCPS was holding back their kids. When MCPS went back to accelerating, but limited, parents complained on DCUM that MCPS was holding back their kids. Now MCPS is accelerating more, parents are complaining on DCUM that MCPS is pushing their kids and that MCPS is holding back their kids.

Now, why did you bring up "URM" kids?

Because of the Metis report. They seem to be heavily focused on closing the achievement gap, which by itself, is a good thing to focus on. But, if the student is not ready for CM, then the student shouldn't be put in it. Doesn't matter what the skin color is. There are some wealthier white children whose parents push the school to put their kid in CM. Neither serves the student.

I'm just wondering why schools are putting more kids into CM. And it does seem to be a county wide thing, not just a few schools. When my older DC was in CM, it was the first or second year of it, and there were only something like twelve kids in it. This year, the number is more than double. I highly doubt that this year's crop of kids is that much more smarter than a few years ago.

Also, they changed the HGC test structure. Again, when my DC applied, it was something like a two hour test. Last year, it was 30minutes. Why the change?

Anonymous wrote:
Because of the Metis report. They seem to be heavily focused on closing the achievement gap, which by itself, is a good thing to focus on. But, if the student is not ready for CM, then the student shouldn't be put in it. Doesn't matter what the skin color is. There are some wealthier white children whose parents push the school to put their kid in CM. Neither serves the student.

I'm just wondering why schools are putting more kids into CM. And it does seem to be a county wide thing, not just a few schools. When my older DC was in CM, it was the first or second year of it, and there were only something like twelve kids in it. This year, the number is more than double. I highly doubt that this year's crop of kids is that much more smarter than a few years ago.

Also, they changed the HGC test structure. Again, when my DC applied, it was something like a two hour test. Last year, it was 30minutes. Why the change?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school rotates two CM classrooms along with two classrooms participating in the new ELC program. My son was just complaining this morning that some of the kids in class can not keep up and wonders why they are there because last year "they were in the lower groups" while in regular 3rd grade math. Sad that he is frustrated with CM because they cannot move faster because MCPS feels the need to try and bolster their Math numbers at the cost of the children.

MCPS just can't win. If they don't accelerate lots of kids, that's bad. If they do accelerate lots of kids, that's bad too.

DP... if they accelerate a child who is not ready for it, then yes, it's bad. Why are they doing it? Parents complaining a lot that their kid can do it, even if they really can't? Administrators want to push URM kids who aren't ready into it to make the URM numbers look better? IDK. But, in either case, it's not helping the student.

Yes. Are you new to DCUM? When MCPS was doing a lot of accelerating, parents complained on DCUM that MCPS was pushing their kids. When MCPS was going to maybe stop accelerating, parents complained on DCUM that MCPS was holding back their kids. When MCPS went back to accelerating, but limited, parents complained on DCUM that MCPS was holding back their kids. Now MCPS is accelerating more, parents are complaining on DCUM that MCPS is pushing their kids and that MCPS is holding back their kids.

Now, why did you bring up "URM" kids?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school rotates two CM classrooms along with two classrooms participating in the new ELC program. My son was just complaining this morning that some of the kids in class can not keep up and wonders why they are there because last year "they were in the lower groups" while in regular 3rd grade math. Sad that he is frustrated with CM because they cannot move faster because MCPS feels the need to try and bolster their Math numbers at the cost of the children.

MCPS just can't win. If they don't accelerate lots of kids, that's bad. If they do accelerate lots of kids, that's bad too.

No. The problem is that MCPS has decided to accelerate kids who should not be accelerated just to make their stats looks good and to pretend that they are closing the ‘achievement gap’.

You're the second poster who seems to have assumed that the kids who can't keep up, in the top PP's post, must be poor/black/Hispanic kids.

Can you come up with a good reason as to why MCPS decided to push all kids at our ES into Compacted Math? Every kid.

Combined with the fact that much of the literature and rhetoric that comes out of MCPS discusses how we need to close the ‘achievement gap’, it’s fair to propose that the two are connected.

But just for your school -- which is what demographic? Our school is 30% white and 2 out of 5 classes are compacted math. So its certainly not county-wide....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school rotates two CM classrooms along with two classrooms participating in the new ELC program. My son was just complaining this morning that some of the kids in class can not keep up and wonders why they are there because last year "they were in the lower groups" while in regular 3rd grade math. Sad that he is frustrated with CM because they cannot move faster because MCPS feels the need to try and bolster their Math numbers at the cost of the children.

MCPS just can't win. If they don't accelerate lots of kids, that's bad. If they do accelerate lots of kids, that's bad too.

No. The problem is that MCPS has decided to accelerate kids who should not be accelerated just to make their stats looks good and to pretend that they are closing the ‘achievement gap’.

You're the second poster who seems to have assumed that the kids who can't keep up, in the top PP's post, must be poor/black/Hispanic kids.

Can you come up with a good reason as to why MCPS decided to push all kids at our ES into Compacted Math? Every kid.

Combined with the fact that much of the literature and rhetoric that comes out of MCPS discusses how we need to close the ‘achievement gap’, it’s fair to propose that the two are connected.

Anonymous wrote:

But the achievement gap is calculated by standardized test scores -- not just "participation" in compacted math. So how does this close the gap? I assume that if some kids can't keep up - their PARCC scores will still show it.

Anonymous wrote:

I hesitate to post this but our school is mostly white with very few minority kids. The minority kids in my school consists of Hispanics, blacks, non-US born blacks, and Middle Eastern families, and asians. While visiting for back to school night I noticed that the fourth grade regular math class consisted of a majority of minorities. Now, I know my child definitely does not qualify for compacted math and he is in the right placement for math and I don't know if it is The same for the other families but I was hard not to notice the division. I think all the Asian kids were and compacted math (haha & of course!) and just a couple of the US-born blacks. It was very strange seeing it and since I don't know the details I would never say anything to anybody at the school but it did catch my eye.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school rotates two CM classrooms along with two classrooms participating in the new ELC program. My son was just complaining this morning that some of the kids in class can not keep up and wonders why they are there because last year "they were in the lower groups" while in regular 3rd grade math. Sad that he is frustrated with CM because they cannot move faster because MCPS feels the need to try and bolster their Math numbers at the cost of the children.

MCPS just can't win. If they don't accelerate lots of kids, that's bad. If they do accelerate lots of kids, that's bad too.

No. The problem is that MCPS has decided to accelerate kids who should not be accelerated just to make their stats looks good and to pretend that they are closing the ‘achievement gap’.

You're the second poster who seems to have assumed that the kids who can't keep up, in the top PP's post, must be poor/black/Hispanic kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school rotates two CM classrooms along with two classrooms participating in the new ELC program. My son was just complaining this morning that some of the kids in class can not keep up and wonders why they are there because last year "they were in the lower groups" while in regular 3rd grade math. Sad that he is frustrated with CM because they cannot move faster because MCPS feels the need to try and bolster their Math numbers at the cost of the children.

MCPS just can't win. If they don't accelerate lots of kids, that's bad. If they do accelerate lots of kids, that's bad too.

No. The problem is that MCPS has decided to accelerate kids who should not be accelerated just to make their stats looks good and to pretend that they are closing the ‘achievement gap’.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school rotates two CM classrooms along with two classrooms participating in the new ELC program. My son was just complaining this morning that some of the kids in class can not keep up and wonders why they are there because last year "they were in the lower groups" while in regular 3rd grade math. Sad that he is frustrated with CM because they cannot move faster because MCPS feels the need to try and bolster their Math numbers at the cost of the children.

MCPS just can't win. If they don't accelerate lots of kids, that's bad. If they do accelerate lots of kids, that's bad too.

No. The problem is that MCPS has decided to accelerate kids who should not be accelerated just to make their stats looks good and to pretend that they are closing the ‘achievement gap’.

You're the second poster who seems to have assumed that the kids who can't keep up, in the top PP's post, must be poor/black/Hispanic kids.

Can you come up with a good reason as to why MCPS decided to push all kids at our ES into Compacted Math? Every kid.

Combined with the fact that much of the literature and rhetoric that comes out of MCPS discusses how we need to close the ‘achievement gap’, it’s fair to propose that the two are connected.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school rotates two CM classrooms along with two classrooms participating in the new ELC program. My son was just complaining this morning that some of the kids in class can not keep up and wonders why they are there because last year "they were in the lower groups" while in regular 3rd grade math. Sad that he is frustrated with CM because they cannot move faster because MCPS feels the need to try and bolster their Math numbers at the cost of the children.

MCPS just can't win. If they don't accelerate lots of kids, that's bad. If they do accelerate lots of kids, that's bad too.

No. The problem is that MCPS has decided to accelerate kids who should not be accelerated just to make their stats looks good and to pretend that they are closing the ‘achievement gap’.

You're the second poster who seems to have assumed that the kids who can't keep up, in the top PP's post, must be poor/black/Hispanic kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school rotates two CM classrooms along with two classrooms participating in the new ELC program. My son was just complaining this morning that some of the kids in class can not keep up and wonders why they are there because last year "they were in the lower groups" while in regular 3rd grade math. Sad that he is frustrated with CM because they cannot move faster because MCPS feels the need to try and bolster their Math numbers at the cost of the children.

MCPS just can't win. If they don't accelerate lots of kids, that's bad. If they do accelerate lots of kids, that's bad too.

No. The problem is that MCPS has decided to accelerate kids who should not be accelerated just to make their stats looks good and to pretend that they are closing the ‘achievement gap’.