I recommend a Montessori school. Since the classes are mixed age, they can easily different work through small group lessons. The level of math they do in Montessori is also presented much sooner than they do in other schools due to the ability for students to grasp concepts earlier with the materials. Just make sure it’s a Montessori school that does elementary well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids arrive at Deal and Hardy at varying math levels and are sorted into 3-4 paths. That means, every school that feeds into Deal differentiates, even if parents don't realize it (as in, if you are expecting an award certificate saying your kid is in the highest math group, you won't be seeing that; they won't even say it to you).

If you are starting in 6th grade at Deal, but are not coming from a feeder school, how do they know what math path to put your kid in? We plan to do that next year. The math at our current EOTP ES is very weak but our kid is excelling at the accelerated programs we have them enrolled in outside of school, and I want to make sure they are placed on the right path. Thanks!

They usually administer an assessment to determine the level and decide accordingly. Anyway, back to the original question, there was some differentiation in math at Eaton, in that kids worked at slightly different pace depending on their level. But this was all in class and there was no pull out or additional instruction. In 5th grade, before the pandemic, our DS just killed time doing random AMC tests and other online lessons. Eaton does have a great math specialist but at least in our later years, she stopped working with the kids directly during school hours. She ran an enrichment activity in the early mornings, which was a pain to get to but the kids seemed to like it. Since all kids have to take PARCC (at least until last year), the teachers have to get the kids ready for it. There is little time to cater to advanced kids. For kids who are multiple years ahead (e.g. Algebra 2 or Geometry in 5th grade), there is essentially nothing in all of DCPS.

No math differentiation at Our DCPS. We supplement heavily. Aops and Beast Academy are great options.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids arrive at Deal and Hardy at varying math levels and are sorted into 3-4 paths. That means, every school that feeds into Deal differentiates, even if parents don't realize it (as in, if you are expecting an award certificate saying your kid is in the highest math group, you won't be seeing that; they won't even say it to you).

If you are starting in 6th grade at Deal, but are not coming from a feeder school, how do they know what math path to put your kid in? We plan to do that next year. The math at our current EOTP ES is very weak but our kid is excelling at the accelerated programs we have them enrolled in outside of school, and I want to make sure they are placed on the right path. Thanks!

In general, I really really wish folks would name their schools. It's anonymous and would be very helpful for people like me that are trying to get a full picture of the strengths and weaknesses in the various school choices.

Anonymous wrote:Kids arrive at Deal and Hardy at varying math levels and are sorted into 3-4 paths. That means, every school that feeds into Deal differentiates, even if parents don't realize it (as in, if you are expecting an award certificate saying your kid is in the highest math group, you won't be seeing that; they won't even say it to you).

If you are starting in 6th grade at Deal, but are not coming from a feeder school, how do they know what math path to put your kid in? We plan to do that next year. The math at our current EOTP ES is very weak but our kid is excelling at the accelerated programs we have them enrolled in outside of school, and I want to make sure they are placed on the right path. Thanks!

Like others have said, I would encourage you to pursue ways to enrich your child outside of class. I would look into an online program like Beast Academy (they also have book versions). Rather then spend time on ST Math or Zearn or whatever math program your school is doing, have your child work on that (maybe chat with the teacher ahead of time and let them know you will be doing this). Last I checked the program started at a 2nd grade level, but if your child is ready for that- great! You can also ask your teacher to bump up your child's level on ST math, and potentially other online programs.

With my 4th grader, we have also signed up for a few Outschool classes. You have to do your research to find good classes, and you might get a dud, but for $10-15 a class it can be a good way to add a bit of enrichment. My son has really enjoyed individual sessions (they run closer to $30). He likes getting the one on one attention. I found someone who follows the Eureka curriculum and just let her know which Modules he was working on.

In the before times, at Janney yes. They have done several LEAP cycles on it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP coming to add one last thing. Another reason for testing is that I was semi-hopeful (eternal optimist) that maybe if we came armed with test results and actual data that our school might consider they aren't meeting the needs of all learners (including our child, but I know there are others!). Still hopeful, but also trying to be realistic.

I very much doubt this would happen. Your child is not the first time they have had a kid who is talented at math.

I would very strongly not recommend Inspired Teaching, as there is very little math differentiation at all and it just doesn't feel like a priority. Not just this year but every year starting in K it has felt that way to me.

I would take a very good look at Seaton, their math MGP is impressive and I hear great things from people I know with math-loving kids.

Yup, we are at Seaton and our math-loving kid is doing great! They are departmentalized (so each year, one teacher is a literacy expert and one is a math expert), the math teacher knows the precise level of each kid and is constantly trying to push their personal limit. Very happy.

We also do a lot of stuff in the house... instrument lessons (music is wonderful for kids who are good at math --- so much thinking about proportions within the scales, dividing up the measures, etc), math board games, projects that involve math.

Me and my husband were always great math students who went to regular schools, and both our parents had a lot of math enrichment in the home. i also remember regular elementary school math is being extremely boring, but loving the math projects i did in the gifted pull-out, and the math olympiad competition. If you have a gifted kid, you are going to have to assume that regular school will be a breeze for them, and lead them to enrichment opportunities as much as possible.

(and i'm not going to lame you for the IQ thing! it helps to figure out what your kid will need. i haven't tested our kids, but i have been tested at high 147 and i do think about it. maybe the kids are there too. it's highly obnoxious to even think about, and my husband forbids all discussion of it bc he thinks IQ is really flawed, but there are specific concerns with each level.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, what you do if you want to stay in DC public is deliberately accelerate your child yourself over the years. Hire a tutor, have them work out of Singapore Math and Saxon math workbooks, put the kid on Khan Academy videos, send them to Johns Hopkins CTY camps etc. Document their progress and bring the evidence to the school's math coordinator a couple times a year.

If teachers get fed up with the kid burning through math assignments fast and causing mischief while s/he waits for others to catch up, believe me, the school starts to deliver the math challenge, at least as long as the school is mostly high SES kids. The kid may be sent to the library to work on math software. Don't give up or give in and the differentiation starts to kick in as long as the kid really can work far ahead of grade level. That's been our experience.

Thanks for this. It helps to hear that documentation is important with getting help. And I absolutely won't give up (my kid doesn't suffer quietly, so I think I have no choice but push forward). Our school is not high SES (it is Title I). From a lot of the answers I am seeing, it appears that (with the exception of Seaton), all the schools mentioned that differentiate for math are high SES. This is a HUGE equity problem, because I can guarantee you high ability math students at our school are being missed and/or ignored because they are meeting grade levels stats and their parents aren't asking the school about providing more. There just isn't the parental push for programming, at least not historically.

My kid is absolutely burning through Singapore workbooks (I don't know about Saxon - will pick that one up next). I've gotta get back on the Khan, although we went away from it due to the 5 hours a day on synchronous instruction (doesn't leave much time for extra work or screen time). We don't really have the budget for a tutor - I got a quote that was like $75/hours (?!). I will try to find more, but I take it this might be the going rate (correct me if I am wrong).

On-line tutoring in math for kids from India (live instruction) for kids can be as little as $15/hour. Various companies do it - search via Google. We haven't tried this, but good friends swear by it.

At Hearst, our fifth grader is doing sixth grade math with the math coach. There’s maybe 10 kids doing it. They meet once per week also with the 5th grade math teacher to make sure they are good on the fifth grade work they are technically skipping, if that makes sense. DC obviously didn’t take a PARCC last year but was in the 99% group when they took it in 3rd grade as the practice year. Was a nice surprise this year to learn of this option.

+1 for the Montessori suggestion. Not only is there more space for individual learning, they also teach concepts in tactile ways to where young kids are learning more advanced math (“carrying” and “borrowing” in Kindergarten for instance) earlier on. Since classrooms are also grouped three grades together, there’s more room to excel (or have extra support) according to the child.

Janney does not differentiate at all.
That said, we did not find it to be an issue if you have a kid who is gifted in math and loves math. We did not supplement outside of school.
Then Deal begins with math differentiation and will continue to accelerate your kid if they need it.
My Deal 8th grader is taking Algebra 2 and thriving. He will move to pre-calc in 9th grade. There are about 20 kids at Deal (out of close to 600) that are on this path.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, what you do if you want to stay in DC public is deliberately accelerate your child yourself over the years. Hire a tutor, have them work out of Singapore Math and Saxon math workbooks, put the kid on Khan Academy videos, send them to Johns Hopkins CTY camps etc. Document their progress and bring the evidence to the school's math coordinator a couple times a year.

If teachers get fed up with the kid burning through math assignments fast and causing mischief while s/he waits for others to catch up, believe me, the school starts to deliver the math challenge, at least as long as the school is mostly high SES kids. The kid may be sent to the library to work on math software. Don't give up or give in and the differentiation starts to kick in as long as the kid really can work far ahead of grade level. That's been our experience.

Thanks for this. It helps to hear that documentation is important with getting help. And I absolutely won't give up (my kid doesn't suffer quietly, so I think I have no choice but push forward). Our school is not high SES (it is Title I). From a lot of the answers I am seeing, it appears that (with the exception of Seaton), all the schools mentioned that differentiate for math are high SES. This is a HUGE equity problem, because I can guarantee you high ability math students at our school are being missed and/or ignored because they are meeting grade levels stats and their parents aren't asking the school about providing more. There just isn't the parental push for programming, at least not historically.

My kid is absolutely burning through Singapore workbooks (I don't know about Saxon - will pick that one up next). I've gotta get back on the Khan, although we went away from it due to the 5 hours a day on synchronous instruction (doesn't leave much time for extra work or screen time). We don't really have the budget for a tutor - I got a quote that was like $75/hours (?!). I will try to find more, but I take it this might be the going rate (correct me if I am wrong).

Have you looked into AOPS? It might really be the thing. Then when school starts up again, maybe see about adding a math enrichment after-school class. If you otherwise like your school, I don't think I'd leave it just because you think another school might have a better math curriculum or approach. You're far too likely to be disappointed in the reality. Instead, just be proactive about it.

Anonymous wrote:Our charter differentiates work to the level of the students using the two teachers in the classroom to effectively run different groups at different levels. But I am not going to tell you what school it is because you seem like a HUGE d-bag with comments like "you would be willing to lottery" (how lucky are we!) and that you somehow saw fit to have your 6 years old IQ tested. I love our school and community, and people like you would add nothing.

This is probably a mistake replying to you, but that is not what I wrote. Please don't misquote me just to make it seem like I'm a jerk.

Anonymous wrote:OP, what you do if you want to stay in DC public is deliberately accelerate your child yourself over the years. Hire a tutor, have them work out of Singapore Math and Saxon math workbooks, put the kid on Khan Academy videos, send them to Johns Hopkins CTY camps etc. Document their progress and bring the evidence to the school's math coordinator a couple times a year.

If teachers get fed up with the kid burning through math assignments fast and causing mischief while s/he waits for others to catch up, believe me, the school starts to deliver the math challenge, at least as long as the school is mostly high SES kids. The kid may be sent to the library to work on math software. Don't give up or give in and the differentiation starts to kick in as long as the kid really can work far ahead of grade level. That's been our experience.

Thanks for this. It helps to hear that documentation is important with getting help. And I absolutely won't give up (my kid doesn't suffer quietly, so I think I have no choice but push forward). Our school is not high SES (it is Title I). From a lot of the answers I am seeing, it appears that (with the exception of Seaton), all the schools mentioned that differentiate for math are high SES. This is a HUGE equity problem, because I can guarantee you high ability math students at our school are being missed and/or ignored because they are meeting grade levels stats and their parents aren't asking the school about providing more. There just isn't the parental push for programming, at least not historically.

My kid is absolutely burning through Singapore workbooks (I don't know about Saxon - will pick that one up next). I've gotta get back on the Khan, although we went away from it due to the 5 hours a day on synchronous instruction (doesn't leave much time for extra work or screen time). We don't really have the budget for a tutor - I got a quote that was like $75/hours (?!). I will try to find more, but I take it this might be the going rate (correct me if I am wrong).