There's troubling talk coming from my school district. As we transition to Common Core standards, the belief is being promulgated that the standards are so high that we shouldn't accelerate students through a math sequence. In fact, we're told "the Common Core people", whoever they are, recommend that no students be accelerated in math until high school. That means that all students are to enter high school ready for Algebra 1 (or the integrated equivalent) and only then can go faster.
Talk about "one size fits all".
Our district, though, will consider accelerating students though Algebra 1 in 8th grade; in other words, what was the standard in California two years ago will now be considered accelerated. Tell me again how Common Core standards are higher? But I digress.
Usually I think that people who claim that there's a concerted effort to dumb everyone down (so they'll vote Democratic) are being hyperbolic, but how else can you explain this idiocy? Seriously, the smartest 8th grader and the dumbest 8th grader belong in the same class? How can anyone who claims to educate kids think that is a good idea?
Here's the idea for how we might accelerate kids in high school--if we accelerate them in junior high. They'll start 9th grade in what we'll call Honors Geometry, which will include a bit more right triangle trig than Geometry currently does. In 10th grade they can take an Honors Algebra 2 with pre-calculus course, as if there's not already enough content in Algebra 2 and pre-calculus. In 11th grade they can take Calc AB, and in 12th grade take either Calc BC or Statistics.
To me we're short-changing them on Algebra 2 and pre-calculus/trigonometry. How does that serve students well?
Update, 5/16/14: It got worse today--the district brass is going to recommend to the school board that we switch over to integrated math. Now what will we do for acceleration, Integrated Math 2.5?
15 comments:
My district, small and rural, thinks it is perfectly okay to put a child with Down's Syndrome, who cannot read at even 2nd grade level, into an English class with kids reading at college level. I'm supposed to differentiate. There just is not an equivalent book on that low of a level that works when I am teaching Brave New World, 1984, Shakespeare, F451, etc. AND 50% of my evaluation is based on tests they take that we are not allowed to give grades on. There are crazy people making the rules!
After attending Senior Awards night last night at my son's school and seeing the 11 top 10 students, I asked my son about the math part. When he entered 7th grade his school put a 7th grade algebra class together. All were successful. It was even in the Bee at the time. Everyone on the stage there had been in that class, except my son. That's why he only had 10 AP classes and some of the others were able to get 11 and one with 12. His 6th grade teacher wouldn't recommend anyone from his school for it and said they will let you know if he should be in it. They didn't and he wasn't. In the end it has worked out fine, but it was impressive.
I talked with the curriculum guy in our district and he swears up and down that local kids will be able to accelerate starting in 6th grade (once the 6th grades are in the middle schools, which is in a year or so), and that any kid who is a genius will be able to do whatever is needed, even if that means going to the high school in 7th grade or something. He swears there will still be calculus in high school. I hope so, but I don't think I'll hold my breath.
My kids are homeschooled, but my oldest is of the age to be the last to take 8th grade algebra. Her friends have been taking geometry in 8th, and the kids one year younger won't be able to. They can take 8th grade math, which sounds like it has some algebra but not a lot.
Solid math is one of my big homeschooling goals. So far I think we're doing OK. I'm always wondering how my kids' friends math classes are going. The district here uses EM in elementary school.
My son is elven and acing AlgebraIIH/Trig at one of the top high schools in Colorado. And we have more than a dozen kids who are freshman and sophomores who take AP Calc and score 5s on the exam. Yet, some would restrict their "progress" in order to keep them at age/grade level and just "go deeper" into the subject like CommonCore promotes. This sort of "striving for the middle" to get/keep all kids at the same level is a huge problem, IMHO. This is simply evidence of how CCSS can be used to dumb down curriculum and slow kids up.
As a blanket policy, this is ridiculous ... but as a counterpoint, how many people arrive at high school with horrific algebra skills? And I know this is in part because some of them weren't ready for Algebra when they took it middle school, and in part because ... well, the better single subject math teachers tend to wind up in high school. Not always ... but a lot. One size fits all is absolutely not appropriate; by the same token forcing every student through algebra in middle school isn't, either. I would hope for a compromise -- perhaps an entrance exam to allow students into algebra, given in both 6th and 7th grades.
It's not about the students.
mmazenko ... there's plenty of time to go deeper, and still get through the material, as long as you plan accordingly. The keys are being prepared for each class and using all class time for instruction, not doing 'home' work...
I was talking to a Santa Monica, CA parent, who has a 6th grader who is ready for algebra next year but that Santa Monica is doing away with all tracking.
Apparently, her daughter is expected to twiddle her thumbs for two years until 9th grade and until most of her peers catch up. The family is tearing their hair out over it, and will probably opt for tutoring to keep their kid ahead.
We've had accelerated math classes in our district for years - and greatly successful. We had 42 students sit for the AP Calculus BC exam this year at our high school alone. We've started accelerating students into Algebra 1 starting as early as 6th grade - using a readiness test each year to determine who should be included. We now have a "Bozo" in the district office who is trying to keep students out. He changed the criteria for entrance into the accelerated track. At one middle school, we went form 100+ (6th, 7th, and 8th grade)students in Algebra 1 down to 12. It sounds like a lot of district "leaders" all over are decimating accelerated math programs.
Auntie Ann - Having been there and done that with an accelerated student who threw a wrench into school scheduling, I can tell you what his parents did: They found online classes through Stanford University's EPGY (extension program for gifted youth). Alex was pulled out of regular math class during that time period; he brought his laptop to school and worked on his online class material, and I answered questions when he had them. It worked fairly well, and when he reached the age he could do Running Start (our community college requires students to be at least 16 to enroll there), he began taking classes at the community college. I believe the first class he took there was Calc II.
Max, when a sixth grader can handle geometry, trigonometry, and algorithms with ease, he doesn't need to "go deeper" with the sixth or seventh grade curriculum. That was my point.
Who *are* you, and what have you done to my old foil mmazenko? :-)
PeegyU: You're assuming the school would be willing to do that. If they came down on the side of eliminating all tracking, and decided that all 7th graders should be in pre-pre-algebra, I doubt they'll allow a work-around.
At our (private) school, they don't allow any acceleration either. Our kids have had to sit through their math classes, do all of their math homework, and take all of the tests, all while being a year or more ahead at home. It's such a waste of everyone's time.
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At our school, it's not just math. Our kid plays clarinet at the intermediate, and maybe even upper intermediate level. He could probably play in almost any high school band, but his school required him to take beginning band this year. We begged them to allow him to do *anything* else with that time, and they said no. He ended up driving the teacher crazy while the teacher drove him crazy. It was painful.
Re: update: So, they want both deeper understanding AND a curriculum that guarantees it won't happen?
Ann - That is the reason we home school our youngest. He was reading well before he went to kindergarten. When he got there, the teacher insisted that during language time he sit with the other kids to learn his letters and sounds. Pretty damn rough for a kid who was reading some relatively "grown-up" books (he was into Arthur C. Clarke, Mark Twain, and Lewis Carroll at the time). We asked that she allow him to sit in a corner and spend that time reading (we would provide the book). She would have no part of that since she thought it showed "favoritism". In my view, it was simply a sensible conflict avoidance measure! Our son has never been particularly shy and he shared his dim opinion of the whole situation with the class. We ended up in the principal's office. He sided with the teacher, saying that she was not contractually obligated to customize instruction for one student. Customize instruction? We weren't asking her to instruct at all! Just not to get in the way of self-instruction! We requested to transfer him to a different class which had a teacher that we knew would accommodate him in this matter. The request was denied. At that point the only option that seemed available was to home school. We have been doing it ever since, and as a result he's been able to read voluminously on subjects that interest him. We are looking forward to doing Running Start next year, since his passion is economics and he wants to take some college courses. I wish, though, that we could have made use of a system that we are helping to support with our tax dollars!
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