PARCC testing is supposed to be more about the child’s facility with using a computer than his or her knowledge of the subject matter being tested. This is untested, seat-of-the-pants, thrown-together Obamacare website territory we will be in, and there will be a huge blowback. Fifth graders in particular need to be ready for anything, given that their standardized math scores for this year constitute the first 1/7th part of the rubric that determines whether they are ranked in the top 10 percent of their middle school in math at the end of sixth grade. If they are not so ranked, they will be prevented from taking Algebra in 7th grade and will be exposed to the Constructivist CMP math curriculum during all of 7th and 8th grade. This will stunt their growth at a critical time, and will eventually seriously limit their ability to compete for acceptance to a top notch school of engineering or science upon graduation from high school. CMP math in the middle schools is ‘the one that hot away’ about six years ago during the most recent battle in Ridgewood’s protracted Math War.
I have a hard time believing that any test is going to change who is in the top 10% of the class in math. The cream tends to rise to the top regarding of the test. Maybe there are a few kids on the borderline who break one way or the other but this is not significant.
That having been said, all 7th graders should take Algebra 1. Algebra is too important as a thinking skill/logic tool to be kept from any student in a high performing school like Ridgewood.
Why is it that the high school has “Enrichment Days” for faculty? The students just sleep late and lose an hour of instruction.
This is not an Enrichment Day it is a sleep-in day.
OK.
Again.
Please try to pay attention this time.
Union contract negotiation.
Gimme Gimme GimmeDo it for the kidsWas hoping to start a new thread. Sorry it hurt your brain to see it.
According to the Math and Science coordinator of the Ridgewood district, nearly all of those who occupy the to 10 percent of the class in math by the end of 6th grade , year after year, will have already received multiple years of tutoring designed to reduce the chances to near zero that they will be exposed to scandalously inferior CMP math. Where in the rankings will your 6th grader fall in June, 2016? 87th percentile? Don’t fool yourself–the drop-off in math instruction is precipitous. And BTW, I agree, far more than 10% of the class can be effectively groomed for, and should be actively encouraged, and offered the opportunity to take Algebra in 7th grade. However, so long as Ridgewood views itself as the bedroom community of men and women of letters, the incubator of CEOs and other big picture considerers who are entitled to mention in polite company with an ironic smirk that they were ‘Never any good at math, you know…’, the Math and Science offerings at the middle schools an the high school will continue to be by far and away, the budget share laggard.