>BF graduates who have gone on to Bosco or Bergen Catholic in recent years have discovered the hard way that they have been left unprepared for a real math curriculum. Straight A’s at BF translates into way behind students from other districts with meaningful math programs. Where is the outrage?
I know it is sometimes hard to swallow the truth pill… Many RPS students have left to attend both private and parochial schools and have been given math placement tests before acceptance. They ARE NOT PREPARED by the district’s choice of CMP2. Just ask those parents that had to pay for tutoring to teach their kids REAL algebra before entering
9th grade someplace other the RHS.
If you want a real eye-opener, ask the 9th grade math teachers at RHS what THEY think of the math skills of those kids transitioning from one of the middle schools to the high school.
We were appalled to discover how ill-prepared our daughter was for high school math when she reached the high school. After receiving A’s and B’s at BF, why did we need to be concerned about 9th grade Algebra? Reality was a shocker.
One math teacher in the middle school tutored his advanced geometry students over their 8th grade to freshman summer, on his own time, because the students did not have a solid enough understanding of algebra coming to him from the 7th grade. He did this because he wanted them properly prepared for Algebra II as in coming Freshmen.
Guess who their 7th grade Algebra I teacher was who hadn’t prepared them? Answer: Ms. Debra Ives, the district’s math administrator, now gone but hired by Regina Botsford to oversee our math curriculum and by the way, the person responsible for introducing connected math to our district.
So, if our administrators at Cottage Place can not teach math to our kids, why should we trust their judgment when it comes to selecting math programs?
I feel sorry for Principal Lorenz. Parents are going to go nuts when their kids’ scores suck on the math portion of the SATs. No fault of his of course, just the guy who happens to be on the front line while Regina hides in her office.
I was not commenting on the perception of math teachers at either school, but the experience of the students themselves. as noted by other posters, the deficiency is so stark that it is in fact a topic of common discussion among parents in Ridgewood who have sent their kids to other high schools. You need not believe me. The test scores should validate this point emphatically so long as the current regime is in place.