new Regents diplomas - survey

from lgm:

If any NYers would like to give the Regents feedback on College & Career Readiness, their survey is here. 

Several questions ask about the various diplomas and there is plenty of room for comments.

trigonometry will cost you extra

more from lgm:

Freedom of choice though, means that families could afford accredited correspondence or on-line classes, as they have to do in areas like mine where the district charges extra for classes such as trigonometry.

from Bostonian:

Really, trigonometry is not one of the standard offerings in high school? Parents must pay extra for trig -- how does that work?

from lgm:

The student has his choice of dual enrolling with the community college or using a provider of his choice or independent study. If there are enough interested students and an available room, the community college class will be held at the high school during normal school hours. Should the student take a course independent study, the district will pay a teacher a stipend to supervise...[the] grapevine is saying $5K per student, but I need to confirm that officially. The supervisor only proctors tests. If the student takes the course from an accredited provider, he pays the provider and the credit will transfer into his transcript provided he hasn't gone over the 6.5 transfer-in credits allowed by the state AND the principal approves the transfer.

Note: the only way to take high school math courses at the honors level is through an outside provider as the district offers no honors math courses.

As the high school principal here pointed out to me last year, "We're not required to offer Honors courses."

lgm on school district problems

Up in my area of NY, folks (mainy blue collar [people who] work in NYC gov't agencies and came here for the 'good schools') could care less about charters. They see that concept as a waste of resources that would be better devoted to fixing public school. Essentially, they want the district to be the charter by having the state stop forcing full inclusion and go back to grouping by academic instructional need. Allow test out, allow honors courses, allow slow learner courses, have alternative school, but do not allow the inclusion of violent children, druggies, gang members, emotionally disturbed, mentally ill and severe needs to be an excuse not to offer a year or more's worth of curriculum to each unclassified child each year. They propose that unclassified disruptors/nonparticipants pay the difference in cost between the alternative school and the regular setting.

Additionally, they'd like to fire the teachers who are presenting rather than teaching or are incompetent or abusive. It's been six years since the middle school failed AYP and the taxpayers stopped the 'blame the student' game and funded 'extra help' and rTi. They want to cut costs by having the unclassified students learn the material in the classroom, not from the extra help/resource teacher.

On the other hand, some parents view this proposal as racist or elitist. They work behind the scenes rather than engage in debate at board meetings for continuing full inclusion. Homeschool, homebound, alternative, and private school numbers continue to increase as does the number of hours of 1:1 aides for the emotionally disturbed and behaviorally challenged, and the security guards to remove the violent and disruptive.

full stop

Our school system has solved their efficiency problem by not only slowing gifted students but seemingly requiring them to stop all forward momentum. No acceleration and no 'enrichment' either. If you're done with an assignment alphabetize folders or tutor another student.

-Lisa


Same here. When full inclusion came six years ago, enrichment and in-class ability grouping were totally canceled in the elementary. Nothing above grade level can be offered. The old practice of going to a different class or grade to join an appropriate reading group was ended. If the student is done, s/he can read, draw, or navel gaze.

-lgm

My own district replaced the SRA math series with Math Trailblazers 6 years ago, eliminating achievement grouping as part of the package. Since Trailblazers moves more slowly than SRA, this meant that the advanced students were doubly decelerated. They lost their accelerated curriculum and they were now learning less in the regular curriculum than the non-accelerated kids had learned in the past.

Recently the superintendent told the school board that Trailblazers is built for and depends upon heterogeneous grouping; if you're going to have Trailblazers you can't have grouping and if you're going to have grouping you can't have Trailblazers.

So naturally she's committed to Trailblazers.

lgm on where to start in Singapore Math

Start at the beginning. A big key is practicing number bonds until you know them so well that the possibilities just pop up automatically when you see a number. The mental math practice is worthwhile too.

another district in NY

from lgm:

Our cliff is between buildings, going from 5th to 6th. In 5th the philosophy is that 'all learners' must succeed, so the classes are not deep in content and different learning styles are included in the pedagogy (with the exception of math). Inclusion & SPED are grouped with high achievers, so much that the Regent's suggest for the grade level curriculum is omitted. In 6th, content rules. Inclusion is still grouped with high achievers, but inclusion is given study guides, help from a teacher, and the IEP is used to reduce the h.w. load and usually extra time and quiet on the test is given. There is a lot of h.w. in 6th - well over 2.5 hrs nightly for those not on IEP in the 'high' reading class, about 30 min. less for those on grade level in reading. It is difficult because the 5th grade curriculum omitted all the writing skills and about 1/3 of the necessary background in mathematics.

Students that do well in the transition are either highly verbal or those that had to develop study skills in elementary to stay in the high achiever group. Those that stumble are usually smart visual-spatial boys who had not developed study skills in the elementary or the ability to translate a verbal sequential lecture into good notes; sometimes they are the highly capable verbal boys who don't care to do the h.w. that doesn't lead them to mastery of the material. The former are usually not placed in honors in subsequent grades unless they develop the study and note-taking skills on their own by Feb of 6th grade; the latter are in honors until they reach the point that they can't keep up on the tests from the material they hear in class (usually 7th grade honors English does them in by mid-terms, if not, 8th grade earth science is the wash out).

No surprise, the top 10% academic group based on grades earned exiting high school will include 1 or occasionally 2 boys out of a starting 9th grade population of over 600 students. Enrollment in advanced science and math is very low compared to similar schools. National Merit, SAT/ACT results and college diplomas earned tell a different story about academic excellence for those whose v-s boys stayed and persisted despite the lack of encouragement from the school. This is a large suburban average needs school, not title 1 or urban. App. 25% of parents are highly educated (meaning B.S./B.A. or beyond).

Well......that was a fun read.

Are middle schools in charge of the gatekeeping? That certainly appears to be the case here.

And, if so, when did this happen?

And why?

They don't seem to mention it anywhere in the NMSA.