Comments

And you thought all you had to worry about was myspace?

-- NicksMama - 18 Oct 2006

I hope I don't understand. Is there a link between your school and that page?

-- SteveH - 18 Oct 2006

I just don't even know what to say.

-- SusanS - 18 Oct 2006

but anyhow, with deathless prose like

> There are have always been drugs use. Humaity ...

(and at least two more typos in the first paragraph),
we can at least be reasonably sure
that the creators of the "hallucinogens" page
practice what they preach.

-- VlorbikDotCom - 18 Oct 2006

"...relies more on more on drugs..."?

-- KtmGuest - 18 Oct 2006

Check this out:

http://www.marblehead.com/staff/nanthony/Gr7.htm

"Look at the site Crystalinks, which contains a lot of information on gods and goddesses. Find out about the author of the site, and comment on what kind of bias she might have when she writes her site [hint: read her biography!]. Who is she? Who is she writing for? Would you use this site to research for a school project? Why or why not?"

-- KtmGuest - 18 Oct 2006

I could see linking to it the way the Marblehead school does--as a bias exercise.

The problem is when the material is so adult (unlike the Chips Ahoy ad or others that are more pointed to kids) It could be a little dicey for some kids.

I agree about the way some teachers link. I know they mean well, but we often had problems like this. Even when the material was appropriate (age level), there were often pages and pages.

Changing the subject slightly, for those of you who want to have your younger ones stay up with the news, there's a site called Newsmadeeasy.com. I think that's the address. My LD high-schooler who has reading issues used it quite a bit throughout middle school. A younger kid who is a good reader might be able to use it.

-- SusanS - 18 Oct 2006

This is a good example of those who "get" the Web and those who don't.

The assignment is make-work to begin with, and just get worse with a few clicks of the mouse.

-- BenCalvin - 18 Oct 2006

I'd suspect the site was hacked. <bevis>"Hey, dude, let's put in a link to a DRUG page! That'll REALLY get 'em!!</bevis>

-- OldGrouch - 18 Oct 2006

Ahem, well, that's what I get for not reading the page in posting order. This is crazy!

-- OldGrouch - 18 Oct 2006

"People have remarked that no matter what they are searching for, regardless of the topic, all roads ultimately lead to Crystalinks."

Snort. Well, there you have it, if all roads lead there, then 7th grade math might as well get them there too.

I wonder if she found the site from that marblehead site and misunderstood the whole point? It would be funny if there weren't actual children being forced to do this crap.

Did you hear back from anyone? This, to me, seems like a serious misstep on this teacher's part -- one that's so far from being about math that it would be hard to ignore.

-- JenL - 19 Oct 2006

I hope I don't understand. Is there a link between your school and that page?

Yes.

There is a link between our school page and that page.

You log onto edline, enter your password, log onto your child's name - assuming you happen to have a child in Ms. Kahl's Phase 4 math class, that is, you click on "Homework assignment."

Then you click on "crystalinks" and you get the Nazca line page, which is one of the crystalinks pages.

At the bottom of the Nazca line page is a link to the crystalinks Main Page.

Just a few short hops from there to psychoactive drugs.

This is on my 7th grade child's math class homework page.

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 Oct 2006

And you thought all you had to worry about was myspace?

I had already been clued in by my sister, aka the Tough One in the family, not to be worried about myspace.

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 Oct 2006

V

THANK YOU.

Yes indeed.

Ms. K's assignment admonishes the kids to use correct spelling and grammar.

She has to go.

Seriously.

Trouble is, she's so spacy I'm not sure she'd actually know she's being booed off the team.

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 Oct 2006

we can at least be reasonably sure
that the creators of the "hallucinogens" page
practice what they preach

My thoughts exactly.

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 Oct 2006

ktm Guest - BRILLIANT!

GREAT, GREAT FIND.

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 Oct 2006

yes, here in Irvington we are sending kids to a website other districts use as an example of rank stupidity.

we're sending them there for subject matter content knowledge

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 Oct 2006

That's grade 7, too.

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 Oct 2006

Old Grouch

Ahem, well, that's what I get for not reading the page in posting order. This is crazy!

It's always worse than you think.

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 Oct 2006

Have any of the students reported their findings to Ms Kahl?

-- BarryGarelick - 19 Oct 2006

"At the bottom of the Nazca line page is a link to the crystalinks Main Page."

"Just a few short hops from there to psychoactive drugs."

Actually, I was worried that there was a direct link from the Irvington logo to the drug page. This isn't quite so bad because you can get to lots of weird pages with just a few short hops. However, the teacher should have realized that many people who link into a sub-page often look at the rest of the site, especially if there are links on the bottom. This is a common technique to draw people into a web site - they get people to "Google" in to an informative sub-page, but provide links to the rest of the material.

Did anyone get this site filtered out by their software?

-- SteveH - 19 Oct 2006

"yes, here in Irvington we are sending kids to a website other districts use as an example of rank stupidity."

hahahahaha

Really, though, that is so sad. Your quote above, along with the link and quote (to marblehead) from ktmguest, would be great material to include in a follow up email to whomever you sent your first round of emails.

Good luck.

-- LindaP - 19 Oct 2006

Actually, I was worried that there was a direct link from the Irvington logo to the drug page. This isn't quite so bad because you can get to lots of weird pages with just a few short hops.

The link to "psychoactive drugs" does turn up with the Irvington logo on top.

The entire crystalink website is accessible through the edline Irvington site.

Ms. Kahl does not direct anyone to the drug page; she directed us to the Main Page.

From there it's easy to find all kinds of nutty stuff if you want to.

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 Oct 2006

Really, though, that is so sad. Your quote above, along with the link and quote (to marblehead) from ktmguest, would be great material to include in a follow up email to whomever you sent your first round of emails.

good point

In fact, excellent point

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 Oct 2006

because.....that is the "real" point: the phase four course is worthless

much of the math curriculum up through middle school is worthless

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 Oct 2006

Have any of the students reported their findings to Ms Kahl?

I should ask.

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 Oct 2006

I do know that Ms. Kahl had a meeting with Ralph Napolitano & the new principal today.

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 Oct 2006

But that may have happened to placate another parent who, I've just learned, has been hammering away on the Phase 4 issue for years now.

The idea seems to be to stonewall me, placate her.

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 Oct 2006

The Nazca lines assignment is no longer posted to edline.

Good thing I have screenshots.

Lots of them.

-- CatherineJohnson - 19 Oct 2006

The Nazca lines assignment is no longer posted to edline.

Never happened. Don't know what you're talking about.

-- BenCalvin - 20 Oct 2006

Never happened. Don't know what you're talking about.

I'd say the Nazca episode is zipping down the memory hole right about now.

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Oct 2006

Looking on the bright side, Ms. Kahl did give a quiz today.

The principal is actively working with her.

Plus she's now called the various parents who have complained directly to her, and talked to them about how things are going and what she's doing differently.

I probably shouldn't indulge in unbridled optimism, but my (current) feeling about the new principal is that if she can be shaped up (and I don't necessarily see why she can't) he's the one to do it.

That's been the one good thing so far this year; the new principal has a clear concept of learning.

He has all the edu-blah-blah, too; when we met he said, "I've visited her class; I saw cooperative learning." He was offering this as evidence that she's teaching well.

He also mentioned that "all courses can be challenging."

I was intensely hostile to the idea of yet more challenge - I pulled out my now-standard line about how anyone can challenge a child, just pull some theoretical physics off the web and give it to them for homework - and he immediately dumped the "challenging" stuff.

When I say "dumped," I mean he got off it.

I think he may actually have said, "I hear you" in a manner that conveyed: I hear you, I agree with you, let us never speak of challenging course content again.

We asked for 3 things:

• homework corrected somehow - if only through answers & solutions being provided

• frequent formative assessment (gave him Gambill Method)

• tests of the content that has actually been taught at the level at which it has been taught

So far homework is being corrected in the sense that answers are being given to the kids in class AND Ms. Kahl is finding out exactly who got problems wrong, then showing them the problems.

Today she gave a very brief quiz on two problems from the homework (I believe).

If she gives a test on the content she's actually taught and assigned for homework I'm going to start sending this guy money.

Assuming I have any money to send, of course.

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Oct 2006

Sounds like Ms Kahl may be coming around. So no need to sic Surfer on her after all.

-- BarryGarelick - 20 Oct 2006

What I'm trying to do now is get a handle on the whole mess - not just the math mess, but the schools mess....

I haven't posted this yet, but we've learned that Ms. Kahl was instructed to keep the number of As down.

In the rest of the state it's standard practice to curve these kids up, so as not to punish them for taking a more difficult course.

Our district chose to punish them.

This is the case throughout the system.

The middle school strictly rations the one accelerated science course it offers, a Regents earth science course a selected elite is invited to take in 8th grade.

Only 25% of the class will be invited to take the course.

I estimate that at least 80% of the class could take it.

But certainly 38% of the class could take it, because that's the number of '4s' we have on the ELA test.

The district puts huge time and energy into figuring out who they can cut.

On the flip side, those lucky few who do receive the call are then punished by a burn-out course in which massive homework is assigned for no apparent purpose.

The problems of accelerated math in the middle school go far beyond Ms. Kahl, and started well before her. I'm going to be able to get the story from another mom who has been working on this issue for 3 years unbeknownst to me.

Trying to piece it together, I think what we see here is a universal hostility to student elites of any kind.

This means two things:

a) every effort is made to push as many children as possible into a middle range of performance. No effort is made to boost performance; district officials will not hear of international comparisons, etc.

b) those students who do manage to fight their way into an identifiable elite, by dint of sheer braininess or by dint of braininess combined with parental reteaching and head-butting with the district, are then punished with massive loads of pointless work and, I'm hearing from more than one source, mean teachers.

Which is exactly the experience we've had in Ms. Kahl's class.

We haven't had massive loads of pointless work, though a 4-hour scale model drawing requiring two trapezoids certainly fits the bill.

But most of the kids in the class have been punished by the experience of taking it. Those children who like math and were headed for math-related careers before taking it now dislike math; we still, in 7th grade, have kids crying over their test grades & homework at night.

To a significant degree, this is all happening by design.

I will never forget Lisa Urban, the legendary middle school math teacher (who had to have designed this course - Ms. Kahl did not) telling the parent uprising, "You could give me the most brilliant 5 kids in the school and I could still eke out a bell curve."

She narrowed her eyes and squinched up her face as she said this; this was a statement of aggression, not fact.

Then she caught herself and hurriedly said, "Well hopefully not the bottom half of the curve."

right

If you haven't got the bottom half you haven't got a curve.

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Oct 2006

One of my brainiest friends (she & her husband are pretty well-known researcher/intellectuals) says Irvington is anti-intellectual.

I don't think Irvington is the problem.

I think it's the school district.

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Oct 2006

"I think what we see here is a universal hostility to student elites of any kind."

But WHY do you think they feel this way?

Is it a reaction to pushy parents? They'll show those parents that their kids are not so bright. Could it be that if they make the kids struggle, the focus will be on the kids and not on content and teaching methods?

In our town, with its focus on lower level students, they want to pretend that the smarter kids are not really so smart. Perhaps, also, they don't want to do something about it - other than give them independent enrichment assignments. But they are not hostile about it. It's more like pedagogical neglect.

"You could give me the most brilliant 5 kids in the school and I could still eke out a bell curve."

Of course. What's her point? Students can have difficulty in a course because the teacher expects a lot, the material is difficult, the kids weren't properly prepared for the course, the text/materials for the course are bad, or the teacher is bad.

What criterion do they use to determine if a course is successful or not?

What's causing the hostility?

-- SteveH - 20 Oct 2006

What's causing the hostility?

I've said something like this before but I saw similar hostility to my sons (who are both "brainiacs") and they graduated from high school 21 and 19 years ago!

A growing possibility to account for hostility is that adults don't control information anymore. What with educational TV, the internet, etc., kids can easily know more than their teachers if they choose to.

We need to keep in mind that most public school teachers are likely in the category of people who are too dumb to even understand that they are dumb. Plus they've gone to poor schools and had poor teachers themselves. And from what I read on this site, it's getting worse--possibly since careers other than teaching have been open to women for quite a while now.

In the short term one has to fight the good fight as Catherine is trying to. But in the long run, the entire system needs a fundamental change that we haven't yet understood.

On the Math Panel transcripts that were linked to here the other day, one of the presenters mentioned the possibility of some sort of live video courses where a teacher (who actually knows the subject and how to teach it) teaches students around the state and also, hopefully, their in-classroom teacher.

-- SusanJ - 20 Oct 2006

What's causing the hostility?

Back from lunch with an insider - insider meaning someone who has many years' experience with the district and its regimes.

Her insight is so simple, and so obvious, that it's hard to know where to put it: in the "always worse than you think" category or the "sometimes better than you think" category or possibly just the "speechless" category.

Her insight is that we do in fact have enough good teachers to teach lots more honors courses to the "tries hard" kids.

I have to say that this has always been my feeling. We've had many, many good teachers by now; we've had at least one bona fide brilliant teacher; the number of bona fide bad teachers we have personally experienced is very small.

Plus all the teachers I've ever met here are smart people. If they're not teaching now the way I'd like them to teach (teaching to mastery & formative assessment), that's due to district policy.

So....here's what my lunch friend said.

Brace yourselves.

It's a scheduling problem.

If the lower schools track all kinds of kids into accelerated math or accelerated science or accelerated this or accelerated that, then, down the line, the high school has huge scheduling problems. They have to offer all kinds of accelerated classes they don't now offer, and apparently there's some kind of scheduling issue that makes it harder to get lots of kids into these classes and succeeding in these classes rather than just a select few.

I believe her.

I've heard school district officials give "scheduling" as a rationale for bad academic policy for years.

I'm sure there are other reasons; I'd bet the ranch there's an ed school anti-gifted ideology informing everything that happens here.

But I know this person is right.

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Oct 2006

Here's a great tidbit.

In high school only the Honors language students get to use the language lab.

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Oct 2006

Ed and I are now formally working on K-12 reform.

There are many parents ready to go this route.

We need systemic reform.

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Oct 2006

We need to keep in mind that most public school teachers are likely in the category of people who are too dumb to even understand that they are dumb.

I've always been somewhat skeptical of this hypothesis (though I realize SAT scores support it), if only because I believe everyone can be learning more and doing better than they are now.

It's not just our kids who are performing below par by international standards, it's our teachers, too.

I know I'm not saying anything everyone here doesn't know, but intelligence is a range, not a point.

I interviewed Irving XXXX (have forgotten his name at the moment - will look it up) years ago on this very point.

IQ is a "range of reaction."

If your parents both have IQs of 100, your range of reaction is 80 to 120.

A bad school will put you down at 80; a good school will boost you up to 120.

This is true for students and it's true for teachers and everyone else.

The teachers the country has now can be smarter; so can we all.

That said, the problem with Irvington really isn't the teachers.

The teachers are plenty smart.

The problem is the system.

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Oct 2006

"In high school only the Honors language students get to use the language lab."

OMG. Is that a scheduling issue, too? How many honors language students/classes can there possibly be? Not enough, I imagine, to have the language lab constantly in use.

-- LindaP - 20 Oct 2006

I've always been somewhat skeptical of this hypothesis [dumb teachers] (though I realize SAT scores support it), if only because I believe everyone can be learning more and doing better than they are now.

I hope you are right and I am wrong. Of course, I was thinking primarily of math and science teachers.

There have been programs put on by professional mathematicians and scientists that have had some success in improving public school teachers' knowledge in these content areas. So these do support the idea that teachers can can learn in the right circumstances.

-- SusanJ - 21 Oct 2006

Took me a bit of Googling to remember the name. It was Leon Lederman, 1988 Physics Nobel Prize winner, who ran probably the best know of these programs:

"I retired from Fermilab in 1989 to join the faculty of the University of Chicago as Professor of Physics. In 1989 I was appointed Science Adviser to the Governor of Illinois. I helped to organize a Teachers' Academy for Mathematics and Science, designed to retrain 20,000 teachers in the Chicago Public Schools in the art of teaching science and mathematics."

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1988/lederman-autobio.html

-- SusanJ - 21 Oct 2006

"I'm sure there are other reasons; I'd bet the ranch there's an ed school anti-gifted ideology informing everything that happens here."

It seems to me that a high percent of the people who want to become K-6 teachers see themselves as caring, supportive, and child-centered. Many are very focused on the slowest learners. They are not those who wanted degrees in English, math, or a hard science. Perhaps many of them had to struggle in the lower grades. In our schools, there is a definite anti-gifted and anti-ability grouping philosophy. The head of curriculum has stated that by 4th grade, most students even out. They think that most of the differences are in learning styles, not ability level. They want to treat all students as academic equals. They don't want the slower learners to feel bad. High ability kids make them feel uncomfortable.

-- SteveH - 21 Oct 2006

The head of curriculum has stated that by 4th grade, most students even out.

Steve, Dorothy Rich supports these concerns in this interesting article: "If closing the achievement gap results in achievement at the top being slowed with the middle becoming the goal for all, then we may be narrowing the possibilities for greater achievement. What we need are badges, if we need any at all, that talk about greater achievement for everyone."

http://www.familylivingmag.com/story.php?id=2004-09-29-3

-- SusanJ - 21 Oct 2006

" ...greater achievement for everyone."

Our schools believe in this. Really! They do! At least as a vague strategic goal that goes in a nice report that everyone in town can read. Unfortunately, how do you combine this with full inclusion? Differentiated instruction. How do you do differentiated instruction? They're working on it. Enrichment? Yes. Acceleration? Well, that's a problem. It turns out that there is no guarantee that the teacher will have any training in doing whatever this is. There is no process whereby a parent sets up a differentiated instruction plan for their child. It's not in their contract.

They want their child-centered, mixed ability learning. They want their peer tutoring. It's interesting to see that if some kids need extra challenge, they get enrichment work and it's never in groups. Mixed ability groups are OK. High ability groups are wrong. It's more like differentiated enrichment (busywork) homework.

On top of this, they expect parents to be part of (their) solution; not part of the problem (telling them what they don't want to hear).

-- SteveH - 22 Oct 2006

OMG. Is that a scheduling issue, too? How many honors language students/classes can there possibly be? Not enough, I imagine, to have the language lab constantly in use.

I don't know what's going on around here, I really don't.

We have a massive Structuring Absence, as my roommate used to say back in graduate school.

You simply don't hear the slightest interest, from anyone in the administration or on the Board, in improving our kids' achievement.

What you do hear is exactly the opposite.

There are too many kids in Phase 4; they don't belong; pushy parent got them in, etc., etc., etc.

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Oct 2006

Acceleration is not allowed for any children at all now, not even the genuinely gifted children.

They cannot be accelerated.

They can be enriched.

One family has already moved away because of this.

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Oct 2006

I find the idea that a school district would flatly refuse to accelerate mathematically gifted children unethical.

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Oct 2006

Same is true in my sister-in-law's district.

Teachers have been told that under no circumstances are they to accelerate any children.

In her case it's scheduling.

The teachers were getting kids through a textbook (they've been using Saxon, but may replace it with TERC); then they'd just move them forward into the next textbook.

That screws up the scheduling.

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Oct 2006

I hope you are right and I am wrong. Of course, I was thinking primarily of math and science teachers.

Oh, it's definitely true that teachers have, overall, lower SAT scores than college students who go into other fields, etc.

I don't think you're wrong, per se — it's just that I know "everyone can learn," which means that teachers who were given really good teaching of math and science would improve performance the same way I improve performance via practice, etc....

Basically, everyone can do better.

That's a core truth of performance of any kind, which is one reason why I don't understand my school being uninterested in academic improvement.

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Oct 2006

There have been programs put on by professional mathematicians and scientists that have had some success in improving public school teachers' knowledge in these content areas. So these do support the idea that teachers can can learn in the right circumstances.

OK, I should FINISH READING comments before responding to THE FIRST SENTENCE.

sigh

right

that's all I was saying

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Oct 2006

The head of curriculum has stated that by 4th grade, most students even out. They think that most of the differences are in learning styles, not ability level. They want to treat all students as academic equals. They don't want the slower learners to feel bad.

I have to say....I don't really see that here; at least, I don't see it in the administration.

The one remaining accelerated course we have, which is the Phase 4 course, is pitched to the gifted kids. All of the bright kids are struggling.

After this the Honors track kicks in, and seems to be handled the same way.

Burn-out courses pitched to the "naturals."

The idea seems to be to put the kids who "don't need teaching" in Honors.

Phase 4 has a handful of kids who get hundreds on the tests even when the material wasn't taught in class at all.

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Oct 2006

It's interesting to see that if some kids need extra challenge, they get enrichment work and it's never in groups. Mixed ability groups are OK. High ability groups are wrong.

That's another whole thing....

I'm talking to scads of parents now.

There was a group of parents of mathematically gifted kids who spent a year of their lives trying to get the school to accelerate their kids.

They journeyed all over Westchester visiting other schools, which proved to be a strategic error because lo and behold other Westchester schools aren't accelerating kids either!

So then they had to content themselves with a part-time math enrichment person.

But they pressed for pull-out, not push-in, entirely so that they really could have a high-ability group. They said that if the math enrichment person was push-in, the group would instantly be mixed.

So this year, pull-out is gone.

Push-in is mandated.

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Oct 2006

What people don't see — and what I've just realized myself — is that when you refuse to accelerate the truly gifted kids, you also refuse to accelerate everyone else.

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Oct 2006

What people don't see — and what I've just realized myself — is that when you refuse to accelerate the truly gifted kids, you also refuse to accelerate everyone else.

That makes sense. It they won't teach the top 3% properly, then how sensitive are they going to be to the needs of others.

My sixth-grader is very typical in many ways, but he is perfectly placed in the high math eighth grade class. He more than holds his own mathematically in spite of his immaturity. Next year they will bus him to the high school with another 8th grader. Our district (and some surrounding ones) have been busing a few kids over to the high school for years. He was the first in our district to go to the junior high in 4th grade. However, because it was successful, other kids are being considered for it.

He actually said to me after the first few weeks of school that he liked math class because it was the only class where he learned anything new. Enrichment only in math would have been disasterous since he is the kind of kid who starts to act out when he is bored. Not in a disrespectful way, but almost like he has ADHD. Every time he is appropriately challenged the "symptoms" seem to just go away.

-- SusanS - 23 Oct 2006

I have a bit of sympathy for schools on the acceleration issue. I ran out of maths classes at my primary school and had to do standard 4 maths for three years.

The next age-group of school (intermediate school) was several kilometres away, and had no structured maths time, so sending me onto another school for more advanced maths would have been very difficult to manage.

Accelerating kids requires a lot of coordination once you get across school boundaries. I don't think schools are really set up for it. Though they should be.

-- TracyW - 23 Oct 2006

Accelerating kids requires a lot of coordination once you get across school boundaries.

It definitely does. Suburban and city schools might do better with it due the proximity of various schools. It also takes coordination and support between the teachers of both schools.

But they should be prepared for it just as they have to be prepared for the bottom 3%. A grade school can hire a gifted teacher that is capable of teaching middle school math.

-- SusanS - 23 Oct 2006

It they won't teach the top 3% properly, then how sensitive are they going to be to the needs of others.

It's that, but it's more...

Basically, when they refuse to "accelerate" the gifted kids — and remember, "acceleration" in the U.S. means simply putting gifted kids on the same track average kids are on in the rest of the developed world — they "essentialize" or "biologize" the horrifically slow math track everyone else is on.

"Teaching to the middle" means ratifying the middle you've created through bad curriculum and bad teaching practices (i.e. "teaching to the middle.")

If you accelerated the gifted kids to their real capacity, you would at least have a chance to notice that the average kids are also working behind their capacity, too.

-- CatherineJohnson - 24 Oct 2006

My sixth-grader is very typical in many ways, but he is perfectly placed in the high math eighth grade class. He more than holds his own mathematically in spite of his immaturity. Next year they will bus him to the high school with another 8th grader. Our district (and some surrounding ones) have been busing a few kids over to the high school for years. He was the first in our district to go to the junior high in 4th grade. However, because it was successful, other kids are being considered for it.

This is "illegal" in our tiny little district, a district so small you can easily walk from one school to another.

We live at the far edge of town and we are 1.5 miles away from the high school, which is the furthest school from our house.

Dows Lane, the K-3 school, is a 15-20 minute walk; Main Street School is 25 minutes away on foot.

The trip from Main Street School up to the middle school might take 15 minutes.

Of course, you have to walk up a VERY steep hill.

I spent one winter walking Jimmy & both dogs up that hill. I was trying to keep Jimmy in shape, and maybe get some weight off him. It was murder.

I developed a reputation as a devoted mother that winter; one mom told me I was her "hero."

-- CatherineJohnson - 24 Oct 2006

oops

that was a digression

point is: there aren't a lot of teachers who want to walk gifted kids up the hill to the middle school

so what

i don't care

this is tiny extremely wealthy district that formally, as a matter of policy, refuses to accelerate mathematically gifted children at all

educational malpractice

-- CatherineJohnson - 24 Oct 2006

But they should be prepared for it just as they have to be prepared for the bottom 3%. A grade school can hire a gifted teacher that is capable of teaching middle school math.

right

and my point is that the fact that they are unprepared to teach the top 3% of the class is directly connected to the fact that they are unprepared to teach everyone else

As far as I can tell (I could be wrong about this) MATH TRAILBLAZERS has slowed everyone down. Kids are now learning less math per year than they were before we "implemented" TRAILBLAZERS.

-- CatherineJohnson - 24 Oct 2006

I'll add that I haven't sat down and compared what kids were learning to what they're learning now, something that would be difficult to do seeing as how parents are never, ever, under any circumstances provided with a scope and sequence, a course syllabus, or a topic matrix.

The second time I taught Singapore Math the fourth graders had no idea how to do long division.

I'm fairly certain this wasn't the case the first time I taught the course, the year before.

But I could be wrong.

-- CatherineJohnson - 24 Oct 2006

This is "illegal" in our tiny little district, a district so small you can easily walk from one school to another.

That's just odd. Especially with the education level of most of your parents.

There was actually a cost "plus" to busing him over. For the past 3 years he really had been homeschooled in math by the gifted teacher (my tax dollars at work, yessirree). Because of that, she couldn't work with the other high math kids as much as she wanted. That decision really freed her up with them.

-- SusanS - 24 Oct 2006

That's just odd. Especially with the education level of most of your parents.

yup

We need systemic reform.

Way past time.

A flat-out top-down imposed ruling that no gifted child may be accelerated.

Over and out.

-- CatherineJohnson - 24 Oct 2006