Andover Math Suggestion Box

So, how is it going?

2007-10-11T20:41:00.000-05:00

Please give some feedback as to how things are going in the math classrooms this fall. It is really important to have open and honest communication about what's happening in each of the middle schools. Posts can be anonymous.

School Committee survey results

2007-09-17T11:47:00.000-05:00

The Andover School Committee survey presentation is available on-line at aps1.net.

If you look left you will see the link to the survey presentation made at School Committee meeting held in late August.

Fall 2007

2007-09-17T11:03:00.000-05:00

The kids are back in the classrooms and we are all back at our computers. Hopefully you are seeing some positive effects of the math plan. If you have any info you can share please post your comments.

Updates:
- Susan Nicholson has said that she will provide updates re: middle school math at the School Committee meetings.
- Middle School math teachers are meeting to share best practices and workbooks with extension/supplement activities. Also they have put togehter exercises dovetailing IMPACT math with CMP.
- Pre-assessments were given to some classes at the start of the first units. These should enable teachers to determine what material is already known. Hopefully this will cut down on redundancy.
- Pacing should be adjusted this year..
- MCAS scores are due out in the beginning of October.

Math update for the fall - from Marj

2007-08-15T09:03:00.000-05:00

As the school year starts we should expect to see changes in the implementation of middle school math according to the enhancement plan presented by the principals at the June 12 School Committee meeting.

Some of the anticipated "improvements" include:
- use of the IMPACT math materials in the classroom
- use of pre and post assessments to determine student knowledge of the materials, grouping of students, what materials can be skipped, where extra time should be spent, etc.
- flexible grouping of students into work groups for enrichment and extension
- possible cross - teaming of students to assist with flexible grouping (where applicable at your middle school)
- use of enrichment periods for additional math work (where applicable at your middle school)

Marj Andresen has been told that Ann Collins, the consultant to the district, will be working with the teachers to adjust the pacing charts for Connected Math. You can check with your child's teacher on this.

Donna Pappalardo is the new 6-12 math coordinator.

Teachers will be attending a workshop specifically geared toward differentiated instruction for Connected Math. This workshop is being delivered by Teachers21.

Not to be negative but:
There are still some lingering questions and concerns about this enhancement plan. It did not result from a robust evaluation of the current curriculum and implementation -- or at least no evaluation was published for community review. It remains to be seen whether or not this plan addresses the concerns that have been voiced by parents, students and teachers over the course of the last year. Or whether it addresses concerns raised publicly at the Jan 2007 forum.

And becuz this plan was presented at the end of the school year, there was no chance for stakeholders to ask questions before this plan was put into place.

According to the published curriculum review plan, the last school year was the time to collect data for the evaluation of the K-12 math program. For reasons unknown this data collection did not occur last year and is now slated for this school year. A part of that published plan is collection of benchmark assessments (what do other schools do?) as well as a survey of parents, students and teachers to determine the impact of the program. We are all looking forward to the opportunity to participate in this process during the upcoming school year.

Notes from School Committee meeting 8/14

2007-08-15T08:57:00.001-05:00

At last night's School Committee meeting they reviewed the draft of the 2007-2008 Goals and Objectives. These are what the school district is tasked to achieve for the upcoming school year and represent our best chance to exert influence over the administration.

Marj Andresen attended the working session where these goals were drafted. There was a lot of discussion around ensuring that we strive for student achievement for all students. And that the goals and objectives are measurable. The question "how do we know when we get there?" was often asked.

Using the draft goals as a starting point, the school administration will refine the document to come up with the published goals and objectives for the Andover public schools. Although not the focus of the upcoming admin offsite, there will be some discussion around this topic. At last night's meeting Dr. Bach said she would return to the School Committee with a refined set of goals and objectives in about a month (late September - early October).

Here, on page three, is the current draft.

Summer Vacation

2007-07-25T11:46:00.000-05:00

Posting has been quiet (although there continue to be discussions at the schools and the school committee during the summer.)

For those who did not hear, Susan Nicholson (formerly principal at North Andover High School) has been named the interim Assistant Superintedent, replacing Marcia O'Neil.

We know that some parents have received replies from the middle school principals to the parents' questions about the math proposal from June. Feel free to share any highlights or surprises in the comments.

Internal Job Posting for Andover Public Schools -- Program Advisor for Mathematics 6-12

2007-06-25T17:40:00.000-05:00

Program Advisor for mathematics 6-12
General Description:
Under the direction of the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, the program advisor Mathematics will be responsible for the four major areas of instructional leadership: curriculum and instruction; supervision and evaluation of teachers; staff development; and, administration.

Full posting is available at:
http://www.aps1.net/hr/Admin%20Positions%20Pages/progadvmath.htm

School Committee meeting Tues June 26 7:30pm

2007-06-23T08:20:00.000-05:00

The last School Committee meeting of the year is on Tuesday night June 26 at 7:30pm

Agenda can be found at http://www.aps1.net/District/School%20Committee/SC06-07/SCAgenda6-26-07.pdf

Math Plan Poll

2007-06-19T16:18:00.001-05:00

Only a few parents were quoted in Monday's Eagle-Tribune story mentioned below. After you have reviewed the administration's math plan, please vote in the following poll:

Feel free to explain your vote by leaving a comment!

Eagle Tribune Follow Up article on Andover math

2007-06-18T18:05:00.001-05:00

The Monday, June 18, edition of the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune has a follow-up article called "Some unhappy with math plan" on page 2. The article is available online (excerpt only - full text available to Eagle Tribune subscribers with a Plus Edition account.)

Middle School Math Plan

2007-06-13T14:05:00.001-05:00

The Middle School Math plan is now available on the aps1 server. Look left for the link to the plan.

At the School Committee we were told that if we have questions or comments about the plan these should be submitted to the middle school principals with copies to the School Committee.

Eagle-Tribune article on Andover math

2007-06-12T22:33:00.000-05:00

The Tuesday, June 12 edition of the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune contains a story titled "Parents continue to ask for addition of advanced math" on page 7. The article is available online here (excerpt only -- full text available to Eagle-Tribune subscribers with a Plus Edition account.)

In spite of some minor factual inaccuracies, the article is fair and reflects well on the concerns discussed here on the blog. Andover Public Schools parents Marj Andresen, Lori Barsalou and Debbie Begos -- all of whom have contributed to this site -- are quoted in the article.

School Committee meeting Tues June 12 at 7:30pm

2007-06-08T13:43:00.000-05:00

Next School Committee meeting is Tuesday June 12 at 7:30pm in the School Admin building (back of Doherty).

Agenda includes Middle School Math Program Update during the Communications section of the meeting (approx scheduled at 7:30pm.

Agenda also includes next textbook adoptions during the Education section of the meeting (approx scheduled at 8:00pm).

This meeting is free and open to the public.

Andover Townsman weekly poll

2007-06-07T19:06:00.001-05:00

If you have a moment please go to:
http://www.andovertownsman.com/

You can vote in this week's poll at the bottom right:
Andover assistant superintendent, the leader in determining how lessons are taught and what textbooks are used, is leaving. On what area do you want the next curriculum czar to focus most:
Elementary school math and science
Elementary school English
Other elementary school needs
Middle school math and science
Middle school English
Other middle school needs
High school math and science
High school English
Other high school needs

Tuesday June 5 10am Superintendent's coffee

2007-06-04T09:01:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the last of Dr. Bach's coffees for this school year. She will be at the Starbucks in downtown Andover at 10am. This is a good opportunity to talk about what's on your mind.

[UPDATED] Wellesley visit

2007-05-26T06:10:00.000-05:00

The three middle school principals and Dr. O'Neil visited Wellesley middle school to learn more about their math program. This is particularly interesting because of the sixteen comparable towns, Wellesley is one of the few using CMP at all, and the only other town of the "elite eight" to choose it as their sole middle school math curriculum.

Previously Wellesley had leveling for all of their classes but in 1998 moved to more what we now know is the "middle school model" and eliminated leveling except for math classes. Over time they have come to more of a heterogeneous (mixed) grouping for math as well, however, they maintain accelerated CMP classes for their 8th graders. (Dr. Bach has said that having 50% of the class move at an accelerated pace is not considered to be leveling.)

Wellesley outscored Andover on the MCAS over the past three years, however, their rate of decline is actually steeper than ours.

New update: Wellesley's middle school program of studies for 2007-08 is now published and is quoted below:

"In grade eight, students are heterogeneously grouped for all subjects except Mathematics. In Mathematics, there are four course offerings, a core course in Algebra, an accelerated Algebra course, a course designed for students who would benefit from a measured pace to master the major topics of first year algebra, and The Interactive Mathematics Program.

Teachers will offer their perspectives to parents and seventh grade students for the level placement in eight grade mathematics. After careful consideration by the teacher of a student's work and study habits, classroom performance, and current achievement, an appropriate level placement will be suggested."

(It appears that we were incorrect in saying that Wellesley offers CMP as its sole middle school math curriculum.)

Changes from CMP to CMP2 to streamline and focus

2007-05-26T06:04:00.000-05:00

To the left is a link to the Prentice-Hall description of the differences between CMP and CMP2. The effort centers on streamlining investigations, adding new content and bringing more focus. For instance in Comparing and Scaling "the authors have created a number of new problems that more directly convey the mathematical focus they feel is critical. One rather big shift is that the mathematics goals of the unit include more explicit work on forming ratios..." In many units investigations have been removed completely. More actual math has been incorporated as well.

Reading between the lines it appears that developers have recognized and addressed many of the issues and deficiencies noted by Andover students and teachers. The removal of investigations and the compacting of units speaks to the repetition so many students find "boring". The addition of focused mathematic application speaks to the challenge that was missing for some students previously.

It is clear that the program itself had significant room for improvement. Perhaps not quite as robust and rigorous as Andover has been expected to believe.

Spirited math discussion at last night's meeting

2007-05-23T16:23:00.000-05:00

Quite a few interested parents and students attended the 5/22 School Committee meeting to learn what the next steps were for the middle school math curriculum. The discussion during citizen's input lasted over one hour! Many parents -- and two students who have gone through the program -- all raised compelling questions. Other supportive parents were in the audience as well. Dr. Bach, Donna Pappalardo from the high school, and all three middle school principals were there to answer questions.

(One of the more controversial statements of the evening was Dr. Bach's claim that the parents and students who are unhappy were a "small group". If you are reading this post, you are probably part of that group, so let your voice be heard -- by leaving comments and suggestions for posts here, by contacting your teachers and principals and the school committee, and by telling other unhappy customers of this curriculum to make their voices heard as well.)

The Shapes of Algebra module and the pacing of CMP were discussed at length. Art Barber ended the debate with a proposal for Donna Pappalardo to take over the task of collecting data from our comparable communities and to convene a special meeting with Marj Andresen and other concerned parents and students.

It's hard to capture in a blog post, so people are encouraged to watch/record the rebroadcasts (Thursday at 8:00pm; Sunday at 7:00am on Comcast Channel 10.)

Which School?

2007-05-23T08:38:00.000-05:00

[Bumped yet again for new visitors to vote!]
It seems that not every middle school sent a notification to families about the January 31 roundtable. (The superintendent claimed at her coffee this month that at some schools, parents were completely satisfied.) Please answer the following anonymous poll for your middle-school-age child (if you have one) or the school system they attend if not currently in middle school.

School Committee Meeting Tues May 22 7:30pm

2007-05-20T19:58:00.001-05:00

Reminder that there is a School Committee meeting on Tuesday May 22 at 7:30pm in the School Admin building.

Here is the link to the agenda.

What happens next? posted by Marj Andresen

2007-05-15T05:29:00.000-05:00

Are you tired of hearing about the math program? Especially from me????

I know that I am tired of thinking about it and tired of talking about it. But because I have a 6th grader and a 2cnd grader I still feel compelled to deal with it. Any progress now is too late to help out my 8th grader.

I first met with my 8th grade son's principal a year ago and first met with Dr. O'Neil last August to talk about enrichment and challenge. Since then I've talked with many other Andover parents, students and faculty about middle school math. And, as you know, I spoke with parents, students, teachers and administrators in 25 comparable towns. The School Committee has heard from me continuously since last November and saw a "mob" come out to talk about math in late January.

So far:
We heard about the diagnostic test given at AHS. The level 1 students scored an average of 86%. The level 2 students scored an average of 58%. And remember this is after a half year of algebra 2 under their belts.
Now we are being told that these results don't really tell us anything. And we're being told that since we don't have prior data we don't know if these algebra gaps have always existed.
While it's true that we don't have prior diagnostic test scores we do have the previous MCAS scores (which were high) and prior soft data in the form of student, parent, teacher, and private school feedback. The perception of the community is that there has been a decline in algebra capability of our students over the past three years.

As a fix-- The Shapes of Algebra:
We heard that this year's 8th grade will be using the Shapes of Algebra module to address prior deficiencies. But many of the 8th graders haven't begun that six week module yet. We have five teaching weeks left of school to cover this ground. It is possible that this fix will not be delivered as promised. So where does that leave our 8th graders?

And now:
We are hearing that the solutions for next year come in the form of more professional development leading towards better differentiated instruction. (what EXACTLY does that mean?) We are hearing that a math coach might come to work with the teachers (if we can find the $$ to pay for one). We are hearing that we'll bolster CMP with modules of Impact Math to address some of the challenge issues that have been raised. We are being told that students wanting more should pursue math at the high school or use a software program in the place of classroom instruction.

We are continuing to hear that we are mistaken and that this program is truly rigorous and challenging. We are continuing to hear that our students are well prepared for the rigors of high school math. We are continuing to hear that if we seek additional challenge for our students that they can leave the classroom to receive it.

But:
We're NOT hearing that math interest and ability will be considered in the formation of teams for next year. We're NOT hearing that we will accelerate the pace of the math instruction (as do our peer communities). We're NOT hearing that we will consider any sort of leveled math instruction (as do our peer communities). We're NOT hearing that the upcoming K-12 program evaluation will consider solutions beyond CMP for the middle school.

So what happens next?
It can't be only me continuing to voice discontent. If you have concerns, if you have comments, if you want to see things change then you need to make your opinion known. Call/email your prinicipal. Copy it to Marcia O'Neil, copy it to Claudia Bach. And most of all contact the School Committee.

The best thing you can do is to show up at the Tuesday May 22 School Committee meeting. 7:30pm School Admin building.

School Committee Meeting and Dr. Bach coffee on May 8th

2007-05-01T17:17:00.000-05:00

There's a new date for Dr. Bach's coffee at Starbucks: Tuesday May 8th at 9:30am. This is a good time to come to talk with Dr. Bach in a smaller venue.

Also on Tuesday May 8th is the School Committee Meeting. It's at 7:30pm in the School Administration Building (back of Doherty Middle School). Agenda is posted at:

http://www.aps1.net/District/School%20Committee/SC06-07/SCAgenda5-8-07.pdf

Rebroadcast of 4/9 School Committee Meeting

2007-04-12T18:18:00.000-05:00

The April 9th meeting had a math-heavy agenda, with presentations by Marcia O'Neil for the administration and Marj Andresen for the parents and a number of questions and comments by parents, School Committee members and Superintendent Claudia Bach.

The meeting will be rebroadcast ~~tonight (Thursday April 12th) at 8:00 pm~~[or not -- special Tri-Board meeting on the budget instead], and Sunday morning April 15th at 7:00 am on Comcast Channel 10. Set your VCRs and DVRs!

How Andover Compares to the 16 Towns

2007-04-10T15:21:00.000-05:00

[Marj Andresen provided this slide from her presentation to the School Committee on April 9.]

(Click on the image to see a larger version with her explanatory notes for the data.)

Looking at the Wrong Data?

2007-04-10T11:21:00.000-05:00

[Bob Willard sent the note below to the School Committee (with copies to Claudia Bach and the MS Principals) on 10 April 2007.]

I applaud your desire to use educational data to drive educational policy. However, when it comes to the two contentious issues of MS math (CMP and ability-based grouping), I believe that you are looking at the wrong data.

The data that should be your guide is the number of MS students that are bored with MS math; or, the number that have settled for the inevitable by cruising through CMP in a heterogeneous class; or, the number that receive supplemental extra-curricular instruction; or, the number that need remedial assistance in secondary schools that are more demanding than AHS. Instead, you are using data that "proves" the success of MS math in APS by counting the number of students who score mediocre or better in our mediocre MS math program.

I strongly believe that we should be using ability-based grouping in MS math. I do not believe and I do not argue that we should be using ability-based grouping in all MS subjects, but I am sure that if our brighter students are to succeed in high-tech careers, they will need to have been challenged in math, starting in MS.

I do not accept the notion that differentiated instruction (DI) within a heterogeneous classroom is a viable alternative to ability-based grouping for MS math. DI might work, if all teachers were incredibly outstanding and if class sizes were a dozen or less. But, with teachers who are merely great and class sizes of two dozen, the resources are inadequate for the
task of making DI replace ability-based grouping in MS math. (I have focused more on ability-based grouping than on CMP because I fully expect that any class for high-ability MS math students would heavily supplement CMP; enough to compensate for that program's shortcomings.)

Thanks for listening.

Officially "on the agenda" for Mon 4/9

2007-04-06T17:37:00.000-05:00

Middle School Math is officially on the agenda for Monday night's School Committee meeting 7:30pm. Dr. O'Neil will be providing an update during the Communications section of the meeting and Marj Andresen is scheduled to speak during Citizen's Input. The process allows for other citizens to sign up for that section of the meeting upon arrival.

The meeting is free and open to the public.

Looking for Success Stories

2007-04-03T23:45:00.000-05:00

Much of the attention in this forum has been on people with concerns and complaints. But what about the people who are satisfied? We'd like to hear some feedback in support of CMP and some anecdotal evidence of where differentiated instruction has made a positive impact on the student's math experience.

Upcoming School Committee meetings and Superintendent's coffee

2007-03-30T09:21:00.000-05:00

Andover School Committee new meeting dates:

Wednesday April 4 at 7:30pm
Monday April 9 at 7:30pm

Location: School Committee Mtg room, 2cnd floor of School Administration building 36R Bartlett Street

Also broadcast live on Comcast Channel 10 (see Channel 10 for rebroadcast times)

Superintendent Coffee:

Dr. Claudia Bach, Superintendent of Schools invite all interested Andover citizens to meet with her at Starbucks in Andover at the dates and times listed below to discuss over a cup of coffee educational topics that are of interest to you.
This is a great opportunity to speak with Dr. Bach in a small, group setting.

Wednesday April 4 at 9am
Thursday May 3 at 10am
Tuesday June 5 at 10am

What good is a curriculum that meets the Mass Frameworks if we don’t teach all of it?

2007-03-22T07:22:00.000-05:00

From a concerned parent of an 8th grader and a 5th grader: In addition to the lack of advanced math, I’m very concerned that our 7th and 8th graders are not even completing the CMP curriculum at each grade level. What good is a curriculum that meets the Mass Frameworks if we don’t teach all of it?

In grade 7, only 5 of 8 curriculum units are completed in a typical school year. In grade 8, only 6 of 8 units are typically completed but this year they have added the new Algebra patch. So what’s going to get left out to make room for this unit?

It is unclear if this failure to complete the curriculum is caused by the pace at which APS teaches CMP or if it is a design flaw within the CMP curriculum in that it can not be completed in the standard school year. Whatever the case, we can not allow this to go on. The School Committee and the Administration must act now before another class of students is lost. The parent population has been patient; we do not need a year long study of the curriculum to see that middle school math is not working. Our peer towns are leveling with and without CMP right now, let’s at least take the first step to correct the situation for the next school year…. an advanced math class that will move at a faster pace and finish all of the curriculum units.

Doherty and Wood Hill Parents: Spread the word!

2007-03-20T20:59:00.000-05:00

The results of the survey below and several recent comments indicate that parents at all three Andover middle schools have concerns abut our math program (administration claims notwithstanding!) Still, Doherty and Wood Hill are underrepresented here, in part because this blog began with West Middle parents and in part because each middle school (principals and teachers) has its own approach to whether there is a problem and how to fix it.

In order to keep the momentum going, we want to make sure that this blog represents the whole community, so to parents at Doherty and Wood Hill: please send a link to this site to other parents at your schools and ask them to read the links here and make their own submissions and comments.

Students Left Behind?

2007-03-18T19:16:00.000-05:00

From a parent: I would like to see the school committee and administration fix a math curriculum problem. Many of us (from all three middle schools) have heard the middle school math curriculum philosophy several times. We have gone to the presentations, coffees and had private meetings. We have given the program a chance. Unfortunately, the program claims have not panned out.

Andover middle schools don't have an advanced math program. When I discuss this with colleagues and friends in other towns, people are shocked. Andover's excellent school system has the potential to produce several outstanding engineers, scientists, and other math-based professionals. We have denied the classes of 2009 on, advanced math starting in the 7th grade. What is the cost? Kids are bored and "tune-out" from the subject. They have to wait to be consistently challenged until high school. Now, even the high school curriculum is changing.

We have heard the arguments of the administration for the last 4 years. We waited patiently to see if the "no-leveled" math strategy would work. By my view of the world, it has not. I spent the last 3 years volunteering at the Wood Hill Middle School teaching a subset of the students "advanced math". I heard many times "wow this is hard - it's never been hard for me before". The teachers told me they heard the same comments. It's a shame to have some segment of the student population LEFT BEHIND! I'd say it's 10-20% of the kids depending on the year/class. I understand that the philosophy of leaving the kids together and bringing them all along at their own rate. Nice idea, but it didn't work in practice (from the evidence I and others have seen).

Parents in other excellent school districts, like Boxford and Acton, would not allow advanced math to be eliminated. They fought with the schools to keep the advanced middle school math. Andover parents circulated a petition 3 years ago that had at least 300 parent signatures.

Many Andover parents and taxpayers would like the administration and the school committee to address this issue. We need to get beyond the philosophy of the current strategy and look at the reality that students are being left behind. Our society needs all the scientists and engineers we can get to keep our country strong. Please help fix this!

School Committee Candidates Debate

2007-03-16T06:48:00.000-05:00

At last night's League of Women Voters debate all three School Committee candidates talked about excellence in our schools.

The first question from the LWV (not an audience question) addressed "unmet needs" at the elementary, middle and high school levels. Dick Collins specifically mentioned advanced math in the middle schools. Debbie Silberstein talked about challenging all learners and addressing the wide range of learning styles. Bob Coffill mentioned the increase in math tutoring of our students.

A question from the audience: 16.7% of the student population is special needs. How do we avoid ignoring peer students and gifted and talented? Who advocates for these students? Again all three candidates talked about addressing the needs of the complete student population, using professional development to aide the teachers' ability to differentiate instruction within the classroom, and to ensure that the gifted learners are not left behind by MCAS emphasis on "proficiency".

It is encouraging that this topic is part of the debate platform for all three candidates. Math has been raised several times in the context of the School Committee election. It seems that all of the candidates are aware of and are concerned about the issue.

School Committee Meeting March 13, 2007

2007-03-14T06:43:00.000-05:00

At last night's School Committee meeting Dr. O'Neil gave an update on the middle school math discussion. Dr. O'Neil said that all three of the middle school principals have been meeting together and with their respective teachers. The math curriculum council also met on this date. The plan, as explained, is that potential solutions will be brought forward at the next curriculum council meeting with the intent to implement for the next school year. Dr. O'Neil said that solutions might not "look the same" at all three of the middle schools because of differing school philosophies, school leadership and school compostion.

Art Barber then asked about the comparable community data and whether or not this had been investigated. Both Debbie Silberstein and Tony James joined in the conversation clarifying that the question is why other communities believe they can have leveling and still maintain the middle school concept but Andover does not. Dr. O'Neil has the action item to follow up on this information.

Signs of Progress

2007-03-03T14:24:00.000-05:00

It's too early to know for sure, but there were several encouraging signs this month on the middle school math front. As noted in the comments to the 2/27 School Committee post, AHS administered a "diagnostic" math test to this year's 10th graders to identify any gaps in their math knowledge and will offer after-school tutoring to those who need to catch up. This was presented at the school committee meeting as a direct response to the concerns raised at the 1/31 roundtable.

The Andover Townsman asked each of the School Committee candidates whether the middle school math program should be changed. (See the answers in the 3/1/07 link under "News Articles" at the left of this page.) Both the phrasing of the question and the fact that it was asked at all are indicators that our concerns are beginning to be not only heard but are something to be acted upon.

Finally, the liaison group of parents from each of the middle schools met with Marcia O'Neil on March 2nd and was told that the expansion of CMP into 6th grade has been "tabled" for this year, pending completion of a full evaluation of the curriculum. APS should be commended for this common-sense decision.

Next School Committee Meeting Tues. Feb. 27

2007-02-25T18:07:00.000-05:00

Start time: 7:30 pm
Location: School Committee Mtg, 2nd Floor
School Administration Offices,
36R Bartlet Street
Agenda in PDF

Also broadcast live on Comcast Channel 10 (see Channel 10 for rebroadcast times.)

It would be good to learn when we will hear the answers to the rest of the questions from the math roundtable on January 31!

Follow-up to Roundtable and WMS PAC Meeting

2007-02-12T10:28:00.000-05:00

From a parent; sent to WMS principal Denise Holmes: The following is the question that I submitted at the 31 Jan math round table, and that I also asked you last night.

Our CMP program seems to have two goals:
1. to ensure that all of our kids are up to Proficient on MCAS
2. to ensure that the best of our kids learn nothing beyond that

For able students, CMP is boring. And, it is grossly inefficient.

Why can’t APS redeploy its teachers to offer two classes per grade, based on ability-grouping for math, with the advanced math classes offering more traditional teaching methods and more challenging material?

This is the statement that I handed to you last night. [See the first comment to this entry for the statement.]

To repeat myself:
1. Andover should have advanced math classes in grades 6-8
2. CMP is a poor MS math program

What would happen if APS's MSs created advanced math classes in grades 6-8 that did not use CMP? <insert crowds of cheering adults here>

The reason why I am more of an advocate for advanced MS math than I am for replacing CMP is merely my assumption that any advanced MS math program will either not use CMP or will use a mixture of real math and CMP.

Letter to the Editor

2007-02-12T08:47:00.000-05:00

The February 8 edition of the Townsman published a letter to the editor from Kathy Zigmont about the math roundtable. Some very interesting points and questions!

CMP Questions

2007-02-09T08:51:00.000-05:00

From a parent: After hearing at the WMS PAC meeting that the 7th grade curriculum is being supplemented with material from the prior curriculum and hearing from a 7th grader who said two of his weekly enrichments are dedicated to math, I’m wondering two things:

1) How can the administration evaluate the CMP program when the students are not getting CMP exclusively?

2) How is the CMP program a better program than traditional math if students need after school MCAS review and additional math enrichments? It sounds as if the students need more time working on math just to cover the basics.

How to Read/Write Comments

2007-02-02T08:59:00.000-05:00

Some of the visitors here may be new to blogs. At the bottom of each entry is a link for comments (if any) on each post. To read the comments on an article, click that link - the same link includes a box where you can write your own or respond to another comment. Anonymous comments are accepted as long as everyone remains on their best behavior.

The little envelope icon with an arrow at the bottom right of each post is a link to forward an entry via email.

To have your own topic posted as a blog entry on which others can comment, send an email to middleschoolmath@gmail.com with "Suggestion Box" in the title or body.

Coverage in the Townsman

2007-02-02T08:53:00.000-05:00

There was a brief article on the middle school math roundtable on page 3 of the February 1 issue of the Andover Townsman (newsprint version only - no link!) Although the article was written before the meeting (the meeting was held after the Townsman's deadline) the topics mentioned by parents quoted in the article were raised at the forum. It is not known whether anyone from the paper was in attendance at the meeting.

What Data?

2007-02-01T08:26:00.000-05:00

At several points in the administration's presentation, it was mentioned that we are in the data gathering phase of the curriculum review. MCAS trends are but one data point, and many have pointed out that differences in student cohorts and tests from year-to-year make it challenging to normalize those trends. In-town test results can also be used (again assuming they remain constant) but the impact of outside tutoring is not well-understood. Some parents at the roundtable suggested PSAT and SSAT scores. These are not useful for measuring the entire student population, but could give insight into advanced learners -- a population that parents and teachers feel are not being effectively served by the current implementation of math in the middle schools.

What data points would be useful to measure the effectiveness of the curriculum?

Middle School Math Roundtable

2007-02-01T08:04:00.000-05:00

A very informative meeting was held at Wood Hill Middle School the night of January 31, with a literally standing-room-only turnout surpassing all expectations. Approximately 120 interested parents, educators and students joined 4 School Committee members (Tony James, Art Barber, Deb Silberstein and Dick Collins) and a 9-member panel from the school district. Former School Committee chair Tina Girdwood served as moderator.

The audience listened respectfully as Marcia O'Neil and the principals and math curriculum committee members from each of the middle schools delivered a 60+ minute presentation on the middle school model, the math curriculum, and the process for evaluating and improving the implementation of math at the middle school. Dozens of questions were submitted to the moderator, and several were asked and discussed by the group at large. Unfortunately, the meeting was adjourned by the adminstration with only a fraction of the topics discussed in the open forum.

This blog provides an opportunity to continue that discussion, through new topics being posted and comments to those entries, without concern for time limits and without fear of interruption.