[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.
8 comments:
It’s amazing to me that 100+ parents can show up for a poorly publicized meeting yet the administration can feel that this is a one school issue.
I just don't understand why it is in the superintendent's best interest to purposely not offer an advanced math class to our middle schoolers... so many other communities do. Why can't we give the students who need and want to explore math in more depth, the opportunity? This apathy by our administration accomplishes such negativity: bored children, angry and concerned parents and students who are at a disadvantage when they enter high school.. what are the positive gains the administration is achieving? It is beyond frustrating.....
There's a perception that only parents at West Middle School are vocal about their concerns with the math program. If parents at other schools are also concerned please comment.
I am parent from West and I know parents from both Doherty and Wood Hill and their concerns are the same as ours. This math program does not work. I don't know why more parents from these schools are not speaking up. This is a town issue. I'm glad it is still being talked about, I hope there is a solution soon. I hate the idea that I might have to get a tutor for my daughter. If I do then I'll take the money that I would have paid for the bus and pay for a tutor. I don't want to be one of those parents that had to wait 4 years for the results. There is a problem, everyone knows this, now fix it!
I have seen this problem with my first child, now in High school, and my second, now in middle school. We need an advanced math program.. period. What does it take to get the people in charge to see this? We already pay for sports at the high school, buses to get our kids to school, and an extra curriculum fee for our child to take part in after school activities.. Now are we expected to pay for tutors on our own so that our children can get an appropriate math education? I moved to Andover for the schools.. well, why is it that Andover is one of the very few around that does not offer what the others do? an advanced math program... I am a parent at Wood Hill.. yes, its a problem at ALL of the Middle schools.. wake up, listen to the parents and solve this problem.. we need an advanced math program.. period.
I have made it clear that as a parent of both a Doherty student and a former Doherty student, that I am not happy with the curriclum at Doherty. There is very little new material taught it the 6th and 7th grades and there is not enough algebra to prepare students for advanced math at AHS.
As a former student at Doherty middle school, I have had first hand experience of exactly how poor the current curriculum is. I find two huge problems with this curriculum. The first was the way it taught the material, instead of getting very into depth in one aspect of math for too long, it would spend one month just barely brushing the surface before moving on. Because of this, every year we would have to go back through each unit and review before taking another small chunk out of the material. It just wasn't an effective way to teach, especially for the kids who had trouble with the concepts. as soon as they would get something, we would switch gears and start something completely new and they would find themselves totally lost again.
The second problem I saw has already been mentioned, but I want to emphasize that this is a problem. The lack of an "advanced" math program meant that the teachers would have to teach at either the level of the student who understood the material least, or the level halfway between the top and bottom of the class. Either way, one group of kids is left out to the side, whether it is the advanced kids sitting bored 4 out of 5 days a week, or the math challenged ones sitting on the other side without a clue in the world as to what is going on. As a current student at Andover high school in the enriched math program, I see exactly how well leveling students works, not just in math but in other subjects too. Each has its own pace to keep every kid in the class learning and engaged in their own level. I am not sure how you change it, but you definitely need to change middle school math!
I have seen this problem with my first child, now in High school, and my second, now in middle school. We need an advanced math program.. period. What does it take to get the people in charge to see this? We already pay for sports at the high school, buses to get our kids to school, and an extra curriculum fee for our child to take part in after school activities.. Now are we expected to pay for tutors on our own so that our children can get an appropriate math education? I moved to Andover for the schools.. well, why is it that Andover is one of the very few around that does not offer what the others do? an advanced math program... I am a parent at Wood Hill.. yes, its a problem at ALL of the Middle schools.. wake up, listen to the parents and solve this problem.. we need an advanced math program.. period.
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