Middle School Math Plan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

[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

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.