Montgomery County parents say they are hopeful that a refurbished math curriculum will plug gaps in even top students’ knowledge, but are worried as to how schools will handle gifted students under a new recommendation to scale back mass advancement.
The K-12 Mathematics Work Group will conclude 18 months of work Tuesday by telling the school board that fewer topics should be taught more in-depth in each grade, and that significantly fewer students should skip grade levels in mathematics. This year, more than 40 percent of second-graders were recommended for above-level math.
“It’s probably a good thing for most students — I know that parents have been concerned that their kids have been going at too fast of a pace,” said Laurie Halverson, vice president for educational issues for the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations.
Halverson said that even at magnet high schools Montgomery Blair and Richard Montgomery, parents say their children are not prepared for advanced mathematics courses such as calculus. “When they come back to a simple topic, they often have to relearn it,” Halverson said.
Rosanne Hurwitz, the gifted-and-talented chairwoman of the MCCPTA during the last audit of the math program, says over-reaching placements of students has been a consistent problem for Montgomery, from a county initiative to get as many students as possible into eighth grade algebra, to a goal that every student would complete an Advanced Placement class by graduation.
“Well, says who? What if you can’t?” she asked. “The real goal should be providing each kid the appropriate education.”
Halverson said the work group’s recommendations “could make sure kids are really learning what they’re being taught,” but that she was concerned about highly advanced children.
“There are going to be students who are way ahead, and I hope they are still getting the challenges they need,” she said.
At a recent briefing, Deputy Superintendent Frieda Lacey said gifted students still would advance, even as the school system recommended the elimination of mass grade-skipping in math. “Because you’re on grade level doesn’t mean you can’t be accelerated,” she said.
Fred Stichnoth, president of the Gifted & Talented Association of Montgomery County, said he was doubtful that mixing students of different ability levels in one classroom would provide good results.
“If kids who are capable of moving forward are kept in a heterogeneous classroom, I just would be skeptical that they would get the instruction that their needs and abilities warrant,” he said.
