Re: Algebra (was Re: Half Grades?)

[Rick Parkany <rparkany@BORG.COM>]

Yes, Bill, and to make matters worse, all students failing
the 8th grade Regents Math 8 exam are mandated to receive
Academic Intervention Services (AIS) until they pass the
next state benchmarked exam...which IS that Course A! This
is what makes this 8th grade exam so high stakes: 2 -3,
perhaps, 4 years of additional academic service w/no
additional funding from the state!

In response to the uproar this has caused in curriculum
development in our upstate NY rural district, we had only
two others (aside from myself) return to our department this
year out of a total of 9. We attempted to do many things
last year to install this creature (Math A/B), including
making them two year courses for the *mellow learners* w/an
accelerated 1 1/2 year sequence for the WhizKidz...and I
came back yesterday to check my schedule only to find out
that nothing of what we had decided as a department was
being implemented.

Math A/B installation in this state certainly IS curriculum
development via train wreck modeling.

Oh, and Bill, BTW, don'tCha just love how the state
sanctimoniously instructs us NOT to call the Math Courses,
*Course A* and *Course B* (Thing one and Thing Two...after
Cat-in-the-Hat), these are just names for the *assessment
protocols*!!! It's up to us to give names to the _Courses_
that are so evaluated by Things 1 & 2.

Go figure, that is, YOU do the Math...  ;-} rap.

Bill Cala mentioned:
In New York's infinite wisdom, they have developed a new 9th
grade math course called Math Course A.  It is designed for
1 and 1/2 years.  That's right, not one, not two,
but one and one-half years.  I don't want to get into how
nuts this makes me.  Just think of the mechanics of this.  A
kid will always have two teachers over two different
school years to finish the course.  In my district it means
two different school buildings as well. And that is just the
beginning .

BC


--
"Dein Wachstum sei feste und lache vor Lust!
Deines Herzens Trefflichkeit / hat dir selbst das Feld
bereit',
auf dem du bluehen musst." Richard A. Parkany: SUNY@Albany
Prometheus Educational Services -
http://www.borg.com/~rparkany/
Upper Hudson & Mohawk Valleys; New York State, USA

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