Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Gifted program

We went to our school's open house for our local gifted program, which starts in fourth grade. I had heard that it acclerates the whole class ahead by a year for math, which is great for us since my son is pretty "math-y."
She said that they are talking about next year just starting right off the bat for fourth grade with our district's 5th grade curriculum! That is something, at least.
Last week, the third graders, for 30 minutes or so, cut out two shapes, colored them, and taped them together. That was it! So everyone could "get comfortable" with shapes.
I was like, really?? I told my son, this is why the USA ranks almost last among industrialized countries in math!

yes, it is why, you are right!

...my 3rd grader's homework today was to color in 1/2 of a bunch of shapes on one side of a worksheet and on the other side to fill in...either 1/2, 1/4 1/3 whatever it asked

I swear she's been doing this for a few years now. No wonder she rolled around on the rug making pained noises...LOL

They did 2 weeks, count 'em, 2 weeks of multiplication a couple of weeks ago. What did your son say when you told him about the ranking, does he understand?

He does understand. I've shown him on You Tube how rigid and rigorous many other countries are for grade school. Actually, I don't think that is the way to go but he did get the idea.
Last week for homework my son had to "name polygons." They connected the dots and drew rays. He named his first polygon after himself and the second one after his friend.
I thought he was goofing off but that actually was the homework! It was so they feel "good" about shapes and geometry.
so..... It's great that my child is being prepared for the global economy!
Supposedly if your child is good at math and takes the honors math all the way through, they will take Geometry in 8th grade, Algebra II in 9th grade, ?Pre-calc in 10th grade, AP AB calculus in 11th grade, and AP BC calculus in 12th grade. So that is really very good. Maybe it just starts really slow or something.

I think it is the philosophy of this curriculum where they go very, very slowly to build the foundation, that's what the district tells the parents who question it anyway. The don't do accelerated work in the enrichment pull-out (my DD's not it in but I know alot about it) and the school has a policy of keeping all the kids on the same page with math within the classroom.

Many parents have been and gone before me with this issue, with more degrees and better advocacy skills than me, who are pretty enraged that their 5th graders are still counting on their fingers...and they've had a really hard time with the district, so I don't even go there...

Right now I'm trying to focus on why DD has only gained two grade levels in reading in 4 years and has such low rapid naming scores (16th percentile) and low math fluency on her university study test (they don't interpret, and the school kicked back the data and won't respond to it). They're setting up to NOT be cooperative, I can just tell.

Meanwhile, I do know that she really loves big, huge interesting math concepts, we just have to get through these elementary years! It's cool that your DS understood the concept of the math rankings.

It sounds like all the teachers understand is how to connect dots. IMHO math is like this because the teachers are like this.


IMHO if kids can do that program, then most could do Calc in the 10th grade which means Algebra in the 6th. We have been doing Calc in the 12th grade for 50 years now. Based on the Flynn Effect alone, today's kids should be doing Calc in the 10th.

The problem is that curriculum must be designed to do this. Which means that the kids must master everything by the 4th which they knew by the seventh. We need a complete revamp of curriculum.

One suggestion to make- find out what is tested on the university study test and work with her at home on it. It could be it is a dumb test, so who cares if her scores are not what you hope. Or it could be that your child missed some concept (or the teacher didn't teach it properly), so you can fix that for her.
My son is hearing impaired and he misses things in class due to that. I use those standardized tests to see if there are things he is missing that he should know.

Our school offers - 2nd grade math for 2nd graders. Period. NO GT program, no acceleration. My son brings home math fact practice quizzes... with addition. The kid can add fractions and understands basic probability. If I could homeschool him, I have no doubt he'd be up to complex multiplication & division. The bar is set too low.

I did Geometry/Algebra2 together as a freshman, then precalc, then Calc AB as a junior (first ever in my school). Had to take calc 2 at a local university my senior year. But when I got to my Ivy League school, I was so far below where I thought I was, I couldn't keep up in Linear Algebra & Vector Calc. I had to realize that I was just not smart enough although I was the best in my class in HS.

Thanks jack'smom

The university study that is bugging me is the CTOPP and with all my googling on it, the low rapid naming is a bit troublesome. I gave the data to the school but the kicked it back, saying they 'couldn't use it or shed any light on it" because they didn't administer the test.

She hasn't been tested since early 2009 so we're going to do it again but we'll have to wait. I get alot of books at the library and BN to work with her to make sure she doesn't miss any content but I think we want to rule out processing things etc. Thanks again!

My understanding also of the WJ-III math fluency is that it tests speed of calculations, not necessarily knowledge...so I don't know if that's from lack of a disciplined math curriculum at school or something in the brain.

All the more reason to check it out.

Anyway it's very interesting reading about the school math experiences of other kids this age, as in what they're learning and whether or not they're being challenged...and it's not very encouraging unfortunately.

I teach 2nd grade in a general education room. I try to provide acceleration for kids that have high ability because we have no g/t program. I try and move them at a faster pace, but it is difficult.

In my room I have five students testing in the 90% percentile for math. I also have five students in the bottom 10% percentile for math, and then 20 kids falling at different levels in the middle. Out of the 30 kids, two speak no English.

The higher students need my time as much as the lower students. However, these days most of my time is spent doing assessments. I'm also putting out fires with parents who could care less. The parents on this board are actually involved with their children, so it's hard to explain how the other side of the coin behaves.

I just want to say please don't blame the teacher for all the woes of our country's STEM areas. Teachers work in a fixed system that is ruled and governed by people who have no education experience.