We're in MPCSD, Menlo Park. Our experience is that parents only get to get involved with "extracurricular" stuff, such as art programs, field trips, drama, STEAM fair, etc. But there seems to be nothing we can do about the "academic." After we complained that our child should be doing more than "2 plus 3" the teacher gave him "20 plus 30."
My concern is not so much about how our children can learn math--we've used Aleks, Khan Academy and other paper and online resources, plus we can hire a tutor or do Kumon. But they spend 6 hours at school daily being bored.
Will changes start in 6th grade, or 9th? When do public schools finally attend to academic rigor?
In our school district, my "grade accelerated" son got worksheets with 13+14 instead of 3+4! I heard from several neighborhood parents that the academics in middle schools in the local PS were "very easy with low workload" with very little homework (we live in the south bay) - so, it seems to me that the rigor and challenge is not much in middle school either. 9th grade is likely the point where the rigor picks up (lots of kids complaining about things getting "hard").
Speaking of elementary school only - in our area, parents ask teachers to include "creative thinking and problem solving" components to the math curriculum (parents are on "site committees" and the PTA pushes a lot - so they send MOEMs problems as homework 1 day of the week and do "MathLab" activity every month). But, there is not much that can be done for a child who desires to learn more than what is being offered during the school day. There are other things like hands on science experiments, learning to type, social studies, making various crafts and artwork, presenting topics to the class, class plays, PE, recess, "Project Cornerstone", music, Librarian story time, carnivals, parades, field trips etc that made the time that my son spent in PS worth his while. So, it was not a complete washout. And it did give him ample time and energy to after school!
