Hi -
I enjoy reading these boards and I feel a little guilty about my repetitive posts, but I'm getting anxious over my 4th grader's math placement and looking for more feedback and advice. It's starting to look like we are going to have a problem and I am REALLY bad at dealing with these types of things - I can win an argument, but negotiating concessions is outside my skillset.
I've posted info previously, but here's the background: New school, new school system, so-so repuation, son is supposed to be in Talent Development program for both reading and math, school classification for him is 99% in math, 98% in reading (his reading is actually REALLY good, but the WIAT score was depressed becasue it included phonetics and he can't sound out, spelling stinks too, but his speed and comprehension are great), other scores include DYS level GAI from WISC, 139 SB V, overall very solid math, excellent reading, weak writing.
I've had two meetings at the school jsut trying to get basic info/lay of the land - one with his homeroom teacher and one with his math/reading teacher and the gifted coordinator. At the math/reading meeting I mentioned that my son had worked through the fourth AND much of the fifth grade curriculum and asked what would happen if he was beyond the curriculum. The teacher said she would assess each child and make sure they were challenged. I got the impression that they didn't like my question and I thought the response was vague. The gifted coordinator does chess and math olympiad problems with them on Mondays instead of their regular math class. I initially thought that sounded great, but that was before I realized the size of the class.
For no good reason I ASSumed the talent development classes would be small groups. They are not. They have three 4th grade classes, so for math and reading they divide the kids into three ability groupings and each teacher takes one group. All the groups follow the same fourth grade basic currriculum, with some undefined extras in the higher grouping. So my son is in the highest ability grouping, but so is over 1/3 of the fourth grade. On mondays the gifted coordinator does chess and Math Olympiad problems with them (instead of their regular one hour math class), but it's +/-25 kids with varying abilities and it's not like she's a chessmaster. I asked my son how many kids are in the class and he said, "Well, two more than the number of desks because me and one other kid have to sit on the floor."
I am pretty sure my son knows all the fourth grade math and most of the fifth, as I prepped him extensively in the spring trying to get him into a different program and he had a tutor all summer. Also, he's coming out of a better school. And at both my meetings at the school it was mentioned that a lot of the kids don't know the basic muliplication facts. This school has bright kids, but it's not Palo Alto or Scarsdale.
The math/reading teacher made a favorable impression on me, but I simply don't believe than ANY teacher can effectively teach math to a child who is two years above grade level if she is also teaching 25 kids at grade level. I suspect the other kids are all at or only slightly above grade level since most have been at the school for years and the school doesn't offer any math acceleration.
Making me more anxious is the fact that my other son is a 3rd grader at a charter school for gifted children where they are learning the 4th grade NC curriculum. Hopefully both kids will be at this school next year and I don't want my older son to be a year behind. So, in short, I want my son in the 5th grade math class and I don't know how to ask.
Is this reasonable in general? IOW, do they have a legal obligation to give my child *some* education in math (currently I suspect that w/o supplementation at home he will actually regress this year) and, if so, how to I go about getting it?
Is this reasonable in NC? Does anyone have any experience specific to NC they could share?
Unfortunately, with the boys at different school with different schedules, my job, and piano I simply can't teach my son a complete year of math at home. I want the school to provide SOMETHING for him in this area. Any advice (even if it's critical) is appreciated.
