In the 2007-2008 school year, the Kennett Consolidated School District adopted a new math curriculum within the elementary schools titled: Investigations Math. In addition to adopting a new curriculum, the schools also eliminated their practice of grouping students by mathematical ability and enacted homogeneous grouping. Research consistently shows, and common sense dictates, that the best way to nurture high-ability math minds is to group these children together and give them a curriculum geared to their abilities. Rather than continuing such ability grouping, the Kennett Consolidated School District elementary schools have adopted the exact opposite approach: whole-group instruction or heterogeneous grouping. While there are a lot of studies and data to support that the lower and average ability math students do well and possibly even better in these groupings, the higher achieving math students are languishing in classes where the majority of their time is spend learning concepts over and over again that they were able to master quickly. When bright students are forced to study material they already know and to spend much more time than necessary on each new topic, they become bored. Boredom is a risk factor for academic problems, including loss of interest, lack of motivation, and underachievement. Please sign the below petition to put pressure on our school district to re-establish ability grouping in math for the 2008-2009 school year. This is our school district, our tax dollars and we need to stand up for our children who are being left behind simply because they are bright!!!

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