the district finally agreed to offer the 8th grade math standards option for the rest of the year. i am honestly blown away that they listened to us and im so grateful to everyone who stuck with this. we still need to keep an eye on how they implement this …
June 25, 2019
Final supporters
To: Andrea Daniels, Stephanie Leonard-Witte, Brad Saron and SPASD School Board Members--
From: Parents and Students of the Class of 2023
Reason: Request for 4th Quarter Option of 8th Grade Math Standards
We are sending this letter because of the district mandated transition to having all 8th graders in a high school level Algerba this school year. Our students had access to all the 6th grade math standards in 6th grade, 7th grade math standards in 7th grade. Then in 8th grade our students had less than one quarter of 8th grade math standards before moving into high school level Algebra standards.
As parents we are aware that 19 of the 28 district adopted standards for 8th grade math have been skipped for our students. As students we are struggling to make sense of typically 9th grade level standards, of a high school Algebra course, without the conceptual foundation of those 19 eighth grade standards. Some of us are still performing well through memorization, while others of us are giving up on trying in mathematics. Together we believe that for the remainder of this school year students should have the choice between continuing with Algebra standards or having access to the 8th grade standards that have been skipped.
We are aware that the algebraic foundations found in the 8th grade content and the high school level Algebra standards together are the key to long term success in mathematics. We believe that all students should have the option of taking a freshman Algebra class without having to earn below a 70% or make a special request. We are aware that starting in Geometry as freshman means that an Algebra 1 credit option will never be offered to our students and we demand the option of earning high school credit for Algebra 1. We know you can not provide that to us this year because most of your 8th grade math teachers are not licensed in secondary mathematics, a state requirement for credit bearing middle school classes.
We are also aware of the positions of many of your math educators, math experts, and math organizations on acceleration of middle school math. Here is just one article from one math leader with an embedded video of one of the authors of common core mathematics https://robertkaplinsky.com/the-case-against-accel...
Offering 8th grade standards in after school tutoring (ELO) or summer school is not appropriate as these are deficiencies based on neglect of the district not based on student abilities or lack of effort. If the district has identified a need for these missing components, then there needs to be a focus on them during the daily mathematics instructional time.
In summary forcing students to take Algebra in 8th grade without first learning all the foundations of the 8th grade mathematics standards and forcing our kids to take it without credit is NOT acceptable to us.
Again, our current and immediate request is for a 4th quarter option to focus on the 19 standards for 8th grade that have been omitted for that class of 2023.
Thank you for living out your motto every child, every day by responding to the needs of your 8th grade students today.
Updates
Reached 100 supporters
March 28, 2019
21 Comments
Watching a child who has never struggled with math before lose their confidence is difficult as a parent. The lack of response from the school to this widespread issue is equally frustrating. Parents / students should have been better prepared for this transition. The fact that so many students are struggling, particularly in this last quarter, should sound an alarm to all involved teachers that the material and current support approach is ineffective. Mathia is busy work and fails to teach or expand on concepts.
I feel that Mathia is too frustrating to be able to feel the want to do Mathia. My dad has threatened to take away some of my stuff even though I am doing pretty good in Algebra this year. It kills my desire to want to do the math that I am learning. All I want to do is to do my in-class math and be over. I don't want to have to worry about falling behind in Mathia. I demand a better math experience.
Mathia has shown to be one of the most ineffective, frustrating tools we have ever experienced. Our child becomes so frustrated in trying to complete it that he often gives up. It doesn’t allow a child to move on and try another problem without solving and if incorrect more continues to be added. We have seen some problems that our older son (who is taking AP calculas) can’t answer.
Math this year has been such a struggle and my student hasn’t had these issues in Math class in the last. Mathia does nothing but frustrate our student and us as parents trying to help him along. This seems to be way over 8th grade math level and it’s killing his confidence.
I would also comment that Mathia is an ineffective learning tool. I would actually prefer to use the word "horrible" to describe it. ALEKS was a better tool. The interface does not promote "showing the work on paper" and flexibility in problem solving. Additonally, I have seen some of the mathia content and it is well advanced beyond the 8th grade level. My degree exposed me to advanced math courses such as Calc 3 and Differential Equations...I know what I am seeing in mathia and it is well beyond basic algebra. The mathia workflow is also brutal on our students in regards to repetition, rework, and status achievement. Mathia is grinding our students into a pulp and creating poor morale and desire to gain understanding of Algebraic standards and concepts.
MATHIA IS BAD
Seriously though, you won’t even learn a thing after doing Mathia, on top of that it just gets frustrating because it won’t let you continue when you get an answer wrong.
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the district finally agreed to offer the 8th grade math standards option for the rest of the year. i am honestly blown away that they listened to us and im so grateful to everyone who stuck with this. we still need to keep an eye on how they implement this …
June 25, 2019
Final supporters
To: Andrea Daniels, Stephanie Leonard-Witte, Brad Saron and SPASD School Board Members--
From: Parents and Students of the Class of 2023
Reason: Request for 4th Quarter Option of 8th Grade Math Standards
We are sending this letter because of the district mandated transition to having all 8th graders in a high school level Algerba this school year. Our students had access to all the 6th grade math standards in 6th grade, 7th grade math standards in 7th grade. Then in 8th grade our students had less than one quarter of 8th grade math standards before moving into high school level Algebra standards.
As parents we are aware that 19 of the 28 district adopted standards for 8th grade math have been skipped for our students. As students we are struggling to make sense of typically 9th grade level standards, of a high school Algebra course, without the conceptual foundation of those 19 eighth grade standards. Some of us are still performing well through memorization, while others of us are giving up on trying in mathematics. Together we believe that for the remainder of this school year students should have the choice between continuing with Algebra standards or having access to the 8th grade standards that have been skipped.
We are aware that the algebraic foundations found in the 8th grade content and the high school level Algebra standards together are the key to long term success in mathematics. We believe that all students should have the option of taking a freshman Algebra class without having to earn below a 70% or make a special request. We are aware that starting in Geometry as freshman means that an Algebra 1 credit option will never be offered to our students and we demand the option of earning high school credit for Algebra 1. We know you can not provide that to us this year because most of your 8th grade math teachers are not licensed in secondary mathematics, a state requirement for credit bearing middle school classes.
We are also aware of the positions of many of your math educators, math experts, and math organizations on acceleration of middle school math. Here is just one article from one math leader with an embedded video of one of the authors of common core mathematics https://robertkaplinsky.com/the-case-against-accel...
Offering 8th grade standards in after school tutoring (ELO) or summer school is not appropriate as these are deficiencies based on neglect of the district not based on student abilities or lack of effort. If the district has identified a need for these missing components, then there needs to be a focus on them during the daily mathematics instructional time.
In summary forcing students to take Algebra in 8th grade without first learning all the foundations of the 8th grade mathematics standards and forcing our kids to take it without credit is NOT acceptable to us.
Again, our current and immediate request is for a 4th quarter option to focus on the 19 standards for 8th grade that have been omitted for that class of 2023.
Thank you for living out your motto every child, every day by responding to the needs of your 8th grade students today.
Updates
Reached 100 supporters
March 28, 2019
21 Comments
I was a special ed teacher at the Waunakee High School and I had students in our program doing Mathia, and even I struggled to get it. I spoke with our math teacher, and she said that it wasn't a very good way to educate our students. We got rid of it at our school district and I hope you guys do the same.
Watching a child who has never struggled with math before lose their confidence is difficult as a parent. The lack of response from the school to this widespread issue is equally frustrating. Parents / students should have been better prepared for this transition. The fact that so many students are struggling, particularly in this last quarter, should sound an alarm to all involved teachers that the material and current support approach is ineffective. Mathia is busy work and fails to teach or expand on concepts.
I feel that Mathia is too frustrating to be able to feel the want to do Mathia. My dad has threatened to take away some of my stuff even though I am doing pretty good in Algebra this year. It kills my desire to want to do the math that I am learning. All I want to do is to do my in-class math and be over. I don't want to have to worry about falling behind in Mathia. I demand a better math experience.
Mathia has shown to be one of the most ineffective, frustrating tools we have ever experienced. Our child becomes so frustrated in trying to complete it that he often gives up. It doesn’t allow a child to move on and try another problem without solving and if incorrect more continues to be added. We have seen some problems that our older son (who is taking AP calculas) can’t answer.
Math this year has been such a struggle and my student hasn’t had these issues in Math class in the last. Mathia does nothing but frustrate our student and us as parents trying to help him along. This seems to be way over 8th grade math level and it’s killing his confidence.
I would also comment that Mathia is an ineffective learning tool. I would actually prefer to use the word "horrible" to describe it. ALEKS was a better tool. The interface does not promote "showing the work on paper" and flexibility in problem solving. Additonally, I have seen some of the mathia content and it is well advanced beyond the 8th grade level. My degree exposed me to advanced math courses such as Calc 3 and Differential Equations...I know what I am seeing in mathia and it is well beyond basic algebra. The mathia workflow is also brutal on our students in regards to repetition, rework, and status achievement. Mathia is grinding our students into a pulp and creating poor morale and desire to gain understanding of Algebraic standards and concepts.
MATHIA IS BAD
Seriously though, you won’t even learn a thing after doing Mathia, on top of that it just gets frustrating because it won’t let you continue when you get an answer wrong.
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I was a special ed teacher at the Waunakee High School and I had students in our program doing Mathia, and even I struggled to get it. I spoke with our math teacher, and she said that it wasn't a very good way to educate our students. We got rid of it at our school district and I hope you guys do the same.