Is Your Student On Newtown Schools' Fast Track in Math?

Next month, Reed Intermediate School administrators will decide what math level - basic or advanced - that all incoming fifth grade students will be assigned. And the math track that students are placed into for fifth grade will likely set the pace of their instruction until they graduate from high school.

While elementary school students might receive some extra attention if they are skilled in math, it isn’t until fifth grade that Newtown students begin to be grouped by math ability.

Reed School Principal Anne Uberti is gearing up to begin the process of educating incoming parents about the fifth grade math program that sets a student’s course in math instruction.

A Math Information Session for parents of incoming Reed students for the upcoming 2015-16 school year, has been scheduled for 6 p.m. at Reed Intermediate School (RIS) on Tuesday, May 12.

Prior to the meeting, an information letter about Reed’s math program will be sent out to parents in early May. A common math assessment will be administered to fourth grade students in mid-May and this data will be reviewed and placement decisions for incoming fifth grade students will be finalized in late May with parents being notified of placements in early June.

The Reed school math progression is broken down into a general Math 5 and Math 6 paths or advanced placement Math 5 Plus and Math 6 Plus paths.

Criteria used for placing incoming fifth grade students are average module assessments, NWEA math scores, OLSAT non-verbal scores, teacher input on learning behaviors, and performance on universal assessments.

“With Math 5 Plus, students cover all standard content plus more application and problem solving skills,” said Uberti during a recent Newtown Board of Education meeting. “And two units from the sixth grade (math curriculum) are in the Math 5 Plus track. So there’s an acceleration to cover more material in the Math 5 Plus program.”

But students who don’t make it into Math 5 Plus in fifth grade still have an opportunity to advance into the Math 6 Plus program because they are re-examined at the end of fifth grade, Uberti added.

Reed administrators “err on the side of rigor,” she explained, adding that she’d rather have a student placed in advanced math and then taken out if it’s too hard, rather than have a student in a math class that’s too easy.

“We have good criteria and there’s not a lot of people at the end of fifth grade saying their child was misplaced,” she said.

The Reed school also makes accommodations for what the district calls “outliers.” These are students who in fifth grade through high school, exceed even the advanced placement programs. Schools develop individualized plans for these “outliers”, she said.

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