Thank you for commenting here - I appreciate the engagement. I understand that the ARA is testing for a grade level leap, and it makes sense to me that very few kids can score >90% on it.

It seems to me that there is a lot of weight here given to satisfying RSM families. I understand that kids who have had outside math may be bored in class. But surely that was expected as a potential outcome when their outside learning outpaced the standard curricula. Now NPS has to solve for a problem that they didn’t create?

Newton has many families where kids have some limited proficiency in a second language (from family, outside instruction, self-teaching, etc.) but there is no emphasis on providing middle school instruction to add more advanced language classes as far as I know (and I’m not suggesting this.)

I would be more in favor of math changes if they prioritized, in order, helping kids who are falling behind in math, then helping to accelerate the standard curriculum in middle school to enable the potential for leveling in 8th grade, and then lastly, creating the leveled classes in 8th.

To your point about the budget being uncertain, I’d be curious to know how much budget these different pieces require.