Pleasant Hill (along with all schools in District 15) started "Out of Level" math instruction in the 2007-08 school year.  At Pleasant Hill, Out-of-Level math exists for grades 1-6. Students are identified for Out-of-Level math placement based on their Fall MAP scores.

Background

The Out-of-Level math program grew out of a need identified by the district to give appropriate math instruction to the many advanced math students in District 15, and to ensure that every student was appropriately place in math instruction.  The out-of-level math committee explored ways to implement such a program.  Out-of-level math for 6th grade, at all district schools was implemented in 2006-07, and grades 3-6, at all district schools, in 2007-08.  In many schools, grades 1-2 are also tested and placed in out-of-level math classes.

Implementation

The method used to implementation the out-of-level math program is left to each individual school, and usually depends on the numbers of students that place into the program.  Since this number varies school-to-school, and can even vary significantly from grade-to-grade in a given school, each school had the flexibility to implement the strategy that best fits the needs of the students.  Implementations can range from accelerating individual students to a higher grade class (or two) to block scheduling of entire grade levels into different classes.

Out-of-Level Math at Pleasant Hill

At Pleasant Hill last year (2007-08), grades 1-2 were block-scheduled as a group, as well as grades 3-6.  This means that students were "re-sorted" into different classrooms/teachers for the 1 hour math block, going to their appropriately leveled math class.  For example, a student may have Mrs. Stanczyk for 3rd grade, but went to Mr. Isaacs for 3rd grade "out-of-level" math (which was 4th grade math material).  Mr. Isaacs class may have had 3rd graders only or a mixture of 3rd and 4th graders, but all students received the same math instruction. The out-of-level math classes were generally accelerated one grade level and used the same instructional materials as the regular math classes one grade ahead.  Individual students may have different situations to meet their needs, and the structure of the program can change from year-to-year - again, to accommodate the numbers of children that test into the program at a given grade level.  Decisions about placement and programming will be made as soon as logistically reasonable after the Fall MAP math testing.

Questions about Out-of-Level math placement or programming should be directed to our principal, Matt Palcer, or assistant principal Kristy Siefert.