NEws ISSUU.COm/TheLionsroar The Lion’s Roar
page 4 November 20, 2019
Math department standardizes skipping process Julian Fefer, Jaesuh Lee & Arshia Verma News Editor, News Reporters
The summer before ninth grade, junior Akshay Ramana self-studied a year’s worth of math. “I skipped ninth-grade math because I had been going to the Russian School of Math since kindergarten, and the math that they teach there correlates pretty well to about a year ahead, so I figured there was no point in my doing math that I already knew,” he said. Ramana said that he feels he has been in the appropriate level ever since. “I can handle the workload, and I think I can handle the level of math,” he said. “Math is challenging, but it’s not really a huge problem for me.” Students who want to skip a level in math must get permission from their current math teacher, self-study over the summer and take an assessment in August to determine their mastery of the material. The minimum requirement to skip a grade is a score of 90% on the August assessment. In previous years, the benchmark was 80%, but it has since increased to ensure only students who show mastery of the material move on. Recently, a large
number of students have opted to skip sophomore math 2 ACP and take junior math 3 ACP to open up the possibility of taking the AP Calculus AB class during senior year. If students pass the assessment in August, they are enrolled in the next level for the fall. If not, the math department works with the students’ teachers to ensure they are being challenged. Unlike Ramana, who skipped the freshman year course to be in a more rigorous class, some students are skipping grades because they want to open up their schedules for more APs in later years. Junior Andrew Li, who skipped sophomore math, said some students skip grades forthe wrong reasons. “I think people skip a grade because there is a lot
of pressure to excel academically, and they just want to skip a grade for college or because their friends are as well,” he said. “I think that reason alone is not a reason to skip a grade.” Li said that though it worked out for him, other students enter the next course unprepared. “I don’t think skipping grades is the right fit for everyone because it requires a lot more commitment and work than if one were to not skip,” he said. “When you skip a grade, you condense a whole year of class time into a couple months of self-study, which means that you may not be as well-grounded in the subjects and you might struggle a lot more in the higher level class.” Math department head Divya Shannon said that skipping levels is not always the right choice. “I’ve seen an increasing number of students saying ‘I want to take calculus early because I’d like to be able to take another AP in senior year,’” she said. “Sometimes they are making the decision to compromise their math education in favor of being able to take more AP classes.” The math department has tried to prevent students from skipping grades due to the peer pressure to take AP calculus as early as possible. c by phi l Sh an n on gra a Hil m m Ge said that math teachers have tried to incorporate problem-solving into each level in order
to increase the value of each course. “We have been working really hard to make sure that our courses have a lot of problem solving content so skipping a course means you’re missing out on a lot,” she said. For the past few years, Shannon has worked with teachers to standardize the skipping process. “We actually took some time early last year to talk about our values and philosophies around it. Then, we developed some common language so that no matter which teacher you were talking to, you were having the same conversation,” she said. “Now we’re all actually asking the same questions, which is helping every student get the same message.” In these conversations, teachers and students discuss the student’s motives for skipping and assess whether skipping a grade is the best option. Ramana said he believes that these conversations undermine student initiative. “The teachers discourage you from skipping,” he said. “It’s a little frustrating because it’s a decision that might take me a long time to decide, and a math teacher is telling me for two minutes that I shouldn’t skip.” Shannon said that although skipping grades can be contentious, students who have a passion for math should feel comfortable skipping grades upon receiving recommendation from their teacher. “Generally, the students who are good candidates for skipping are the ones who have been invested in math and truly enjoy math,” she said. “They’re not necessarily doing it just to get ahead.” Li said that understanding one’s own capacity is the most important factor when determining whether or not to skip a grade in math. “You need to know yourself and your abilities,” he said. “You need to know how much you’re going to actually enjoy the process and the result.”
City councilor and mayoral wages set to rise Julian Fefer, Preethika Vemula & Sarah Wei News Editor, News Reporters
Newton City Councilors voted on Sept. 16 to increase their salaries by 59%, their first pay increase in over two decades. The process began in December 2018 when the City Council created a Blue Ribbon Commission, which is typically created when the city considers compensation increases for elected officials, to examine councilors’ salaries. In May 2019, the Blue Ribbon Commission suggested pay raises of 44% for councilors, 54% for School Committee members and 12% for the mayor. The Commission’s suggestions were reviewed by the Finance and Programs and Services committees on Sep. 9 and Sep. 4 respectively and came before the entire City Council on Sept. 16. The council passed pay increases of 59% for City Council and School Committee members — from $9,750 to $15,500 and $4,875 to $7,750 respectively — and 24% — from $125,000 to $155,000 — for the mayor. Prior to this year’s pay increase, city councilor and School Committee member salaries had remained unchanged since 1998, despite increases in Newton’s cost of living. On Sep. 26, however, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller vetoed the pay raise, the first mayoral
veto since 1999. On Oct. 7, the City Council voted 21-2 to override Fuller’s veto regarding mayoral and city councilor salary increases. They did not override Fuller’s veto of School Committee salaries, though they said they would revisit School Committee wages later in the year. The City Council pay hikes will go into effect in January 2020, while the mayoral
Pay rates for city councilors in Newton are some of the lowest in Massachusetts, City Councilor James Cote said. “Newton is $6,000 under some of the poorest cities in the state, and it just doesn’t make any sense,” he said. Junior vice president Andrew Li said that the city councilors deserve a raise for their hard work. “Their salaries should be increased
“ ” They have to juggle another job and they have to dedicate so much time to their job as a city councilor. Andrew Li junior class vice president
raise won’t go into effect until January 2022, as mayoral wage increases can’t go into effect until the term of the current mayor ends. City Councilor Greg Schwartz said he believes that many city councilors are underpaid, which discourages people from running for office. “Nobody does this work to get paid, but if you’re somebody who doesn’t have a lot of other ... resources, it might prevent [you] from serving,” he said. “It’s a very small amount. It’s less than $10,000.”
because their work is really time-intensive,” he said. “They have to juggle another job, and they have to dedicate so much time to their job as a city councilor.” Fuller, however, remains opposed to the salary raise because it forces Newton to cut from other expenses. “I believe in the appropriate compensation for elected officials, the reason being we want to attract people from a wide variety of backgrounds to serve in elected positions,” she said. “It came at a difficult time, when we
are in the process of negotiating with all of our unions, including our teacher’s union.” Junior Aidan Higgins said that the money going toward raises could be better allocated elsewhere. “Given the teachers’ current position, it’s not acceptable that city councilors are raising their own wages, especially given the disproportionality between the teachers’ requests and the city councilors’ demands,” he said. Cote, however, said that the City Council salary increase and contract issue are unrelated. Even if they were, the money required to raise councilors’ wages is inconsequential compared to that for teacher contracts, Cote said. “There’s no relationship whatsoever,” he said. “The whole City Council pay raise is equivalent to getting rid of one assistant superintendent at the Ed Center. The total budget is $350 million, so it’s not even a blip.” Cote said that it’s important that elected officials receive adequate compensation for their time and energy. “People automatically think, ‘Why do these elected officials need to be compensated?’” he said. “It’s like, let’s step back a little, and think, ‘Why would any professional work that many hours for no compensation while they’re taking away from their job and home and their family life?”