Test Scores link to test scores click here

The entire Cherry Run community is proud of the achievements of the students as reflected in the Standards of Learning test scores that you will see in the link above. However, please remember that test scores are part of the picture. They are a snapshot in time. They may not reflect the excellent, creative work that the students and teachers do each and every day of the school year. The test scores are high because of the groundwork that the parents do before the students even come to school and the support that the parents do throughout their child’s school experience. Co-equal with that is the outstanding work that our staff does with the students.

School Age Child Care (SACC) link to SACC click here

Cherry Run is proud to have a SACC program. This program, described in the link above, provides quality child care: before school, after kindergarten, and after school. SACC gives parents who work outside the home peace of mind during their work day. In addition, a SACC program at Cherry Run allows Cherry Run working parents to keep their children at our outstanding school.

Cherry Run’s Outstanding Math Program

Cherry Run offers compacted math to stretch and enrich our students.

When students attend the elementary gifted center beginning in third grade, their math is accelerated in a program called compacted math. Starting in third grade or whenever a student is assigned to the gifted center, the students’ math program is accelerated so that they are ready for Math 7 Honors or Algebra 1 in seventh grade.

Cherry Run began teaching the same compacted math taught in the gifted center in September 2005 in grades 3 – 5. The accelerated, compacted math program in grade 6 actually began in September 2002. The compacted math program not only provides students with an accelerated, enriched curriculum but it also provides students with many opportunities to stretch their thinking and apply math skills. Here are some examples of problems that stretch students’ thinking:

1. The total number of digits used for the page numbers of a book is 189. How many pages are there in the book?

2. If today is Tuesday, what day of the week will it be in 100 days from now? 200 days from now? 300 days from now?

[Find the answers at the end.]

Naturally, the students want to know the right answer. However, the teacher also spends time having the students describe and demonstrate how they got the answer. The emphasis is: process, how the student solved the problem. In an exciting math class, students proudly discuss the strategy that they used to get to the right answer.

If the Cherry Run test scores have told us anything, they tell us that our students understand arithmetic (the manipulation of numbers), and the test scores tell us that our students are ready for more challenging work. Mathematical ability is developmental! A student who is not ready for compacted math in third or fourth grade may well be ready in fifth or sixth grade and qualify for Algebra 1 in seventh grade. Being ready for higher level math cannot be rushed any more than a toddler can be rushed to talk before she is ready.

The teaching staff identifies students for compacted math in a variety of ways: classroom performance, test scores, Math Olympiad (see: www.moems.org). The Math Olympiad challenges students to apply their mathematical knowledge and think about math in a different way. Although the two problems presented above were not Math Olympiad problems, they are similar. Participation in compacted math is flexible. A student might be ready one year, but not the next. Students can join at any time (grades 3, 4, 5, or 6).

There is a specific graduate-level course for teachers who teach the sixth-grade compacted math, and both teachers who team-teach the sixth graders have taken the course. The other teachers attend workshops and receive turn-around training at Cherry Run School from the math lead teacher.

As a result of having the compacted math at Cherry Run School, many more Cherry Run students are taking Math 7 Honors in seventh grade, and they are very successful with this course as indicated by their seventh-grade report cards. In addition, a number of sixth graders earned the right to take Algebra 1 in seventh grade: 5 in 2003-04, 1 in 2005-05, and 3 in 2005-06. Additionally, Cherry Run School can brag about five former Cherry Run compacted math students who are students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.