My oldest daughter is in 11th grade. She went to a k-8 school where in middle school the curriculum had everyone taking algebra 1 by the end of 8th grade then depending on how well you did you started 9th grade in either algebra 1 or geometry. There is no credit for algebra 1, just implied to colleges. The math is pretty traditional college prep or honors - my daughter’s basic math track for high school - honors geometry 9th grade, honors algebra 2 10th grade, honors precalculus 11th grade and either AP AB or BC calc senior year - in my daughter’s case dual enrollment Calculus 1.
Now my youngest daughter is finishing 7th grade next week. She goes to the same k-8 school. Unfortunately currently all of the kids do middle school math ending on the prealgebra level and start high school in Algebra 1. The high school is switching away from traditional math to an integrated math 1,2,3 program and math 1 will only be offered as college prep. I planned to talk to the math teacher early in the fall to see about the possibility of doing some extra math which she mentioned early this year (same math teacher 7&8th grade) to see if my daughter has the math skills to start past the first year in math (back then it was algebra 1).
Last week my daughter and some other kids (9 out of 40ish) were asked to see the math teacher. She talked to them about doing a special math program with them next year if they are interested. It would involve staying after school one day a week. Okay I understood this to mean they would be doing regular math in 8th grade and trying to learn math 1 as well. According to my daughter the kids would do more advanced work in 8th grade math class and it would be math 1 and math 2. I did email the teacher who confirmed her goal is to teach them both math 1 and 2 next year though they will need some extra math work and afterschool time once a week.
The official parent letter comes home this week which might be better info. I don’t have any idea if they will receive any high school credit. According to my daughter it will mean having time in high school for a fun class. I think she still needs 4 math classes so math 3, precalculus, calculus then dual enrollment for higher level class senior year or AP AB Cal junior year, AP BC Cal senior year or stats
Any thoughts on traditional math vs integrated math?
Any thoughts on doing 2 years of math (math 1 and 2) in 8th grade.
Does she like math? Enough to stay after school and do more of it? Will the school offer a math class for the accelerated kids or will they just have room in their schedules for a fun class? And is there a fun class that would appeal to your D?
I had math-loving kids, so I let them accelerate. Not an issue for them. They enjoyed being with other kids who were good at math and getting the better math teachers. Already being fluent in Calculus helped them in Physics when the time came. They did run out of advanced math in 12th grade, despite the district’s plan to offer a course beyond BC Cal, which I didn’t like. The kids were okay with it and did use that class time to take something else. (In their situation, a fun class was a lab based Bio class.)
Can you try it out?
Thinking back, many in our district opted for acceleration, but not all stayed with it. Some stayed with it to the end and took all the math offered, others decided to be glad they satisfied their math reqs early and take other courses—apparently there were a good number of athletes who wanted to finish math early and focus on their sports.
Our district switched to integrated math with Math I, II, and III. It has been a pain because they didn’t adopt a new textbook series, just used bits and pieces from old textbooks and off the web. I think they will have official text books next year–after 3 years of this.
What they do that is nice, is have compaction classes that squeeze 3 years into 2 years.
So, my son who just finished 8th grade took essentially 2 years of prealgebra and Math I over the 2 years of 7th and 8th. Aside from not having textbooks and the teachers having their quirks, this amount of content was fine for ~35 kids out of the total of ~350 students. This son is not as quick at learning math as my older son, so there are kids who could move faster or didn’t need the prealgebra.
Next, in 9th and 10th grades, they have another compaction series that combines Math II, Math III, and Precalculus into 2 years. This son plans to do that. I checked and the school said he can drop down if it moves too fast.
I have seen super math kids cover basically 2 years of math in each of 7th and 8th grade though a combination of class and self-study. (Alg I and Geometry in 7th; Alg II and Precalc in 8th.) I wouldn’t recommend that though, because finding math classes gets difficult in HS.
If your 8th grade D is super mathy, you might want to see if the school has a Mathcounts team.
I’m not a fan of integrated math. Our school system has gone back and forth with it. They definitely don’t cover geometry as well. Our school had a lot of students doing Algebra (or Math 1 or Math A depending on what they called it that year) in 8th grade. My oldest got skipped into that class in 7th grade. In his 8th grade year he and a few other students carpooled to the high school for first period. It would have been lovely if the middle school had offered other options. I can tell you our 6th and 7th grade math books were practically identical, I did the side by side comparison when we were requesting the math skip. Anyway, my inclination is if your daughter is excited about it, go for it.
^ I would agree with @wis75. There is a ton of overlap and repetition in the middle school math curriculum (even at the accelerated academics level), and a motivated student can certainly move ahead. It all depends on what you D wants and how motivated she is.
Hi, student here who was in the same situation as your daughter and decided to skip ahead.
Being a year ahead is so much fun, as long as your daughter is very good at math, enjoys it, and is motivated enough to do the extra work. I know people say this all the time, but being around other students who are also good at math and enjoy it really makes the subject so much more challenging and interesting. All of us would be incredibly bored if we hadn’t gone ahead, and if your daughter is goid at math, she would probably be bored in the lower class too. Besides, it will give her the chance to take a higher math class later, which will challenge her more. As long as she’s okay with it, I would strongly reccomend going ahead and letting her move ahead.
The school where I work offers an accelerated path- 6-8th math in 6th, 7th is Algebra honors & 8th is geometry honors. The kids seem to do very well in middle school and beyond. There are so many resources to help them along the way. It is a great program if the child enjoys math and does well. Plus, it will give them room in their HS schedule to take AP stats if he/she wants to.
We plan on letting our daughter do the program. I do wish it was just math 1 in 8th grade rather than 2 years. I told dd we will review a bit of prealgebra this summer to make sure she hasn’t missed anything important and she was all for it. I also told her that depending on what happens we will decide later on where she should start in 9th grade. If she is great at the math math 3 is fine, math 2 if she is more comfortable with just the 1 year like most advanced 9th graders in our school system or the typical math 1 if we (her, us, teacher) feel it is best.
My husband is a math geek and can easily do all the work through Calculus. If needed I can help with algebra 1 and probably algebra 2. If she needs help with geometry she’ll just laugh at me. In general she is a good math student though I don’t think she is super advanced. I guess the teacher would probably not believe me if I told her that my daughter had no interest in learning multiplication tables and didn’t learn them until the summer after 4th grade mostly so she wouldn’t be embarrassed. She just does everything at her own time but if she is motivated it tends to work out well.
Don’t do it to improve chances at universities. Don’t do it to be special or prestigious. Only do it if ALL of the following are definitely true:
Your child is very good at math.
Your child likes math.
Your child wants to do it.
Personally, if they had offered this I would have wanted to do it. For some people math is FUN! For most of the world (for reasons that are lost on me), math is not fun.
I hate the integrated math and we have moved schools to get back to basics in the past.
We moved to a new school with an out of state move (unrelated to curriculum) and our rising 6th grader decided to petition her new school to allow her to enter Algebra 1 as a 6th grader. Controversial for some, but this was her initiative, they set a few bars out there for her to get over first and she did, and by the time she entered high school, she was in pre calc. Took AP Calc BC as a tenth grader and scored a 5 on the AP Calc BC test. Its not that she’s some kind of a math genius. She enjoyed the attention and the challenge.
Let your kid guide the decision making-she will know if it is working for her.
She is very good at math thus far just didn’t see the point in memorizing answers in 3rd/4th grade.
Math is her favorite subject other than reading (for fun)
She wants to do it and is completely fine with doing afterschool. She stays this year twice a week for a middle school program to 5. she doesn’t want to do anymore but is fine staying for math until 3:30 or so. As long as she doesn’t have to write paragraphs about math she loves doing math. In addition she finished religious school this year so regained that free time. Some of her close friends in school were also invited to the program.
She is only in 7th grade right now so not even thinking about college.
@momtogirls2 Don’t worry about her being late memorizing multiplication facts. My son was slow with the timed fact tests in 2nd and 3rd grade because he had trouble writing legibly and fast at the same time. The teachers wisely assured us that a facility for understanding math concepts (which he clearly had) and memorization/writing fast were two completely different aspects of school.
7th and 8th grade are good times to let her explore the subjects she enjoys!
I’ve been teaching high school math since 1980. I’ve been through any number of trends since then-- NY was a pionor in the disaster that was Sequential Math, and desperately hung on to it for decades before going back to a more traditional math syllabus-- then threw in Common Core.
In my experience, integrated math does not work for the vast majority of kids. It teaches too many concepts in short order, and expects the kids to be able to remember them a year later in order to integrate new material. (Most teachers hate to test on Mondays because the kids forget the fine points-- trying to remember a concept you learned a year or two ago is a nightmare.)
Personally, I’m a huge fan of teaching one topic at a time, and teaching it well.
There are risks every way. My daughter got put in an accelerated math sequence in 8th grade, and she absolutely hated it. She changed from someone who had excellent natural ability at math to someone who could calculate precisely the minimum effort and time she had to add to her natural ability to get a B in whatever math class she was taking. As far as she was concerned, the best thing she got out of advanced math was being able to stop taking math altogether in 12th grade.
My son was not put in the accelerated math class, despite having great grades and a lot of interest in math. The result for him was that he thought math was easy, and no one made him stop memorizing algorithms to solve specific problems. So when he finally got to math classes that were more conceptual and legitimately difficult, he was really unprepared and knocked for a loop.
I think it really depends on the student. I would explain the potential benefits, but would not make the decision for her.
I think that students benefit greatly from being ahead in math and English, embracing those subjects, and learning to use it to their advantage. However, if she grows to hate it, then it was a bad decision.