@CCtoAlaska our parochial school (K-8) is actually very competitive. It was just an odd year for my youngest because his teacher never wanted to teach Alg 1 but was assigned it by default when her predecessor retired. It showed because she was very low energy. Although she wasn’t great, his Alg 2 teacher (10th grade) in a very strong public school, was worse by a wide margin. If my son had repeated Alg 1 in high school, I am confident he would have had a better grasp of the material and he could have bumped to the honors track in 10th grade. That would have afforded him access to better teachers. It’s really sad to say, but in my experience, the best teachers don’t usually teach the college prep track. They usually teach the honors/AP or the special needs tracks.
@lastone03 yes, totally have seen that. I don’t know how she was as a teacher but, although my daughter’s Alg 1 teacher is a stupendous person who I love to death, she herself had never. passed. an. Algebra. class. Not kidding. She flunked Alg 1 + 2 in HS, then flunked college algebra. She became an Algebra teacher solely because she was teachin middle school math. Next thing she knew, she was a HS Algebra teacher. This is at the #1 high school where we live. They are so desperate for STEM teachers.
@CCtoAlaska WOW. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe my son’s Alg 2 teacher never passed her classes either 
@lastone03 she left that school after sophomore year to major in math at the local CC. She is much happier now with professors who are real mathematicians (who publish and research, etc.). The whole math situation was kind of crazy.
My daughter is in Honors Algebra in 9th grade. She didn’t test into accelerated math in 7th grade, which meant she couldn’t take Algebra in 8th. We were completely fine with it, although it did end up limiting her science choices because the high school requires a student to be in Geometry in 9th grade to get into the AP science track. But we’re fine with that.
If you have remorse about it, is there an option to take GEometry over the summer after 9th grade? I know two parents of DD’s classmates are planning for their children to do this so they can get back on the AP science track.
Perhaps the pressure to accelerate math starting in middle school is artificially created by high school policies that close the door to moving up to honors/AP track courses if one does not do so. I.e. the middle school math selection can be an irrevocable decision with respect to closing off options in math and other subjects at the honors/AP level in high school, even though some students who do not accelerate math in middle school should be capable to doing honors/AP level in high school. So that can lead to inappropriate pushing to accelerate students who are not yet ready for the more advanced courses, just to keep doors open later.
Each state has different requirements and each school district within each state can have different requirements, exceeding state requirements but not less than state requirements. Last night I asked my youngest when she took Algebra. Umm, junior high. Honors geometry in 9th, honors Algebra 2 10th, and stats and probability for 1 semester in 11th followed by college algebra the same year. Because she was in the honors college, she was exempt from gen eds but took the honors college infinity math class just in case she didn’t hack honors college and had to pick up gen eds. This way she had her math requirement without taking calculus. While she has excellent math skills she learned to hate math in grade school.