How to accelerate within high school Integrated Math

Very informative. Thank you!

How many colors does he need to color the map?

He doesn’t see the point in having to color the ocean in a poorly photocopied b/w map when the ocean renders as gray. I’m like, “Just color it!!!”

But has he tried finding the smallest number of colors needed to color the map?

There is usually a color coding key. Ocean = blue, states near X = yellow, etc

And he gets a bad grade.

Accelerated math pathways are a good thing in my opinion as long as the system is transparent from the beginning and there is flexibility, for example by allowing late blooming students to test out of requirements and skip ahead.

For students to get to multi-variable calculus in senior year an option for algebra 1 would need to be offered in 7th grade. Taking algebra 1 in 8th grade leads to calculus in senior year while the regular schedule of algebra 1 in freshmen year of high school stops with pre-calc in senior year. This assumes the traditional sequence of algebra1, geometry, algebra2+trig, pre-calc, ap calculus and multi variable calculus.

Students that miss to get into the fast track from the start are left with the option to self study and test out certain requirements, like geometry or pre-calc, in order to jump up into the next higher course, or to take two math classes in a single year.

I TLDR’ed the responses but kids I know have done one of:

  1. Double up on math (Alg and Geo or Geo and Alg2, whatever the CC equivalents are)
  2. Take a math course in summer and/or online

What is the reason for this assignment where the colors are specified in a math course?

My questions in reply #21 and #23 were about a famous theorem in math involving map coloring.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_color_theorem

I’m just saying how he is in general, across the board with menial assignments. This wasn’t in math but an example at how he doesn’t play the game.

Yes! That’s what we could do and that’s such a clear alternative. BUT our district does Integrated Math (a combo of algebra, geometry, etc and all that spirals each year), so that’s the big twist. I cannot find any summer courses for Integrated Math. I can find dozens of summer algebra, geometry, trig classes but no Integrated Math. Even our district doesn’t offer it.

My gosh. All of this would have been nice to know when kids were in elementary school. We had NO IDEA about these math pathways until freshman parent orientation this past spring! So now we’re stuck.

Have you determined whether “IM3 STEM” is an accelerated course that allows taking calculus the following year? (The high school’s course catalog should say, at least in the prerequisites for the calculus course.)

If it is, then your kid presumably needs to do well in IM1 and IM2 in order to get into IM3 STEM (presuming that placement is by grades in the previous math course(s)).

It seems that my kids’ high school has done away with accelerating the CC math pathway too for non accelerated elementary/middle school kids coming up. My own kids that were victims of the changeover were in a compressed 3 yr course in 2 yrs over 9th and 10th. I assume the upcoming kids have to be accelerated in middle school to get any options now. This is quite an issue IMO as my kids school is IB and plenty of kids take calc even in soph yr. It will mean late bloomers are SOL. Our local 4 yr though. does offer summer intensive credit earning courses of 1, 2 or 3. But they are a real commitment. Not for a kid who doesn’t want to play the game I would say.

@akborg

Old timers here will remember this story.

Our DD was recommended for accelerated math. My husband is an engineer, and feels very strongly that a strong math foundation is necessary…and sometimes the accelerated courses don’t provide that…because the students are expected to HAVE that foundation.

We contacted the school…and asked what compelling reason they could give us to accept this accelerated program for our kid. They hemmed and hawed…and really couldn’t give us a good reason. So we declined the accelerated math track.

We were the first parents EVER to decline this and the school was shocked. I politely told them it would open up a spot for the at least 20 families who were complaining because their kid didn’t get recommended.

Fast forward. The last math course DD completed in HS was pre-calc. Somehow she managed to get accepted to all of the colleges of choice for her. She graduated with a dual degree in bioengineering and biology.

She took calculus freshman year of college…and plenty of higher level math courses.

You can PM me to find out what she is doing now…but let’s just say…NOT being accelerated in math did not prevent her from doing anything…at all.

Oh…and she has an excellent foundation in math (according to my husband who can talk math with her).

It is hard to imagine math 3 as a senior being a great foundation for engineering. My kid that did BC calc as a senior hard his arse kicked by calc 1 for engineering at college…

Integrated math 3 for a non-accelerated student would normally be an 11th grade course. Assuming that it is not an honors or accelerated version, the 12th grade math course would be a precalculus course. At some high schools, an honors or accelerated version of integrated math 3 is offered that includes the precalculus material so that students can take calculus the following year.

He’ll be surprised how often in life he has to do something he doesn’t want to do and that is boring. I went to the same meeting at work every week for 5 years. About 5 minutes of the 1-2 hour meeting pertained to me. I learned to bring other work along so that I could be reviewing it while the talk went on.

I knew someone who dropped out of middle school IB because of the coloring. She was very bright and just couldn’t take it. She didn’t fight the system, she just left.

If you really object to the public school program, why not just go to the catholic school? My daughter was at a public (magnet) school that was using the integrated math, I didn’t like it, so I took her out of that school. The math teacher at the magnet had done a lot of work developing IM, worked with Colorado School of Mines to accept the math, etc. However, this teacher’s own kids were sent to Catholic school for high school because he wanted them to have a more traditional education (in all subjects, not just math). Catholics are good at the basics.

My daughter is an engineer and did not take calc in high school. She did just fine taking it in college for the first time. She got an A. My nephew also didn’t take it in high school and didn’t do as well in college, getting a D and having to retake it. I think it could have had to do with the amount of beer he was consuming.

Both graduated with degrees in engineering. On time too.

I’m not sure if I missed this part, but was OP’s son tracked based on state standardized test scores? That’s how our district does 7th grade math placement.

Our school uses a three prong criteria for recommending kids for accelerated math.

Standardized test scores

Grades in math courses

Teacher recommendations

Our kid met all three. We still said no.

There ARE kids who absolutely benefit from acceleration in the math curriculum and sequence. But where I am, this accelerated math has taken on a life of its own. Folks wrongfully believe that if a kid isn’t accelerated, they will be doomed for life.

That’s simply not true.