Moved in Nov. of last year. Although my son’s math grades have always been great, this summer he tested abnormally low in the math section* of the ACT during a prep course, missing half of the geometry questions. I emailed the math teacher he had at the new school and she re. the Advanced Geometry section he was not in covers 30-40% more material(!). He was in the regular section, in which he earned an A.
I emailed his counselor and explained I wanted him to “retake” Geometry, but the Advanced section, concurrently with Algebra II. (He knows friends that are taking both concurrently at the school.) Counselor said she can’t, he received an A, she finds it unnecessary, and she hasn’t responded to my latest email. I find it uncomfortable to get administration involved, especially when this will be his counselor for the next few years and will write the Common App recommendation.
Geometry is a portion of the math on the ACT, and he apparently missed a portion of the Geometry - i.e. a portion of a portion.
Rather than have him sit through a class he’s already sorta taken (and gotten an A), perhaps he could/should self study some on Geometry - use some ACT prep books, identify what areas of Geometry he’s lacking in, and self-study those areas…
I rarely recommend tutoring- since most of the time, the parents who are asking are trying to get a kid who scored a 97 up to 100 and are asking how to best manage the tutor.
But in your case- get a tutor! This seems to be a simple case of your son “missing” a chunk of the curriculum. So get him some after school help for a short period of time so he can make up the material, and be done with it. Why have him retake an entire class when he’s only missing a well defined portion of the material?
MWDad:
Geometry makes up nearly half of the math section of the ACT, therefore a geometry deficiency is quite costly. Furthermore, it will likely make matters difficult moving forward, inc. trigonometry. Best to solidify the math foundation now, versus being exposed in university.
The school has a 7 hour day, taking Advanced Geometry doesn't disrupt any graduation requirements.
It's unrealistic for an average teen to self-study that much material (30-40%).
Taking the Advanced course means he's lectured the material and works on it daily as opposed to the unreliability of self-studying.
Blossom:
We can not budget for a tutor. And it begs the question, why should we have to spend $100s if not $1000s for something he can learn for free at school? The two responses thus far, while I appreciate them, seem to focus on him/us instead of why the counselor would pushback on this. If a student wants to learn 30-40% of the material he missed, why would the school or her dept. discourage that?
In our area the math textbooks that are used were supposedly light on geometry. Geometry is integrated into two years of math. Many families wound up in the same position as your son, testing low in geometry on the ACT and SAT. However retaking the class wouldn’t be helpful because it seemed an issue with curriculum. Tutors solved the issue by teaching the missing knowledge.
Why would the counselor pushback? I have no idea. But the counselor’s role may be to maintain the status quo on schedules whenever possible if the school is the type where parents are requesting changes to the schedules constantly. The counselor’s role may be to make sure that all kids complete the appropriate sequences in the right order so that everyone graduates on time. Or the counselor’s role is to check off boxes on a spreadsheet that all schedules have been approved, and then move on to the crisis of the day whether it’s a pregnant sophomore who got kicked out of the house, or a senior who is in county lock up because his mom didn’t have $250 to make bail.
We don’t know the school and we don’t know the counselor and we don’t know the community. We’re trying to help your kid make up his deficiency in geometry without having to take this to the district/superintendent’s office.
obviously, going over the counselor’s head is a possible move if you’re not happy with the result. But you don’t need a bunch of strangers on the internet telling you that…
There could be a number of reasons for the pushback. Limited space in the advanced class or whatever. Heck if people know that the regular class isn’t covering the material needed for the ACT then that seems pretty likely.
But I agree you should focus on the fact that the class he took is clearly inadequate. And that should be fixed in the future but obviously that won’t help your son.
Schedule changes are common at the school. There are days set aside for it, and can also be done until the end of this week.
It seems clear that a student from the regular math section has never requested to go back and take an Advanced section. Those taking Advanced Geo + Alg II concurrently are exclusively high-honors students.
While it would be great if they did, I don't believe any counselor truly cares how a student does on the ACT, nor is it in her job description to construct a plan to cover an achievement gap that will result in a low score.
Perhaps they do not want to make it more obvious (by the presence of a student repeating geometry in the advanced course due to the inadequacy of the regular course) to parents and students that the regular geometry course is woefully inadequate.
College admissions readers would also wonder why your son repeated a course that he got an A grade in, and the counselor probably does not want to have to explain that in any counselor recommendation that s/he writes (because it would tell the college how poor quality the school’s regular courses are).
I think the counselor is shocked that a parent with a student in a non-Advanced section is calling them out on the inadequacy–especially after receiving an A. I’d bet the Advanced is overbooked, because parents that are familiar with the district likely know what a joke the non-Advanced section is (we were new to the area). And they’re likely used to non-honors parents keeping quiet because the students are receiving inflated grades. I also think it’s safe to assume non-honors parents are far less likely to test prep their children, to tease out the inadequacies.
Why not ask if he can just audit the parts of the class that he needs to make up the deficiency? Certainly there is an extra chair in the room. Of course they would have to be willing to work with you on making sure the scheduling worked with his other classes.
Public school? There may be rules on this (school district rules, state funding rules, etc) - perhaps they cannot put a student back in the same course already taken and passed. But there are many free online options such as Khan Academy. You can also order a used textbook or workbook online for a couple bucks and have him self-study. He can learn the material without retaking the course.
I am on S3 in HS now, and have reached the point where I no longer ASK for anything. I find it much more effective to TELL the school administration what to do. Generally I find most to be relatively spineless and therefore accommodating. I have had schedules changed more than once for what the school considers unacceptable reasons. The most recent was a declaration that the teacher was worthless, and S will not be in that section of the class.
Escalate as needed. You will eventually find someone to tell the GC to do what you want. Senior administrators won’t want to put up with you over a something like a schedule.
@HarvestMoon1 Hm. Why do you think they’d be more accommodating for an audit and not a formal add? Do you think they’re motivated to decline the re-take because they don’t want to expose how weak the curriculum is in their regular sections to admissions reps, as @ucbalumnus suggested.
@Barfly Private school. Nothing in the guide book about this, but that didn’t stop the counselor from alluding to a non-existent “rule”. As I said, I don’t think this has ever happened. I don’t think they’ve ever had a non-honors math parent call them out on this. Advanced is probably overbooked, which just reinforces that most parents know the score.
If it is a private school, then there is even more motivation for the school to make sure that the inadequacy of its courses is kept quiet. Prospective parents and students who find out may decide that it is not worth paying private school tuition for an inadequate education.
If he has time in his schedule, ask if he can Audit the class. He wouldn’t receive a grade and it would not affect his gpa. There could be issues with gpa calculations and taking a class that he already received an A.
You might want to reconsider having him self study this section of geometry or look for an online class. You can ask the teacher for some information about what is covered in the Honors class to see what was missed. Using an ACT study book may also cover enough of the geometry needed to do well on the test.