options for kid shut out of 9th grade honors bio

[ucbalumnus]

@mathprof63

I think it’s a supply/demand problem of qualified teachers in math/science. In my NJ district of above average kiddos, the honors/AP math/physical science courses are extremely difficult. This ensures that the number of Ap Calc BC and AP Chem/Ap physics sections stay small.

Is your NJ district one of those “extra work just to have extra work” districts like that described in other threads? AP calculus BC should not be a super-difficult course – after all, students who are non-advanced in math often have to take a similar course for their majors once they get to college, so students who are good and advanced in math should not find it to be too difficult.

In any case, shouldn’t a math teacher who presumably has a bachelor’s degree in math plus a teaching credential appropriate for your state be able to teach any high school math course up to calculus?

@me29034

While our high school offers a lot of APs on paper, the fact is that there is only one or two sections of most of them in a school of 1600 students. The school seems to look for reasons to keep people out of AP courses simply because they don’t have enough room.

If there is such high demand from students who are capable of doing well in the courses, why not reduce the lower level courses (that those students have to take instead of advanced courses that they cannot get into) and reassign teachers for additional advanced courses in the same subject area (e.g. AP US history instead of regular US history)?