As 4gsmom says, mileage may vary. My son’s high school is the exact opposite of her daughters’. They explicitly say, “we’d rather say to your child ‘hey, you’re doing great, let’s move you up!’ than ‘Um, sorry, you’re not cutting it, you’ve got to move down.’”
Your best resource for this question is going to be people who really know your school – the teachers, the guidance counselors, and the other parents. It sounds like his 8th grade ELA teacher has thought this through; I’d be inclined to trust the placement for now, assuming it’s possible to move up in future years.
PSAT 8/9 is coordinated through the grade and high school districts. If you get a high enough score on the reading writing part generally no matter what the junior high teacher may be you would be put in honors. The only thing a teachers recommendation might help if you didn’t have a high enough score and he or she thinks you should be in honors. in your case if you had a test score certainly that would help your case.
Our high school has no honors for freshman level courses. (In math and science where they can take a high school level course in 8th grade the next level up courses are offered in both regular and honors sections.) They claim that kids often take time adjusting to high school or conversely may step up their game once they are in high school. I do know that looking around the history and English classes on Meet the Teacher night that there appeared to be some sorting going on nevertheless.
I think this depends on the school, so seek out some moms with older kids and get the scoop. My kids’ extremely large and diverse public was sluggish about correctly placing advanced kids, especially freshmen. It was worth talking to the counselors about moving a kid up early, before he fell behind for the year. The best scenario was when the kid himself wanted to be moved up and went and talked to the counselor. (One of my kids was incorrectly placed, not due to teacher rec, but due to an oversight. He didn’t like it and took it upon himself to come up with a schedule that worked for him and worked for the school.)
Freshmen placement in DD’s HS was based on PSAT 8/9 scores, 8th grade grades, and teacher recommendations. Parents were welcome to go in and make a case for a change, but they had to argue against those three data points. From what I understand, a fair number of parents had the conversation, but almost all of them in the end accepted the school’s suggestions.
Honors classes move at a MUCH faster pace, making it extremely difficult to move up. For that reason, there is an advantage to bumping up as an incoming freshman. Dropping a level, if that is permitted in your school, is generally easier than going up once classes are underway.
The other side of that coin is that DD went from 60-90 minutes of homework a night in her advanced 8th grade classes up to 3-4 hours a night as an honors track freshman. That was her recommended placement - and what she wanted - and she is doing well. That was a tough adjustment. However, many of her college-prep-level friends had similarly tough adjustments, because their level of rigor increased as well.
The deciding factor for me would be how your student feels about it, and whether you feel his work ethic and time management skills are up to the challenge.
In a few of the hs I’m familiar with, the parent can override any of the teacher’s recommendation and/or the results of the placement tests for the more advanced course. However once in the more advanced course, student cannot drop back to a less advanced course.
I despise that rule mentioned in post # 17. Students are ready for the next level- middle school, HS, college. Freshman year classes are geared to the level of the new students. One size never fits all. Some students need the heavier schedules. For some, ignoring the usual study hall, numbers of honors/AP classes is necessary to mitigate boredom. Plunge right in.
OP- your son is in that difficult borderline area. Should he “go for it”? Or not? Knowing your child through his schooling thus far helps. You need a nice, however long, discussion with him about the direction to take. How enthusiastic is he about being challenged, how scared is he (and can his fears be minimized), how bored might he be…
It could be that he likes the idea of being in the top tier of students. Your vote of confidence in his abilities may be the nudge for him to perform better. He may be willing to work on deficits to be allowed in the top classes. Your discussion (remember it is a two way talk) should reveal how he feels after learning your ideas.
In our school you can waive any class placement with the stroke of the pen. My youngest struggled with english and while I was reluctant to go with honor’s, I have no regrets. My child blossomed and is a gifted writer but in middle school you wouldn’t have known. Only you know your child but a b here or there or even a c does not mean they won’t excel.
My son was a poor writer in the 8th grade and thus was not recommend for Honors English class in the 9th grade. My vision was for my son to take as many honors/AP classes as possible in high school but I was realistic of what was needed to get him on track for advanced English classes. After I signed a waiver to get him into honors English, I became his writing tutor and read all of his novels during his freshman year. After his freshman year, he no longer needed my assistance. He went on to earn all A’s in all of his English honors and AP classes in HS. He also received all A’s in his writing classes at Cornell.
I have colleagues at work from non-English speaking countries who have hired writing tutors for their kids. All of them have performed very well in MD/MS/PHD programs.
I got the same feedback for my child, but nonetheless taking the plunge to override. I am planning on having daily reading (fiction/non-fiction) and writing exercises for my child. I wish that I could connect with a parent who completed the override process to place their kid in the ELA Hons program. I wonder how their kids are doing after being in the more rigorous program. Please let me know if you know of anyone who was successful in the ELA HONS program, who was initially discouraged to go into the program. Thank you.
Thank you. This is wonderful to know. I am in the same boat, and would like to take the plunge and go for the override process for my son. His current English teacher wrote to me sating “when it comes to bigger assignments such as analysis of literature or writing assignments, XXX struggles with making the leap to the next step of analysis. SCP would give him a year to foster that independence and develop his writing, whereas an honors class will expect those writing skills coming in.”
It really depends on what your son wants and why he is not “straight A” in middle school LA. Although it is really early, is he aiming for the Big State U in which grades are the key factor, vs a top college where strength of curriculum is very important? How hard are the HS honors LA classes and how hard is your son willing to work to maintain high grades in all of his classes.
However, I would also say that trying an honors class as a freshman may be less of concern on the HS resume if the grade is lower than it would be in later grades. In our HS you can drop down after the first marking period, IF there is a section that works with your schedule and that has room. The student has to keep the grade earned in the honors class.
It can be very challenging to make these decisions. One of mine went from honors to college prep math back to honors as CP was just too easy, but it took a while for him to learn the level of effort needed for honors. The difference was pretty dramatic (straight As with no effort in CP, Bs or even a C+ in honors). However, since he was interested in science, even with the lower grades he learned he had to work harder than he thought he did and more about how to study math, which served him well moving into college.
Sometimes I ignored the school’s recommendations for my kids. Whenever possible and appropriate, they did honors or AP. I overrode the school’s recommendations, with good results. My kids did mostly honors/AP, got mostly A minuses, got a better high school education than they would have gotten had I allowed placement in mid-level classes. There were times when because they were struggling, or because of extreme extracurricular loads, I insisted on mid-level, and wound up having to bump them back up to honors because they said the mid-level classes were too slow-paced for them.
You know your child. You want the best education for your child. My kids might have had better GPA’s overall, had they done mostly mid-level classes, but they certainly got a better high school education by taking honors/AP.
