DS transferred from a private middle school where he was offered PreAlgebra Advanced honors in 7th grade to a lab school. This lab school did not allow him to take Pre Algebra advanced honors citing that they do common core math and it will be hard on him.
DS also had some disciplinary issues in 7th grade (while hitting puberty etc). Now we requested the school to offer him Algebra-1 in 8th grade and the Vice Principal is refusing saying he is not mature.
DS takes Russian School(RSM) of Math and has completed Algebra-1 advanced and Geometry II. He is now recommended for Algebra-II in 8th grade and Geometry III in RSM.
I spoke with the counsellor at the high school where he is planning to go in 9th grade and she says they need to have Algebra-1 on the transcript for him in order to take Geometry in 9th grade. BYU option is not acceptable here.
What should we do? DS has been tested for gifted section too and attends it during the PE. I thing making him take PreAlgebra when he is being offered Algebra-II advanced at RSM is dumbing him down and will lead to a negative impact.
I don’t understand what “maturity” has to do with being placed in the appropriate math class. Can the RSM math teacher reach out to the school vice principal to advocate for your son? Is there a placement test they can have him take?
If someone is “immature” and disrupts the other students’ learning experience, I could see why an administrator wouldn’t want to put them in an advanced class, lest the other 25-40 parents get upset.
Hard to say without understanding the whole situation- however - I think you are right to advocate for your child- strongly. As this will decide what he takes in his senior year of high school- which is very important in the eyes of colleges. Maybe ask for a team meeting with math department head as well. Don’t let them snowball you- good luck!
Prediction: this school is going to be really weak academically and it will be a bad fit. The math will be ludicrously bad and they will never challenged your son and/or admit it. There will be a lot of posters in English but never essays. They will obstruct and obstinately refuse to support your kid. There will be happy As.
How well did he do in 7th grade math, and were the disciplinary issues a major factor in the grade or evaluation?
From the school’s point of view, it may be that you have been typecast as one of those “pushy parents” trying to overaccelerate their kid compared to the kid’s readiness (including not disrupting the class). Even if this is an unfair assessment, it is probably what you are up against when you find stonewalling from the school.
From the disciplinary standpoint there was a suspension for a day. He was not allowed to make up the Math test that day but still ended up with an A in Math. DS owed to his mistake and apologized. There were two other kids involved with him from the accelerated math section. I don’t see any impact on them whatsoever.
Thanks for the input. I agree what DS did from the disciplinary standpoint was wrong. He changed after that. We requested the Vice-Principal to give him a placement test but she is adamant. We are trying to approach the counsellor. If things don’t work in favor then changing schools might be the best bet.
This sounds weirdly punitive. Even if there were an ongoing behavior issue (which it doesn’t sound like you perceive there to be), restricting a student’s progress in an area of strength, such that he is under-challenged and unable to feel a sense of accomplishment, is only risking making the behavior issue worse IMHO. I wonder if they’re hoping you’ll switch schools if they’re uncooperative enough.
I had a similar issue with my daughter in 8th grade, although in that case it wasn’t specific to her; they just decided they didn’t want to offer Geometry that year, and instead put her in a bizarre advanced math class taught by a couple of volunteer parents who just did whatever they felt like. She decided she’d rather do BYU geometry in order to move on to AlgII in 9th grade, but she never finished the second half of it, and it dragged on throughout high school and disrupted the college application process (because she couldn’t attend a UC without it). It was all really unnecessarily annoying! In reality, it would’ve been okay for her to just take geometry in 9th, but my older kid had had such a negative experience in that class at the same school (due to no honors track until AlgII) that she didn’t want to. It was the gift-that-keeps-on-giving of gratuitous aggravation.
Given that you’re talking about AlgI in 8th, Geometry in 9th… that really does make a difference, as he won’t get to Calculus in HS unless he doubles up or does a summer class later. I wouldn’t be happy about acquiescing to what they’re trying to do, given how advanced he is in his outside classes.
When you say that BYU won’t work, does that mean that no outside class will work, or are there some that will? For example, could he take a summer class at a private high school in your area (this is a popular option where I live, especially for Geometry which isn’t hard to finish in a summer), or an online class from a vendor that would work?
I think the real problem may be the common core math curriculum which is very different than traditional math problem solving based on equations and calculations. My personal opinion would be to steer away from common core as far as you can get. I absolutely would head to another school for traditional math.
Are there any other outside classes that they will accept? I am in North Carolina and here the state runs the North Carolina Virtual Public School that kids can take classes from online. You can check and see if that would work. I believe they do allow some out of state enrollment. https://ncvps.org/ Some of our schools also offer “credit through demonstrated mastery”. Not sure if that is an option for you.
Otherwise I agree that it sounds like another school might be a better fit.
Dont go lower. Go higher. Go to the next person up the chain, all the way up to the superintendent. Your child has a right to be in the highest level math, if he got an A.
What state are you in? Did your son go through common core math or just traditional in private school? Many states have scrapped common core (or partially scrapped the math part) in favor of traditional math. And part of the reason is Algebra. Some states with common core have changed Algebra to 9th grade only. Too many kids failing. Some schools don’t make it to calculus and others have changed it to making a combination year of geometry and Alg 2 in 10th to make up the difference. From what I read (I’m no expert–we thankfully didn’t go through this and our state scrapped it anyway) the “immaturity” they speak of (and yes, I’ve read that term several times) doesn’t mean your kid is necessarily immature socially but that the concepts can be “too mature” at this age (hence the Algebra waiting until 9th grade). Good teachers often teach both but “showing work” in common core is frustrating to someone who can “do math in their head” (very convoluted to a sane brain in my opinion) but that is where the grade lies.
I have no idea what “Russian School” is…but is there any chance he can complete his high school education through Russian School? Is this some online thing…or what?
Well…I found it. It is an after school program for k-12 students.
I guess my question is…how are you positive your son is actually ready for the accelerated math track? And why do you view this as essential for him.
Yes…I posted that it was an after school program in the post just above yours.
I wonder what makes this after school program so sure this student can succeed at a higher level accelerated math placement. And why this is important for this student.
I’m not saying the student might not benefit…but where is the data that supports this…not from an after school program.
While this seems like the obvious choice to go up the chain- I have experienced sometimes it leads to the ultimate dead end- as sometimes that is where the directive is coming from. The benefit of going up the chain however is you will know definitively if you are wasting your time with this school. If the directive is coming from the top- you will have no alternative but to find other placement for your child. Which others on the thread ah e pointed out- may be the best solution anyway. Good luck.