Should students done with taking highest level classes at community college take a class at college and pay more than a college student taking same class (colleges charge part time fees to these students) Or it is better for these students just to take online class. If so than how do they fullfill high school requirement of taking 4 year mathematics class as many of these schools (May be all high schools) would not consider online classes.
You mean that the high school will not count completion of calculus or higher math at a college as fulfilling the math requirement?
What has the student completed, and what is available at the community college?
I would talk to the guidance counselor and find out what your HS will accept or if the math requirement will be considered fulfilled given the high level of math already taken. Perhaps a related class like statistics could meet the math requirement if taken at the CC and your student can take something online just out of interest.
Had your kid already taken all the available HS math courses? And then did CC for more advanced work?
I would think the goal is to provide your kid with appropriate math instruction. How can we help you with that question?
ETA: You have three threads going with different questions. If you would explain the situation, there are a whole lot of extremely knowledgeable folks here who probably have some excellent answers.
More information is needed. For example, is your kid a math prodigy intending to major in college? or just getting the requirements out of the way to free up time, to do something else of more interest? sports? theater?
Answers aren’t one size fits all.
My kid (an eventual physics major at Yale) ran out of HS classes after Junior year. She didn’t stress it. It would not have been easy for her to do CC classes, and we hadn’t had good experiences with online classes in the past. Obviously it didn’t really hurt her. Don’t overthink. If your kid is dying to do more math, then find a way to do it. Otherwise…
Agree in that the threads give so little specific information that it is difficult to give a meaningful answer.
I am watching this thread (these threads?) with interest. My daughter recently told me that she wants to figure out a way to make her senior year more challenging, so I am just starting to look at Dual Enrollment, online courses, etc.
Our situation: Daughter is finishing Calc BC her Junior year. There is no more math for her at high school or the community college. We had tentatively planned for her to join a “Young Scholars” program at a local LAC, where she would be able to take a single class per semester at a greatly reduced price. This would be in addition to her high school classes, because our school district does not support dual enrollment beyond the classes that are provided at the high school.
But daughter is now saying that she is bored in most of her high school classes, and sees next year as being more of the same. She is wondering if there is a way to take multiple college courses (multivariable calc plus either economics or physics), instead of high school courses. Is there a way to this if the school district doesn’t normally do dual enrollment, other than the classes provided at the high school?
She plans to talk to her GC at the end of spring break. But in the interim, any ideas that you wise parents can provide would be appreciated.
Re: #6
Can she take the minimum possible number of high school courses so that she graduates, to leave more time open to take more than one course at the college? Of course, the combination of high school and college courses needs to be such that they fulfill the expectations of colleges that she will apply to later.
My kid took two study halls (necessary to schedule one college class) when she commuted to a local U for a math class. But I have mixed feelings about the whole experience. It was expensive, inconvenient, and disruptive to her hs schedule. She didn’t get any hs credit for it, but she already had plenty of hs credits so it didn’t matter. However, doing a college-paced class (plus all those hours lost to commuting) along with 6 hs classes and college applications was slightly too much for her and she didn’t get as much out of the class as she should have, for lack of time.
Having learned the material was useful to her in college, but the credit was not, and so I wonder whether learning by MOOC or something would have worked out better overall.
Answer to Alh - Yes the kid has taken all the classes offered at high school ( gave AP exam for math in 9th grade with score of 5). He then took the math classes at community college. Point to note is that these classes are also available in college. The reason to take these classes at community college is that school pay for it. School will pay the same amount if the classes are taken at college. However colleges would charge 3-4 times more. I am looking for high school administration and the college boards to work together and let these kind of students go to college free of charge as they are the talent of america and should not be burdened with debt for them for being intelligent and hard working. I have started my efforts with communicating with department of education(Michigan). Not heard from them yet. What other good students do. They are stuck with the lower level classes and school like International academy do not let kids take classes even at the community college.
Answer to Mathyone -Agreed. It is too much. Our kid also take 2 classes at community college right now. It is too much stressful for parents also specifically if the student does not drive yet. The student gets the credit but the GPA is not considered for those subjects. Basically the school GPA would have no meaning as the GPA for the subjects the student is good in is not counted.
The goal is to help kid take the math class without paying college cost in high school.
Also we are trying to keep kid engaged by making kid taking extra math class online and other club.
Is math the only subject your son gets A’s in? What are his other grades? If your son is struggling in other classes, maybe you should have him stop taking advanced math classes at the local cc and encourage him to spend more time on his other courses.
Good luck with that. Plenty of students are smart and work hard. Nobody owes them an education and most don’t have to be “burdened with debt” to get one. Many commute to their local cc then transfer to an in state public.
If only expensive, elite schools are good enough for your son and you can’t/don’t want to pay for them then his options are limited. He can get a free ride if his standardized test scores AND GPA are competitive. If you’re sacrificing the high school GPA to cram as many free cc math courses in as you can, his chances of getting substantial merit aid will be lower.
It’s quite possible that the “same” classes at a 4 year University will be more rigorous than a cc. Professors have to teach the students they have, and I know several cases of people saying they had to make the class easier for weaker students. But as I said, the credit from a 4 year U may or may not be useful and it’s expensive.
You haven’t told us what your child is interested in studying. If it’s not math, at some point if it becomes difficult to get more math, you could simply drop it and focus on the student’s main interest.
Free college classes is a nice idea and available in some places, but we had to pay tuition for all classes that weren’t official dual enrollment classes that actually are taught in the high school by high school teachers. The college credit may be far cheaper once your student is actually in college, if they are able to win a large scholarship, which seems quite possible.
Have you looked at the MOOC’s available?
Here are a couple of alternatives:
http://www.uccs.edu/mathonline/registration-information/high-school-student-registration.html
https://netmath.illinois.edu/moreinfo
They are both quality math offerings that go to the mid-to-upper undergraduate level, and are not ridiculously expensive. They involve some coordination with your school for proctoring of exams, but there is a personal stipend paid to them to do so.
There is also the possibility to take a class at the Stanford Online High School (see https://ohs.stanford.edu/academics/courses?terms=&division=40&prerequisites=All) but it is really expensive.
On the original question:
I think it makes sense for a school district to try to offer a next step for students if they can afford to. Programs like the above are probably a reasonable thing to ask for. On the idea that the student should focus only on their weaker subjects - I disagree. They should place some priority on shoring up their grades across the board of course, but that talent and skill in math should continue to be nurtured.
The credit from college classes in high school may or may not count for college, but that is not the point. Rather, we just need to keep the students engaged all the way through high school.
Has the student taken all of the following courses at the community college (i.e. exhausted the community college’s math offerings)?
Multivariable calculus (calculus 3)
Linear algebra
Differential equations
Discrete math
Introductory statistics
That’s actually more math than our cc offers. And our cc doesn’t have calculus-based statistics, so might as well stay in the high school and take AP stats.
if he has exhausted all of the math classes offered in high school, how has he not fulfilled the 4 years math requirement? this does not make any sense. if he completed them prior to high school, they have to count them.
My HS Jr son has pretty much bailed on high school and is taking virtually all his classes at CC. he loves it and it has worked out great for us. of course it helps that our CC is closer to our house than his HS. he is now only taking AP Art History online for HS, and next year will only take AP English 4 online. so for his last year-and-a-half of high school, he doesn’t have to set foot in his high school ever again. he couldn’t be happier about that.
This year he took Calc 3 and is now taking Differential Equations, with Linear Algebra and possibly Stats next year. does your CC not offer these?
all of his CC classes count for HS credit as an Honors class. some of them fulfill HS requirements – for example, his CC language and American History courses will give him credit for HS language and US History – while many others only count as electives – for example, Music Appreciation at CC counted as an elective that did not fulfill his HS Art requirement, so that’s why he had to take AP Art History at HS.
He was getting really sick of his HS and bored, so Dual Enrollment has been a life-saver for us. He trying to earn an Associate in Engineering by the time he graduates HS, which would not have been possible without DE. admittedly however, his is much less “Dual Enrollment” and much more “College Enrollment with a cup of HS on the side.” but Dual Enrollment where we live is flexible enough to accommodate any mix of CC/HS a student wants.
Thank you for your suggestions, @ucbalumnus, @mathyone, and @inn0v8r. I really like inn0v8r’s links to online programs that could be proctored locally. There might be some way to make this into a self-study class that would count for HS credit.
@Wien2NC - I am jealous of your arrangement! That sounds like a great situation for your son. Our school district is not nearly as flexible. Because they offer a reasonable amount of AP classes and a handful of dual-credit classes hosted at the HS, they are exempt from the state guidelines that say they must provide dual enrollment options.