Let me speculate. Thanks to the repeated STEM classes, these kids will have solid understanding and foundation on STEM subjects, and therefore are better prepared for demanding college courses. As stem subjects build upon the previous levels, enabling them to continue excelling without additional help. But if they do need more help, they can find them in college tutoring center or professors’ office hours.
Their hard working study habit helps them to study longer than the peers, and take some extra courses in the Summer as well. Eventually graduating with perhaps not top, but decent grade and getting a decent job?
My daughter took algebra 1 as an 8th grader. She got an A, but SHE didn’t think she understood it all that well. We moved to another city, she went to a college prep school (much more rigorous than the IB middle program she’d been in) and she decided to retake it. Best decision ever. She loved her second teacher and feels she was the best math teacher she ever had. The second round of algebra was still challenging.
If we’d stayed in the same school system, I don’t think she would have repeated algebra because she would have stayed with her classmates but we thought it was the right choice to repeat. She also wasn’t put into the biology class but in an earth science with the average freshmen. After a few weeks the teacher thought she really should be in the advanced science group, biology, but daughter didn’t have enough confidence to join that class having missed 3 weeks. Much of the class she stayed in was a repeat, but she enjoyed it.
I don’t think it is unfair to anyone to pre-study or pre-take the courses. It’s their time and their money. I also don’t think there should be an asterisk next to an SAT score to show it was earned after taking a Kaplan course or having a $100/hr tutor. How many times have we seen on CC a student post “I got a 1800 with no preparation so I should get 2250 when I study.” Why didn’t he study! Who wants to go to the doctor who says “I could have been at the top of my class if only I’d prepared for the class?” I want the guy who studied, who went to ‘Saturday School’, who worked and worked and worked until he got it right. And if he was top in his class only because of that extra studying? He’s still my guy.
I haven’t read through all 7 pages but has anyone mentioned the effect on the student who has not gamed the system by pre-taking the class? It starts out with the notion that there’s an advantage but an arms race quickly takes hold and you end up with a de facto requirement to pre-study the material. There are classes in a public high school I know very well where the vast majority of kids take the class the summer before they take it “for real.” What happens is that the class is then pitched to the majority and the kids who might otherwise have pursued the arts or a music camp or a language intensive or even scooped ice cream (!) are all but forced to take the pre-class in order to keep up. If you want to take the class over the summer, it should be disclosed to the school and shown on the transcript.
If you take a class at your own level, and work hard, you will master the materials. And in this age of grade inflation, you will probably get an A too. No matter how many of your classmates have pre-studied the material and score better than you. (Unless your teacher assigns grade by ranking, but that would be very rare)
@SculptorDad A lot of summer jobs (fast food, retail, restaurants, etc.) are not weekday only jobs. And kids are often working 2-4 days a week rather than 5. That reduces commute time. In addition, not everyone commutes a hour each day to work. Those types of jobs often involve commutes under 15 minutes. Leaves time for friends, sports and academics during the summer.
Purpose of summer depends on the kid. When I was a kid decades ago, sports had seasons. Outside the given season, pretty much no one played that sport. We now have a lot year round sports. Some kids participate year round and others do not. Those that do have less time for relaxing, being with friends, academics and work.
Schools in other countries go year round. Presumably they do not have issues with kids using the summer to get ahead of classes.
Different kids will take different paths. None necessarily better or worse. Just different.
ETA – when my kids were young, they went to Kumon for about a year. Math and English training. My kids were the only non-Asian kids there. Its my understanding Kumon covers high school math subjects. Even without being a re-take of specific classes, presumably there would be an advantage gained.
It’s unfair these ambitious kids are STUDYING all summer!
…meanwhile the softball and football and soccer fields are full of kids on travel teams all summer.
Less than 10% of high school athletes will play their sport in college. This country needs FAR MORE parents doing what the article suggests and FAR LESS hiking their mediocre and unappreciative athletes around all summer. #priorities
**I don’t see it as cheating the system. I see it as cheating oneself. ** What a phenomenonal, mind-numbing waste of time and brain cells.
I would much rather have my kid take classes once and get Bs, then have him take everything twice to get As, and perpetuate the conceited fantasy that he’s actually competitive w other kids who get As taking courses only once.
If he gets good grade, and good test scores due to mastery of the subject, why wouldn’t he be competitive?
Maybe not for IQ score. But college adcoms won’t care about IQ anyway.
If teachers are good then why students have to learn twice to understand? If students are well prepared then they don't need to take the next level class twice. Needing help does not mean relearning everything.
I am guessing 1~3 math and a AP science as jump start. None in college or real life
We don't ask, nor blame. It's the student and family's own choice.
If it doesn't help indeed, at least we can tell the other opponents in this thread to stop worrying about fairness.
Because the students are not good enough? Not everyone is born with equal iq. But in high school academics, majority can be overcome by working harder, relearning, previewing, tutoring, whatever it takes.
Both of my kids took driver’s ed and health over a summer in order to free up their schedule. My daughter also took our state’s history class. My son attended a Duke TIP summer program where he took Algebra II. He didn’t get any credit for it, but was able to skip the course and go directly into pre-calc/trig in ninth grade. In the past it’s been impossible to do a full math sequence (if you want AP Statistics) at my son’s school without taking at least one summer course.
A LOT of kids are taking college classes in the summer between their junior and senior year, either through programs sponsored by universities or just by dual enrolling if they live close by. My son earned 12 college credits this summer.
My son is taking Intermediate Accounting through dual enrollment this year, and is aware that the credits he earns almost certainly will not transfer to any other accounting school, and so he’ll have to take it again. I’m sure it will be a lot easier the second time around, giving him an “unfair” advantage. As John F. Kennedy said, “Life is unfair.”
This is NOT at all what we are talking about. This is what we are talking about:
Students who pre-take their HS STEM classes for the express purpose of getting a better grade on their transcripts. It is not because they want to free up their schedule. It is not because they are seeking better mastery of the subject. It is not because they love biology so much that they want to do it twice. It is for the express purpose of getting As so that they can get into HYPSM (as misguided as that may be).
Your son getting a better grade, eventually, in college accounting because he is taking Intermediate Accounting through dual enrollment in HS is incidental. He is not taking Intermediate Accounting now for the express purpose of getting a better grade in college.
Yes it is. They obviously want the better mastery so that they can score higher on SAT, ACT and/or AP tests because it helps them in admission as well. Maybe they could get A anyway due to the grade inflation, but still did it to get 800 on SAT II and 5 on AP, and later have better foundation on their college courses too.
I doubt that. The student probably knew that he will be repeating it, but took anyway because he wanted better mastery of the subject. Maybe he had fun too. But what’s really the incidental here? Fun or Mastery?
[quote]
Students who pre-take their HS STEM classes for the express purpose of getting a better grade on their transcripts. It is not because they want to free up their schedule. It is not because they are seeking better mastery of the subject. It is not because they love biology so much that they want to do it twice. It is for the express purpose of getting As so that they can get into HYPSM {/quote]
Yes, this, however I feel the same way about “travel league” sports…don’t like it, wouldn’t let my boys do them etc. I know several kids who had passions…and they went to Interlochen or Carolina School of the Arts…but going to a boarding school (for the school year) because you have a passion is one thing. I agree that kids who take enrichment summer classes at a near by college are doing that…enriching their education, same as kids at arts camps in the summer. But those classes should be on the transcript and they theoretically should not be duplication of a course being taken during the regular school year unless it is a repeat class for grade replacement during the summer and not as a primer for a upcoming class…
