<p>I am very annoyed with my school's scheduling system right now. How many of you also have this problem....</p>
<p>Okay, so it all started wayyyyy back in elementary school. It was 5th grade and I was doing my regular 5th grade math homework, but my teacher picked 2 students who were advanced enough to try out some 6th grade math homework. 6th grade comes along, and I am put into the regular 6th grade math class again, but my 2 friends are put into HONORS 6th grade math. When 8th grade rolls around, my HONORS math friends get to skip Pre-Alg, and start on Alg 1, while I am stuck taking Pre-Alg. Now highschool has started, and it is my freshman year. I take Algebra 1 while my friends who were on the HONORS track get to take HONORS Geometry. Sophomore year, I take Geometry while they take Alg 2, and junior year I take Alg 2 while they take Pre-Calc. So now we are picking classes for senior year, and I find out that I have to take Algebra 3 next year, while my friends get to take AP Calc. This means that my friends got to skip Pre-Alg AND Algebra 3, putting them 2 years ahead of me!! This is all because they got to be on the HONORS track because tehy were good at math in 5th grade!! The only way I could have gotten up to their level is if I had taken summer school. It isn't like the work is that much more difficult. I get the same grades in Alg 2 that they got in Alg 2 last year, but now I am suffering because of the STUPID tracking system.</p>
<p>This happens a lot with the math and science classes. For English, you can test up to a higher class, and for History, you just have to talk to your counselor. I find this very upseting. Anyone else have this problem?</p>
<p>I suggest you:
(a) Go to summer school,
(b) Take courses at a local community college, or
(c) Take online courses in the subjects where you want to get ahead.</p>
<p>Oh please. Our daughter was offered the "opportunity" to take accelerated math. We said NO. DH (an engineer, by the way) had seen too many math students who did not have a good math foundation...most took the accelerated track where the students work at a much faster pace and are almost self taught to a certain extent. We wanted to be very certain that DD had a solid math foundation because once you've skipped that, math can become extremely challenging very fast. She was in the "regular" math track. This year (her senior year) she is taking precalculus. Next year IN COLLEGE she will take calculus. For most college majors requiring calculus, you still MUST take it at the college level. Not being in the accelerated math track is NOT a crisis. In my opinion, these accelerated tracks have taken on a life of their own, not necessarily in the best interest of good instruction to the students. As posted above, if you really really think you MUST be in the higher level math track, then take the catchup course this summer. Otherwise, just plan on continuing your math studies in college. By the way...DD is in honors precalc this year (first time she has been able to be scheduled into honors math due to small school scheduling conflicts)...and it is not as easy as the regular math track where she consistently got A+ grades.</p>
<p>One problem with the accelerated classes is that too many parents rally for their children, (who don't belong there in the first place), to be in them. There is some sort of "top level" status, and parents can override the teacher or GC's recommendation, particularly on the 8-9 transition.</p>
<p>The positive about those accelerated classes, for some kids, is it is the one place where they will have adequate challenge. Having a bunch of kids who don't belong there (which usually resolves itself after Geometry) just drags down the other kids who want to work at a consistently fast pace.</p>
<p>For a kid who wants into a higher level, after the track is up and running, the only definite way in that I know of is summer school.</p>
<p>I have to take Alg 3 because it is in my track. </p>
<p>This is how it goes for those who are not on honors:
Alg 1
Geometry
Alg 2
Alg 3
PreCalc
Calc</p>
<p>Those on honors go like this:
Geometry
Alg 2
PreCalc
Calc</p>
<p>But the thing about my school is that this year we switched to year around (School year starts July 27), and therefore, have NO summer school. It is so ridiculous that my lack of focus during math in 5th grade is now the basis of what math classes I can and cannot take in high school.</p>
<p>I do not understand. Are you saying that your high school has six years of math (in four years) for the non-honors kids, and four for the honors kids? This makes no sense. How DO the non-honors students take precalc and calc? Or does that never happen unless they go to summer school. And regarding the change this year...you have been in the math track since fifth grade....Surely you could have resolved this before entering your senior year. There were many other summers prior to this one when your school did not have year round school. Has this become a top priority just this year??</p>
<br>
<blockquote>
<p>This is how it goes for those who are not on honors:
Alg 1
Geometry
Alg 2
Alg 3
PreCalc
Calc</p>
</blockquote>
<br>
<p>Those on honors go like this:
Geometry
Alg 2
PreCalc
Calc>></p>
<p>When my first kid was in middle school, acceleration meant that you took Algebra 1 in 8th grade, proceeding through the curriculum to calculus in 12th.</p>
<p>Three years later, when my second kid was in middle school, it meant taking Algebra 1 in 7th grade, eventually leading to calculus in 11th. (My daughter took the BC Calculus test this week. As a junior.)</p>
<p>Now they're accelerating kids even more, putting some of them in Algebra 1 in 6th grade. This is absurd.</p>
<p>But what surfette's school is doing is just as ridiculous in the other direction. I could see one year of slowed-down make-up-the-stuff-you've-missed math for kids who have fallen behind, but to require people to take six years to do four years worth of work is ludicrous.</p>
<p>I am currious where trig is in your progression?</p>
<p>At my school it goes like this:
Honors
7th Pre Alg
8th Alg 1
9th Alg 2
10th geom/trig each a half credit
11th Elementry Functions
12 AB Calc</p>
<p>Non honors
7th Pre Alg
8th Alg 1
9th Geom
10th Alg 2
11th trig/ prob stat
12th precalc
Calc
or if you have pre alg in 8th it gets shifted back one</p>
<p>The only way a person not in honors to get to pre calc is for them to double up one year. this is the same with calc for those in the non honors track. This is possible due to block schedualing.</p>
<p>I also went to a middle school for seventh grade that had alg 1 that year and I would have had Alg 2 in eight if I had not moved (Alg 1 the second time was really really boring)</p>
<p>I am moving in Thumper's direction. My first son was the last person on the cut-off list and went with the fast track math. It's not his "best" subject, he managed to get through and his nose was above water and it did help him with his ACT and SAT scores, but it probably prevented him from being at the top of his class. On the plus size he really learned how to knuckle down and study something that was (a) difficult and (b) not his favorite subject. Freshman, sophmore and junior year for him was like keeping 5 plates spinning in the air and the same time. My second son also hit the cut-off (at the bottom like his brother) and I said "no". My second son is doing just fine and it's alot less stressful for him and our household and it will not "hold him back" or cause him to "loose out" in the college gambit. My oldest son wasn't "bothered" by the struggle but my second son would have sunk like a cement block in water. I know this isn't advice to the OP but it might help other kids and parents who are debating whether or not to fast track a subject. To the OP, I agree, if you are that bothered, talk to your GC about taking a class outside your current school. My sons' school has on-line classes that are available to students to take for credit as well as the local community colleges. They can fit them in on a "0" hour or on their own time or replace a more elective type class.</p>
<p>I took summer school, but not in math. I got rid of PE and Health during the summers so I could free up some room for me to take Spanish. The change in the schedule makes me uspet for the future students. </p>
<p>Trig is paired with Algebra 2, but they are considering breaking that down so the non honors would be 3 years behind.</p>
<p>Now they're accelerating kids even more, putting some of them in Algebra 1 in 6th grade. This is absurd.</p>
<p>Everybody started algebra and geometry in 6th grade when I was in school( in USSR) . Nobody thought twice about it. So we grew up with the idea that algebra is not a big deal and raised our son the same way. He is not a mathematical genious by any stretch( that is his dad's job :-) ) , there were better times and worth times( algebra is easier for him, as it was for me, and he likes geometry much less) , but he had absolutely no problem taking college calculus in 11th grade. Yes, we had to go and ask his middle school's principal to put him in the 7th grade math, when he was in 6th grade( S was bored and could not understand why he had to write "how he felt about the problem" instead of just solving the darn thing) , and there were kids who didn't belong in accelerated classes, but in our case it was an absolutely right and even nesessery thing( S cannot stand being bored) . The sequence Hon. Algebra 1 in 8th grade, Hon. geometry in 9th , Precalc in 10th, Calculus his junior year ( taken at our "local" university) more or less resembled the sequence I had to do in highschool and worked just fine.</p>
<p>Sorry, stupid me( S's corrections follow) . Alg 1 was in 7th grade, geometry in 8th, algebra 2 in 9th , precalc ( trig was part of this class) in 10th.</p>
<p>My S did Alg.1 in 7th, Geom. in 8th, Alg.2/Trig Honors in 9th, Pre-Calc. Honors in 10th,AP CAlc.AB in 11th, AP Stats. in 12th. </p>
<p>He did well on this track but some who started on this track with him in 7th grade found it going to far too fast and had to abandon the "honors track" after 9th grade.
In our state students are required to take 4 years of math in high school regardless of what was taken in middle school. Any student is free to try an honors class if they choose to. For instance S2 is not as strong in math so we puposefully slowed down his math track so as not to get way beyond his ability before fulfilling the 4 years of math for h.s He is currently a soph. taking Alg. 2.(not honors) For Jr. year he had the choice of signing up for Pre-Cal (honors) or Functions and Modeling (non-honors) or even AP Stats (pre-req. is Alg.2)!</p>
<p>At our school, the kids who were accelerated in math and went directly into upper level classes had a VERY difficult time adjusting, and they are now limiting who can do this. You realize this means an immature freshman will be in upper level classes while still trying to adjust to HS. If you feel you should be able to take other classes, listen to the advice about summer school or college classes.</p>
<p>I don't remember any special adjustment problems with S's math classmates. Some of his friends had difficulties getting used to a new place, but none of them took math with him.</p>
<p>The fast track is not always the best way to go. By the time I started junior high I was doing trig and then pre-calc. My sixth grade teacher did not want to bump me up, and in 8th grade I could not go to the geometry class at the local high school because it was during orchestra. I am now in geometry and have the only A out of 2 honor classes. The friends that I have who did take geometry in 8th grade will have problems on the psat unless they review. They need four years of math so they will have to go to the local jc to take it during their senior year. I love math, so I will always take a class outside of school so I can do it at the pace I want! It should never be about who finishes math first but learning and retaining as much as you can.</p>