My kid was accelerated in math and doing fine right up to pre-calc honors her freshman year. When I had a discussion with the teacher about some seeming gaps in her knowledge between A2 the previous year and the class she was in, he told me the other 5 freshmen in the class were all fine. It was only my daughter struggling. I was confused by this. These six kids had been on this track together for years and had all been fine. So I saw another mom and asked how her son was doing and she said he was fine, but she was really glad he took a prep class over the summer. Came to find out every kid on that track had taken a prep class except mine.
Precalculus in 9th grade is 3 grade levels ahead. This seems like an example of inappropriate over-acceleration if the students either struggle or need additional summer prep courses.
It should be a warning sign if the high school has many students 2+ grade levels ahead in math who do not consider all high school math an easy A subject (up to calculus BC with an easy 5 on the AP test) without unusual amounts of studying or any extra summer preparation.
Our public gifted middle school offered math prep for the students moving from 5th to 6th grade and for those moving from 8th to 9th. Nominal charge and I think they had scholarships available. A high school math teacher offered free math prep on several Saturdays since something is changing about the way they teach next year. (I don’t know the details.)
I consider tutoring and outside courses to be the same as SAT test prep. It is available one way or another and it all still depends on the student to want to learn, to show up prepared and to retain the information. You don’t punish children who have parents with the ability to teach them engineering, math, or science and I’m in favor of education all around.
Regarding the initial point, I can’t imagine my children wanting to take a course twice, no matter what.
The district had 5 to 6 kids on this track a year out of a district population of about 2500 kids per grade level. Up to that point the ones in her cohort were all fine. I am unsure why the other 5 families all jumped on the prep bandwagon at once but I suspect it is related to an ethnic grapevine I am out of the loop on.
It was also the first year of Algebra 2 common core and there were some gaps for all kids going from A2 to PreCalc. It all worked out in the end she ended up taking a year off of math and now loves it again amd wants to major in it.
It is my understanding the district is no longer allowing any acceleration beyond A1 in 8th grade. They say it is incompatible with the new curriculum.
There is a private boys school in the next town the actually aligns their summer “enrichment” classes to the curriculum in our town. Some families in our town have their kids either attend that or have a tutor pre-teach the class to them. (The school year wrapped up yesterday. Earlier this afternoon I was at the town library and it was packed with kids being tutored.)
Our town for the most part does not allow acceleration but I am hearing it happen more and more. In almost all cases these kids also have a private tutor during the school year in each class. And yeah, I’m sure they are doing this because they have a “passion” for the subject. sarcasm
Doubt incompatibility with new curriculum is the real reason. The real reason is probably resource constraints.
If they allow +2 or greater math acceleration, then the district needs to offer geometry in middle schools for the small number of students with +2 or greater math acceleration. If the district allows +3 or greater math acceleration, then it needs to offer algebra 2 in middle school and algebra 1 in elementary school. Since the number of students in question may be very small (only 5 in your district), it may be hard to justify that as a resource priority when competing against other resource priorities.
At the other end, with +2 or greater math acceleration, the district needs to pay local colleges for college courses for the students to take beyond calculus BC.
I don’t know about needs to pay. The schools can simply say that they have other math classes that can the student can take, such as AP Stats or AP CS (which often falls under the math department).
@ucbalumnus the GATE middle school is located on the same campus as the high school so math acceleration is not a challenge at that level at least. I am unsure how many kids take math at college. Mine is taking calc based physics at college but the district does not pay for it.
@hebegebe my daughter took APCS A on her “break” from math and got an A/5 so it all worked out.
Instrumental music is similar. The kids who are first chair, who score high at solo festival, who get into regional honors band/orchestra, and who perform in outside community music groups – in other words, the ones who do enough with instrumental music to make it look like a good EC on their college applications – have years and years of private lessons under their belts.
And this may be even more unfair than sports because band or orchestra is usually a credit course.
^^ Agreed. When my children did band and dance in school, both teachers highly recommended private lessons.
There is a huge difference between 1) taking a course elsewhere to get a better grade because of grade inflation at the other school or 2) retaking a course to get a higher grade after taking the same course somewhere else over the summer vs hiring a private tutor, playing on a sports travel team or paying for private music lessons and joining in outside music groups. The former 2 have no purpose but to game the system to get a higher GPA. The student does not attain more knowledge (other than some modest gain because they spent double the time on the same material in the “2” situation. The other 3 situations do raise issues of uneven playing fields for more affluent families (but not always, sometimes it is just different family prioritization), but the time and investment spent improves the knowledge of the student, makes him/her a better and more skilled athlete or a better and more skilled musician, not just a student who can now coast for a subject or 2.
This is all a race to nowhere. This is happening in my suburban district with academics as described above, with sports, and with music. We continue to rank and the pressure to be in the top 2%, 5%, and 10% is insane. So many students loading up on courses all summer so that there are extra spots for even more AP and DE courses during the school year. There is also the expectation that you will be involved in amazing internships or summer leadership or top rated camps that help with college admissions. Add in hundreds of volunteer hours and a part time job and these kids are overworked and beyond stressed. Around here there is also immense pressure to know what you are planning on studying and know your future path early in the college search. The kids who don’t know are seen as not committed and not serious students. These teens are not socializing and there is very little down time or family time. It doesn’t feel like we are better for all of this.
They * do * take the same college classes twice! They also take difficult classes as standalone classes over the summer with an easier cohort. The parents edit their papers. The gaming doesn’t stop when they enter college.
Kids need downtime to reflect, to contemplate, and yes, to play. Over-scheduling their activities is likely to be counterproductive, even causing problems when they get to the colleges.
Just to be clear … what I am referring to is this: HS students TAKE THE COURSE in a private school, over the summer, before they take the EXACT same course in their own public HS during the academic year. This is not tutoring, or prepping, or extra practice over the summer. They pay to take the full course over the summer. When they take the course in their HS for a grade, it is the second time they are taking the full course. They have already been taught all the material, done assignments, taken tests, etc., while students who did not take the full course over the summer are being exposed to the material for the first time.
Seriously, are these kids brainwashed? Bribed? Completely at the mercy of their prestige chasing parents? Desperate to be “the best”? I don’t know any kids who would voluntarily do this over summer break - not one. Just seems like a waste of time - you’re only a kid once.
@Leigh22 The third option you mentioned. As I said upthread, in our community, it is practiced exclusively by students whose parents are immigrants from countries/cultures that value grades and test scores above all else. This is the norm for their cultures.
Re: #54
If the student officially enrolls in both courses, then s/he must report both high schools and send both transcripts when required. Then the repeat will be obvious to college admission readers, unlike in the case of pretutoring without official enrollment in a high school course.
@ucbalumnus I’m quite certain they don’t report it on college applications. These students are not matriculated at the private school. They pay to take a summer course as a non-matriculated student.
Any student with access to the internet can spend a summer previewing all of their upcoming courses on Khan academy, MIT opencouseware or similar high quality resources for free. That isn’t much different from these extra formal summer classes.