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    ruazkaz Offline OP
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    DS11 is in 5th grade and for the last two years the public school system has allowed him to work independently on math. He is now 4-5 grade levels ahead.

    Next year he will attend an IB school that is within the same school district. He is currently taking online tests for 6th and 7th grade (each grade has about 25 sections and each section has anywhere from 10-25 questions). He has scored very well to date and is about half way through 6th grade. After he completes 6th grade he must take another exam which I understand will be in a Common Core format. The same will happen for 7th grade. He used EPGY and the school system cannot accept EPGY thus the need for the testing.

    I spoke with them recently and we have agreed to revisit the issue if he is successful with 6th and 7th grade, which I am pretty sure he will be successful. They seem to be willing to work with us to ensure he does not have to endure the "seat time" to the extent he can successfully demonstrate he has mastered material.

    One issue is that once he gets to Algebra and beyond, whatever he scores will more than likely be shown on his transcript. He has always made very high 90s on his EPGY finals so I think he should be fine, but there is a risk he could do poorly. He can sometimes make very careless errors, but that has gotten better in the last year.

    I think this is a good alternative to having him sit in classes and repeat material at a slow pace but would love to see if anyone else has similar experience, disagrees or agrees. From reading other posts over the past year I think this is a decent solution?

    Thanks.

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    You really need someone with more knowledge and experience of the US school system, implications of transcripts, etc., than I have, but I'll start... It's a bit sad that your DS has to do so much demonstration of stuff he's (presumably) done long before, but I guess it's reasonable from school's point of view. Is he OK with it? If he's finding it extremely tedious and you're confident that he's solid through, say, the end of 7th grade, it might be worth asking for them to identify say 5 of the hardest questions per section for him to do, with him not having to do the other questions on the section provided he gets those right.

    Once they've assessed where he is now, the more interesting question is what does he do next. I'm not familiar with IB at this level; the higher maths levels aimed at 16-18yos (I don't know the terminology) have a good reputation, particularly for encouraging investigation, so I guess that's hopeful. But almost certainly just going through the next years' work is not the optimal thing to do... Do you/he know what you want for him?


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    The Algebra I and Geometry class my son took in junior high do not show up on his High School transcript. Our high school requires 2 years of math taken IN high school, so if you are on this advanced math track you he must take at least Algebra II & Precalc in H.S. Only classes taken IN high school go on the official transcript, nothing taken the summer before 9th grade including language classes 'counts' for H.S. credit.

    Note this is how it works in my school district, it may NOT be true for your school. I would check with your school. My experience helping with college applications they won't look at anything that happens before 9th grade. That is unless you son goes through H.S in unusual way, like graduating at 14/15 or being homeschooled.

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    ruazkaz Offline OP
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    Thanks for the information. He is ok with doing the tests so far and it has been pretty easy for him to do. I do not know how he will do on the common core part since he does not really have experience answering questions in this newer format. I really just want him to learn and be challenged during math period. He likes math but it is too early to say how far he wants to go with it.

    Bluemagic-I will check to see if anything before ninth shows up as I understood that it would but I could be wrong. I don't really intend for him to graduate early if possible.

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    Originally Posted by ruazkaz
    One issue is that once he gets to Algebra and beyond, whatever he scores will more than likely be shown on his transcript. He has always made very high 90s on his EPGY finals so I think he should be fine, but there is a risk he could do poorly. He can sometimes make very careless errors, but that has gotten better in the last year.

    I wouldn't let worries about poor performance hold him back. He's done well in math so far, so there's no reason to suspect he won't continue to do well.

    FWIW, our school district treats high school courses taken in middle school the way bluemagic's does - they won't show up on the high school transcript no matter what level they are. It sounds like you've already checked into it and that's not the case where you're at - but in the event you haven't checked for sure - check! The grades might be a completely needless worry smile

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    I think this is a good alternative to having him sit in classes and repeat material at a slow pace but would love to see if anyone else has similar experience, disagrees or agrees.

    Totally agreed here - having to repeat work he's already done and sitting in classes where he's already learned the material has been my ds' number one complaint in school (when it's happened). I'll caution that he's had one other complaint about being accelerated in math - something to consider, but I wouldn't *not* do it because of it. At ds' school, being accelerated in math means you are in whatever level class you're ready for, but you're taking that class along with students who are taking it at the typical grade level, so for instance, if you're taking Algebra 1 in 7th grade, here you would be in a class with 9th graders. Which can mean that the material is covered at a slower pace than a subject-accelerated student needs... and that was somewhat frustrating for my ds. He's been in an accelerated math class with same-grade but all-accelerated peers this past year, and it's been wonderful - they've actually already finished the standard curriculum for the year.

    polarbear

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    Originally Posted by polarbear
    I'll caution that he's had one other complaint about being accelerated in math - something to consider, but I wouldn't *not* do it because of it. At ds' school, being accelerated in math means you are in whatever level class you're ready for, but you're taking that class along with students who are taking it at the typical grade level, so for instance, if you're taking Algebra 1 in 7th grade, here you would be in a class with 9th graders. Which can mean that the material is covered at a slower pace than a subject-accelerated student needs... and that was somewhat frustrating for my ds.
    polarbear
    This is not true in my school district. In fact HONORS Algebra I is only taught in the junior high. The assumption is if you are ready for the advanced math, you will be taking algebra I in 7th or 8th grade. About 15% of the students (two classes) in my son's 8th grade class were taking Honors Geometry in 8th grade.

    This seems like another question to ask the school.

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    Very useful information as I imagine we'll have the exact same scenario in two years. DS has been using IXL through school to do his algebra work, which I believe is what the middle school uses. DS has developed a tests are fun and strengthen his math skills mindset which has helped.


    Ruaskaz, dropped you a PM.

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    I hear where you are coming from and also have chosen to jump through every hoop presented to access acceleration for DS. My thought was if DS passes every hurdle with every individual/department, then there would never be an issue of DS not being in the right place.

    However, I am somewhat appalled at the idea of your DS tackling 250 to 625 questions for every single year that he is trying to skip, especially since they are starting him at such a low level. It struck me as overkill and inefficient. Should the school have been testing/accelerating him on a regular basis over the last two years? You mentioned that he is a 5th grader who is 4-5 year ahead so at a high school freshman or sophomore level but not where he is course-wise. In our district, after freshman or sophomore year but without acceleration, the student would be ready for calculus at a maximum (GT students completing sophomore year) or Geometry at a miniumum(lowest level regular track completing freshman year).

    So depending on what you mean by 4-5 years ahead, I would try to request testing for the last two years. For example, if he were ready for Calculus, then testing him on Algebra II and Geometry would be sufficient. Mathematics build on earlier foundations so it doesn't make sense to go back so far. Alternatively, I would request testing on only the more difficult topics and/or questions as 250 to 625 questions per year of math has to be redundant.

    Obviously, if you can't get any concessions, then it is better than nothing so long as your DS can tolerate it. I wouldn't worry about him bombing these tests if he is that far ahead. Even with careless errors, he probably wouldn't score below 90% if he has mastery.

    Good luck.

    Last edited by Quantum2003; 04/18/14 12:55 PM.

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