Program so accelerated that 8th-graders take AP Calculus.
Will that work?
Schools usually see parent ideas as poison, but this one is blossoming
by Jay Mathews
Washington Post
October 16, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
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What happens when two bright and conscientious parents, without planning to do so, create one of the most ambitious math acceleration programs in the country?

Jason and Sandy Roberts started the Math Academy in Pasadena, Calif. They thought a lunch-hour class would be good for a few fifth-graders interested in math, including their eldest child.

That was in 2013. Their little program was soon embraced by the Pasadena public schools superintendent, Brian McDonald, a former accountant and math teacher. When I stumbled across what the Robertses were doing in 2017, they had 70 students in four grades. At the top were six eighth-graders taking Advanced Placement Calculus BC, a course that only a few high school seniors nationwide even try.

The program in Pasadena has gone from 14 fifth-graders at its beginning to 175 children in eight grades. At Pasadena High School, students who mastered AP Calculus in middle school are taking college courses in linear algebra, differential equations and multivariable calculus.