During DS11's IEP at small charter middle school the question of math arose. This year he and 3 other 7th graders have been taking Algebra 1. I assumed the next step is Algebra 2 and know that's a problem because it's currently not offered at the school. They could do online, independent study (teacher can't allot full period to teaching 4 students), or I could drive him to and from the high school (pretty far) to take it. Surprise! At the IEP meeting the staff said they were not planning to do Algebra 2 official course (wait till HS). Instead, they said they're looking into richer, deeper math study/problem solving/math mastery. Sounds interesting. I think the curriculum was called Jacobson mathematics reasoning for mastery (or something like that), recommended at the recent William & Mary College Conference for Gifted. I like deeper study, but it makes me nervous to "take the year off" of the traditional sequence of courses. Plus, I can't find info on it (I just emailed the teacher). I don't like taking the year off. Would you all feel comfortable with this? Or should I be looking into the aforementioned Alg 2 options independently (which probably means after school course work).
