Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy middle/high school math saga continues

Here are my random thoughts, fwiw!

1) Geometry is almost always taken between Algebra I and Algebra II here - did you ask about having her take Geometry this year/summer and start in Algebra II in the fall?

2) Our ds is an extremely math-science oriented kid - when we look at the course offerings he can take if he enrolls in our district's IB diploma program, the offerings in math/science are very limited compared to what he can take in math/science outside of IB. I am not convinced at all (here) that the brightest highest-ability kids are all filtering through the IB program - some of them are (and you have to have a certain IQ/achievement score set to get into it)... but most of the kids I've known who choose IB are more liberal arts, LA/History/Social Studies than they are into math & science. The kids who love math & science tend to choose the honors/AP classes, and there are options for taking college courses for high school credit. Overall there is much more flexibility in scheduling for kids who are *not* in the IB program, and there are just as many NMSF etc outside the IB program as there are within it.

3) Does your dd love math? Is she interested in a math/science direction as she continues through high school/university/career? Does she really want to study Algebra II over the summer?

4) Have you asked if other students have done this same type of acceleration? Did they have to repeat a course when they went to high school?

5) I'm of the mind that (mentioned above) - you meet your child where they are now - if she's cruising through Algebra I and you and her teacher think she'd cruise through Algebra II at an accelerated pace and she *wants* to take it now, I'd go for it and worry about how to deal with it later. OTOH, if this isn't something she's entirely bought into and you don't know 100% for sure that she'd get high school credit for it, I'd probably not have her do it. Although this isn't your school and hopefully wouldn't be your experience, I've known two kids from ds' school (one in Spanish, one in math) who had super-subject-accelerated (ie, more than one grade level) but had to repeat the courses they'd already taken in middle school once they got to high school because they didn't score highly enough on placement tests. They were *SO DANGED BORED* repeating the classes that I think it turned them off in a way that never would have happened with their middle-school boredom over a relatively slow-paced class.

Good luck - I think it's so cool that you have a teacher who recognizes your dd can handle more challenge!

polarbear

ps - I also thought I should admit a few things so you'll see that there is most likely bias in my reply: my ds is after-schooling in high school science which we're hoping he'll be able to get credit for but have no idea for sure that he will, and he is also subject accelerated ahead of the usual acceleration curve in both math and Spanish. Based on our school's track record, I think he'll be ok with getting math credit but don't know about the Spanish. We're basically flying by the seat of our pants at this point and hoping like heck we can find an ok fit for high school! And I'm guessing it's not going to be a traditional high school program. So that's where we're coming from - IB isn't on our radar because we've already tossed that out of the equation as something that's most likely not going to work for ds.

and... I also agree with CFK re "The Calculus Trap".