Well, I think the topics covered in common core classes should be uniform- is your Ds' class common core? My reply might have been confusing- our common core roll-out in upper grade math happened gradually, so my DDs year got the new course each year, with Alg 2 being the last course to switch over.
I think pb's advice to talk with students/parents is a good idea, but keep in mind that unless you know the student well, the opinion may not line up with your DS's expectations. Just from this year's experience, DD reports that out of 3 honors sections of Alg 2, the vast majority of kids felt it moved too fast. For DD and a few like-minded kids, it was finally a pretty good pace (or almost so) after years of too slow- huge improvement. There was a fair amount of homework, but a lot of it fell into what DD describes as practice/review, so easy, just tedious if you understand the material, but might be a concern if output is a struggle. So it really helps if you know who to ask, or if there is someone who knows your DS and can advise.
Have you been able to communicate directly with the teacher? Or is that an unknown until schedules are done? Perhaps talking with the counselor might help, sometimes if there is more than one potential teacher they can help with the best placement.
