I'm hoping there's some people who've experienced what's being recommended for my DS and have some words of wisdom. Last year in 4th grade, he completed 5th grade math. He's been taught at one grade level above in math since 3rd grade (not at all unusual at his school). In evaluating his ERB results, the school has finally gathered that he's not being challenged in math. They're recommending he join the 7th grade Algebra A class (this will where they offer Algebra 1 over two years of middle school so they can go at a slower pace).

There is no doubt he is strong in math and he has consistently been frustrated with the pace of his math classes. The ERB results showed 99% through pre-algebra concepts which is why they're making the recommendation.

I am really concerned that this is a huge leap - surely there will be some gaps from skipping 6th grade math and Prealgebra? Has anyone done it? Where did you find the biggest problem areas. The school uses Saxon if that makes any difference.

I'm also concerned about the age gap. DS is only 9 (he's the youngest in 5th grade - I'm having a hard time picturing him with 7th graders).

Thanks so much for responding. He's a big kid, so I doubt he'll really stick out that much. His best friend is actually almost two years older, so in general he's fine with older kids. But on the downside, he's definitely a kid who is slow to warm up to new situations/people and is pretty hard on himself if he's wrong.

I agree with you on the two years for Algebra. I'm wondering how much review there is - it might actually help give me some comfort that he won't have any gaps. I've found in general Saxon has tons of review which drives him crazy, but in this case may be actually helpful.

He definitely ready for more - if it was a single skip, I don't think I'd hesitate. I would just hate to finally have him challenged, and have it be too much of a leap and frustrating in the opposite way!

Despite many assertions you may see, math knowledge can flow backwards and forwards, it isn't all a carefully stacked tower. Particularly true when you are looking at entering new branches like algebra or geometry, etc. If he is a self-motivated math learner, he'd back populate in any of the miniscule gaps.

With some chance that the instruction is slow, I'd suggest reading this article about Problems and Exercises and make sure the school isn't just supplying exercises: http://www.epsiloncamp.org/faq/faq_1.php

In a similar vein, it may be a good chance for him to connect with (if there are any) middle school teachers and students who are involved in math competitions.

My concern would be the makeup of the 2-year Algebra class - students and curriculum. Is it an honors class that combines Pre-algebra and algebra for top performing math students, or is it a class tha purposely strings out Algebra 1 so that not-so-apt math students ease into Algebra? Or is it the Algebra that most students take?

If your ds has been frustrated with the pace of his math classes, I'd be hesitant to simply skip a year and put him straight into another math clas that is either taught at the usual rate or a slower pace. Ideally it would be good to be able to offer him compacted math that he can pace through at his rate. Our ds is subject accelerated in math but it's handled then placing him in a classroom of higher grade level students who are on track with math and he is at teems very frustrated with the repetition and pace of the work.

Best wishes,

polarbear

This doesn't really make sense. He'd be covering 3 years material (6th, pre-alg, Alg I) in 2 years by skipping the first two (6th, pre-alg), and then doing the third (Alg I) stretched out over two years.

Instead it would make more sense to compact 6th and pre-alg into the first year and the Alg I in the second (single) year. This would get to the same end point in the same time.

On the other hand, if he can handle the jump to Alg I, then why not do it in one year?

Great questions. This is a small private school that is pretty rigorous. I feel that they have some difficulty differentiating in math and the small size definitely factors into it. It is the policy of this school to separate Algebra into two years for the majority of students. All 6th Graders take PreAlgebra - although there are two tracks, honors and regular. Most 7th graders take Algebra A in 7th and B in 8th and go into Geometry in 9th grade. A small percentage of 7th graders take full year Algebra in 7th and Full year Geometry in 8th. And a very small percentage of students take another year of PreAlgebra.

I actually pulled my daughter out in 6th as she was ready for full year Algebra and they couldn't accommodate it - mostly scheduling wise as opposed to philosophically.

I had anticipated him skipping 6th grade math and taking PreAlgebra this year to be ready to take Algebra as a 6th Grader. I still wonder if that's a better idea than skipping PreAlgebra and taking two years for Algebra???

Our DD basically did that same skip, but went directly into Honors Algebra 1 and completed it in a year. Here are my thoughts: I wouldn't worry about the holes/gaps, if there even are any (based on his ERB there aren't). DD has some gaps in pre-algebra but understood algebra 1 really well and got high 90s on everything she did. In fact, her use of some of the pre-algebra skills that she was missing to solve algebra questions has improved her overall math ability (it is not her strong suit relative to her other subjects). I would not think that doing the course in 2 years would be a good fit however, the pace will be ridiculously slow and probably not challenging at all. I would push for placement into the 1 year algebra class with the skip of the other stuff. DD's entire attitude towards math changed after seeing that math could be more interesting than the pre-algebra stuff and be more interesting.
As far as differentiation goes - it is too bad that the teacher doesn't know how to do it better because it is much easier to do with small classes than with large ones.
Good luck!

I don't see how that would be better; surely prealgebra will both start and finish at a lower level than the first year of the offered algebra course will, so you'd be holding him back, looking only one year ahead - and a good challenge next year is a better aim than a good fit the year after, because easier to judge.

If he's fine with the algebra, you might at some point want to argue for him to move sideways into one-year algebra next year. If he isn't going to finish the algebra course in one year, then unless there are extreme cohort issues, algebra over two years seems better than something less than algebra for a year and then algebra for a year, doesn't it?

Based on your description, I'd either move him into Pre-algebra, or if you think he needs more, move him into the one year algebra class that 7th graders attend. I'm guessing he'd be bored both with the pace of the two year class and with the level of comprehension of his fellow students in the class. If you're worried about gaps due to missing prealgebra, I'd put him there this year instead of algebra.

I don't know about your schools curriculum, but in our school districtstudents who are skipped ahead in math routinely skip 6th grade level and take prealgebra that year, then algebra the next. Our ds did that, and there was quite a bit of new material in prealgebra.

polarbear

I agree with Polarbear.

Pacing tends to be the elephant in the room any time we look at why a particular placement isn't working for our DD, or is driving us all insane.

So level is one consideration-- but it's far from the ONLY one, and in a lot of instances, it isn't even the most critical one.

Keep in mind that if there is a higher-level class for the 7th graders who are better at math, the 2-year Algebra option will be depleted of good students. Cohort issues can quickly become more extreme than they were in the earlier, homogenous classes.

I ran into this in high school English, when to get my favorite elective I had to drop to regular English. I had made my own choice to handle the slower pace and was prepared for that, but then found out what a class was like when it had NO honors students left in it. No one answered, volunteered, participated - it was so, so dull. No matter what I did I stood out. I really tried not to dominate the conversation and know all the answers, but sometimes it felt like mentally showing up was all it took to make them look bad to themselves.

Resentment can build in both the students and the instructor, who won't thank the administrator that put your son in the class that was a poor fit. It could even be used as an excuse to undo the acceleration in an extreme case - those social issues will be a bigger issue in a group that doesn't value academics highly.

I'm looking for potential pitfalls here, things to watch out for. If you know the school and this won't be a problem, great! If not...

Lots of good feedback and questions. I'm scheduled to meet with both the elementary director who made the recommendation and the math teacher to discuss the pacing issue specifically later this week. You've all given me much to think about, I appreciate it!

Well, we haven't experience exactly the same acceleration, but we did consider it last year. DS (rising 5th grader) accelerated from 2nd grade to 4th grade math in 2nd grade, then skipped 6th grade math to study pre-algebra in 4th grade. We decided against accelerating to algebra in 4th grade for a variety of reasons and we have been happy with our choice. However, I believe that had we chosen to skip both 6th grade math and pre-algebra, that would have been fine also.

I am not familiar with ERB so do not know how comprehensive or reliable the pre-algebra portion of the test is as opposed to accepted national algebra readiness measures like the one out of IOWA. In any event, DS had a 100% mastery by the measure provided by ALEKS before 4th grade and a top score on a national algebra readiness test at the end of 4th grade. He gained both a broader and a deepter mathematical knowledge from the year in pre-algebra. Furthermore, he covered lots of materials which are absent from these algebra readiness tests.

I am not sure if the same holds true across the country, but pre-algebra is really a misnomer in our district and we are on the way to changing the name across the board. In essence, pre-algebra is the "PASSPORT" to algebra and geometry. In the case of DS' gifted pre-algebra textbook, the breakdown was probably 60%/40% (pre-algebra/pre-geometry & pre-trigonometry). Learning the six trigonmetric functions and using it to solve real world application problems were one of the highlights of the pre-algebra course for DS.

If you believe that your DS has negligible gaps, then I would advocate convincing the school to put him in the one-year algebra course so he won't be stuck with the mediocre/slow students. If that option is not possible, I would recommend taking pre-algebra this year with the advanced students and then covering algebra in a single year with the advanced students. In addition to what I have shared above, it has been my experience that the GT classes working one year above have always been substantially more vigorous that the at level classes one year ahead (4th grade GT math doing 5th grade curriculum is more vigorous than 5th grade regular class doing 5th grade curriculum). I believe that is the reason why in our district acceleration is only allowed if the student qualifies for the GT class the year above.