I would like to reiterate a point that was made earlier. It is very very important to keep your gifted child on the honors path in middle school. It's impossible in Common Core states to get off the standard Common Core path for two reasons, 1. Schools push back against it, and 2. It's a whole different methodology. It requires learning math using procedures the adults didn't learn and it's very theoretical and wordy. It's horrible for dyslexic kids who are brilliant at math. Children cannot jump back and forth between curriculums. Children basically have to pick their major in 6th grade, that is math/ science or non math / science degree.
Having to choose path in 6th grade is NOT a requirement for Common Core. It may be how many district are implementing common core but there is nothing in Common Core documents that require this. (At least in CA & MA.). I worked on a committee in my district and we specifically addressed the issue of allowing students to "switch" tracks at key points so that students who took junior high regular placement could still get to Calculus before the end of High School.
Second the terrible methodology is partly because most of the textbooks that call themselves Common Core are horrible. This is the TEXT BOOKS and the text book publishers fault. I'm not in love with Common Core but much of the terrible methodology is implementation problems. My district is going to struggle for a few years with their old textbooks but use them in a slightly different order and supplement with other material since they don't like ANY of the new books that are out.
