LilMick - Taking AP classes in physics and Calc is a waste of a year for him (10th grader), since he has been advised by students at the private university to take Physics 1 and Calc 1 at the university in order to do well on the upper division classes.
Even students who earned 5s on the AP tests say they struggled significantly with Physics and Calc. Some were told with 5s they could skip the first year of each, but they regretted it later with upper division courses. The foundation from the university has proven to be a lot stronger for a thorough understanding of the subject areas.
As far as English, I'm bothered that he isn't allowed to take AP English until he is a junior, and even then he has placed out of college Freshman English, and will most likely place out of sophomore level (based on the high college freshman CLEP scores). AP tests are to place out of college English, which he did through CLEP already.
So instead of taking an upper level college course or wherever he tests, they will only allow him to take hs sophomore English.
The problems I'm having here in our state is:
1) High school credit is not given if they do the work or place out at a junior high level or earlier. High school work completed therefore does not bring high school credit.
2) College work and college tests that place the students out of a course do not count toward a high school diploma. Only AP and concurrent enrollment. So if my son places out of the first 2 years of English for college and takes 4 years of college upper division English courses, none of it applies toward a high school diploma.
For my daughter, even though she took 4 years of English, the two that are not the first two years of English are keeping her from meeting the 4 year English requirements for a hs diploma.
3) There are no tests available at the high school level for my children to take at any age to show that they mastered the material already. I have been given information that I can pay for $100 per subject per year per test for some math and a variety of other random courses offered at the high school. The tests do NOT include English, and only 2 math courses. Did I mention I'd need to go to a different district for these tests...an hour away???
What really gets me is the high school has an incredible program for the mentally handicapped where testing and services are free, yet my kids have to pay for everything and are punished if they are too advanced. There is no "certificate" or options given to them as with the mentally handicapped. How is this fair, when I am paying taxes just like them???
I'm getting so fed up, I can hardly stand it. I am thinking I need to find an easy solution for my daughter, and put my son in the private univ in January (when they said he could attend), and then fight.
And we are supposed to be competing with the Asian cultures academically...yeah, right!
Last edited by jayne; 08/14/08 09:49 PM.
