Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums High School Please help me advocate!

OK- here's the email I sent to advocate for my child to take AP World history as either a freshman or to take it as a sophmore without taking World Geography as a prerequisite.
Of note is that other suburban school districts allow this.

My letter did not work and they will not allow her to take the class as I have requested. Any advice on how to proceed from here?

Mr. XXXXXX,

I do not agree that it is in the best interest of all students to take the Honors Geography class prior to the AP World History class. In fact, the XXXX Program of Studies indicates that for an honors diploma, it is necessary to take either Honors Geography or World History- not both. Since she is planning on being a medical doctor, I do not see the need for her to do both. She needs to concentrate on taking math and science AP courses as an upper classman and I do not feel it would be beneficial to take social studies AP courses concurrently with these higher level classes. I believe it would be more difficult for her to take multiple AP classes after being a freshman than it would be to take one AP class as a freshman, get accustomed to the work load, and then take more later in high school.

…I believe it is redundant for someone interested in pursuing a math/ science career to take both World Geography and World History courses if they are capable of succeeding in the higher level course on its own. Research concerning teaching gifted children supports the view that redundancy is not necessary for these children. In fact, it can have harmful consequences because these children get used to not having to study and then have difficulty later when faced with challenges. Currently, my daughter does not have to study to maintain her “A” average in all higher ability classes. She has a 99% in social studies and a 100% in language arts. I would really like to see her challenged and have to work hard as I feel this will prepare her for a rigorous course of study in college.

…she has also demonstrated proficiency in language arts and writing skills through multiple test results. She has exceptional writing skills and has achieved a perfect score on the written portion of the ISTEP test in the past. More recently, she scored a 27 when she took the ACT as a 7th grader; this indicates that she scored higher than 80% of college-bound high school seniors.


… She dances 15-25 hours per week...and is the Soloist State Champion; I would like her to be able to continue this activity at this level and believe that taking multiple AP classes at one time after her freshman year might interfere with this goal. So again- this is yet another reason to request that she be given the opportunity to pursue a more balanced schedule by taking one AP class as a freshman- thereby lightening her load for later years of high school and freeing-up time to pursue other academic interests. Of note is that other school districts do allow freshman to take AP World History- and other gifted students have achieved success with this.

…However, I do need to concede that there might be practical scheduling problems that would interfere with a freshman taking AP World History due to the block scheduling that is currently being utilized by Avon High School. I am sure that this has some effect on the ability of Avon students to take advantage of the electives and course choices throughout the grade levels. I am also aware that the choice to convert to block schedules was well researched by Avon Administration and appears to be of academic benefit to the students. Given these circumstances, it seems that one alternative that could be considered would be to allow my daughter to take AP World History as a sophomore as other students do. Although taking the 9th grade Geography class as a freshman would be helpful, I do not think that it would be necessary for her due to her skill set which shows a high likelihood of success without this redundancy.


…Please also note that she is very disappointed that she will not be able to take Principles of Biomedical Science (this course explores human medicine and biomedical research). She has expressed an interest in taking the AP World History class as a sophomore and then substituting the Biomedical Science course for the Geography course her freshman year since the Program of Studies indicate that only one World History/ World Geography course is necessary to obtain an honors diploma. I have explained to her that the AP World History class will be very challenging. ..Taking AP World History without taking the Geography class would require the department chair approval…

…My sincere hope is that XXX would be able to meet each individual student’s needs and prepare them for the best possible academic future. Making exceptions based on an individual’s situation does fulfill this goal and results in maximizing each and every student’s potential….


I would appreciate and advice on this matter since the schedules will be finalized by the end of April.

Thanks!!!

Well, the length alone was probably terrifying and immediately created a fear response in the recipient.

Yeah... I know. Its just that they keep giving me all these bogus reasons why they cannot let her take this class- so I needed to address all their reasons and also explain my reasons... not sure how else to do this. Any advice is appreciated. I am really surprised that they will not let her take the class...

I just skimmed your letter and I bet the school did too. I'm doing advocacy now for my 2e preschooler and everything I've read advises keeping letters under a page if at all possible. Long letters have a tendency to be perceived as being whiny regardless of how well written.

Lots of kids take 3-5 AP classes a year in HS so I think your basic argument is weak. Schools view balancing extracurriculars as your problem.

Advocacy wise, I would try to find an online class or independent study that the school would accept in lieu of the course. This allows the school a graceful out and addresses any curricular concerns they may have.

Good luck,
-chris

How old is your daughter? What grade is she in right now?

How badly do they want your dd at their high school? Could you contact another high school to see if she could attend that school instead if the other school would allow this and the assigned school would not?

Another thought is that, if your dd got a 27 composite score on the ACT in 7th grade, have you considered applying to DYS with that and a portfolio if you don't have IQ scores? They could probably help you advocate better than you could do alone.

I suspect that part of their reluctance is that they don't want to set a precedent for other students to request the same. Having your dd in DYS might help them around that issue. If they could say that this concession is only available for profoundly gifted students who are in a program like DYS, I bet that they'd have few, if any, other students who could meet that hurdle and request the same accommodation.

Also, have you gotten the district GT coordinator or her middle school teachers involved in helping you advocate? This would obviously be faster than waiting on DYS b/c you won't be able to make that happen in time for an April schedule finalization.

Personally, as a kid that accelerated all my science and math courses a number of years, I don't understand the big deal.

DH had a history degrees at Harvard, but did the prerequisites for medical school and got in just fine.

She is a freshman. Learning geography is not a bad idea. I just don't understand why so many Americans don't know their geography.

Ren

I think you do need to be a little careful about this though. Our high school offers 21 AP classes, and more Honors classes. Both the Honors and AP classes give you an extra point in your GPA, so an A in them is a 5.00, not a 4.00 (on a 4.00 scale).
At our high school, supposedly each AP class is 2 hours of homework a night, so if the kids take too many AP classes, it becomes overwhelming with the busy work.
If you try to have her take a class that the school feels is too hard (even if you feel sure she can take it), it can backfire with the school grading her unfairly or something like that.

My dd13's high school offers a ton of AP, pre-AP (honors), and dual enrollment college courses as well. I think that it depends on the school as to how they weight these courses. I'd agree that dd's pre-AP classes have a lot of homework. However, her school does not give bonus GPA points for pre-AP or college/dual enrollment courses. The only courses that give that + on GPA are the AP classes.

Yes, our school doesn't give "extra" GPA credits for pre-AP classes, which are not labelled as Honors. Honors and AP classes get the extra point. I guess there are probably about 30 AP and Honors classes total. (Some are things like "Year 5 Japanese," which I doubt my kids will take).
The average GPA for kids admitted to our UC schools (not UC-Berkeley) is 4.20 on a 5.00 scale. Wow!
My point was simply- explore why the school doesn't want her to take the AP Geography class in 9th grade. Our high school also won't allow that, I think b/c they require you to take the 9th grade Honors English class first since they feel you won't have the requisite writing skills, or whatever.
Our high school will only allow you to take one college or community college class during your 4 years of high school and have that count in the GPA.