Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Aleks math in school

I was just shot down today after asking the school to allow DD8 to do Aleks math in school. They say they cannot substitue curriculum.
Oh rasberries!
I suppose I could ask them to supplement as opposed to substitute, but I don't want to give them the idea that I think it is okay to ask her to do one digit addition and subtraction worksheets.
I'm thinking the only get around is to go to the district and ask them to approve this, but then I'm feeling kind of like David vs. Goliath.

And I was making so much progress over at the school.......

Neato

Incog,
I feel for you! I'm having the same meeting today with my son's school and honestly expect the same result. But I'm also going by the idea that if you don't ask, you won't get One of the biggest problems is that DS is bright enough and noconformist enough to see no point in doing extra work. He will either do the more challenging work or do the easy work but he is not a happy camper when he is requested to do both.:(

Could he work on Alex if he passes the pretest? That way they wouldn't have to worry that he doesn't know their curriculum and he could still learn something new?

When I brought Aleks to school last year, about mid-year, the Principle took a couple of days to see how it aligns with state curriculum - she did not see a problem.

A suggested way in, which worked in our case - are there any other kids who are currently bored in that math class? Get those parents on board - school might be easier to be persuaded if there is more than one kid asking for it. We had 5 kids doing Aleks at school last year - all 4th graders. To make it work, parents had to voulnteer to come to school during math class and supervise those 5 in the lab. Three of us were able to do it, but after a couple of months only two parents remained on board, so I started coming twice a week. This way my daughter (and 4 other kids) was able to work on Aleks 3 x weekly.
Aleks purchased by school is very inexpensive.

We were able to have Aleks access at school as a supplement to his slightly accelerated math instruction. We pay for it, but he has used it more often than he would have if he had only been logging on occasionally at home.

It may not be ideal as a supplement, but might get them warm to the idea.

In our case, it's currently out of the question b/c there is a no headphones rule - they've been in lice lockdown for months! Oh, the joys of elementary school...

Incog, I'm sorry they seem to have backpedaled on Aleks. We were able to get pretesting, but all that means is that DS gets their challenge worksheets (without teacher help) in place of the regular stuff. The only change we got was that they agreed that he didn't have to do extra math work on top of whatever they are requiring.

They did consider, however, access to distance learning courses for him. We backed off but will probably ask about them again (supplying our own headphones, of course). As Grinity posted somewhere else, the thing that worked for us was stressing how unhappy and frustrated he's been in school. When we put it in terms of giftedness, they just cited school policy (have to conform to the curriculum, and differentiation, not acceleration) and threatened to pull his IEP.

I'm so sorry, 'Neato! The pretesting suggestion seems like it might fly, maybe? At least it's a good step to try while you prepare to go to the district over it...

Anyway, {{hugs}}

I'm sorry incogneato. How depressing when we come up with the solution and they still won't help. I know how you feel.

Incogneato,
I'm sorry to hear about your roadblock. Do you have a district gifted coordinator? I talked to our coordinator about ALEKS. After talking to the ALEKS representative and she had the district purchase 100 ALEKS licenses. Fifty were reserved for advance math students and 50 were reserved for students that needed additional help in math. Once it came from the district, the school could not object to my dd using it.

I hope you can find a way to make it work for your dd.

Texas Summer, that sounds like a great way to present Aleks - benefit to all students. Incog, I wonder whether you could contact Aleks and ask them how they fit with your school curriculum. It's possible that they've studied whatever your school is using (like everyday math) and have a response. Just a thought.

Thanks for all the positive feedback. I know for a fact that they know there are at least 4 students that are far advanced in second grade, as DD told me they gave them 4th/5th grade practice ISATS.
I hesitate to go to the district gifted coordinator at this point, I wouldn't want the principal to think I was going "over her head".
They have attempted to work to meet the girls' needs and I'm still waiting to see what they are willing to do for my youngest.

I just don't understand why they wouldn't LOVE Aleks and let the kids do it. It seems to me it would save them manpower.

Taking into consideration they have let the kids take practice tests out of level, let's hope that gives them the info they need to make "drastic" changes for the kids.

I hope, I hope, I hope!!!!!!!!!

This looks like an excellent idea. Why is it, that once you include larger group of kids, things are looked at from a different perspective? :-)

I understand. It is hard to find the right balance in advocacy. Part of the problem is that it is difficult to understand the school's perspective. You mentioned that the school did not want to deviate from their curriculum. In Texas we have TEKS (Texas Essential Knowlege & Skills - I think) that every school in the state must follow. ALEKS aligns with the TEKS, which eases some fears and can open the door for conversation about using it. There may be something similiar in your state.

It might be worth further discussion with your principal to get a better understanding of his specific objection to ALEKS so that you can better advocate. He said that they did not want to deviate from curriculum. Does this mean that they will not accelerate in any way in math? It helps to know the rules of the game.

fyi, here's a link to the Aleks site for a list of integrated textbooks: http://www.aleks.com/textbook_integration_popup?cmscache=site_type&site_type=k12