Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy middle/high school math saga continues

I think those universities would waive the requirement once they saw that one of those years was Calculus, because obviously that means Algebra II was taken before high school.

The bummer here would be that this sets her up for Trig/Pre-Calc and Calculus (or Calc I and II, depending on how your school defines them) in high school, but she has to come up with another math class for high school credit. Some schools have a rigorous Statistics class that can provide that benefit, but mine sure didn't. Any alternative math classes outside the Calc track in my school were designed with the non-mathy, struggling student in mind. We had a class called "Business Math," which turned out to be a rehash of elementary-level stuff... fractions, decimals, percentages, etc. So, definitely look at your school's course catalog to see if they have anything worthy of your DD's attention for that final math requirement.

Another alternative that might be worth considering... give her a year off of math now, rather than later.

Or, when the time comes, send her to a nearby college to take a college-level Statistics class, and insist the high school give her credit.

Building off of what I said earlier and what polarbear is saying, at my daughter's particular high school, kids often CHOOSE the IB route, because in our state, you can choose any high school you want to attend, as long as there is space. So if a kid is opting to attend this high school, IB is it's claim to fame, the brighter kids do tend to go that route. That said, my younger daughter is very strong in math, and she will probably go to a different high school that will be more AP oriented and play to her strengths. But, we have that option. Not everyone does. I think IB is great, for the right student. It certainly does not suit every kid, and I in my way meant to imply it is for the best choice for the brightest students. I have mixed feelings about it, personally.

I would definitely want my student taking four years of math in high school, regardless of the state requirement. Whether that means your student will have to find a suitable college course, or take AP statistics, there should be some options available. I would research that now, though.

Just adding my experience with the math sequence and later career stuff.

I started out on that sort of course, got bored quickly, and wound up disliking math because of my early experiences. It's been harder to get back into that field in my career without having had some of the later pre-recs for the PhD. It would be a shame for another student to be bored and put off enough by policies to dislike the subject.

There are many interesting learning opportunities in math that are related to algebra and usually offered by community colleges or universities: discrete math (such as graph theory used in a lot of the applied sciences and engineering if those interest her), probability and statistics (AP course and plenty of college courses), linear algebra (even at some high schools these days--great for computing and statistics if she's interested), and some math-computing courses that typically don't require much beyond Algebra II as pre-recs. If the district is open to that or has a dual-enrollment plan, she could take those sorts of courses (usually the more fun college math courses) during high school if she ran out of high school classes--especially if she enjoys algebra. Also, many colleges offer courses in other areas of algebra after students have taken some of the later math sequences (abstract algebra, number theory, combinatorial algorithms...).

I hope that helps!