Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Typical middle school math progression?

Ultramarina, I think your question is theoretically sound but perhaps only peripherally relevant in practice. Your DD's actual experience will depend more on the other students in her classes so you actually need to find out the selectivity of her projected math track. Disregarding that for the moment, I think that Pre-Algebra in 6th grade will be appropriate for a 95th-97th percentile math achiever.

For my non-mathy (but very smart) DD, Pre-Algebra in 6th grade has been excruciatingly slow due to too many students who shouldn't be in the class. At a result, the teacher goes at a snail's pace in order not to lose the bottom half. However, over the course of the year, some of those students have been re-routed to a lower level class and I believe that this pruning process continues over the next couple of years so that perhaps only about 15% will complete Geometry in 8th grade. In your DD's case, I think that she should be fine even if the track is limited to 99th percentile achievers, although in that case she may have to work harder than her classmates to keep up.

I share the same concerns for my DD who will be a 6th grader but in the 'higher' track for 8th grade Algebra - apparently this class is fairly rapidly paced and the teacher has a reputation for being the right kind of tough teacher.

I am ready to give the SD the benefit of the doubt because they are genuinely and
sincerely trying to help my DD succeed from what I have seen so far. I also desparately want DD to learn to advocate for herself from middle school onwards

Due to the relatively rigorous pretest, which has a hard cutoff, there should not be an issue with kids who shouldn't be in the class.

In our school system, everyone is in the same track through 6th grade. Starting with 7th grade, the kids get tracked as follows:

* ~1% of kids: Placed into Honors Algebra in 7th grade
* ~1/3rd of kids: Placed into AE pre-algebra in 7th grade. Must maintain an A to get into Honors Algebra in 8th grade, else depending on grades put into AE or Standard in 8th grade.
* Remaining kids: Placed into standard pre-algebra. Must achieve at least a B to move up to AE in 8th grade.

We go to a public school system, but the average student is at the 90th percentile. For many kids getting into AE in 7th grade and honors in high school ends up being quite difficult, and there is a lot of movement down the tracks because kids couldn't keep up their grades.

What is AE? Academically...Exceptional?

My district is all over the place and includes the very poor as well as the very wealthy. The average student is certainly not 90th percentile.

I do not know what percentage of kids in my district are in the track DD tested into (which equates to your 1% track, mithawk--Honors Algebra in 7th). I would guess it's probably 3-5%. It could be as much as 10-15%, but I doubt it.

FWIW, DD has been accelerated by a year in math for years now and that's been completely fine, but I feel like this track is accelerated 2 years+, isn't it?

Keep in mind that the lower tracks are *depleted* of top students. This lets them have instruction that is appropriately targeted to them without having to worry about boring the kids at the top.

AE stands for accelerated/enriched. And I think your D is accelerated by two years. Algebra is normally a 9th grade subject.

As to whether it is necessary for competitive colleges, I think it can help, but it's not necessary. Without it, your child just needs to find another way to shine. For example, D's best friend's older sister was accepted into Harvard without qualifying for the 1% math group. With our kids, D didn't qualify for it, but S did. We will see what happens with they apply to college.

Ditto:
Honors track used to be: 7th grade Algebra I, 8th grade Geometry, 9th grade Trig/Algebra III, 10th grade Pre-Calc, 11th grade AP AB Calculus, 12th grade AP BC calculus. They also have AP statistics.
But this year it's all changed for honors math: 7th grade Common core 2/3, 8th grade common core 3, etc.
What is super weird is that the only way to take BC AP Calc is if you get into this super math track in 7th grade!
I think, in our district, that the Common Core is leading to fewer kids taking the very upper level math courses.

DD is definitely accelerated by one year only--she completed the 6th grade textbook this year (5th grade). I am presuming that she would now be going from a 1-year acceleration to a 2-year accel, which concerns me a bit.

That is not strictly true. Before Common Core, there was a push to have all 8th grader take Algebra at least in CA. And Common Core changes make it even more confusing because Common Core 8th grade math includes about 1/3 of what used to constitute basic algebra. Common Core pushes this back a bit. Some districts implemented this putting ALL 8th graders in Algebra.