Failing calculus senior year

[Anonymous]

My child is in AP Calc AB and is failing. I tried to get her moved out of the class early on, but the school's drop/add period was very short. She is working hard in the class and has a tutor but I don't think she's going to pull it out of the hole. Does anybody have a kid who was failing math senior year with 4 years math required? I tried and will continue trying to work with the school but wondering if I should pull her out and send her to public so she can graduate high school. Her other grades are mostly As. If you had any related experience, I'd appreciate hearing about it.

[Anonymous]

Making her switch schools seems really extreme and traumatic, and she'd probably perceive it as punishment. Have you talked to the school? What do they suggest? They want her to graduate too.

[Anonymous]

OP your student should go to their counselor and drop the class. It is not required and if the school says no that is ridiculous. Drop ad period is never over in HS>

Now if she is dropping it because she does not want to do the work that is a different issue and she should not go to college if that is the case she is not ready.

[Anonymous]

If this is a private as your post suggests, they are not going to have your kid not graduate because of this. I am normally a hands off parent, but this should be escalated to the head of the division or even the head of school just to make sure that they are aware of it and if you tell them that you are worried about this I think they will reassure you. In the meantime have your kid speak to the teacher and ask what she can do to bring up the grade. I can relate to this experience as my kid started senior year with a D in AP Physics. It ended up being a C by the end of the semester and she is now an engineer so it had a happy ending. My best advice is to keep praising your kid for working hard at it and tell her it will all be okay if she keeps doing that and then pressure the school to work with you on this.

[Anonymous]

Wow, that's rough. How did she do in math in previous years? It's still early in the school year. Could the teacher recommend an alternative math class or even an outside program for her? I'm sure you've thought of that and other steps already, I can't offer much except commiseration. I know that's got to be a difficult spot. Since she has all or mostly A's otherwise, I wonder if there's a specific math-related learning issue at play -- one that could be addressed by a professional who knows about those things? But why would it appear just now? All questions that a learning specialist could probably help answer or at least point you in the right direction. Best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Time to major in Art History or Women's Studies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Time to major in Art History or Women's Studies

No one thinks you're funny.

[Anonymous]

Your DD might still be able to drop the course, but a W might appear on the transcript signaling she withdrew from it after the drop/add period. While it's not a scarlet letter on her record, it might give some universities/colleges pause before they admit her.

[Anonymous]

FWIW when I took trig in h.s. and first year calc in college (was not able to take in h.s. due to a schedule conflict), both times I came near to failing, even though I had always been good at math. But I pushed on and suddenly in both situations it all seemed to gel and I ended the courses with the highest final exam grades in my classes. Years later, I did graduate school in math.

But I am someone who, when math (or computer science) get's hard and gets painful even, I don't stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Time to major in Art History or Women's Studies

No one thinks you're funny.

I wasn't joking

[Anonymous]

Our private allows drops with no record on the transcript for 4 weeks. After 4 weeks you can still drop but receive a W mark.
I would look into this--certainly it is better than leaving the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Making her switch schools seems really extreme and traumatic, and she'd probably perceive it as punishment. Have you talked to the school? What do they suggest? They want her to graduate too.

I've spoken to the teacher and she's gone to him for help. They did not offer further suggestions. The counselor said she cannot drop it. The problem is she needs 4 years of math to graduate. So, she won't graduate if this continues. She could go to summer school and graduate. This school is very rigid in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP your student should go to their counselor and drop the class. It is not required and if the school says no that is ridiculous. Drop ad period is never over in HS>

Now if she is dropping it because she does not want to do the work that is a different issue and she should not go to college if that is the case she is not ready.

She's doing the work but she just got too behind, now she's drowning. It's moving at a fast pace. She should not have signed up for this, but she was placed in it. She's done fine in math before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our private allows drops with no record on the transcript for 4 weeks. After 4 weeks you can still drop but receive a W mark.
I would look into this--certainly it is better than leaving the school.

This school allows it for six days. That's what the counselor told me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW when I took trig in h.s. and first year calc in college (was not able to take in h.s. due to a schedule conflict), both times I came near to failing, even though I had always been good at math. But I pushed on and suddenly in both situations it all seemed to gel and I ended the courses with the highest final exam grades in my classes. Years later, I did graduate school in math.

But I am someone who, when math (or computer science) get's hard and gets painful even, I don't stop.

OP here. I love this.