Question regarding algebra in 5th/6th grade
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Anonymous
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For those with kids that are in algebra in 5th or 6th grade, when did the skipping grade happen to your kid. Is that something you pushed for or did it come from school?
My DD is in 2nd and I think she's advanced (perfect score on Cogat quant section, the last math I-ready was close to 600) but I am not sure if I should approach the school or not. Thank you for any information. |
Anonymous
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You should approach the school. Some schools/teachers are more proactive about things like this, and others don't even notice the high iready scores or that your kid already knows everything being taught. Your kid isn't necessarily less worthy than other kids who were approached by the school and skipped ahead.
The school should be able to test your kid. They conveniently should have a bunch of end-of-year tests available right now, and there's no reason they can't see how your kid performs on the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade tests. If you approach the school, they will think that you're a delusional parent with an inflated view of your child's abilities. That doesn't mean that they won't test your kid, and it doesn't mean that they won't acknowledge that they're wrong if your child blows the tests out of the water. A 600 iready math score is absurdly high. I bet at most 1 or 2 2nd graders in all of FCPS have a score near 600 for math. |
Anonymous
It depends on school you are at- some ES are already set up to support this- so would be super easy conversation as they see this all the time (can work backwards from if your MS has Algebra 2 classes in their MS building). If your MS isn’t one that has 1 or more Alg 2 classes in the actual MS building, maybe you could call a Carson or Cooper counselor and explain your kid doesn’t go there but looking for input from someone that sees kids advance in math and can give experienced input on what kids succeed. |
Anonymous
| My son was accelerated by his 4th grade AAP teacher who recommended he get testing. This allowed him to take math 7 in 5th grade and Algebra 1HN in 6th grade. However, we had to provide the transportation to and from ES to MS every other day throughout 6th grade. |
Anonymous
| Our school recommended the acceleration (First grade teacher, principal, and AART). In second grade, our principal coordinated one-on-one testing of our child's math skills with someone from Gatehouse. Using those results, as well as the routine standardized tests, our principal created a specialized plan for our child to telescope in math to a class 2 grade years ahead. It was our preference that he remain with age based peers for the rest of his day. The school has asked our permission each year to have our child take SOLs above age level to continue to monitor progress and make sure our child's needs are met. Next year we are discussing an additional acceleration that will involve our child starting the day in middle school with busing provided by the county back to our elementary school and then an independent study during our child's usual elementary school math time. Interestingly, our school has so far offered to provide the transportation, but perhaps that will end up falling to us as it did for the prior poster. |
Anonymous
School sent letter home saying student qualified for Algebra 1 in 6th grade, and if wanted to accept the recommendation. We did. After that, it was Geometry in 7th, and Algebra 2 in 8th. No summer math. |
Anonymous
Wow, what a great school. I don't suppose you could name and fame, could you? |
Anonymous
It's wonderful that your school is so proactive with highly advanced students. I want to reassure OP and other people that if your school does not take action on their own, it doesn't necessarily mean that your child isn't worthy of skipping. It might mean that your school just isn't very proactive or they're too busy with too many struggling kids to notice your child's ability. Like PP, my kid skipped 2 grades in math. We emailed the principal, said that the kid was absurdly advanced in math, and asked what could be done in terms of enrichment. The principal then had my kid pulled by the math resource teacher for 1-1 testing which resulted in the math grade skip. At the meeting with the principal and math resource teacher after the testing, it was clear that they had not been paying any attention to the iready scores and were too overwhelmed in general with the struggling learners to pay any real attention to the outliers at the top. Had I not initiated the process, my child would only have been skipped ahead one year in 4th grade as part of the regular "6th grade algebra" track. If you think your child is far ahead in math, and you have some concrete evidence, like absurdly high iready scores, it's okay to advocate for your child. Not every school is paying attention to the off the charts iready scores or perfect scores on the math beginning-of-year exams. Not every classroom teacher is noticing which kids are bored out of their minds. Many principals would rather keep your kid in grade level math if you appear to be content with the situation, because the logistics of grade skips can be challenging. Sometimes, you have to be the squeaky wheel. |
Anonymous
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It is ok to advocate for your kid, no question about that. It is also OK to see that the path is there and decide not to take it.
We chose not to push for skipping levels in math because we knew there were outside avenues to pursue math enrichment, and we did not think that there was that much gained by being even further advanced. DH is an engineer and works with physicists, engineers, programmers, and others in the STEM field. None of those people pushed for their kids to be further accelerated, although many of their kids were capable, because they did not see any value in their kids taking several years of college level math in high school. They pursued STEM activities, robotics and rocket club, math competitions and science competitions instead. We did not want our child attending MS in 6th grade. We did not want to worry about getting him up early to catch the MS bus to take math early in the morning and then worry about the logistics of getting him back to his ES. We don't see the value in his taking geometry over the summer. There is something to be said for a kid being a kid, even one who is really interested in math. He will do some STEM camps and has some math books he is going to work on with his dad during the summer. Sometimes the question isn't can you but should you. I think that is more of a parent choice knowing your child. We chose not to pursue further acceleration because we didn't think it was age appropriate for our kid. We knew he could handle the material and that he would enjoy learning it, so we channeled that into math competitions and other STEM activities. Obviously, do what is best for your child. |
Anonymous
| Can students take online algebra instead of busing to MS? |
Anonymous
Yes, but I would not recommend it. (MS math teacher) |
Anonymous
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There are many free videos lecture series and detailed practice systems (IXL, Khan, Eureka, AoPS) to support online algebra 1. Many (but not all) parents can support students in algebra 1.
For most kids accelerating that much, time is better spent doing math work than an hour or more bussing to and from MS. |