It was taught in person last year. The counselor could have at a minimum reached out to the parent before submitting an online registration request, couldn't she? |
Neither is Algebra 2 yet the counselor took it upon herself to register the student with the online campus without advising the student or the parents. That is, if your position is that nothing offered online is any of the base school's business. I checked and it was taught in person last year at Kilmer. |
No. It is not part of the standard curriculum clearly posted online and not hard at all to find. It is much more difficult to find and enroll for summer classes then to find that. I'm quite sure you didn't reach out to the counselor before enrolling for the summer class, because they would have advised you against it. You made your choice, and they did the only available option for you: online class. |
It was taught in person last year. |
Your kid should retake geometry this year, and study Algebra 2 during the year and next summer, and then enroll in precalculus in high school.
You asked for trouble, and you got it. If you don't want it, give it back. Unless your kid is one of about 5 people in the DMV area in 8th grade, I guarantee you that there are several students with far more advanced math knowledge, who are doing fine with Geometry class in 8th grade (because they don't need the school to drag them through the curriculum). |
And? It's not on the clearly posted and I'm sure communicated curriculum for 24-25. Last year might have gotten lucky, but you aren't this year. |
I never said he is a math genius. You don't need to be to take basic geometry. And he doesn't need to be one of these five. He will be fine with any number of options before him. The course was taught in person last year. |
You don't need to be a math genius to take geometry. But 8th grade Algebra 2 is the path to dual enrollment differential equations in 12th. And you don't need to be a math genius for that, but it helps if you don't want a C. It doesn't matter whether or not it was offered in person last year. It isn't offered this year and was never supposed to have been. |
What would reaching out to you in advance do? The option is to take the class online. It is not being offered at the school this year. I am doubting that you would suggest that you child not take math in 8th grade. Last year they had a Teacher who could teach it without moving a ton of kids from another class to make that space. Or more kids were available to take it last year then there are this week. There are a lot of scenarios. This year they don't have enough kids for a class or a teacher for the class due to needing to accommodate X number of students taking Algebra 1 H. Algebra 1, and Geometry H. You could ask about taking it at a high school but you would have to provide transportation. I have no clue if that is an option but you could ask. I would guess that you would need an Algebra 2 section that meets after your child is done at MS to not interfere with the rest of his schedule and hope that there is one available that allows you to pick him up and take him. Are you ready to drive your kid to the high school for the class 2-3 days a week? |
FCPS math teacher:
The school needs at least 8 students to allot a teacher to the course. Students could not register for algebra 2 when course registrations were due in January, so the counselors only just learned who took/completed summer geometry and need to be removed from the geometry they pre registered for. Counselors restarted this past week so you basically got the most efficient response you could have hoped for. Other options to get your kid algebra 2 without online class: Ask if there is an algebra 2 class the last period of the day at the high school (assuming Kilmer runs the same a/b schedule the HSs do.) Your child can skip the last block of the day at the MS (12:45 - 2:15) and make it to the last block at the high school (1:15 - 2:45). You will be responsible for transportation. Be aware that your 8th grader will be in class with 9/10/11th graders) Ask if there is a NVCC course that covers the requirement. There used to be, but I’m not sure there still is. It will be much lower level than A2H in FCPS though. Ask for the online campus contact and find out if the evening piece is required or just office hours. |
Thank you for this, very helpful. I just spoke to the counselor who said there are "less than 10 kids" who completed it (I guess some of the 14 who registered are expunging it). Apparently last year they had many more kids registering and planned ahead of time to have an in-person teacher. She checked the schedule of nearby schools for me and said it won't work as there is no travel time built into the schedule. Our high school runs half an hour later. She mentioned a VIrtual Virginia option that I will look into. And she apologized for lack of communication and said she'd do better next year. |
If there were only 11 kids, how do we know it was taught in person last year? |
From parents of students who took it in person last year. There were 18 students, not 11. |
11 kids took the SOL, kids can take the class and choose not to take the SOL. You only need one verified credit for graduation and that requirement is filled with the Algebra 1 SOL. I think a decent number of kids take the SOL afterward because why not? It doesn't hurt them and they need to be at school anyway. Or someone forgets to fill out the opt out form. |
8th grade algebra 2 is the path to dual enrollment differential equations in 11th grade! What's the plan then for the kid who is too busy with extra curriculars to to to one class a week? You don't need to be a genius to learn geometry, but you don't need to be a genius to do Algebra 2 on you own over a year either, and then take precalculus at the highschool with all the other classes. |