What the 6th grade math options in AAP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the rush? A good teacher will challenge your kid and give them extensions. I am certified to teach Algebra and have been doing extensions all year? So they are getting a lot of challenging content but not in a high stakes environment of a high school credit class. A lot of parents don’t think about the long term effects on starting Algebra in 6th. What will it look like senior year for them?

We are are at a center, my 5th child has 99% IQ(2E), 99% in I ready and maps too, loves math and is good at it.

At our school 20+ kids are taking Algebra 1 in 6th this year (almost half of the AAP 6th grade class).

Child knows who are the kids that excel at math. I believe there will be a confidence impact if child is not with the higher math group in 6th because they know and want to do higher level math. I wish it wasn’t an option at all.

My 5th grader has the exact same scores and also excels in math. We’re at a competitive center with greater than 50% enrollment of AAP 6th graders in algebra I this year. We have already told DC that they won’t be taking it next year, even if they qualify, bc there’s absolutely no rush, we don’t feel A1 is appropriate at this age, and it sets them on a course for accelerated math coursework in high school that they really won’t need at that point. DC agrees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the rush? A good teacher will challenge your kid and give them extensions. I am certified to teach Algebra and have been doing extensions all year? So they are getting a lot of challenging content but not in a high stakes environment of a high school credit class. A lot of parents don’t think about the long term effects on starting Algebra in 6th. What will it look like senior year for them?

We are are at a center, my 5th child has 99% IQ(2E), 99% in I ready and maps too, loves math and is good at it.

At our school 20+ kids are taking Algebra 1 in 6th this year (almost half of the AAP 6th grade class).

Child knows who are the kids that excel at math. I believe there will be a confidence impact if child is not with the higher math group in 6th because they know and want to do higher level math. I wish it wasn’t an option at all.

My 5th grader has the exact same scores and also excels in math. We’re at a competitive center with greater than 50% enrollment of AAP 6th graders in algebra I this year. We have already told DC that they won’t be taking it next year, even if they qualify, bc there’s absolutely no rush, we don’t feel A1 is appropriate at this age, and it sets them on a course for accelerated math coursework in high school that they really won’t need at that point. DC agrees.

This is how you handle it. You demonstrate to your kid that school is not a race and that you mean that by not having them take a class because it is there. Each family should make their own choice based on what works for their child. We would have enrolled our son if there was an in person class at his base school. I don't think we would have moved him to the center to take the class, he was in LI and we wanted him to continue the language in MS. I don't know if his class would have had the number of kids to justify an in person class.

We did not suggest or encourage him to take geometry in the summer because we want him to attend summer camp and swim at the pool and take vacations with us. There was no need to rush into algebra 2. He could have handled geometry over the summer fine but what was the point? He agreed, he had never thought about doing geometry over the summer and only mentioned it when some of his classmates were taking it. It took him less then a second to say "No" when I asked if he wanted to take it.

You can say no for our child and explain why. It will be fine.

Or you can say yes because you think it will be a good fit and your kid really, really loves math. Do what fits your kid but peer pressure is not a good reason to say yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are literal studies showing kids getting into top 50 schools need remedial math. Makes you wonder is it because they rushed through it? Kids should not be taking the majority of their high school math in ES/Middle School. IMO this push is ridiculous and will not be as successful as they think. They will be compacting math so AAP 6th is pretty much 8th grade math so they can all jump into Algebra in 7th.

This is accurate. Had my AAP 5th grader baseline tested at mathnasium and they said she was only competent at the 4th grade level. They showed me exactly where AAP accelerated based 4th grade basics. MY kid is workman on Pre-Geometry, but yet has to do remedial math at the same time. Seems my kid has been constantly trained for the test over and over and just dumps the material after.

We have friends in 6th grade algebra and they dumped it as it was obviously stressful for their kids and they were solving problems by memorization but not fully understanding.