Why the push for accelerated math?
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Anonymous
Even if they save a penny, that's a penny that can be used towards bread and milk in college meals. For AP Calculus BC, it's 3 or 4 credits of tuition savings depending on college. On an average, "Public 4-year institutions charge around $625 per credit hour for in-state students and $1,223 for out-of-state students, while private 4-year institutions average $1,527 per credit hour." |
Anonymous
Students would need to change to part-time to pay by credit-hour. How many are realistically doing that? If they remain full-time for 4 years then they aren't saving anything. |
Anonymous
You can graduate a semester or year early with enough credits. Or it can knock out core required classes unrelated to your major so that you can take more electives you are actually interested in with the money you are spending to be there. One more advantage is that all those AP credits let you register for classes earlier than people with fewer credits. That can make the difference on getting a coveted elective, professor, or time slot. |
Anonymous
DC had enough AP credits that let them graduate a year early. That's savings of one full year tuition and living expenses. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
You can get to AP Calc BC and multivariate calculus by taking Algebra 1 in 7th grade. A good number of strong math students skip AP Calc AB. Everyone should do what they think fits their family and child best. I have no problem with acceleration. That is a choice our family made, I don't need to understand why other families choose differently. I hope that it is really kid directed interest and not parents thinking that it will get their kid a leg up. A family that is poor or lower middle class and has a smart kid who has strong grades and a DE math class will get merit aid that will make college affordable or even free. Placing the stress of additional honors class during the summer on a kid feels unfair to me but I am not in those shoes. I also don't think it provides the edge for getting into TJ or colleges that people think it does. |
Anonymous
Our district (not in DMV) does provide formal hyper acceleration for middle school students that qualify. Students that do the program all of 7th and 8th grade enter high school ready to take Calc AB and AP eng lang, with credit hours and grades given for taking Alg I-precalc and honors eng 9-12. They can either do the math and English track (if they test into both) or just one. Most students pick one since it is super hard and a ton of work, but some do opt for both. |
Anonymous
Well, according to the actual data, only 26% of 8th graders in the US are at (or above) grade level proficiency- meaning able to do math at a pre algebra level. So if you think the US is someone going to catch majority of kids up to be learning Alg I in 7th, that is some hilarious joke. |
Anonymous
| Just ignore the trolls lying about "many other countries" they know nothing about. They are same ones who think their $300-$1M annual HHI is "middle class" |
Anonymous
There only one fix for 10% of parents insisting on being in the elite 1% , or whatever the exact numbers are: ignore them. No one is entitled to be whatever that person imagines is elite. |
Anonymous
If you want to save money on college, you can take 2 years of AA level classes at a local community college before going to a 4 -year school to finish. Freaking out over just one specific course is not it. |
Anonymous
Huh? My large university charges by credit hour. |
Anonymous
I think THIS is what so many of us are wanting as a reason to get into accelerated math. Regular math isn't being taught at grade level. And it can't be because so many kids need remedial math, but that would be like a social demotion for so many kids so schools can't do that. |
Anonymous
Bingo. So good, I say put all the kids willing to work hard and capable of learning in whatever level of acceleration is appropriate. Let the remedial kids learn at their own pace in “grade level” math |
Anonymous
What those people fail to fully grasp, is that many of the countries where the majority of HS are advanced in Math and Science track students starting in ES and they don't educate every student in the country. The scores that we see are the scores of the kids who made it through 2-3 levels of testing that allowed them to attend a college prep HS. We don't see the scores of the kids who are weeded out of those tracks in ES or MS or the kids who never attended school. While the scores in the US represent the scores of all students in the US, regardless of ability and or likelihood of attending college in the future. Europe does this, there are tests in 5th year, which I think is the equivalent of 4th grade in the US, to determine what school you attend for MS and HS. Kids who don't do well on those tests are sent to schools that lead to votech schools, kids who score high enough on them are sent to schools that are all college prep. Kids at the college prep MS/HS can be moved to the votech schools if their grades drop. The ones who do well enough in their classes will sit their A levels. I know that South Korea, Japan, and China have kids take tests in ES and MS and HS for promotion and that those tests are stressful. We are not comparing apples and oranges when we compare the US scores to the rest of the worlds. |