What is normal for 9th grade math

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private with kids who started ap calculus as frosh. Best math student on to Harvard this year.

Where were they for k-5 or k-8 then?
Or did their parents enforce tons of tutoring and supplementing and math clubs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is in the private school forum?…

My public school kid is completing Algebra II/Geometry in 7th grade. (Normal at her school is 8th grade.)

Glad I’m not paying $50k a year to be several years behind where she is now.

Algebra II/Geometry is *not* customary for 7th grade in public school! So, your child is going to take Calculus in 8th grade?

That person doesn’t seem to know what their kid is actually studying because Algebra II/Geometry is not a thing. The standard track is Alg I, Geo, Alg II, Precalc, Calc of some kind, regardless of which grade a kid starts that track in. Some schools flip Geometry and Algebra II. More math-oriented kids will track into Algebra II/Trig instead of just Algebra II. Typical level would have that in 10th, a good chunk of kids will have that in 9th. Maybe pp meant their kid was in Alg II/Trig in 7th? But if so, that’s about 3 years advanced over the base track that gets that in 10th. This is true for public as well. Yes, there are math geniuses taking classes at that level in MS and no, most private schools typically cannot advance to that level simply because they do not have enough students to be able to offer that amount of differentiation.

MCPS has over 1/3 of students doing geometry in 9th grade.

sWW and DCPS has 9th graders taking two math classes - geometry and algebra something.

The whole point is geometry is a standalone class, get it done before physics, don’t lose your algebra skills in the meantime.

These classes are a complete joke. My kid went from DCPS with straight As (frankly--above 98%) on to a Big3. Had to repeat Honors Algebra 2 at the Big3 school and struggled to get a low A--despite having taken the exact class before in DCPS. Classmates at another Big3 had the same experience.
All math is not the same. DCPS teaches a very, very shallow and cursory version of things. I know that the suburban magnets also delve deeply but we were shocked how little my kid was taught on this advanced track in DCPS.

I have another 2 kids in DCPS so we are not anti public school by any means but I wanted to share this experience.

This has been my fear.

So publics need to slow it down and cover less but cover it very well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^To PP, my 7th grader taking Algebra ll/Geometry will likely take some form of Pre-Calculus in 8th grade. (We don’t know which yet; depends on an upcoming exams among other factors.)

But this sequence is not typical.

Are you the OP? Can you please confirm that your school is actually combining Algebra II and *Geometry*, not Trig? This is baffling to me and I’m 99% certain you are just making a mistake in what you type, and it’s very hard to take seriously. It is unheard of for a school to combine those two.

It's certainly impossible to teach both those classes together and do it well, so if that's the class that OP's child is indeed taking, it proves that acceleration often comes at the expense of actually learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is in the private school forum?…

My public school kid is completing Algebra II/Geometry in 7th grade. (Normal at her school is 8th grade.)

Glad I’m not paying $50k a year to be several years behind where she is now.

Algebra II/Geometry is *not* customary for 7th grade in public school! So, your child is going to take Calculus in 8th grade?

That person doesn’t seem to know what their kid is actually studying because Algebra II/Geometry is not a thing. The standard track is Alg I, Geo, Alg II, Precalc, Calc of some kind, regardless of which grade a kid starts that track in. Some schools flip Geometry and Algebra II. More math-oriented kids will track into Algebra II/Trig instead of just Algebra II. Typical level would have that in 10th, a good chunk of kids will have that in 9th. Maybe pp meant their kid was in Alg II/Trig in 7th? But if so, that’s about 3 years advanced over the base track that gets that in 10th. This is true for public as well. Yes, there are math geniuses taking classes at that level in MS and no, most private schools typically cannot advance to that level simply because they do not have enough students to be able to offer that amount of differentiation.

MCPS has over 1/3 of students doing geometry in 9th grade.

sWW and DCPS has 9th graders taking two math classes - geometry and algebra something.

The whole point is geometry is a standalone class, get it done before physics, don’t lose your algebra skills in the meantime.

These classes are a complete joke. My kid went from DCPS with straight As (frankly--above 98%) on to a Big3. Had to repeat Honors Algebra 2 at the Big3 school and struggled to get a low A--despite having taken the exact class before in DCPS. Classmates at another Big3 had the same experience.
All math is not the same. DCPS teaches a very, very shallow and cursory version of things. I know that the suburban magnets also delve deeply but we were shocked how little my kid was taught on this advanced track in DCPS.

I have another 2 kids in DCPS so we are not anti public school by any means but I wanted to share this experience.

This has been my fear.

So publics need to slow it down and cover less but cover it very well.

It’s not necessarily the coverage of actual content and may be more to do with the types of problem solving requested for quizzes and test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^To PP, my 7th grader taking Algebra ll/Geometry will likely take some form of Pre-Calculus in 8th grade. (We don’t know which yet; depends on an upcoming exams among other factors.)

But this sequence is not typical.

Are you the OP? Can you please confirm that your school is actually combining Algebra II and *Geometry*, not Trig? This is baffling to me and I’m 99% certain you are just making a mistake in what you type, and it’s very hard to take seriously. It is unheard of for a school to combine those two.

It's certainly impossible to teach both those classes together and do it well, so if that's the class that OP's child is indeed taking, it proves that acceleration often comes at the expense of actually learning.

Actually it’s not unheard of and definitely not impossible to do. I’m fact I would argue a standard 1 1/2 - 2yr combined Alg2 and Geometry class would actually be better because the students wouldn’t go an entire year without having Algebra. Many an engineer agrees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^To PP, my 7th grader taking Algebra ll/Geometry will likely take some form of Pre-Calculus in 8th grade. (We don’t know which yet; depends on an upcoming exams among other factors.)

But this sequence is not typical.

Are you the OP? Can you please confirm that your school is actually combining Algebra II and *Geometry*, not Trig? This is baffling to me and I’m 99% certain you are just making a mistake in what you type, and it’s very hard to take seriously. It is unheard of for a school to combine those two.

Algebra II/Geometry is the name of the course my 7th grader is in—last year’s course was Algebra I/Geometry. This is at BASIS DC, a public charter school.

I believe my 7th grader is taking the same course typically offered to 9th graders at SWW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^To PP, my 7th grader taking Algebra ll/Geometry will likely take some form of Pre-Calculus in 8th grade. (We don’t know which yet; depends on an upcoming exams among other factors.)

But this sequence is not typical.

Are you the OP? Can you please confirm that your school is actually combining Algebra II and *Geometry*, not Trig? This is baffling to me and I’m 99% certain you are just making a mistake in what you type, and it’s very hard to take seriously. It is unheard of for a school to combine those two.

It's certainly impossible to teach both those classes together and do it well, so if that's the class that OP's child is indeed taking, it proves that acceleration often comes at the expense of actually learning.

Actually it’s not unheard of and definitely not impossible to do. I’m fact I would argue a standard 1 1/2 - 2yr combined Alg2 and Geometry class would actually be better because the students wouldn’t go an entire year without having Algebra. Many an engineer agrees.

Sure, integrating algebra and geometry can work. But squeezing all of algebra 2 and all of geometry into 1 year for MS students is not going to teach anything in depth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^To PP, my 7th grader taking Algebra ll/Geometry will likely take some form of Pre-Calculus in 8th grade. (We don’t know which yet; depends on an upcoming exams among other factors.)

But this sequence is not typical.

Are you the OP? Can you please confirm that your school is actually combining Algebra II and *Geometry*, not Trig? This is baffling to me and I’m 99% certain you are just making a mistake in what you type, and it’s very hard to take seriously. It is unheard of for a school to combine those two.

Algebra II/Geometry is the name of the course my 7th grader is in—last year’s course was Algebra I/Geometry. This is at BASIS DC, a public charter school.

I believe my 7th grader is taking the same course typically offered to 9th graders at SWW.

I would just be careful with this. My Big3 kid has some of these Basis DC kids in his/her pre-calc class (Basis kids are in 9th, rest of the class is in 10th) and they do not do well. their foundation is super weak. my kid says they are solid B students which frustrates them to no end--they're used to doing well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^To PP, my 7th grader taking Algebra ll/Geometry will likely take some form of Pre-Calculus in 8th grade. (We don’t know which yet; depends on an upcoming exams among other factors.)

But this sequence is not typical.

Are you the OP? Can you please confirm that your school is actually combining Algebra II and *Geometry*, not Trig? This is baffling to me and I’m 99% certain you are just making a mistake in what you type, and it’s very hard to take seriously. It is unheard of for a school to combine those two.

Algebra II/Geometry is the name of the course my 7th grader is in—last year’s course was Algebra I/Geometry. This is at BASIS DC, a public charter school.

I believe my 7th grader is taking the same course typically offered to 9th graders at SWW.

I would just be careful with this. My Big3 kid has some of these Basis DC kids in his/her pre-calc class (Basis kids are in 9th, rest of the class is in 10th) and they do not do well. their foundation is super weak. my kid says they are solid B students which frustrates them to no end--they're used to doing well.

To clarify--basis kids transferred to Big3 for 9th. I'm sure you can probably figure out who they are. It may be worth talking to them or their parents. they are not happy with the fast but shallow math instruction they got a Basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^To PP, my 7th grader taking Algebra ll/Geometry will likely take some form of Pre-Calculus in 8th grade. (We don’t know which yet; depends on an upcoming exams among other factors.)

But this sequence is not typical.

Are you the OP? Can you please confirm that your school is actually combining Algebra II and *Geometry*, not Trig? This is baffling to me and I’m 99% certain you are just making a mistake in what you type, and it’s very hard to take seriously. It is unheard of for a school to combine those two.

It's certainly impossible to teach both those classes together and do it well, so if that's the class that OP's child is indeed taking, it proves that acceleration often comes at the expense of actually learning.

Actually it’s not unheard of and definitely not impossible to do. I’m fact I would argue a standard 1 1/2 - 2yr combined Alg2 and Geometry class would actually be better because the students wouldn’t go an entire year without having Algebra. Many an engineer agrees.

It would make sense to combine them and teach them over two years or some schools I've heard do Algebra 1 and 2 and then geometry, which also makes sense. It is hard to do the algebra-geometry-algebra sequence without review.

[Anonymous]

The question was "what is normal?" So of course it turned in the math acceleration Olympics. SMDH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is in the private school forum?…

My public school kid is completing Algebra II/Geometry in 7th grade. (Normal at her school is 8th grade.)

Glad I’m not paying $50k a year to be several years behind where she is now.

Private school math goes much deeper.

No, private school does not go deeper. It is simply behind public.

"Behind" is not really the point though, is it. They are not behind if they are on track for college and what they intend to study in college. No one needs to go past calculus to attend any college, not even if they intend to study math or engineering. So they aren't "behind" anything. Yes, our private school has kids taking math beyond Calc, and they accommodate students where they are, even if it requires a 1:1 independent study. But that is not the 'norm' in any school, and this OP asked about the norm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^To PP, my 7th grader taking Algebra ll/Geometry will likely take some form of Pre-Calculus in 8th grade. (We don’t know which yet; depends on an upcoming exams among other factors.)

But this sequence is not typical.

Are you the OP? Can you please confirm that your school is actually combining Algebra II and *Geometry*, not Trig? This is baffling to me and I’m 99% certain you are just making a mistake in what you type, and it’s very hard to take seriously. It is unheard of for a school to combine those two.

Algebra II/Geometry is the name of the course my 7th grader is in—last year’s course was Algebra I/Geometry. This is at BASIS DC, a public charter school.

I believe my 7th grader is taking the same course typically offered to 9th graders at SWW.

Ok, so what’s happening is that your school takes the 3-year progression of Alg I/Geometry/Alg II and compresses it into 2 years, which makes more sense as an acceleration method than squeezing all of Geometry and all of either Algebra into one year.

Regardless, that is not a typical math progression for either public or private, and does not represent a failing in any other school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^To PP, my 7th grader taking Algebra ll/Geometry will likely take some form of Pre-Calculus in 8th grade. (We don’t know which yet; depends on an upcoming exams among other factors.)

But this sequence is not typical.

Are you the OP? Can you please confirm that your school is actually combining Algebra II and *Geometry*, not Trig? This is baffling to me and I’m 99% certain you are just making a mistake in what you type, and it’s very hard to take seriously. It is unheard of for a school to combine those two.

Algebra II/Geometry is the name of the course my 7th grader is in—last year’s course was Algebra I/Geometry. This is at BASIS DC, a public charter school.

I believe my 7th grader is taking the same course typically offered to 9th graders at SWW.

I would just be careful with this. My Big3 kid has some of these Basis DC kids in his/her pre-calc class (Basis kids are in 9th, rest of the class is in 10th) and they do not do well. their foundation is super weak. my kid says they are solid B students which frustrates them to no end--they're used to doing well.

I have no idea who these former BASIS kids were who are now at a Big 3 -- they're a few years ahead of my 7th grader. In any case, my kid is not going to attend a Big 3. Moreover, my kid will soon be taking AP courses, which will give me plenty of basis to assess whether she's learned the fundamentals of math sufficiently, Algebra II included. (I think that will be a better litmus test of how well she's doing relative to her peers nationwide taking the same class than the experience of a few older kids from her school who "reportedly" are struggling at a new private school. But thank you for your concern!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The question was "what is normal?" So of course it turned in the math acceleration Olympics. SMDH.

True. But it’s hard for some parents to resist any opportunity to jump in and brag.