Calculus canceled?

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:What high school in the area would cancel calculus? I can’t think of a single one.


Get out of your bubble. There are HSs where pre-calc has always been the "top level of math". Smaller districts, many rural districts, etc


I'd search for a CC course if possible for the next level math. or online---yes it's not social but I'd want my kid to continue advancing their math senior year of HS

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Dual Enroll in Calc 1 at the closest community college. If she doesn't like online, choose a class that meets in the evenings.

However, realize this is mainly to list as a credential on college apps. If she ends up in a STEM major and needs to complete Calc 1/2/3, it's not always advisable to jump into Calc 2 at a different college. Sometimes it's better to do the entire series at one place (and IMO with the same professor).

Same advice for taking AP Calc - not necessarily jumping right into Calc 2 in college.

My son received a 5 on the AP Music Theory test. At the Music Major orientation his freshman year, they recommended not skipping to Music Theory 2, but to take the entire series from the university (retake Music Theory 1).


FOr MT that certainly makes sense. Most music schools have a method for teaching MT, and it may not be exactly the same as AP MT. So you might miss out on key material if it's not on AP test and they teach it in MT1.

Calc OTOH is pretty standard. I however don't recommend skipping Calc 1 or 2 unless you get a 5 on the AP test. There might be too many gaps otherwise
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What high school in the area would cancel calculus? I can’t think of a single one.


Get out of your bubble. There are HSs where pre-calc has always been the "top level of math". Smaller districts, many rural districts, etc


I'd search for a CC course if possible for the next level math. or online---yes it's not social but I'd want my kid to continue advancing their math senior year of HS



My high school was like that because there weren't enough kids who reached that level, but the counselors clearly communicated that fir those who needed call, dual enrollment was an avenue to get it.

Several kids did. Weird that OP's kids school doesn't have some pathway.
Anonymous
Can your student take it summer session at a community college so she can focus on it and have a live teacher?

Then do AP Stats somehow. I think stats would be easier online than calculus.
Anonymous
Duel-enrollment for math and FL
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Can your student take it summer session at a community college so she can focus on it and have a live teacher?

Then do AP Stats somehow. I think stats would be easier online than calculus.


I wouldn't do it in a compressed summer course.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What high school in the area would cancel calculus? I can’t think of a single one.


This is not in the DMV, not sure why OP is posting here.


I am not the OP but this doesn’t seem that hard to imagine from my perspective. There are some very small private schools, we live across the street from one, where they may have 30 kids or less in a grade even through high school.

There is no private school in the DMV, no matter how tiny, that does not offer calculus to its students.


Ours dropped it one year during a revamp of the math sequence. It’s unusual but it’s happened.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Dual Enroll in Calc 1 at the closest community college. If she doesn't like online, choose a class that meets in the evenings.

However, realize this is mainly to list as a credential on college apps. If she ends up in a STEM major and needs to complete Calc 1/2/3, it's not always advisable to jump into Calc 2 at a different college. Sometimes it's better to do the entire series at one place (and IMO with the same professor).

Same advice for taking AP Calc - not necessarily jumping right into Calc 2 in college.

My son received a 5 on the AP Music Theory test. At the Music Major orientation his freshman year, they recommended not skipping to Music Theory 2, but to take the entire series from the university (retake Music Theory 1).


FOr MT that certainly makes sense. Most music schools have a method for teaching MT, and it may not be exactly the same as AP MT. So you might miss out on key material if it's not on AP test and they teach it in MT1.

Calc OTOH is pretty standard. I however don't recommend skipping Calc 1 or 2 unless you get a 5 on the AP test. There might be too many gaps otherwise


I beg to differ with you on Calc. My experience: Applied Math Major, 4 years experience tutoring in the University Math Lab. (I also tripled majored in Computer Science and Statistics, if that makes a difference).

Calc was not standard at all, at least ~30 years ago. Every math professor wrote their own textbooks, ok fine, but the approach for each was very different.

For a few professors, when I was tutoring their students, I had to study all their explanations in advance, so I could reinterpret it back to my tutees. Every professor was astonishingly different.

For 1 professor my tutees had, I remember thinking my god, if a year ago I had taken him for Calc 1, I would have switched to an Education major (no offense to them) and never completed a math degree. Thank goodness, I lucked into an excellent professor for Calc 1/2/3 and DiffEQ. But this guy's approach to Calc 1/2/3 was unnecessarily confusing.

I later told my kids to check RateMyProfessor.com before selecting a class, to avoid horrible professors like this guy.
Anonymous
You'll be competing with tens of thousands of students who took Calculus as freshman in high school...

Look for a local college
Anonymous
If you are in CA go dual or concurrent enrollment. If your school doesn’t want to sign the form just take it to the district to sign. It doesn’t matter whether it goes on her high school transcript or not. You submit all transcripts. DC submitted HS, CC concurrent enrollment and UCLA summer courses. If you are new to CA I guarantee you that the Asian STEM kids will have maxed out the math in CC before applying. There’s a weird dichotomy with local high schools trying to reduce AP courses and higher math, push high stats kids into bozo electives or vocational courses and pretend all the high stats kids aren’t actually getting their education elsewhere. It sucks for the smart kids that aren’t aware of this and listen to their local guidance counselor.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What high school in the area would cancel calculus? I can’t think of a single one.


Get out of your bubble. There are HSs where pre-calc has always been the "top level of math". Smaller districts, many rural districts, etc


I'd search for a CC course if possible for the next level math. or online---yes it's not social but I'd want my kid to continue advancing their math senior year of HS



Just makes me so mad. Every high school kid in the US should have access to calculus. Math is so foundational to the modern world. To say “oh he’s from rural America and so he couldn’t have done calc if he wanted to” is just infuriating
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What high school in the area would cancel calculus? I can’t think of a single one.


Get out of your bubble. There are HSs where pre-calc has always been the "top level of math". Smaller districts, many rural districts, etc


I'd search for a CC course if possible for the next level math. or online---yes it's not social but I'd want my kid to continue advancing their math senior year of HS



Just makes me so mad. Every high school kid in the US should have access to calculus. Math is so foundational to the modern world. To say “oh he’s from rural America and so he couldn’t have done calc if he wanted to” is just infuriating
Every kid of any age anywhere in the world has access to calculus via Khan academy, YouTube, Paul's online math notes, openstax, etc
Anonymous
*anywhere in the world with internet access
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What high school in the area would cancel calculus? I can’t think of a single one.


Get out of your bubble. There are HSs where pre-calc has always been the "top level of math". Smaller districts, many rural districts, etc


I'd search for a CC course if possible for the next level math. or online---yes it's not social but I'd want my kid to continue advancing their math senior year of HS



Just makes me so mad. Every high school kid in the US should have access to calculus. Math is so foundational to the modern world. To say “oh he’s from rural America and so he couldn’t have done calc if he wanted to” is just infuriating
Every kid of any age anywhere in the world has access to calculus via Khan academy, YouTube, Paul's online math notes, openstax, etc


When that kid applies to college, though, self-study on the internet doesn’t count for anything.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:DD’s high school has just announced that they may cancel calculus for next year, leaving her with no math course (she has taken them all). She was already without a language course (again because she has taken them all). She’s a pretty smart kid, 4.0/4.5/750/740, but she is a very social learner. Even if we could figure out how to make it happen, she does not want to transfer to a different school for senior year, and she doesn’t want to take a bunch of classes online. Any ideas? What would you do?


This happened to me my senior year (albeit I million years ago) so I worked with the school to excuse me early a few days a week and I went to the university in my town and took the class there.
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