Double up on Math at JR?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just a heads up DCPS will only offer AP Precalc next year. No honors course or non AP precalc course. They say if a kid is taking precalc they must be on an advanced math track and should take the AP version. DCPS has this amazing way of always focusing on the wrong things.

Why would anyone want to take non-AP precalc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Because I don’t want them to have to take math during the summer. They just barely made the cut off for accelerated math at Deal. If they're offered summer math to jump ahead, I’d rather they go to camp over the summer than do math.

They don't have to take math in the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a heads up DCPS will only offer AP Precalc next year. No honors course or non AP precalc course. They say if a kid is taking precalc they must be on an advanced math track and should take the AP version. DCPS has this amazing way of always focusing on the wrong things.

Why would anyone want to take non-AP precalc?

I was thinking more like why would anyone want to take AP pre Calc? Pre Calc isn’t a college course. It’s like taking AP Algebra II. It doesn’t make sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a heads up DCPS will only offer AP Precalc next year. No honors course or non AP precalc course. They say if a kid is taking precalc they must be on an advanced math track and should take the AP version. DCPS has this amazing way of always focusing on the wrong things.

Why would anyone want to take non-AP precalc?

I was thinking more like why would anyone want to take AP pre Calc? Pre Calc isn’t a college course. It’s like taking AP Algebra II. It doesn’t make sense.

With AP precalc, you know what the curriculum is. Kids in DCPS studying AP Precalc will cover the same topics as kids in FCPS and MCPS and California. And you can confirm that with the AP exam. With “DCPS precalc,” who knows what you’re getting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a heads up DCPS will only offer AP Precalc next year. No honors course or non AP precalc course. They say if a kid is taking precalc they must be on an advanced math track and should take the AP version. DCPS has this amazing way of always focusing on the wrong things.

Why would anyone want to take non-AP precalc?

I was thinking more like why would anyone want to take AP pre Calc? Pre Calc isn’t a college course. It’s like taking AP Algebra II. It doesn’t make sense.

With AP precalc, you know what the curriculum is. Kids in DCPS studying AP Precalc will cover the same topics as kids in FCPS and MCPS and California. And you can confirm that with the AP exam. With “DCPS precalc,” who knows what you’re getting?

Lots of DCPS AP classes don’t cover the curriculum. Just look at AP scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a heads up DCPS will only offer AP Precalc next year. No honors course or non AP precalc course. They say if a kid is taking precalc they must be on an advanced math track and should take the AP version. DCPS has this amazing way of always focusing on the wrong things.

Why would anyone want to take non-AP precalc?

I was thinking more like why would anyone want to take AP pre Calc? Pre Calc isn’t a college course. It’s like taking AP Algebra II. It doesn’t make sense.

With AP precalc, you know what the curriculum is. Kids in DCPS studying AP Precalc will cover the same topics as kids in FCPS and MCPS and California. And you can confirm that with the AP exam. With “DCPS precalc,” who knows what you’re getting?

Lots of DCPS AP classes don’t cover the curriculum. Just look at AP scores.

That was my point: we can know if our kids are successfully learning the AP curriculum because we see their AP scores. With the non-AP precalc you favor, there’s no way to know if anyone is learning anything.

[Anonymous]

AP pre-calc is a fraction of the material of a current honors ore-calc class in any major district and definitely private school. It's a super dumbed down class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AP pre-calc is a fraction of the material of a current honors ore-calc class in any major district and definitely private school. It's a super dumbed down class.

This comment makes no sense to me. Are you trying to say that private school kids would fail the AP Precalc exam because they learn too much math?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AP pre-calc is a fraction of the material of a current honors ore-calc class in any major district and definitely private school. It's a super dumbed down class.

You keep posting this yet my kids teacher that teaches both AP Precalc and AP Calc, really likes the AP Precalc curriculum. I don’t exactly know why, but certainly it’s not because the kids are learning less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a heads up DCPS will only offer AP Precalc next year. No honors course or non AP precalc course. They say if a kid is taking precalc they must be on an advanced math track and should take the AP version. DCPS has this amazing way of always focusing on the wrong things.

Why would anyone want to take non-AP precalc?

I was thinking more like why would anyone want to take AP pre Calc? Pre Calc isn’t a college course. It’s like taking AP Algebra II. It doesn’t make sense.

With AP precalc, you know what the curriculum is. Kids in DCPS studying AP Precalc will cover the same topics as kids in FCPS and MCPS and California. And you can confirm that with the AP exam. With “DCPS precalc,” who knows what you’re getting?

Lots of DCPS AP classes don’t cover the curriculum. Just look at AP scores.

JR AP pass rate averages like 58% which is above tha national average.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP pre-calc is a fraction of the material of a current honors ore-calc class in any major district and definitely private school. It's a super dumbed down class.

You keep posting this yet my kids teacher that teaches both AP Precalc and AP Calc, really likes the AP Precalc curriculum. I don’t exactly know why, but certainly it’s not because the kids are learning less.

I think what’s going on is that private schools are telling their parents that they teach beyond the exam, without telling them that the AP curriculum itself also goes beyond the exam.

Only Units 1-3 of 4 are on the exam, which is a little counterintuitive but makes sense if, as the College Board itself says, the whole point is not college credit but to provide curriculum support to school systems like DCPS that don’t have the resources of MCPS or Sidwell. At a school like JR where there’s a sizable cohort of students going on to Calc BC and school goes on for more than a month after the AP exams, teachers are very likely to take advantage of that optional fourth unit.

[Anonymous]

And people wonder why the suicidal ideation rate is so high in this area. Be honest with yourself about what you're doing to your kids and let. them. be. Plenty of time for higher level math in college. Chill the F out for the sake of your children's mental health.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a heads up DCPS will only offer AP Precalc next year. No honors course or non AP precalc course. They say if a kid is taking precalc they must be on an advanced math track and should take the AP version. DCPS has this amazing way of always focusing on the wrong things.

Why would anyone want to take non-AP precalc?

I was thinking more like why would anyone want to take AP pre Calc? Pre Calc isn’t a college course. It’s like taking AP Algebra II. It doesn’t make sense.

With AP precalc, you know what the curriculum is. Kids in DCPS studying AP Precalc will cover the same topics as kids in FCPS and MCPS and California. And you can confirm that with the AP exam. With “DCPS precalc,” who knows what you’re getting?

Lots of DCPS AP classes don’t cover the curriculum. Just look at AP scores.

That was my point: we can know if our kids are successfully learning the AP curriculum because we see their AP scores. With the non-AP precalc you favor, there’s no way to know if anyone is learning anything.

So in July your kid gets a bad ap score and you realize they didn’t learn anything and what, get a tutor lined up for next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone successfully had their kid double up on algebra 2 and geometry in 10th grade at JR? In terms of college admissions, is it better to top out at pre-calc in high school with As, or push further to AP calc with a B?

Ugh, I did this in high school a generation ago and it was no joy. But if it's the only way you can get to a calculus AP your senior year, at least it's an option.

ugh. i doubled up on trig and pre-calc freshman year so i could do differential equations senior year. I'm kind of staggered that we now expect kids to top-out at pre-calc?! wow.

I got out of the advanced math track after 9th grade expressly to avoid calc in HS and went to a top 25 school (and never took calc). I’m kind of staggered you don’t realize that there are lots of different people in the world with lots of different experiences.

it's not that i don't think that there are lots of different experiences. mostly i was trying to make the point that there was a standard path for me to get to calc III in public school without any doubling up at all, but it appears that the math curriculum in dcps is structured to make it hard to even get to calculus without doubling up somewhere.

i have no idea if my kiddo will find math as engrossing as i did-- probably not, and if they do i guess we'll evaluate our options when we get there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just a heads up DCPS will only offer AP Precalc next year. No honors course or non AP precalc course. They say if a kid is taking precalc they must be on an advanced math track and should take the AP version. DCPS has this amazing way of always focusing on the wrong things.

Why would anyone want to take non-AP precalc?

I was thinking more like why would anyone want to take AP pre Calc? Pre Calc isn’t a college course. It’s like taking AP Algebra II. It doesn’t make sense.

With AP precalc, you know what the curriculum is. Kids in DCPS studying AP Precalc will cover the same topics as kids in FCPS and MCPS and California. And you can confirm that with the AP exam. With “DCPS precalc,” who knows what you’re getting?

Lots of DCPS AP classes don’t cover the curriculum. Just look at AP scores.

That was my point: we can know if our kids are successfully learning the AP curriculum because we see their AP scores. With the non-AP precalc you favor, there’s no way to know if anyone is learning anything.

So in July your kid gets a bad ap score and you realize they didn’t learn anything and what, get a tutor lined up for next year?

Actually, with AP courses, teachers can give unit tests on the College Board’s AP Classroom website. So the kids get real-time feedback on how they are performing against the College Board standard. One of my kid’s classes did one just this week, so if a tutor was advisable, I would be able to see that already.