Center School, 90% of AAP Class Opted into Algebra 1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you share which center school you're at? We are at Churchill and this is making me wonder what the % breakdown is there. How did you get that number at your school?

We are a 5th grade AAP family at Churchill too. I am sure some parents selected to do Algebra I next year. However, every parent I spoke directly (10+) says they are not doing Algebra I next year.

On another note, I saw a parent of a 6th grader this week at school and they said their child is repeating Algebra I next year in 7th because their child does not feel ready to go to the next math class. The kid is a good student.

We are AAP family at Churchill too. DS and almost all his friends except one are taking Algebra 1 next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to the internet, you are ready for Algebra 1 with 238 MAP and Pre-Calculus with 255 MAP.

So I don't see what is crazy about these kids taking Algebra 1 in 6th.

It’s not just about 6th grade A1H, it’s about the high school math sequence this sets them up for. That’s why it’s crazy to us and why we opted out for DC.

My 5th grade DC pass advanced the SOL and scored 253 on MAP. Per your google search, she is “ready,” and I’m sure she likely could handle the watered down 6th grade A1H curriculum, with extra credit built in to inflate the grade. However, we prefer the true honors curriculum, with extensions, taught at our middle school. We also don’t want her skipping 2 years of math that we’ll have to teach to catch her up. We want DC to have a strong foundation for higher level coursework in high school and beyond.

Further to this point, we don’t want DC on a high school sequence that is far more accelerated and difficult than necessary for any top tier school admissions. High school is hard enough juggling all the other APs, and she will still have advanced rigor with A1H in 7th. I know kids on the super advanced sequence, who qualified under the former stringent standards, and were truly were advanced and prepared to accelerate at that level. And yet, many of those kids are struggling now in high school, when grades matter. Under the new policy, anyone in 5th AAP can super accelerate w/o any guidelines for preparedness, and DC knows kids who struggled all year in math class enrolling next year. Those kids are going to have a very tough time in HS. Some students need this level of acceleration, most do not.

[Anonymous]

We took Algebra 1 Honors in 6th grade because the teacher is by far the best teacher we encountered in FCPS. We also have a child who graduated HS from FCPS.

There were no bonus points, not one and grading was pretty strict. Too strict I thought.

The teacher told us that she got the course materials from another MS teacher who taught the Algebra 1 honors class for several years. That seems to be the norm.

And we had fantastic experience with Algebra 1 in 6th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am glad someone started this thread. I am at one of the high performing schools, and nearly everyone from AAP is doing A1H in 6th. There are some very active posters on similar threads trying to convince people not to accelerate and making it seem like lots are opting out. I just have not seen that to be the case. I assume the detractors are trying to assuage their guilt about not accelerating and convince othered to join them. They don’t want other kids to surpass their own.

Algebra in 6th grade without test score and teacher recommendation gatekeeping means most of the students will not develop a proper math foundation for high order math (not all kids, but most) and that most of those kids will run out of math classes by junior or senior year of high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am glad someone started this thread. I am at one of the high performing schools, and nearly everyone from AAP is doing A1H in 6th. There are some very active posters on similar threads trying to convince people not to accelerate and making it seem like lots are opting out. I just have not seen that to be the case. I assume the detractors are trying to assuage their guilt about not accelerating and convince othered to join them. They don’t want other kids to surpass their own.

There are a lot of parents opting out at haycock with high performing math-inclined kids, there are also a lot opting in. I’m not worried about other kids “surpassing” my child by opting out, and I feel very comfortable with the accelerated HS sequence that 7th grade A1H sets them up for. I don’t care to convince anyone else. I think the point is to feel confident doing whatever you think is best for your child bc they won’t be alone either way.

Do you have older kids or a math background yourself?

It seems that people with older kids who have already gone through the math sequence into high school, and those with a math or stem background, overwhelmingly see this open enrollment in algebra for 6th graders as a terrible idea, where parents without older kids or a math background are jumping on it so their kid isn't "left out" without considering long term curriculum issues and math foundation development.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:According to the internet, you are ready for Algebra 1 with 238 MAP and Pre-Calculus with 255 MAP.

So I don't see what is crazy about these kids taking Algebra 1 in 6th.

It’s not just about 6th grade A1H, it’s about the high school math sequence this sets them up for. That’s why it’s crazy to us and why we opted out for DC.

My 5th grade DC pass advanced the SOL and scored 253 on MAP. Per your google search, she is “ready,” and I’m sure she likely could handle the watered down 6th grade A1H curriculum, with extra credit built in to inflate the grade. However, we prefer the true honors curriculum, with extensions, taught at our middle school. We also don’t want her skipping 2 years of math that we’ll have to teach to catch her up. We want DC to have a strong foundation for higher level coursework in high school and beyond.

Further to this point, we don’t want DC on a high school sequence that is far more accelerated and difficult than necessary for any top tier school admissions. High school is hard enough juggling all the other APs, and she will still have advanced rigor with A1H in 7th. I know kids on the super advanced sequence, who qualified under the former stringent standards, and were truly were advanced and prepared to accelerate at that level. And yet, many of those kids are struggling now in high school, when grades matter. Under the new policy, anyone in 5th AAP can super accelerate w/o any guidelines for preparedness, and DC knows kids who struggled all year in math class enrolling next year. Those kids are going to have a very tough time in HS. Some students need this level of acceleration, most do not.

Everything you wrote is spot on.

[Anonymous]

This would be a good question to ask your school administrators instead of randos on the internet, OP.

[Anonymous]

One big reason that I chose not to opt my child in is because the math curriculum has not been chosen for next year yet. It's a big experiment to put 6th graders with brand new algebra teachers and potentially a brand new curriculum. I think it's a bad idea, personally.

[Anonymous]

I don't think Algebra 1 is as complex as it is being made out to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We took Algebra 1 Honors in 6th grade because the teacher is by far the best teacher we encountered in FCPS. We also have a child who graduated HS from FCPS.

There were no bonus points, not one and grading was pretty strict. Too strict I thought.

The teacher told us that she got the course materials from another MS teacher who taught the Algebra 1 honors class for several years. That seems to be the norm.

And we had fantastic experience with Algebra 1 in 6th grade.

Agreed. I taught A1H in the middle school for years before moving up to high school (and now teach A2-Calc). What my 6th grade algebra child did this year was above and beyond anything I ever pushed to my middle school honors students--much of it was the kind of extensions my A2H kids see. I don't see how you can make any general statements when every teacher is making up their own materials or sourcing them independently. FCPS does not provide anything to the teachers, so every school is going to look different.

[Anonymous]

Just do it little Sheep-ple. They will get the best foundation in Algebra this way. They can accelerate like never before. It will be easy-peasy. It will be watered to their extra credit of understanding.

[Anonymous]

I heard parents discussing it this weekend. One Mom was saying how it was great for her kid even though the kid melted down when doing all the homework. The Dad was commenting that he thought the homework was going to be too much but maybe the kid would do it on their own.

Sounds like it was working well and the kids were totally ready for a HS level course in 6th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So dumb. It is not that Algebra 1 in 6th grade will be hard. It is that Calculus in 10th grade will be hard. Or Algebra 2 in 8th. Or Precalc in 9th.

Algebra II is a beast. Ugh. These poor kids.

+1

I took honors Algebra II at age 13/14 after years of easily doing well in math and doing very well in honors Algebra I the year prior. I wasn't ready for it. The concepts were somehow easy to me going back to them two years later after a year of Geometry. I think I just wasn't ready. Algebra II is a big jump, Algebra I is pretty straightforward though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So dumb. It is not that Algebra 1 in 6th grade will be hard. It is that Calculus in 10th grade will be hard. Or Algebra 2 in 8th. Or Precalc in 9th.

Algebra II is a beast. Ugh. These poor kids.

+1

I took honors Algebra II at age 13/14 after years of easily doing well in math and doing very well in honors Algebra I the year prior. I wasn't ready for it. The concepts were somehow easy to me going back to them two years later after a year of Geometry. I think I just wasn't ready. Algebra II is a big jump, Algebra I is pretty straightforward though.

Have you looked at the current algebra 2 standards? They aren't nearly what they were 20-30 years ago. No matrices, no conic sections, nothing wildly beyond algebra 1. It's transformations of parent functions and solving quadratics/radical/rational functions. That's it. It is also extremely straight forward.

My current algebra 2 students' grades almost universally mirror their algebra 1 grades. A few move up/down a letter, but for the most part if they got As in algebra 1 honors they end up with As in algebra 2 honors as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So dumb. It is not that Algebra 1 in 6th grade will be hard. It is that Calculus in 10th grade will be hard. Or Algebra 2 in 8th. Or Precalc in 9th.

Algebra II is a beast. Ugh. These poor kids.

+1

I took honors Algebra II at age 13/14 after years of easily doing well in math and doing very well in honors Algebra I the year prior. I wasn't ready for it. The concepts were somehow easy to me going back to them two years later after a year of Geometry. I think I just wasn't ready. Algebra II is a big jump, Algebra I is pretty straightforward though.

Have you looked at the current algebra 2 standards? They aren't nearly what they were 20-30 years ago. No matrices, no conic sections, nothing wildly beyond algebra 1. It's transformations of parent functions and solving quadratics/radical/rational functions. That's it. It is also extremely straight forward.

My current algebra 2 students' grades almost universally mirror their algebra 1 grades. A few move up/down a letter, but for the most part if they got As in algebra 1 honors they end up with As in algebra 2 honors as well.[/

Are you teaching 8th graders? Or HS?

2025-2026 is the first year of the pilot. These kids are not going to be in Algebra 2 until 2027-2028.

It is not just about 6th grade. It is about the next 6 years of math.