How to choose HS courses for 9th grader

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are HS courses chosen in 9th grade? Does the school determine most of them similar to MS, or is it mostly up to the student? Side info: FWIW we have a very high achieving 8th grader.

We all have high achieving kids

No one said you don't

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:9th grade parent here.

At our MS, each of the 8th grade teachers made a recommendation for what kids should take and parents made the final call. The challenge is that the teachers gave the recommendation directly to the kid so as a parent, it was a lot of Q&A to figure out what the situation was.

One important consideration-- the typical 'sequence' of courses varies somewhat across MCPS schools. For instance, at our school, high achieving science students take chem in year 1 and both bio and AP physics in year 2. The MS science teacher told as much to the kid-- I didn't really understand why but went along with it (and am glad that we did, because at the time I didn't know that kids could skip Honors bio and go straight to AP bio as a sophomore-- so this sequence opens up an option you wouldn't have if taking bio as freshman).

At our school, the really BIG question was Honors US History or AP US History. A LOT of kids who had signed up for AP and transferred back to Honors in the first 6 weeks because of the AP workload--so many wanted to transfer out that they had a very hard time finding Honors courses to put them into so kids were sort of racing to the counselor's office. (And a lot--I think about 25% of freshman class-- stayed in AP).

But different high schools have different sequences (many recommend AP US Govt in freshman year, which I understand to have a much lower time commitment). So while DCUM can help you sort through options once you know what they are, make sure you are hearing what the options are from the MS teachers/counselors.

AP teacher here: Pushing AP US History on 9th graders is not a good decision. A ton of reading and new types of writing. Can 9th graders pass? Sure, but they pass in much higher numbers and with higher scores in later grades. If you can push back on your school's recommended track, I recommend AP US Government (MCPS' NSL) or AP Human Geography as much better choices for 9th grade. (Not AP World). You can see the difference in scores by school...

To emphasize the point, here are the numbers illustrating what I said above:

Rockville HS chooses strong performers for APUSH in 9th grade (or did a couple of years ago; not sure if this continues). They have a good pass rate, but 47% of these kids end up with a 3 (passing, but unlikely to get college credit and not really impressive for admissions purposes). Overall average score is 3.3. At Whitman, which a PP said does APUSH in 10th grade, the overall average score is 4.3, and 54% get 5s. It could be due to a difference in teacher quality, but these scores are consistent with national score.

At Churchill, APUSH is 9th grade. 189 took the test (2016 data) . 34% got 5; 67% got 4 or 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:9th grade parent here.

At our MS, each of the 8th grade teachers made a recommendation for what kids should take and parents made the final call. The challenge is that the teachers gave the recommendation directly to the kid so as a parent, it was a lot of Q&A to figure out what the situation was.

One important consideration-- the typical 'sequence' of courses varies somewhat across MCPS schools. For instance, at our school, high achieving science students take chem in year 1 and both bio and AP physics in year 2. The MS science teacher told as much to the kid-- I didn't really understand why but went along with it (and am glad that we did, because at the time I didn't know that kids could skip Honors bio and go straight to AP bio as a sophomore-- so this sequence opens up an option you wouldn't have if taking bio as freshman).

At our school, the really BIG question was Honors US History or AP US History. A LOT of kids who had signed up for AP and transferred back to Honors in the first 6 weeks because of the AP workload--so many wanted to transfer out that they had a very hard time finding Honors courses to put them into so kids were sort of racing to the counselor's office. (And a lot--I think about 25% of freshman class-- stayed in AP).

But different high schools have different sequences (many recommend AP US Govt in freshman year, which I understand to have a much lower time commitment). So while DCUM can help you sort through options once you know what they are, make sure you are hearing what the options are from the MS teachers/counselors.

AP teacher here: Pushing AP US History on 9th graders is not a good decision. A ton of reading and new types of writing. Can 9th graders pass? Sure, but they pass in much higher numbers and with higher scores in later grades. If you can push back on your school's recommended track, I recommend AP US Government (MCPS' NSL) or AP Human Geography as much better choices for 9th grade. (Not AP World). You can see the difference in scores by school...

To emphasize the point, here are the numbers illustrating what I said above:

Rockville HS chooses strong performers for APUSH in 9th grade (or did a couple of years ago; not sure if this continues). They have a good pass rate, but 47% of these kids end up with a 3 (passing, but unlikely to get college credit and not really impressive for admissions purposes). Overall average score is 3.3. At Whitman, which a PP said does APUSH in 10th grade, the overall average score is 4.3, and 54% get 5s. It could be due to a difference in teacher quality, but these scores are consistent with national score.

At Churchill, APUSH is 9th grade. 189 took the test (2016 data) . 34% got 5; 67% got 4 or 5.