Double up on Math at JR?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Seriously. Some of you people sound insane. AP calculus is not necessary for high school! Chill out already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Seriously. Some of you people sound insane. AP calculus is not necessary for high school! Chill out already.

What are you talking about? Calculus is a bog standard senior year high school class for college-bound students, and has been for generations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I hear what you are saying but don’t non ap precalc classes also give unit tests? And hand them back to students? So they know how they are progressing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I hear what you are saying but don’t non ap precalc classes also give unit tests? And hand them back to students? So they know how they are progressing.

Do you know they are progressing? Who said so? DCPS? The average DCPS SAT math score is 449. Global is 521. FCPS is 592. I’m happy to have an external standard.

(And to be clear I do trust individual math teachers in DCPS. But they all seem to be happy to have access to the College Board resources, so that also makes me support the decision to use it.)

[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?

Not when those school districts are not offering AP precalc becuase what they offer in honors precalc is more rigorous.

[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?

Not when those school districts are not offering AP precalc becuase what they offer in honors precalc is more rigorous.

Yes, any decent school district is not offering AP pre calc because it significantly waters down their current honors pre-calc class.

[Anonymous]

AP pre calc matches what Fairfax county (FCPS) taught in their regular pre.calc class. Their traditional honors pre calc class covered twice as much material (4 additional units),


They are now calling things AP precalc 3 and AP precalc 4.

As usual DCPS is dumbing everything down to one basement level.

[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.

Where was this announced?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Is the problem here really that a curriculum for precalculus, a topic that is well over 100 years old, is too expensive for a school district to obtain?

This is what's wrong with USA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I hear what you are saying but don’t non ap precalc classes also give unit tests? And hand them back to students? So they know how they are progressing.

Do you know they are progressing? Who said so? DCPS? The average DCPS SAT math score is 449. Global is 521. FCPS is 592. I’m happy to have an external standard.

(And to be clear I do trust individual math teachers in DCPS. But they all seem to be happy to have access to the College Board resources, so that also makes me support the decision to use it.)

Guess who is scoring below 449 or even 592?
Not the fall seniors who just finished precalc and higher in junior year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Is the problem here really that a curriculum for precalculus, a topic that is well over 100 years old, is too expensive for a school district to obtain?

This is what's wrong with USA

My HS in the 90s never offered a class called Precalc. The normal progression was for kid to take algebra II and trig at the same time junior year and then AP calc senior year. I don’t consider myself a math whiz but did fine on the AP Calc BC test (a 4…again, I never pursued higher math).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Is the problem here really that a curriculum for precalculus, a topic that is well over 100 years old, is too expensive for a school district to obtain?

This is what's wrong with USA

My HS in the 90s never offered a class called Precalc. The normal progression was for kid to take algebra II and trig at the same time junior year and then AP calc senior year. I don’t consider myself a math whiz but did fine on the AP Calc BC test (a 4…again, I never pursued higher math).

Yeah sometimes I wonder if all these private schools and rich school systems teaching so much math in precalc are just teaching less and less math in Algebra II.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Is the problem here really that a curriculum for precalculus, a topic that is well over 100 years old, is too expensive for a school district to obtain?

This is what's wrong with USA

My HS in the 90s never offered a class called Precalc. The normal progression was for kid to take algebra II and trig at the same time junior year and then AP calc senior year. I don’t consider myself a math whiz but did fine on the AP Calc BC test (a 4…again, I never pursued higher math).

Yeah sometimes I wonder if all these private schools and rich school systems teaching so much math in precalc are just teaching less and less math in Algebra II.

I took precalc and then got a 5 in Calc BC, so maybe precalculus is good for something...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Seriously. Some of you people sound insane. AP calculus is not necessary for high school! Chill out already.

What are you talking about? Calculus is a bog standard senior year high school class for college-bound students, and has been for generations.

Absolutely not true. You are delusional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Seriously. Some of you people sound insane. AP calculus is not necessary for high school! Chill out already.

What are you talking about? Calculus is a bog standard senior year high school class for college-bound students, and has been for generations.

Absolutely not true. You are delusional.

np: I agree Calculus is pretty standard for kids applying to competitive colleges, particularly if they have any interest in science.

What am I doing to my kid? Well, my kid is smart and wants to go to a top college, so I am helping set them up to achieve their goals. Part of parenting, I think.