If they accelerated math, did you regret it later?
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Anonymous
Completing Intensified Algebra 1 in 7th grade and Intensified Geometry in 8th is pretty straightforward, requiring minimal practice as the school quizzes generally lack depth. However, when it comes to Algebra II/Trig in 9th grade, the demand for practice exceeds the school-assigned homework. Numerous free online resources and amazon workbooks on essential Algebra II and Trigonometry concepts exist, offering opportunities to develop the fluency essential for subsequent precalculus. Most parents who know that Math requires practice even for "gifted" students fully employ these resources and even outside enrichment programs, and support their students dedicating time for this practice at home. The Math God insists on being served through dedicated practice hours. The more a student practices, the more appeased the Math God becomes. Opting not to practice is not a viable choice, as the consequences become evident in the Trig or Precalc phase. When your child was "pulled into the higher math classes in 6th grade because of a perfect SOL score", there were numerous other students who also had perfect SOL score but were dedicating significant practice hours after school to learn the same higher math content but at an indepth level. These students continued their practice habit all through 7th, 8th, and into high school. This consistent effort is what allowed their smooth progression to Calc BC and beyond to Multivariable & Linear. Misguided parental beliefs, such as assuming a child is "inherently talented" or "passionate" enough to not require dedicated practice hours, have led to significant stress and frustration for many families when they entered high school. Practice is required for mastery of math, or else the price in the form of misery shall be paid. |
Anonymous
That's all incorrect. In FCPS, not many kids are accelerated to Algebra in 5th or 6th. Maybe 2 kids per grade level are skipped ahead 2+ years in math, and another 35 or so take Algebra in 6th. It doesn't cost the school anything, and there's no issue with it being financially feasible. The only issues are whether any kids meet the benchmarks set by the county, and whether the principal is willing to allow kids to skip ahead. The kids who skip ahead in math have to either take the FCPS online Algebra class or provide their own transportation to and from the middle school. They aren't receiving the Algebra instruction at their ES. It also is something that can be handled on a case by case basis when the principal and classroom teacher feel that a kid is an extreme outlier. My kid was skipped ahead in math at a Title I school, FWIW. One of the centers with 6-10 of those 35 kids in Algebra in 6th grade is a mid SES school and not a wealthy school. |
Anonymous
Discrete math, differential equations, linear math, AP stats, AP computer science or dual enrollment at local college for math classes |
Anonymous
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Middle school is a great time for this acceleration, since the rest of their classes are fairly easy with low/no homework. Once in high school, all classes get harder and grades are more important.
My son is very good at math and enjoys it. We aren’t in FCPS and they were able to accelerate a lot and quickly in middle school math. Even though he already knew Alg I before 7th he didn’t have an official course on record. So he did Alg I-precal in middle school. Alg I/II and geometry were pretty straight forward. Precalc in 8th was more rocky, but he did fine. We made the decision to have him take honors precalc in 9th (instead of calculus) bc I felt the acceleration in middle school was too fast and not in depth enough. This was the right choice. |
Anonymous
Our school won't allow that sort of thing even if the kid is able. You can only take Algebra in 6th if you had prealgebra in ES., and you can only register for classes in sequence. The best you could do is Algebra 2 in 8th. Maybe if you took summer school you could get to precalc but not sure that rushing through the material is in anyone's best interests. |
Anonymous
It's very commendable that this one non-wealthy school offers these opportunities to kids but it's too bad it isn't available to all chidlren. |
Anonymous
Most of the kids who are being denied this opportunity are at wealthy schools. There is a much higher concentration of kids who would meet the county benchmarks in the higher SES schools. After that, the determining factor is whether your principal wants to allow it or not. There honestly isn't a great reason for principals to be unwilling to offer acceleration. My guess is that the principals of higher SES schools that don't allow acceleration simply don't want to deal with parents trying to push their kids in who don't qualify. It's easier for them not to allow anyone to accelerate than it is to deal with a bunch of overbearing parents. |
Anonymous
This our middle school’s “accelerated” option for the especially advanced kids that was off site. The only other option was to do “advanced” math track at our middle school which pretty much is the Alg I in 8th track (so…not very advanced at all). It worked fine for my child since he was very advanced and got some great exposure. He was so far ahead that I felt ok pumping the breaks a little when he went to high school |
Anonymous
This is anecdotal evidence that's comparable to the story of the chain smoker who turned 100 when it comes to frequency. Also, to be clear: the argument of the brain development folks is that no one should be accelerated because they are all too young and their brains haven't matured, rather than making individual distinctions between kids who have developed faster and the ADHD kid you're mentioning. In their world, everyone must be held back because if they have not reached a certain age where their brains "develops" or whatever. It's not a call for accommodating neurodiversity, it's a call to lump all children together. |
Anonymous
The problem is that many DCUM posters believe their DC is that genius kid that is 4+ SD higher than the mean and deserves special treatment. But it's more likely that their DC is in the lumpy middle of the distribution (maybe 0.5-1.5 SDs above the mean) and is only testing high because of prep. And many kids in this lump middle may actually be worse off by tailoring their education as if they were 4+SDs higher. |
Anonymous
How did you schedule all those courses in middle school? |
Anonymous
The schools administer tests every year. 2SD is 98%ile. 3SD is 99.9%ile. Parents who are curious can easily know where their kids are on the curve . |
Anonymous
He didn't love math early, but (or perhaps because) he was brilliant. He was so brilliant that workbooks were boring. He wasn't a late bloomer academically. He was too smart for school. |
Anonymous
FCPS kids tend to score high on these standardized tests. Is it because FCPS kids are (on average) higher on the curve than other regions' kids? I would argue that FCPS kids are more "prepped" than other regions' kids, so their test scores are artificially high. Which leads to parents assuming that their 148 CoGAT kid (who prepped for 2 years prior) is some super genius. My data: FCPS kids are not scoring higher than other regions on non-standardized tests that are difficult even for the brightest kids (e.g. AMC tests). |
Anonymous
CogAT has a very low ceiling, and the difference between a 148 and a 132 in a section is around 2 correct answers. It isn't possible to decide that your kid is 99.9th percentile in intelligence based on CogAT, since prepping matters a lot, the test isn't comprehensive enough, and the ceiling is too low. Some parents do know that their kids are very high on the curve based on other data. Unfortunately, FCPS throws up a lot of roadblocks even if your kid is a +3SD or +4SD type. My data: My kid first qualified for AIME in 6th grade and has made the top 1% honor roll on the AMC 10 in 7th and 8th. He's well positioned to make JMO this year in 8th. In ES, my kid's principal and math resource teacher wanted to accelerate him more than 1 year in math based on all of their data and interactions. Gatehouse said no. If you meet the needs of the +3SD and +4SD types, then a decent number of less talented kids with pushy parents will squeeze into whatever program accommodates the highly gifted. If you want to prevent these kids from overaccelerating to their own detriment, it's likely that the highly gifted kids will also be prevented from accelerating. You can't have it both ways. I'd prefer to see the schools accommodate the highly gifted and let the other kids who squeeze into the program take responsibility for their own possibly bad choices. FCPS would prefer saving them from themselves to the detriment of the handful of highly gifted. |