Reply to Algebra in 6th grade - new selection process?

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[quote=Anonymous]I think one of several reasons for offering more kids Algebra in 6th is to discourage the practice of kids taking Geometry the summer between 7th/8th, a generally undesirable practice for reasons that have been widely discussed on this forum but that may be appropriate in extremely niche cases.

True to form for the neverending arms race some parents want to engage in, on the webinar one of the parents asked if their student could now take Geometry the summer between 6th and 7th. When the answer was no, they asked if their student could take Algebra II the summer between 7th and 8th. Maybe this parent has some 0.0001% child prodigy who really desperately needs that level of acceleration and the parent thought that this public webinar was the right forum for handling their very specific and individual question regarding their exceptional of the exceptional child, but it seems more likely it's just part of the "do anything to get a perceived leg up on the competition" attitude that some parents take towards their child's education.

I share the concerns about the 6th grade Algebra teachers generally not being well experienced or adequately prepared for this, especially as the students will essentially be skipping two years of math (7th and 8th). On the other hand we spoke privately to our 5th grade teacher and she indicated that she thought our student was ready for it, and also said that she wasn't giving that same advice to everyone who asked her with an eligible student. So we're torn. Most likely we'll give it a shot, supplement at home with parental and maybe Beast Academy review of some of the 7th/8th grade pre-algebra concepts, and if it ends up a disaster or doesn't seem like our student fully mastered all the Algebra fundamentals we can expunge and repeat in 7th grade with an experienced MS teacher.

It seems there are two main advantages for a student who is ready for it, if the school can rise to the challenge of successfully delivering the content at a deep level to these 6th graders. The first is less boredom and more excitement about math/school (our child thought about it for a day or two when we explained the option/choice we have, and said they wanted to do it because they wanted more of a challenge with math than they had last year), and the second is that it provides greater flexibility to take other math courses in HS (MV Calc/LA/DE on the traditional theory side, and on the more practical/applied side Data Science, AP Stats, and other offerings that may come online in the coming years around AI/ML or who knows what else).[/quote]

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