Reply to Seventh grade algebra at Deal

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is sooooo frustrating as a parent who just put one through Deal but is starting Deal with another!  Both are very strong in math.  And this isn't relevant to the discussion but in my experience the problem is not that Deal does too much acceleration.  [b]If anything the opposite is true and there are some forces that are anti-acceleration even for kids who would benefit from it. [/b] So if a kid has been recommended for acceleration, odds are that acceleration is appropriate for that kid.

I think that this problem is arising for a few reasons:
- Because of its status as an IB school, Deal requires 3 years of a foreign language.  Foreign languages tend to be important to UMC/Ward 3 parents.
- But 3 years of a foreign language isn't a DCPS requirement, so Deal has some discretion in excusing students from the foreign language "requirement."  I believe they have done this for transfers or for kids who need to take some extra remedial classes for support.
- Art/Music/PE are required by DCPS, even though most UMC parents, if forced to choose between a language and Art/Music/PE, would choose the language.
- For some reason Deal has long had the policy that while it is ok to skip Math 6, Math 7 and Math 8 cannot be skipped.  So in order to get on a path where you can take Geometry or Alg II in 8th, you need do some summer school, double block, or both.
- There isn't enough time in the day to double block unless you skip another class.   Most parents would prefer that this be Art/Music/PE, but apparently now DCPS is not allowing that, so the only option is to skip the language.  
- This puts parents in a bind-- both math and language are important, so which do they pick?
- I would urge Deal to consider allowing kids to skip Math 7/8, so they could take a language instead of one of those classes.  I'll observe that my older child's Math 8 teacher was completely checked out.  My child had 100% the entire year but did not learn one thing.  And also earned a high A in Alg. 1.  So obviously Math 8 was not essential, and it was rather annoying that Deal denied our request for our child to skip Math 8, only to have an absent teacher for that class anyhow.
- And Deal/DCPS does not allow "transfer credits" from outside math programs like AOPS, so that's not a solution either.

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Disagree completely.  Deal math is super weak.  The last thing they need is to further accelerate kids. 
I have 3 kids who completed Deal math.  The oldest two went on to top privates (Sidwell, STA).  The two oldest got through Algebra 2 at Deal with high As in every course.  The private kids (and the majority of their friends) floundered in private school math after Deal (most were placement tested back in Algebra 1 in 9th).  Their math foundation was terrible. 
I'm sure people will come on here and say that their kid learned all sorts of math at Deal but it was not the case with my kids.  We spend a lot of time and money (in tutors) in 9th grade catching them up to a reasonably competent level.  We elected not to accelerate the third kid beyond geometry at Deal and have supplemented outside of Deal throughout.  I am far from a tiger parent but I was shocked at how many gaps my kids had- (entire topics, especially in the algebra 2 course).   [/quote]

Completely disagree with you. It largely depends on the student and which Deal teacher they had. My Deal kid has done well in math and recently got a 5 on the AP stats exam. So as with everything in DCPS, YMMV.[/quote]

AP Stats?

Did your kid even take Calc?[/quote]

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