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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]FYI, since this seems to be misunderstood on this thread: when you expunge a middle school grade, you do not have to retake the course. You may choose to, but you don’t have to. [/quote]

So you get the credit (if you pass) but you don't get to see the grade--is this what you mean?  Because you'd need the credit from the class, so just want to make sure we understand this.[/quote]

Colleges will know that means it wasn’t a good grade [/quote]

Colleges are not going to care about any grades from middle school.  Heck, a lot of colleges discount grades from 9th grade when they recompute GPAs.

The bigger issue is that if the grade is poor enough to expunge, the kid will struggle in Algebra II or pre-calc.  I'm not sure that I would place a child in FCPS 6th grade Algebra without also having the kid take Algebra through RSM or AoPS.  [/quote]

I agree with your second part, but I know for fact the colleges care.  It is absolutely a red flag to not have a grade for a math class.  They look very closely at course selection, grades for all high school courses. Expunge at your own risk.  [/quote]

Sorry, you’re wrong. In many places (like where I live in NJ), middle school courses/grades are not on the HS transcript at all, even if they are traditionally high-school courses. My kid’s transcript does not list algebra, geometry, or Latin I. [/quote]

I think you’re probably wrong about this, and likely missed the section where those courses are listed (ie:not with the HS coursework), but this a thread about a pilot program in our FCPS schools. Here in FCPS, the high school transcripts absolutely list the high school level courses taken prior to HS — they’re listed in a separate section, but it’s there and calculated into gpa. [/quote]

To add to this discussion: most parents here are focused on Virginia schools, where admissions teams look closely at courses and grades—even those taken at the middle school level. [What New Jersey does isn’t really relevant to us.]

To the parent of the 12th grader who suggested it won’t matter: I agree that colleges recalculate GPAs using their own methods and always consider an unweighted GPA. But if you expunge a grade from the transcript, you also lose the potential benefit of that grade being factored into the GPA. To say it “totally won’t matter” isn’t accurate. At schools like UVA and Virginia Tech, it’s hard to imagine it won’t matter, since they consistently emphasize that they review the courses taken, the rigor of those courses, and the grades earned.[/quote]

Why would a person expunge a grade if it would benefit them to have it factored into their GPA?  You expunge a grade because you don’t want it in your GPA.

I am in NJ now but my kids were in FCPS before (one through 10th grade) and I’m familiar with AAP math and the FCPS high school transcript, as well as with college admissions.  I mention NJ to explain that colleges’ first thought when they don’t see on the transcript a course taken in middle school is not “oh, the kid must have done poorly in that class.”  They just as likely think it’s not on the HS transcript because it’s not a course taken in HS (since many places only include on the transcript courses actually taken in HS). Even if a college knows FCPS well enough to know the course should be on the transcript, I guarantee that they do not care about a grade for a course taken in sixth or seventh grade, especially if they have four or five other, more recent math grades to look at.  If that kid gets As in AP Precal and AP Calc BC, a college absolutely will not care about what they got in Algebra I in middle school. And if they do poorly in AP Precal or AP Calc, a good grade in Algebra I is not going to save them.

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Proceed at your own risk then.  They will absolutely make note of it.  You heard it here first [/quote]

DP.  It's cute that you think so.  You're obviously an ES parent.  :). 
So, in your world, a kid with very high grades across the board, including As in Calc and post-calc DE classes will have trouble getting into UVA or VT engineering due to a missing Algebra I grade from 6th grade?  That's completely absurd, especially since there are any number of benign reasons that a kid might not have a grade recorded on their transcript for classes taken before high school.

One of the reasons many colleges omit 9th grade classes when they recompute an applicant's GPA is that kids mature a lot during 9th grade.  The grades from later years are much more indicative of how well the kid will do in college and how solid their academic foundations are.  This is doubly true for classes taken in *6th grade.*

There are *a lot* of reasons to be worried about this pilot, but kids expunging and having a "missing" Algebra I grade from 6th grade on their high school transcript is not really one of them.  I have no idea why you're so obsessed with the "missing grade" issue.  The real problem is that any kids who earn poor grades in 6th grade Algebra, as well as a good chunk of the kids who get As will have bad math foundations and will get poor grades in the later classes.  Colleges will certainly care about the kid's grades in the pre-calc, AP Calc, and DE classes they take in high school.  [/quote]

You can’t receive an advanced diploma if you expunge a math grade and don’t retake the course.  That would be an additional disadvantage.  [/quote]

Colleges could care less about the advanced degree. There are plenty of kids with great academics who don't earn it because of the ridiculous requirement to take an elective sequence and not counting foreign language as an allowable elective.

I would not expunge a grade unless I thought my kid should retake the class. If I am expunging a grade that signals that I don't think that my kid learned what they needed to learn in order to move on to the next grade. We are ok with B's if our kid is learning and working hard, he doesn't need all A's.

I would be asking my kids teacher from 5th grade about what class they think my kid should be in and follow that guidance. I don't think it would help my kid to take a class 3 years early with the back up plan being that they can retake the class. That is going to be a direct hit on my kids confidence about their ability, even if taking the class in 7th grade is 2 years early. My 11 year old is not likely to understand that.

I would accept the offer if my child had been involved in math enrichment for several years and I know that my child has been exposed to the concepts already.

I would accept the offer if my child was willing to participate in a program like RSM's Algebra so that they have additional time to learn the material and have someone who is comfortable teaching the material, teaching them.

I would not accept the offer otherwise. I don't want to sink my kid's confidence by moving them from the class into a different class or making them repeat the class.

There is no good reason for most kids to be taking A1H in 6th grade. They are either going to end up in advanced math classes that most colleges would prefer they take at college or they are going to drop off the track and take AP Calc AB, AP Calc BC, and AP Stats because they are not that into math. It feels like an unnecesary rush ahead in math.

I do think that there are kids who are ready for A1H in 6th grade. I do think there needs to be a path for those kids to take the class. I don't think that 1/2 the kids in AAP should be taking the class, not because they are not capable but because most of them don't need it.

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