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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Ok - real talk - and most of the people who are commenting on here would never admit this but this comment is 100% correct [quote]The issue is that not all students should take math at an accelerated and honors level. That is why the school has three levels of math courses. Parents cannot except that their child is perhaps not capable to succeed in the highest levels so they want the school to water down the honors level program.[/quote]

The perception among parents of what college's want in admissions certainly exacerbates this issue. However - it is not that the Math department is particularly weak, its that Parents freak out about math class/placement/grades more than any other program.  They aren't having nervous breakdowns or demanding their kids get transferred to a higher english or science class at anywhere near the same level. The administration regularly capitulates to parents demanding a class change against the advise of the teacher (and sometimes against what the student is actually saying they want when they are not around their pushy parents).  Then when their child struggles its "blame it on the teachers" the "teacher isn't teaching well enough" never "I pushed to have my child placed beyond their current  knowledge/ability."  This constant movement also hurts the kids who are correctly placed in the advanced classes because the class gets disrupted when a new student has to be brought up to speed. The movement also happens in the other direction when parents try to game the system by moving their B honors student down a level in order to chase a higher grade.  Last year parents were pushing as late as May for kids to get moved to a different class level. The constant movement fuels the "math is a problem" reputation, which causes parents to be more aggressive and less likely to listen which causes the problem to continue to spiral.

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This whole post should be disregarded, because the notion that moving up to the honors math level from extended is something that happens regularly is simply false. [/quote]

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