Reply to Center School, 90% of AAP Class Opted into Algebra 1

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So dumb. It is not that Algebra 1 in 6th grade will be hard. It is that Calculus in 10th grade will be hard. Or Algebra 2 in 8th. Or Precalc in 9th. [/quote]

Algebra II is a beast. Ugh. These poor kids.[/quote]

I took honors Algebra II at age 13/14 after years of easily doing well in math and doing very well in honors Algebra I the year prior. I wasn't ready for it. The concepts were somehow easy to me going back to them two years later after a year of Geometry. I think I just wasn't ready. Algebra II is a big jump, Algebra I is pretty straightforward though.[/quote]

Have you looked at the current algebra 2 standards? They aren't nearly what they were 20-30 years ago. No matrices, no conic sections, nothing wildly beyond algebra 1. It's transformations of parent functions and solving quadratics/radical/rational functions. That's it. It is also extremely straight forward.

My current algebra 2 students' grades almost universally mirror their algebra 1 grades.  A few move up/down a letter, but for the most part if they got As in algebra 1 honors they end up with As in algebra 2 honors as well.[/quote]

Are you teaching 8th graders? Or HS?

2025-2026 is the first year of the pilot. These kids are not going to be in Algebra 2 until 2027-2028.

It is not just about 6th grade. It is about the next 6 years of math.[/quote]

Currently 9th graders. It’s the same curriculum though. I wouldn’t worry about algebra 2 being too difficult in 8th grade, kids have taken summer geometry to get to 8th grade algebra 2 for years.

The real reason to decline is because you don’t see your child wanting to ever go beyond calculus, not because of age of taking algebra 2. Algebra 2 is not a complicated course.[/quote]

So as a math teacher, you think a kid who scored a 400 on 6th grade math, won’t struggle? Because there are plenty of kids who just passed that are now being allowed to skip 7th/8th grade math and take Algebra 1 when the data does not support it. [/quote]

No, I think open enrollment is dumb (I think open enrollment algebra in 7th and 8th is dumb too). If your kid isn’t finding 6th grade math easy, getting 500+ on the SOL and easily getting 90 - 100s on the county wide assessments they shouldn’t take algebra 1, because they clearly haven’t mastered the math 6 standards that are repeated in 7th and 8th grade math and would probably benefit from more time with them.

But I also think people are overstating the difficulty of algebra 2. If your child is truly ready for algebra 1 in 6th grade, they will be fine in algebra 2 in 8th. Fear mongering the difficulty of algebra 2 is silly. Hold your capable student back because you want them to have a straight forward math sequence in high school without dual enrollment courses, not because you think they’ll be fine in 6th grade algebra and struggle in 8th grade algebra 2–that’s not reality IME.[/quote]

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