Reply to New Math Program - NO Differentiation until Grades 11-12?!?

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Reply to "New Math Program - NO Differentiation until Grades 11-12?!?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why do kids need to take Calculus in high school anyway?

My high school didn't even offer calculus. I simply took a year of it freshman year of college, majored in mathematics, got a master's in a STEM area, and have been working on a STEM field ever since.

What benefit would taking calculus in high school have given me?[/quote]
Back then:
-Many programs were structured to allow for kids to take Calc in college
-Grades weren't watered down, so colleges could use GPA to distinguish between students strong in math and ones who are above average but not particularly strong
-In many cases, skipping calc was advantageous and would allow students to take upper division courses earlier in their college careers.  I loved having enough AP credits in many different subjects to skip all of the 101 courses and instead jump into much meatier upper division coursework.

Nowadays: 
-Most good programs assume that the kids have already taken calculus.  Not taking it would either put you behind or put you at a disadvantage compared to the kids who already have taken it if the college requires its own version of a rigorous calc course.
-Grades are inflated, so AP test scores are one of the only ways for colleges to distinguish between very strong math students and good but not great ones.
-While the VA state schools will re-structure to accommodate the lack of calculus for VA public grads, the rest of the country will not be doing so.  It will be much harder for VA kids without calculus to get into out-of-state or private college programs.  
-College is expensive, and any class that can be taken in high school rather than college saves a significant amount of money.  
  [/quote]

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