Anonymous
Post 10/09/2025 23:17     Subject: Can someone explain the "behind in math" thing?
Private schools tend to be much more hesitant to allow acceleration and prefer for students to go by a rigid progression. Their math standards also tends to be more rigorous than public schools, so they will often encourage a student to take, say, Geometry in grade 9 even if they're ready for Algebra II. Many, many kids end up having to take math a year lower than they would at a public school. This can hurt the overall assessment of their transcript rigor when it comes time for college applications.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2025 20:27     Subject: Re:Can someone explain the "behind in math" thing?
Anonymous wrote:Private is typically a year behind due to their tracks. For schools like MIT this matters but for all others less so.

No they aren’t. The standard track is Calculus of some flavor in 12th. Sure, there are more kids taking post-calc math in publics than in privates, but most privates offer at least a year of post-Calc math. There are also far more students only hitting Precalculus by 12th in public schools than in privates. It’s not common for privates schools to have seniors in precalc.

Privates are not “typically” a year behind.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2025 20:21     Subject: Re:Can someone explain the "behind in math" thing?
Private is typically a year behind due to their tracks. For schools like MIT this matters but for all others less so.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2025 16:55     Subject: Can someone explain the "behind in math" thing?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The standard in private school is Algebra 1 in 8th. A few are accelerated to A1 in 7th, but almost none in 6th. Some public school systems are willing to accelerate much more routinely. I'm not sure what the point is -- anyone who needs post-calculus would benefit from taking a more in depth class in college.


The obsession with doing post calculus work in HS is silly—I’d argue that’s true even if your kid will likely be a math major (and you’d have to start thinking about that at a very young age which I also think is silly). You will get more in depth post calculus classes in college.


You don't get it. It's for college admissions. The arms race for college admissions has never been more cutthroat.



It is completely unnecessary for college admissions. I looked at math class compared to college choice at our school and there was zero correlation.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2025 13:40     Subject: Can someone explain the "behind in math" thing?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The standard in private school is Algebra 1 in 8th. A few are accelerated to A1 in 7th, but almost none in 6th. Some public school systems are willing to accelerate much more routinely. I'm not sure what the point is -- anyone who needs post-calculus would benefit from taking a more in depth class in college.


The obsession with doing post calculus work in HS is silly—I’d argue that’s true even if your kid will likely be a math major (and you’d have to start thinking about that at a very young age which I also think is silly). You will get more in depth post calculus classes in college.


You don't get it. It's for college admissions. The arms race for college admissions has never been more cutthroat.



Generally, if the school doesn’t offer the class, kid won’t be penalized by AO for not taking it.



Yup. And most private school kids are big fish swimming in small ponds. Plus they're full-pay. Your kid will survive even if they don't take AP Calculus in 10th grade.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2025 13:32     Subject: Can someone explain the "behind in math" thing?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The standard in private school is Algebra 1 in 8th. A few are accelerated to A1 in 7th, but almost none in 6th. Some public school systems are willing to accelerate much more routinely. I'm not sure what the point is -- anyone who needs post-calculus would benefit from taking a more in depth class in college.


The obsession with doing post calculus work in HS is silly—I’d argue that’s true even if your kid will likely be a math major (and you’d have to start thinking about that at a very young age which I also think is silly). You will get more in depth post calculus classes in college.


You don't get it. It's for college admissions. The arms race for college admissions has never been more cutthroat.



Generally, if the school doesn’t offer the class, kid won’t be penalized by AO for not taking it.

Anonymous
Post 10/09/2025 12:03     Subject: Can someone explain the "behind in math" thing?
Anonymous wrote:Ummm. Not everyone needs to go to college. Trades are very important. Obviously most kids at Privates will go to college so its not even really relevant for this thread but its not pathetic that people choose not to go to college.


Except most people aren't going into trades either.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2025 11:51     Subject: Can someone explain the "behind in math" thing?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My daughter adores math. She’s in ES at a private K-8.

We would love for them to accelerate her in math, but they just don’t do it until middle school.

That’s fine though. Here’s the thing:

- All the top private HS offer advanced math, up to BC calc and sometimes beyond.

- MCPS math proficiency scores are abysmal, so I’m not sure people are on the firmest ground claiming that MCPS is this math powerhouse.

- Overall, public schools are in such disarray that I’ll take my kid not being challenged in math for a few years over her being in MCPS.


I have no issue with the math at our daughter's private school, but to look at the overall statistics for MCPS and conclude that it isn't a math powerhouse misses the fact that the kids at the top, who are at either the magnets or the highest level math at the strong HS's, are definitely a match and then some for top students at any of the local private schools. The problem for families with students in ES in MCPS is that the system has done everything possible to make it more unpredictable for top students in high SES areas to access the CES programs and competitive MS magnets (TPMS, EMS, etc.). It was great track, and likely is still great track, if your kid is lucky enough to get selected. Or you can take a route that is more predictable.


The magnets are a different thing, but I would want to see evidence that the top MCPS HS are stronger in math than the top private HS.


What "evidence" do you think exists to assess this? Private schools do not do the MCAP tests MCPS kids are required to do, and many do no do the MAP testing that MCPS kids do. The only "data" I've seen are that of the National Merit Semi Finalists, whwhere some high schools in MCPS (Blair magnet, RMIB magnet, Whitman, BCC etc.) did in fact have a lot of named semi-finalists compared to private schools in the DMV area.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2025 11:43     Subject: Can someone explain the "behind in math" thing?
Anonymous wrote:My daughter adores math. She’s in ES at a private K-8.

We would love for them to accelerate her in math, but they just don’t do it until middle school.

That’s fine though. Here’s the thing:

- All the top private HS offer advanced math, up to BC calc and sometimes beyond.

- MCPS math proficiency scores are abysmal, so I’m not sure people are on the firmest ground claiming that MCPS is this math powerhouse.

- Overall, public schools are in such disarray that I’ll take my kid not being challenged in math for a few years over her being in MCPS.

No, they are not. You are referring to the state MCAP scores, where no school district in the state is doing great because no one cares about it, and it is a bad assessment.
Now if you want a real assessment, you should check out the AP math tests scores.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2025 11:34     Subject: Can someone explain the "behind in math" thing?
Anonymous wrote:It’s also true that a vast majority of public school kids who apply to privates in HS don’t test out of algebra 1 even if they were fast tracked in their MS. Passing a class doesn’t mean understanding the concepts. Public will advance students to the next math class as long as they pass. That’s why they have all these students accelerated in math with mediocre SAT scores.

Fake news
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2025 09:56     Subject: Can someone explain the "behind in math" thing?
It’s also true that a vast majority of public school kids who apply to privates in HS don’t test out of algebra 1 even if they were fast tracked in their MS. Passing a class doesn’t mean understanding the concepts. Public will advance students to the next math class as long as they pass. That’s why they have all these students accelerated in math with mediocre SAT scores.
Anonymous
Post 10/09/2025 07:47     Subject: Can someone explain the "behind in math" thing?
Anonymous wrote:No matter public or private schools, math, it all depends on the parents and your kid’s interest/ talent. School may help a bit but honestly it heavily depends on after school.


Sad, but very true, and often true even for the STEM magnets.
Anonymous
Post 10/08/2025 20:03     Subject: Can someone explain the "behind in math" thing?
My kid was given the choice of staying in public or moving to privates (that they were accepted into). They were on track to take algebra 2 as a freshman. Both privates said regardless of test scores and grades (straight As) they’d have to retake geometry. Hard no from our kid who opted for public and pointed to that as one of the reasons. Can’t say I blame them.
Anonymous
Post 10/08/2025 15:31     Subject: Can someone explain the "behind in math" thing?
No matter public or private schools, math, it all depends on the parents and your kid’s interest/ talent. School may help a bit but honestly it heavily depends on after school.
Anonymous
Post 10/08/2025 14:58     Subject: Can someone explain the "behind in math" thing?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My daughter adores math. She’s in ES at a private K-8.

We would love for them to accelerate her in math, but they just don’t do it until middle school.

That’s fine though. Here’s the thing:

- All the top private HS offer advanced math, up to BC calc and sometimes beyond.

- MCPS math proficiency scores are abysmal, so I’m not sure people are on the firmest ground claiming that MCPS is this math powerhouse.

- Overall, public schools are in such disarray that I’ll take my kid not being challenged in math for a few years over her being in MCPS.


I have no issue with the math at our daughter's private school, but to look at the overall statistics for MCPS and conclude that it isn't a math powerhouse misses the fact that the kids at the top, who are at either the magnets or the highest level math at the strong HS's, are definitely a match and then some for top students at any of the local private schools. The problem for families with students in ES in MCPS is that the system has done everything possible to make it more unpredictable for top students in high SES areas to access the CES programs and competitive MS magnets (TPMS, EMS, etc.). It was great track, and likely is still great track, if your kid is lucky enough to get selected. Or you can take a route that is more predictable.


The magnets are a different thing, but I would want to see evidence that the top MCPS HS are stronger in math than the top private HS.