Middle School Education In The Us

The acceleration can happen at set times, like beginning of a school year. If child decides in November that she is bored, she has to stick it out till the academic year ends. Hence, the need for parent to be a little proactive, and hence the use of tests or other criteria that schools follow for math acceleration.

Being ahead in MS helps to start ahead in HS. Being ahead in HS helps with presenting a competitive profile on college applications. Public schools will not allow for acceleration if it is not a good idea. That they have detailed description on their websites of how child can go ahead in math means they have put some thought into this.

It does get a little challenging for a few months after child "goes ahead", but most children rise to the challenge and with some disciplined study and extra effort, end the year with a good knowledge of the year's math content. I recall for my DD, the teacher told them in the first week that those who have "skipped" or "studied outside" the previous level, he will be "watching" them. : ) Aug - early Dec, I guided dad who guided her to work on math in the weekend. Aug -Sept to do more practice of previous level math (that she studied in summer). Oct - Dec to do more practice of current math level.

This might be more common in Indians/Asians because they place more emphasis on academics. Other ethnicity families might place more emphasis on excelling in sports -- for example spending big money on private coach. And, Asian kids will compete with other Asian kids when applying to colleges. So, better to go with the flow as much as possible unless child has some other outstanding achievement.

It helps them to complete many or all of the math courses that the HS offers, such as Calculus A/B, Calculus B/C, AP Statistics (all three are AP subjects). Also, some AP science subjects have a pre-req of math courses. For example, AP Physics C requires having completed or being parallel enrolled in Calculus.

In our case, it came down to presenting a competitive profile on college application - as much as possible without sacrificing GPA and without overwhelming child. She focused on STEM AP's as she was sure she wanted to pursue science/engineering/math in college, and didn't take history, psychology, literature kind of AP's though very interested in them also. And, she didn't have extracurricular activities like speech & debate, robotics, leadership, athletics, sports that take up many hours each week.

 

Where I live, Indian parents will go to great lengths to not talk about accelerations and related stuff. Everyone pretends to be totally laidback parent with a "won't listen to me" child. : )

 

I seriously need to move from this place. Everyone around here is just bonkers about passing the CBE exam. I'm not offering classes to kids just because the expectation is that they will get to the next level if they attend the class. And everyone is openly competitive. Your DD is only in algebra, mine is in pre calc already in the 8th grade. Blah blah blah.

 

CBE exams are conducted only once a year in most districts in TX. It's after school closes sometime in June and July. The kids attend classes year round to write the exam end of the year. If you want to try the CBE, register and teach him what you can until July and let him go write the test. If not, you will have to wait until the next year and that paper maybe harder to CBE.

In Texas, most districts have the honors program. That is very challenging itself. Do you have that? Honors itself leads to getting into Calc or SL Math(depending on AP/IB) in 12th which is a complete math curriculum. People who CBE are the ones who finish math in 11th or 10th, based on the number of grades they skip. That's how CBE works in TX.

Honors classes are assigned based on teacher recommendation, grades and test scores(MAP and STAAR). If he isn't in honors, you can go to school and appeal and get him in conditionally. I believe if that happens, he needs to maintain an 80% grade average the first six weeks of school to continue there.
In the honors class, they learn one grade level ahead but the entire grade isn't skipped completely. It's condensed into the first sem and some parts are skipped. The things they missed can be easily taught at home or by a tutor.

 

When I was seeking information, I spoke with parents who had children a year or two older than mine. They were more forthcoming. I also made a conscious attempt to not come across as desperate, too worried, and asked specific questions rather than open-ended ones. A nice question to start off with is ask about a certain teacher. After one year of suffering or thriving with a teacher's teaching, parent and child are often happy to yap : ) and then you can ask acceleration related questions.

It is good you don't blame them. You also will learn slowly to be discreet with some kinds of information as your child gets older.

The above is something you can say when talking to your son's math teacher. Set up a time to go talk with her/him. If they see a parent is not blindly pushing child, teachers are more willing to help. Don't just show up when school ends or during break. Teachers are not at their cheerful best at these times -- they deal with a roomful of kids for hours!

Like Laks said, it does get tougher with each higher grade. But again, it is only MS. He can attempt the CBE next week or prepare well and try it next year. In any math - school math or competition math, it is often sustained, disciplined hard-work and working smartly with the right tutoring that matters.

This can be a thread by itself. First thing is - math in the U.S. is very different than what we learnt in India. The way of explaining it, and the way child has to solve it and show his work on paper. Sometimes child will get frustrated when you use Indian terms and method of solving a problem. The other thing is - starting with MS, parents often have to decide whether they will help child on a subject, or get outside help. Parent teaching child can be tough as parent is too emotionally invested in child. Like, should a doctor operate on own child unless it is an emergency? : )

If you decide to teach him yourself, go through the material ahead of time, understand the way it is explained, and then sit with him.

 

Laks, will be great if you can share some suggestions for parents who are trying to teach middle school or high school math at home to one's child. For regular school year math - to supplement school teaching, to make up for a bad teacher, or whatever purpose. How to get started. What to avoid? How to get the most out of the time parent and child spend working together?

Whenever you get a chance...