If she does fractions and decimals in 6th, she can do pre-algebra in 7th and algebra in 8th. It is important to evaluate whether Fred is a fit for her by seeing whether she can use and apply fractions. If she learns from Fred and just needs more practice, you can consider Key to Fractions and Key to Decimals for practice. Some people don't learn well from Fred, but if you already own it, I'd give it a shot. I'd get her started right away so that if it's not working, you can shift to something else in September and not be "behind".

Another possible option for an AP could be Environmental Science?

Not everywhere works this way yet, alas :/

Out of curiosity, EoO, why not just omit one minor requirement for the AA (say, PE, or something similar) until the last semester before you want him to graduate? That way they'd have the same date. I know a fair few people who took 3 years at a CC to get an AA because they wanted to add in extra preparatory courses for a major.

I think we're talking about two different things when we talk about transition programs. What I'm meaning is that I would like to see benefits like the healthcare and housing not be an on/off switch where either you're low enough to qualify or you're not. I'd like to see both of them being more of a sliding scale, where based on how much you make and cost-of-living you get access to cheaper health care/cheaper housing.

Link to related thread on chat board: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/522742-ivy-league-miseducation/

Man, AP bio and physics sounds a bit rough. Has he done two sciences in a year before? Has he successfully completed HS bio + chem, or at least a strong middle school course?

I agree 100% about better transition services to help people who are marginal.

I'm not on it either at any place I've taught, even though many are.

There is a big difference between thinking someone is an idiot and thinking that someone is innumerate and has been graduated and is responsible for the education of other people's children while still being innumerate. Someone who can't do the elementary school math they're supposed to be teaching is pretty innumerate, just as someone who can't read elementary school-level books is pretty illiterate. I'd have been just as shocked at finding an elementary school teacher or a large group of them who were surprised at someone able to read ... oh, let's say Harry Potter #1.

As long as we modify it so that things like social security require x years of living and working here I'm 100% for. This would allow us to assume that someone trying to slip across the border was someone we *really* didn't want here for whatever reason.

In addition to what others said, some people transcript high school level classes taken earlier and simply mark them "prior to 9th grade". That way if a school wants to see, for example, every math class starting with algebra 1, it's available for viewing -- but a school that doesn't want that can easily disregard that portion of the transcript. Also, this makes it easy to simply delete those if a school explicitly asks that those not be included. It isn't "five years of high school" but rather "a really advanced 8th grade and then four years of high school", if that makes sense.

Yeah, for martial arts, I just use the 'judo, jujitsu, blahblah' entry and enter 1/4 to 1/2 of the time spent according to perceived level of exertion.

Oh, yeah. We'd need to average out outliers. But at least they'd be trying to teach something instead of nothing.

I think this sounds like a good idea to save your sanity.

Hmm, I was saying that he might be able to just repeat the second half of the sequence while solidifying his grasp on the first half rather than start at the beginning of the whole sequence. I absolutely agree with you that jumping from a weak calc 1 + 2 to a strong calc 3 would be unnecessarily challenging, but I think that going from a weak calc 1-3 + de to a strong calc 3 + de would be totally reasonable. I would think of it like doing a weak algebra 1 + 2 and then going to a stronger algebra 2 rather than starting over again at algebra 1.

MFP has been pretty helpful and I lost 50 lbs using it to get started.

The more dangerous I consider an opinion to be, the more carefully I frame my rebuttals. Bluntly combative tones usually cause people to just say "What a jerk!" and ignore everything I said, even if I'm 100% right.

One of my friends had a student who lost his grandmother at the end of the semester and was just devastated. Or so he said. Upon investigation, it turned out that he had used that already in two other classes. My friend, smelling a rat, sent flowers and a condolence card to the family. Turned out that not only was the story fabricated, but grandma was just fine and opened her own condolence card. She was less than impressed with her grandchild.

My grad school had 4-year degrees in it. A lot of the undergrads who came in wanting to be engineers but placing into far-developmental-math went there.

You can almost always test into anything up to Calculus 1 using ACT or SAT or COMPASS or an in-house placement test (varies by university). Many universities will also give a test for credit/advanced standing for STEM courses, even if they do not publicize it. When I was a freshman, I looked at the scope and sequence for Gen Chem. I went to the department chair and I said "I feel like I know everything that's going to be taught in Chem I. I would like to start in Chem II". She said "uh ... ok ... why don't you just show up to the comprehensive Chem I final and we'll see how it goes from there?" Well, I did, and I got an "A" on the final. So they recorded me as having taken the course with a grade of "A". There was absolutely nothing about this in the catalog, but they told me afterwards that every 2-3 years they got someone who had not had AP chem but wanted to challenge, although almost all of them were unsuccessful.

Ya. Alg 2/trig was only enough to prepare the best students for calculus -- many needed another preparatory year. I've gone through Foerster's alg 2/trig and if thoroughly understood, it would be plenty sufficient for calc -- but most students won't be ready after that.

Elegantlion, I realize that finances are an issue, but is there a CC near you where he could do a "prep year" if necessary before going to engineering school? That way, even if he is behind in math, he could do gen eds + college algebra + precalculus and enter, not only being ready for calculus but also having completed enough gen eds to give himself a lighter schedule/make time for an internship.

Well, yes and no. It is on the cover because pre-algebra is now a middle school arithmetic course to prepare for algebra. Times change, and course names change. Pre-algebra is not even taught in many high schools now -- students who are probably not going to be successful are instead put in "algebra with support" or a two-year algebra 1 class. Many middle schools no longer have "math 7" or "math 8" and instead have course names like "pre-algebra 1" "pre-algebra 2" etc.

Did he struggle but successfully complete them alone, or did he need help from you to complete them? If you had to help him via hinting I wouldn't count them as correct, but if he struggled and ultimately plowed through I would.