Usually she will have to take a placement test regardless of what she has had in high school. Very many students have precalculus or higher in high school and still place into developmental math, so placement tests are required for all. Some schools have a specific placement test, such as COMPASS, others use SAT/ACT scores for placement. The biggest worry about using integrated math is if the student needs to re-enter school halfway through and the school does not have an integrated track, s/he may have to repeat courses. This is especially problematic if part of geometry has been covered. If you complete the full college-prep track for whatever integrated curriculum you choose, I don't think there will be a problem.

I agree with pretty much everything in your long post. We have reading specialists. Why not math specialists? When I read Liping Ma's Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics, there were teachers in rural schools who taught all subjects who were interviewed for the book. The biggest difference I saw in attitude was that the teachers did not treat their college education as the be-all and end-all. In other words, they did not treat knowledge of elementary math as something that was finite. They continued actively working to improve their knowledge, and not just attending workshops to tick boxes for continuing education hours. Are there teachers who do that here? Yes. But there are also a fair number of math-phobic procedural box-checkers.

Both my parents took Alg 1, Geom, Alg 2. This was in the late sixties. Before that, it was not at all uncommon that college-bound students would only have one year of algebra and one year of geometry at graduation. Many of my college textbooks on 'college algebra' or 'analytic geometry' from the '60s or earlier expressly say they are designed for college freshmen who had one year of algebra and one year of geometry. I have friends who graduated (with a general diploma) in the '70s or earlier, and some of them didn't get as far as algebra. I don't really know what you mean by "stopped requiring four years of math to graduate" -- the move to requiring four years of math just for graduation (as well as not counting pre-algebra, general math, et cetera) is a more recent innovation.

Because they didn't do well the first time around, but didn't fail. I would much rather see someone who got a C in algebra 1 and geometry taking a transitional course than just jumping into algebra 2. However, they probably don't need to retake algebra 1 and geometry fully. Here's an example of a textbook used for that kind of course.

Discrete math is a great elective for CS, and the AOPS courses being neatly divided into semester courses make it very easy to do half a credit per year. The IMACS logic courses would also be very suited towards the type of math CS needs to do.

If she's thinking of engineering, chemistry, physics, and calculus all sound like good ideas.

Dual enrollment at a public or private high school or community college, or a tutor, or an online course, unless you speak Spanish. Once you get past the first year, it's really important to include someone else who speaks the language.

So I was researching something completely different and stumbled across this. I've seen a lot of people looking for a secular 'consumer math' type book for non-mathy students, and I really think this might fit their needs. It's by Larson (yes, that Larson) and intended to be a one-year high school course or a one-semester university course. It also appears to be available online without charge. I browsed through several chapters and liked what I saw. If you don't like the online, it's also available on amazon for not that much. http://www.math.andyou.com/ I would not recommend this before senior year (unless used as a pre-algebra II type course) as it doesn't really use much algebra. A student taking this would have a difficult time continuing into another math course as a lot of algebra would be forgotten. But I think it would make an excellent senior-year course for a student who needs one more credit but doesn't enjoy math.

Anita I am glad to hear your kids are doing well, I wondered how it was going.

To concur with what regentrude is saying - keep your own common sense. For example, if the advisor says 'you do not need that prerequisite, I will add you anyway', it would be a really good idea to ask the instructor of the course if that's a good idea. This applies especially if the advisor is not in that department. For a specific example: One of my students at a different school somehow was told that he could take calc-based physics even though he was only enrolled in precalculus. He was doing well in precalculus but floundering in physics. I have no idea what the hell that advisor was thinking. Sometimes you can skip them. Someone I know, who was a very strong math student, concurrently enrolled in calc II and multivariable calculus, and got A's in both. But most of the time it's a really good idea to ask the instructor.

Congratulations! If you need to transcript it, I would say that 'Mathematical Logic' would be the course title, and it would be a mathematics course. It is in the mathematics department at most universities (if they teach it -- for example, mine is too small to have sufficient enrollment for that class).

Yes. For example, for someone like my father (he has no bachelor's, because you didn't need one to get into programming in the '70s, but if he ever needed to change jobs, he would need one) it would be an excellent credential. They also work very well for someone who's currently employed and gets a pay bump if they get a degree.

What Spy Car said. A lot of times, children who do cross multiplying are simply memorizing another procedure, without understanding why it's okay to do it. Teaching them to make common denominators and then eliminate those reinforces two very important concepts. 1) Performing the same operation on both sides of an equation results in an equivalent equation. 2) How to make common denominators. These are concepts which my college students often are still struggling with. Accordingly, I would strongly recommend continuing the full procedure, until and unless the child notices the cross multiply shortcut on their own.

I would consider future goals carefully before doing this. The issue is that once a degree has been earned (not just CLEP credits), if the student wishes to change plans, a second bachelor's degree may be necessary. Should that be required, financial aid is often not available which is available for a first degree. I would consider it potentially problematic for admissions to, for example, medical/veterinary school (although I am impressed that someone has done it). For a very specific example (because mathematics is my field), their mathematics online offerings are insufficient to enable one to proceed to most graduate schools. Their science offerings are also very marginal, and I wonder how the student mentioned above got into medical school. Did they take extra science classes at a community college? Because I don't see Organic Chemistry on the courselist for online, nor can I imagine how it could be taught online. If you just needed a degree in anything, I think it would be fine.

I haven't used this one, but I've used other online programs. Re: Record of work, can't he write it down in a notebook and then enter it to the computer? Re: Typing them in wrong, it's unfortunate, but there's no real way to fix that. I wish we had smarter computers.

I would go ahead and start the algebra course. If he starts to struggle or clearly needs review on a topic I would drop back a level then.

Yep. They're a lot more understanding about kids who HAD to do something else. Neither of my siblings had any extracurricular other than music and 4-H. In particular, they had no sports whatsoever. The '3 sports, a musical instrument, two volunteer jobs (one with people and one with animals) and regular trips to third world countries to build houses for people' are for kids of the types they already have enough of. They have enough kids with well-off parents who went to exclusive boarding schools or public schools in very rich districts. They (honestly) don't want to have a class peopled solely with them. They want interesting people who look like they're going to do well, and really, it's a crapshoot anyway.

Oh my word, where was this when I was the right age? 82%. Now to get my family to take it too!

Last study I saw showed that they did better in the grade that they repeated, and then back to original performance in the next grade. Honestly, I wonder if (in some cases) it is simply because the grade is going too fast for them, and if they would have been better off placed in a program (if available) with more flexible pacing. That way, if the most they can handle is (say) 3/4 of a grade per year, they can proceed forward and at least learn what they're being taught, even if they are learning less than others. This applies especially in math and english.

I would agree 100% about this. There should be enough similarity to allow a student to switch tracks, but dropping back a year or two may be necessary. It would also be a great idea to have transfer summer courses -- for students who want to jump up a track. Another thing that would be GREAT would be to allow students to track into college-prep english and non-prep math, or the reverse, instead of the whole-child tracking common in many places.

+eleventy billion. I don't think that a student should be failing because of being placed in a course they aren't ready for. I think they should be placed in a class they ARE able to pass. If they fail, it should be due to lack of work ethic, not due to being overwhelmed. That being said, I see no issue with allowing an underprepared student to ATTEMPT an out-of-level course -- but if they are not keeping up after the first grading period, they should drop back a level.

This will happen as long as we continue to equate equality of outcomes with equality of opportunities offered by the school. In addition to what you said, I would like to see strong vocational training for students who wish to apprentice during high-school age instead. For example, a student who wants to be a cosmetologist, or plumber, or carpenter -- why can't they start this in high school?

Yes. The Good Master is in 1912(roughly) and the Singing Tree 1914-1918.

The "A" is set at 90%, so I'm not really sure what you mean there. They were counting 'motivational indicators' at up to 25%. At 25%, you'd need to get 35/75 on the rest of the material to pass with a D, which is barely over 50% as it is. At 10%, it's a lot closer -- you'd need 60/90. So whether this new grading scale is significantly looser really depends on whether the majority of the courses were closer to the 10% or the 25%. They can still use homework, if I read correctly -- just not grades based solely on completion without paying attention to whether any of the problems correct. It has always struck me as totally bogus that a student would be able to turn in HW with every problem wrong and still get a large amount of points towards their average from it.

Would you really rather continue to have the grading scale where the students can fail the exams and pass by showing effort in daily work and getting good grades in classroom behaviour?