Help, Local District Not Allowing My Song to Take Exam

[Guest Shenny88]

Okay, full disclosure, I joined the forum specifically to ask this question.

 

The backstory is my wife and I live in western New York near Rochester and home school three of our four children (baby sister is too little). Much credit to my wife because she literally does all the work. Our oldest son who is twelve and entering 7th grade is two years ahead in math, which in New York means the next step is to take Course I - Algrebra. I don't have any pipedreams of him going to Yale, but he is very smart and we are very proud of him.

 

But now; I'm mad.

 

The problem is we were just told by letter from our local school district that he will not be allowed to take the year-end Regents exam because he is in 7th grade.

 

What can we do? What alternatives do we have?

 

I would prefer not to make the district my enemy, but I'm disturbed enough by their answer to my wife's curriculum plan that it woke me up in the middle of the night.

 

Any help or insight would be great, especially from a New York parent who has experience with something similar. Thanks in advance for any contributions to the cause.

[Guest Shenny88]

I've been awake for too long.

[Staceyshoe]

I would start by looking at the school district's policies for subject acceleration and gifted education (if you haven't already). A lot of school districts make their policies available online.

[SonshineLearner]

Weird, here in Oregon, where it doesn't seem we're really "ahead" students can be bussed to the middle school to take Algebra.(so at 7th can be taking Algebra) Algebra was the "normal advanced" path for my two oldest, and my youngest that's in school... will take it in 9th.

[Dmmetler]

Is the exam predicated on his paper grade in school?

 

If so, I see four options (not knowing your state's rules, but knowing similar ones in my state)

 

1) List him as that grade on paper for this year, but leave his "social" grade as 7th for outside activities-and if you need to do a post high school year, do it. This is what the cover school we're with suggests if your child will be ready for high school coursework early, because that lets them take dual enrollment for what would have been 11th and 12th grades, and take advantage of money from the state instead of graduating early and parents having to pay for it. The downside of that is if your child is at all asynchronous, and you end up with them returning to ps in the future, having a higher stated grade level can put them in a situation they're not ready for yet.

 

2) Let him take the classes in 7th and 8th that he needs, then list them again in 9th (along with whatever he's actually taking), do some review and have him sit for all three exams then, which gets all three classes on the high school transcript. I know quite a few families who have done this for foreign language so that their DC gets high school credit.

 

3) Let him take the classes he needs now without getting high school credit, confident that there are plenty of math options out there to get the required credit hours. This will only work, though, if the state HAS such options available, or considers dual enrollment to qualify. If you have to pass "Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, and Trigonometry" end of grade exams to get a high school diploma (or some equally controlled list) this isn't such a great option.

 

4) Go up the food chain until someone says "Yes". A lot of times, this works quite well if you're just plain annoying enough.

[wapiti]

I'd keep calling - I'd start with the local middle school - call the math teacher(s). It can't be that no 7th graders in WNY take the algebra 1 Regents. If you don't have any luck there, I'd call another district, until you find one that'll do it. What I don't know is how homeschooling fits into the Regents scenario.

 

I really wish we had Regents exams where I live now - it would make things a lot easier for me (for my dd applying to private high school after homeschooling for middle school).

 

I took the algebra 1 Regents at the end of 8th grade (30 yrs ago :tongue_smilie:). We had switched districts in the summer between my 7th and 8th grades. My mother had to advocate very hard to get me into algebra 1 in 8th in the new district, because the new district did things differently than the old district. Fortunately my 7th grade math teacher from the old district went to bat for me. I had to take their end-of-8th-math exam to be allowed into the algebra class (which, fortunately, I aced, right after the guidance counselor said something horrible, like "maybe you're not as smart as you think you are" :glare:).

 

 

A last option would be to have him take an old Regents at home (I have a link someplace....)

[beaners]

Here's a link for old exams. http://www.nysedregents.org/

 

I'm trying to find any requirements for regents credits being applied before 8th grade, but I haven't been looking for long. I don't know anyone who took it before 8th grade, but that doesn't mean it can't be done.

[jenbrdsly]

I don't have any pipedreams of him going to Yale, but he is very smart and we are very proud of him.

 

 

 

Go ahead and have the pipedream of him going to Yale, (or Stanford). :) There's nothing wrong with thinking big. It doesn't have to be a pipedream either. Welcome to hive!

[QueenieReighn]

Have you talked to the algebra teacher in your local school? They might be able to help. I know the math teachers a York Central are very helpful with things...you could probably get some advice from them even if they aren't your district. :-) They were very helpful when I was young and took the algebra test at the end of Aug without going through their summer school program like everyone else. The algebra teacher even came on her own time to my house one day soon before the test to go over what topics the test would cover so I would be fully prepared. They just love kids that love math and want to do anything they can to help. You may find the teachers are like that at your local school and they would know better than anyone how to work the system.

[Guest Shenny88]

Thanks for all the input everyone! My wife and I will be looking into several of the options presented. I wouldn't have thought of the some of these ideas in my lifetime. :001_smile: