Which math pathway would you choose?

[Daria]

Sorry this is so long, but I think the background is necessary to make it all make sense.  My question is down at the bottom if you want to skip!

 

DS is a high school junior.  His education and development have been significantly impacted by a combination of anxiety, depression, ADHD and medical issues.  The subjects that have been most impacted have been math and foreign language.  Right now, he's taking Algebra 2 through a home and hospital instructor.  He is super far behind, still working on material from the first quarter of the year.  Part of this is because even though we submitted the paperwork to enroll him in Home and Hospital in the summer, the school didn't send a qualified teacher until Feb.  Part of this is because he's missing a lot of foundational skills, due to both processing issues and interrupted education in earlier grades.  

 

His goal is college.  He'd like to live on campus, but acknowledges that he might need another year to prepare and develop his independence.  He's making a lot of progress right now, but he and are both thinking that going away to college in 2018, is probably more realistic than going in 2017.  Our hope is that he can take some community college courses between now and then, so that when he gets to college he can reduce his course load a little, to accommodate his slow processing and tendency to get overwhelmed.  

 

At this point, we're on the fence between two options for fall of 2016, and I'd love some thoughts on which to choose.

 

1) Combine part time enrollment at our local public school (math, English, and one elective), with part time enrollment at community college (our district does not allow any credit to double count, so this would be all elective).  

 

2) Combine part time homeschooling, probably mostly with online classes, with part time enrollment at the community college.

 

Academically, we both like option 2, but it means giving up football, which is his favorite thing, as well as the social aspects of school which he enjoys. 

 

We've agreed, that we are going to spend the next 3 months exploring option 2, with the goal of making a final decision in July as to whether he goes back to public.  We need to make a math decision before then.

 

Our district acknowledges that the math problem is largely their fault.  It is offering 2 solutions to the issue of him being behind.

 

1) They can give him a full year credit for "Algebra 2A", which would possibly let him finish math by the end of the school year, or a few weeks past that. 

 

If he did that, we'd probably spend some time this summer going back and filling in holes.  Then in the fall he would either take a full year Algebra 2B at the public school, or do an online course.  I'm not sure what the online options would be, especially since our district uses a very odd sequence for Algebra 2, so what he would have covered wouldn't line up with Algebra 2A as taught in most online schools.

 

2) He can continue with the home and hospital teacher all summer and get a full credit.  My guess is that if we do that, he'd probably end up "passing" Algebra 2 but not knowing the content well enough to continue into an Algebra based class like Pre-Calculus.

 

If he did that, he would take Statistics in public school, or probably a course called "Math for College Readiness" (math for people who have an Algebra 2 credit but need review) through his current online school.  We might also look at other online schools to see if we could find other choices.

 

In case anyone is wondering, our community college does not allow DE students to take math below PreCalc, so either way he wouldn't be taking math at the CC next year. 

 

 

[almondbutterandjelly]

Food for thought:

 

I guess I'm not clear on why you can't do full time enrollment at the high school, rather than part time there and part time community college.  If he's prone to depression, I don't think I'd stop his favorite thing, football.

 

Is the home and hospital teacher not essentially a private tutor?  If he's having difficulty with a private tutor, I'm not sure how the classroom environment would work better.

 

I guess, given the choices, I'd send him to regular high school and take Algebra 2B next year. 

 

I don't think there's any need to rush him into community college yet.  

 

 

[Daria]

Food for thought:

 

I guess I'm not clear on why you can't do full time enrollment at the high school, rather than part time there and part time community college.  If he's prone to depression, I don't think I'd stop his favorite thing, football.

 

Is the home and hospital teacher not essentially a private tutor?  If he's having difficulty with a private tutor, I'm not sure how the classroom environment would work better.

 

I guess, given the choices, I'd send him to regular high school and take Algebra 2B next year. 

 

I don't think there's any need to rush him into community college yet.  

 

Our local high school has been really hard for him.  It's a pressure cooker environment, full of super high flyers academically, and he really struggles with feeling overwhelmed and inadequate.  He's been on 1/2 day all this year, and he's probably missed about 1/4 of the school year because of panic attacks at the thought of walking into the classroom.  When he's there he's too shut down to process a lot of it, so he hasn't learned much this year.  So, a big part of the goal is for him to spend as little time there as possible.  Except football.  

 

Our community college, on the other hand, serves a much more diverse population, including a lot of academic diversity and has great disability services, so his skills will be closer to average.  The classes are also smaller, and there are breaks between them.  I know lots of kids who have transitioned and have found the college classes a better fit.

 

The home and hospital is someone who comes to him for 1:1 lessons.  But they aren't particularly trained.  This one at least is invested in his learning, and can do the math.  There are also no text books, and almost no homework.  So he can go to a session, and then when he comes back 4 or 5 days later and hasn't seen the material for 4 days, it's hard for him to retain.  The public school would have class every day (if he went), and would have had class starting in August, rather than trying to cram a year into 4 months (Feb to June).  In retrospect, I wish we'd done that, but hindsight is 20/20.

[Storygirl]

I think taking another year to finish algebra 2 is not a bad idea. If he is going to continue taking math classes, it seems better not to try to complete it over the summer. This tutoring set up doesn't sound great to me if he is not doing work in between sessions. Can that change? Why doesn't the tutor assign homework? I would keep working on math over the summer not to lose the skills he has gained.

 

Does the high school offer an algebra 2A class, or would that be via a tutor as well?

 

How many classes does he have to take at school to be able to play football? If he takes the minimum number of classes there, could he have time to take just one community college course as well, and then homeschool the rest? Taking just one class at CC might give him time to adjust without being overwhelmed.

[Daria]

Part of the issue with the tutor set up is that there are no textbooks, if there were then I could just assign work if the tutor didn't. Or even if there were worksheets coming home, I could look at them and assign similar problems on IXL or Khan Academy. But nothing comes home to even refer to. We will not continue with the tutor, that is for certain.

 

Our district does not allow any outside credit -- homeschooling, online classes, or DE. He will need 3 credits to graduate so he'd need to take 3 classes. He can take 2 classes at CC, that is the limit for HS students. Right now our thought is that for his first semester at CC he would take something in the arts and a P.E. class, so 4 credits.

 

The PS experience has been so bad though that I'd rather not have him there at all.

 

I am not looking to make that decision now. I think we need more information to decide. He is going to take a course at CC this summer, and try some new sports, and look for a job. Hopefully by the time we need to make a decision about PS vs. Homeschool, he will have more info on what the HS option feels like.

 

But I can't push off the math decision. My worry is that if we stop at 2A and choose homeschool it will be difficult to figure out a math choice that makes sense.

[Daria]

I agree that if I knew for sure that he would be taking math at the local HS then the 2A/2B split would be the best choice. But there are lots of other factors that will go into that choice, that are too complex to go into here. We just aren't ready to make that decision now and want to keep both options open until July/August when we will have the information to make the best decision.

 

So, I guess my question becomes, if he takes 2A and stops, and doesn't have the option of a 2B class that's aligned with the 2A, what are the options as a homeschooler?

 

Ideas?

[almondbutterandjelly]

Wow, you definitely have a complex situation going on!  ((hugs))

 

If he takes 2A and stops, you can continue Algebra 2 at home and call it Algebra 2B.  I wouldn't think that would be a problem.  Just find a curriculum and skip the parts he's covered.  Or if you need to start from scratch, then do that.  You can still call it Algebra 2B.  It's fine.