<p>My son got really annoyed with the baby doll wailing, wrapped it in blankets and hid it in the closet all night. The “abuse” light went off. I think he had to take the baby home again to try to not abuse it so he gave it to his sister to take care of. I’m glad I raised him to be so sensitive.</p>
<p>UMDAD and QuantMech - Our very large school district (750-800 in each graduating class) had no enrichment or acceleration at all for math until 8th grade, when Algebra 1 was offered to about the top 30% or so. The highest math offered in our school is Calc AB, which is a senior course. It is not possible to accelerate faster or to take classes at local colleges, due to the scheduling and location of our h.s. Our son is very talented in math and was bored to death for years. Luckily, he is not a behavior problem, or we could have had a disastrous problem on our hands. He was very taken aback when he attended a summer program (our state’s Governor’s School for Science) after his junior year and found out that most of the other students (all from our state) had studied calculus already in their high schools. So our issues with our school’s math program were a little bigger than being notified of a math contest!</p>
<p>Thank god our SD does not have the money to buy those annoying dolls! D had to take care of a small sack of flour in 6th grade, that’s all.</p>
<p>My biggest issue? My D’s class is the guinea pigs of our revamped state graduation requirements! First, it was the WASL test (pass the math or no diploma, oh, wait, if that’s the case, half of our kids would not graduate, so let’s pospone this!), now it is the “culminating project”!</p>
<p>BunsenBurner - that is what our school district does as well - the kids in high school carry around a sack of flour for a week. Rumor has it they are trying to raise funds to purchase those dolls though. Hopefully, it will take many, many years because I think my son is one of those boys who would stick it in the closet and forget about it.</p>
<p>WashDadJr’s high school was one of the first in the state if Washington to require a senior culminating project. I cannot tell you what an unrelenting disaster that is. Have they inflicted “Level Five essays” on your children yet? The CP is not the worst of it…</p>
<p>Sheesh, I’m glad my youngest is graduating high school this year before our school district latches onto any of this stuff (other than the mandatory testing, which is his strong suit anyway.) Counting my blessings, you betcha. He might just have weighted down one of those dolls in a filled bathtub to see how long it took to stop squawking.</p>
<p>^^MotherofTwo</p>
<p>You are right–the problems with math could have been a lot worse. We were lucky in our proximity to a university. I think your school’s system is a disservice to students who are interested in pursuing science or math in college.</p>
<p>It was the bureaucratic approach of the school that eventually became annoying, though. After the Math Field Day, with QMP listed as “unexcused,” I went to the attendance office in person with QMP’s certificate of participation, name tag (stick-on, used), program, and medal (!). Response: Sorry, we can’t use parents’ information; only the teacher can file the excuse. Meanwhile, QMP and another math team member had missed a physics test that was supposed to be made up that day . . . but the physics teacher had a policy against permitting “unexcused” students to make up exams. All was resolved amicably; and the physics teacher is actually a hero in my book. But it was just one instance of the kind of “absurdity” from which I’m still recuperating. There were others.</p>
<p>QuantMech, it sounds like your school’s attendance office person and the one from our high school went to the same Attendance Policies from H*** bootcamp! Jeez.</p>
<p>This is a middle school issue more than a high school issue, but…</p>
<p>When I was in middle school, my mother decided to take my brother (LD) and I (“advanced learner,” to quote the SD) out of the normal public school track and put us in the alternate, which actively and lovingly supported those with learning “problems” but did nothing for anyone who was “gifted”. (Can you tell that I HATE the terminology they used to describe kids?)</p>
<p>When I got back into the normal school for 7th-8th grade, they refused to put me in the upper level “advanced” classes, despite the fact that I tested well above the minimum scores, saying that since I didn’t take the classes in 4th-6th grade, I couldn’t just jump in because it was “unfair” to the students already in the classes. </p>
<p>HELLO! I didn’t have a choice. My mom sent up quite the storm, but it didn’t change a thing. And, because I wasn’t in the “advanced” classes in middle school, I could only take 2 honors classes as a freshman. >.></p>
<p>Oh well, I guess being one of 8 NM candidates at my school showed them 
<em>is vindictive</em></p>
<p>“I couldn’t just jump in because it was “unfair” to the students already in the classes.”</p>
<p>GRR! I feel you on this one. When I started at a new school in 7th grade, they had a policy that new kids had to be in regular math, not accelerated math, no matter what their scores or abilities might be. We argued and argued, and finally they let me switch math classes after a few weeks.</p>
<p>“Oh well, I guess being one of 8 NM candidates at my school showed them <em>is vindictive</em>”</p>
<p>That’s how I felt when, later in my 7th grade year, the whole middle school took the American Junior High School Mathematics Exam, and I placed first…beating all the 8th graders. There wasn’t much that went well for me at that school, so I did take some pride in that. :)</p>
<p>Mechales, at least you were able to take 2 honors classes as a freshman. Our public school district doesn’t offer any honors classes for freshmen, and only 1 (language arts) for sophomores. Our administration is completely absurd in their thinking. Apparently, the high end kids are needed in classes because they are positive role models for the struggling students. While that’s nice & all, it doesn’t exactly address the needs of the high end kids. I was incredibly active (unsuccessfully) in trying to bring about change while my oldest was in middle school. When a friend’s high achieving son was getting ready to enter middle school, she met with the deputy superintendent to address her concerns that his needs would not be met. She mentioned my struggles. The d.s. actually said that I “didn’t advocate well enough” for my child. Short of actually hiring/firing staff, I had done EVERYTHING possible to affect positive change. I was livid. That’s when H & I decided that we would send our kids to private school, even though it was a very difficult move financially.</p>
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<p>You ever think it had something to do with not having funding?!?</p>
<p>I wish we had an Anatomy and Physiology class at my high school. Instead, we had 3 separate biology classes: Regular biology, Honors Biology, and Advanced Biology Honors. You had to take either Regular or Honors Biology. Then we also had Regular Chemistry, Honors Chemistry, Organic Chemistry Honors, and Chem 2 Honors. You had to take Regular or Honors Chemistry. </p>
<p>My point here is that though we had honors and regular classes it didn’t exactly fit my needs or desires.</p>
<p>Our high school doesn’t believe in honors classes for freshmen (even though there is advanced math and English in the middle school.) Luckily they often seem to do some tracking in English and Social Studies though they claim not to and the kids who were tracked into high school math and science in middle school get to have honors classes in 9th grade because they are “really 10th grade classes.”</p>
<p>hops, it has nothing to do with funding. There are enough students to put together honors classes. Believe me, I made it my business to know everything about the budget, etc. so I am able to state that it is attitude, not necessity, that prevents our district from offering honors classes. My son actually does attend a public high school (his request, after attending a private middle school). We were fortunate to get him into a neighboring district (bus stop within walking distance) that has honors courses in language arts, math, science beginning freshman year & allows sophomores to take APUSH instead of regular USH (home district requires regular USH as a prereq for APUSH). </p>
<p>I sub in my home district, and I routinely have classes of 4-10 students for special ed — 4 for ESOL — 10 for non-special ed learning support (kids who failed state exams in 8th grade). If this can be done, I think it’s absurd that honors can’t be offered to those who “need” them … particularly when they would have the typical 33-35 students a regular class has.</p>
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<p>UMDAD, is this the MMPC?</p>
<p>WashDad, if there is a “Level 5” essay at my D school, I would have heard about it by now! What the heck is it?
WASL was not that bad. D was sick after her spring break trip but still passes all 4 sections and got a “WASL Certificate of Excellence” which will be proudly displayed with similar awards given to us by our bosses (Employee of the Month, etc.) on our “Wall of Fame” (bathroom wall above the toilet). CP is a different issue. Our SD decided to take it very seriously (I had a separate thread on it a couple of month ago), and DD had a terrible time trying to cram her leftover college applications, Christmas trip and CP prep into her winter break.</p>
<p>I would not even go into the sorry state of math education in our SD (and in WA in general). The idea of adopting Core Math as the HS math curriculum was the most ridiculous one ever!</p>
<p>Ah, Core Plus … one of those “math for people who aren’t good at math” classes. My previous post talked about the fact that I had worked unsuccessfully to make changes in our district. Math was the issue about which I was most passionate. I did research & met with the district math consultant, deputy superintendent, and superintendent … spoke at many school board meetings … wrote letters … tried to rally other parents to the cause. In the end, I wasn’t able to bring about change. Lo & behold, last year the district decided to phase out the integrated program and returned to the traditional math sequence. The math teachers breathed a huge sigh of relief, the community college profs cheered, and I wondered why so many kids had needlessly been denied a decent math background. Another absurd high school issue!</p>
<p>Ohh–the health class “babies”!</p>
<p>Our HS used to have these and 2 of my kids got to experience the torture, along with the rest of the family. One S had a malfunctioning baby. He did all the right things and it still wouldn’t shut up so we turned it off. I had to write a note to the teacher saying my son was really a good father… :o</p>
<p>Ugghh…the Senior Project that our School system requires is ridiculous. It requires a big research paper and then a 6-9 minutes presentation of the paper and a “product” the student has developed in support of his position taken in the the paper. The presentation is done in the school library in front of a panel of 2 random volunteer community members and 1 school faculty member who judge and grade these kids. Anybody from the community can volunteer and there is no training or guidelines (at least at our sch) as to the grading. I know because DH did it one year. So various teachers and community members grade the 100’s of seniors throughout the week. It is SO subjective and unfair. H said the girls who cried because they were so nervous got sympathy points from volunteers! </p>
<p>It counts a good deal toward the final English grade so can really hurt the student if he gets wacky parent judges or maybe they just don’t like the presentation (S1 said the two Moms who graded his had a very perplexed look on their faces the whole time he was explaining how nuclear power worked which may have contributed to the “B” he receieved on what DH (engineer) thought was an excellent presentation).</p>
<p>The worst part is that few sch. systems in our state require this silly project that can really impact the Jr year (when paper is written) and Sr. year (when presentation is given) English grade.</p>
<p>PackMom, what you’ve described here sounds similar to what %@$#& CP involves at our SD: research, paper, “product”, and then presentation in PowerPoint in front of a panel of judges. The biggest difference is that the project is not graded. It is a lot of busywork that takes away valuable class time (there were CP “meetings” once or twice a month).</p>