<p>Again, I think it really depends on the school.
Placing into 9th grade is easier than in k-8 because the classes are discrete. S1 had no trouble at all being placed in all Honors classes in 9th grade (including Honors Algebra II and Honors science classes) at the recommendation of 8th grade teachers. That was standard placement for good students.
S2 was able to be placed into AP classes by showing prior preparation.
I’d suggest talking to the GC and to the dean of curriculum/head of department, showing samples of prior work and curricula. In our district, placement is done in April. Now would be a good time to begin discussions.</p>
<p>One thing that worked miracles for us as far as placement for 9th grade were my daughter’s ACT & SAT scores from 7th grade talent search.</p>
<p>Once the counselor saw them, all the concerns she had about letting my daughter enroll in harder courses pretty much evaporated.</p>
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I completely agree.</p>
<p>This is one of my biggest regrets - and I don’t have very many - relating to my high school experience. I love to run and don’t care about competition, so I didn’t see any reason to join a team when I could just ride the bus home and run myself. I was right when it comes to exercise, but I do feel like I missed out on the social dynamic that comes from school sports.</p>
<p>If your son is interested in scientific research, I would also recommend looking into research opportunities EARLY. Failing to start that search until junior year is my #2 regret.</p>
<p>Finally, make it clear from the beginning that you care about getting a rigorous schedule for your son and will not settle for the status quo. Don’t worry about the “rules” for scheduling; if he has the ability and the inclination for a course, make sure he gets it.</p>
<p>wow, at our h.s. any student can sign up for honors classes. No proof of smarts needed.
They just have to realize that there will be more work involved.<br>
It’s pretty much the same for AP’s as long as they have any pre-reqs. required.</p>
<p>A few times when my kids’ schedules came out wacky, I did have to get involved by contacting the GC. They tend to pay a little more attention to parents that fifteen year olds’ complaints.</p>
<p>All of my kids went to a small private up to 8th grade, and entered the larger public HS at 9th grade. I’m sure it was difficult for them the first week or so (who to eat with at lunch, not knowing anyone in most of their classes) but the important thing was to get involved in something, anything. </p>
<p>They were so excited to learn there were other kids out there with the same interests in drama, math, choir, or yes, cross country…and so many more clubs available that they hadn’t even dreamed of, that the transition was not that difficult. </p>
<p>After about the first week they realized they were seeing many of the same faces in their (honors) classes!</p>
<p>I second the Musical Theatre idea. Theatre kids are really really accepting and generally are a little bit “offbeat”. There are a bunch of really nice kids who will accept anyone</p>
<p>When it comes to placement, do your homework on the public school courses and do NOT take no for an answer if they fight you on it. When my oldest was going into 9th, I accepted what the GC said and because they have “math tracks”, there is no way my son will be able to take calc or pre calc. Hold your ground and do what is right for your son.</p>
<p>Ask your child’s 8th grade teachers where he should be placed for 9th grade. Most K-8th privates worth their tuition are knowledgeable about the rigor of each high school in your area and can make appropriate suggestions or even research it for you. They are in a better position to know your child’s abilities than the high school GC.</p>
<p>I don’t that I’d ask other mothers what clothing is in. I’d drive by the HS at the end of last period and take a gander at what is coming out the door. At our public HS you can’t go wrong with a pair of jeans and a cheeky (dark) tshirt. Best T’s are edgy but can’t have anything sexual or alcohol related. </p>
<p>Tell student that he can pick two activities to try now or you will sign him up for two at the end of the first week of school (that ought to get him motivated!). Check the HS calendar. Many sports actually start as much as two weeks before the first day of class. Also ask if there is a link assembly or link day when incoming freshmen spend some time together. This is also at the end of the summer. Too many families don’t check, their frosh misses these opportunities and they find a lot has been happening before the first day of school. </p>
<p>I will put a plug in for debate team. Often the refuge of the intelligent and articulate. IT has the added benefit of being an enormously useful skill if one want to campaign against parental policies on curfew, getting a car, etc. Tell him you respect a well honed campaign (even if the answer is still “No”).</p>
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<p>I found this out the hard way for my D. Push for what you know your son can do.</p>
<p>S-2 transitioned from a tiny, rural day school to a large suburban public high school, starting in Grade 9. Some of Marian’s experiences struck a chord with me. </p>
<p>His entire school (K-8) only had 90 students, and every teacher knew every child inside-out. His H.S. had around 750 students in 4 grades.</p>
<p>Your initial “lazy” comment popped out at me. Please don’t say that to the GC or any teacher, lest he be pegged early on. Let him know that, in general, he won’t be able to talk his way out of late papers (if he did so in private school) because the teachers have many more students, plus they expect high schoolers to be timely. Some of what you might chalk up to being public school may in fact be the transition to High School. It’s like getting married and moving to a new region at the same time; you can’t always figure out which change is causing the new expectation.</p>
<p>We found the biggest difference academically was personal organization/responsibility. In private school, our S was used to everyone taking the same classes, moving hall to hall with the same kids, having the same assignments. At night they’d phone each other up, and the more organized ones reminded him what was due. </p>
<p>S said for him, the biggest change was how everyone runs on different personal schedules in high school. </p>
<p>We had to teach him to use a Planner to jot down homework assignmentsm and check when he handed them in. Also, the public Middle School kids had a lot of training on using these Planners. Until we read him the riot act about recording his assignments, he nearly tanked at the start of 9th grade. Other skills, such as learning to note peoples’ phone numbers (one for each class) to check on assignments for absent days, is important. Not easy when one is the new kid, but necessary to success.</p>
<p>The other thing is to be very positive about what the public schools offer. Our son greatly enjoyed the larger environment, choice of afterschool activities and more. In his private school, they had cultivated a mistrust of public schools as “dangerous” which they were and weren’t, depending on one’s friendship circle. If he’s a bit afraid of the publics, just cheerlead a bit about the positives (even if you have frustrations yourself) for a while, so he establishes himself there productively.</p>
<p>If he has any organization issues, such as keeping his bookbag papers straight, or coping with a locker, help him with that. The public school kids will be accustomed to that more than he, perhaps. </p>
<p>Will he start using a public school bus for the first time?</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for the advice. We don’t have a bus system. The current school does offer a Planner, which I have never seen my son using, since all the homework is usually online. I do anticipate a huge uphill battle for my son’s placement, since his grades are average and don’t reflect his understanding of the subject. The new HS says they’ll go by the transcript, so I am planning to bring his SAT scores to help his case. This district is planning huge cuts soon so everything will be a struggle. For example, he’s in Honors science class which uses HS textbook and covers the whole book in a year, but since it shows as a “Science” class and not Bio, the HS wants us to take Bio again, and they don’t even offer the honors level.</p>
<p>Can you get his current “Science” (really Bio) teacher to write a formal letter, or give an outline of topics covered, to demonstrate it was H.S. level Bio? And name the textbook. Presenting his letter might be stronger than your saying those same words.</p>
<p>You might find out, instead, that the H.S. textbook was only used as a resource, and the current Bio teacher advises there’s more to learn in H.S. level Bio than he taught.</p>
<p>Why are you moving the child to a public school?</p>
<p>To the OP–we moved to one of the best school districts a couple of years before our eldest hit HS. (They all went to private K-8.) All my kids were high-achieving and I can’t imagine them being in a “middle of the pack” HS without sticking out like sore thumbs or, conversely, not being challenged.</p>
<p>The fact that the HS you are considering doesn’t offer Honors level 9th grade Bio is a red flag to me. I would think about another high school, if it is at all possible. (Understanding that moving isn’t always an option, esp. in this economy.)</p>
<p>paying3–you suggestions are spot on. I had forgotten some of the issues–no more everyone having the same schedule and taking care of each other!</p>
<p>Unless you live in a place that has been immune to the economic downturn, most public schools will be facing cuts. What those cuts are and how deep, in most places, are just being figured out. If you are in public school, flexibility is going to be key. Being a strong advocate for your child is also going to be important.</p>
<p>Sometimes things can be so frustrating, but in our region the accrediting agency has really strict requirements for what counts as a Carnegie unit. My child’s private middle school, wanting to implement the ability to take one year of high school science in 8th grade for credit, has had to change the entire school schedule for next year, because the current schedule doesn’t have enough minutes in each course to earn that Carnegie unit.</p>
<p>In addition, our state explicitly requires biology to graduate. Frankly, I might let him take biology and earn the A. High school is going to be a huge adjustment anyway.</p>
<p>The planner thing is key. You can explore the school’s website now to see how/if homework is posted. I would say at least 50 percent of the teacher’s at my son’s public high school don’t use websites. I am not so sure this is such a bad thing as most college professors don’t use website either, do they?</p>
<p>Since you know he will be going to this HS in the fall, get in touch with the guidance office and the PSTA now. Join the parents’ listserve if there is one. Ask about any upcoming meetings about course planning or registration. Our HS will hold this kind of parent meeting for current students next week! Yes, I know it’s January, but that’s their schedule. I don’t know when the meetings are at the middle schools, but they can’t be far behind. You could attend the parent/child planning meeting that is held at the middle school your son would be in if he were in the public system already and get the information that those families are receiving now, rather than later.</p>
<p>Happykid is a Senior this year, and Stage Manager at her 2000+ student HS. Her new best friend is a freshman light crew member who arrived from a local private school in the fall. He has adapted extremely well. While his older brothers all made the same change, so his family knew what they were getting into, it is clear that his warm, cheerful personality has made a difference for him as an individual. The upper-class members of the stage crew got over their “what is this 9th grader doing here with us at lunch?” issues within the first week. How exactly he found the rest of the stage crew so quickly, is beyond me. He must have asked.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>You’re probably going to lose on the bio issue. In many school districts, biology is required for graduation. A middle-school course labeled “science” isn’t going to fulfill that requirement, even if a high school biology textbook was used.</p>
<p>At our HS, almost all of the teachers post assignments on Blackboard. It has gone to the other extreme–S missed an assignment one night when the teacher forgot to tell the kids in class, but put it on BB. He didn’t check online that night and the teacher insisted he was at fault. C’est la vie.</p>
<p>Bio.is required for graduation here also, as is Alg.1. Our state has certain h.s. courses that require state wide end of course exams. Bio. and Alg1 are two of those. So if a kid takes Alg1 in m.s., they must have taken and passed the state end of course exam for it to count as h.s. credit toward graduation. May be the same with Bio. (not taught in m.s. here) where you live,OP.</p>