Hi,
My 8th grader is in a very small, school district that prides itself on being academically strong. My kid has always been good in math and science and aspires to going to a good engineering school for college. Unfortunately, he was shut out of honors biology for 9th grade. Our district requires this course as the prerequistie to honors chemistry in 10th, and from there, the AP science sequence. I have been told that once a kid is off the honors track in science in our district, it is close to impossible to get back on. The cutoff is a 90 average for the first two quarters of the year only, and my son ended up with an 88, mainly due to misplaced labs in the second quarter. He always gets in the high 90’s on the tests but is disorganized and has problems with losing lab sheets. We are filing an appeal, but so far the school will not budge on this. My son did qualify for honors geometry (he is in honors algebra right now, with an A) so happily he is still on that track.
Has anyone ever encountered such a strict district? Does anyone have tips for getting my kid back onto the AP science track? I have heard of students taking online courses but have no idea where we would find something that would prove to the district that he can handle the AP science track. Or should he look at a college course? If he self studied for the SAT II Biology test, which the honors biology students all take at the end of the year, would he have any hope of doing well enough on it?
My son is aspiring to engineering schools such as SUNY Stony Brook, Renesselaer Polytech, or NJIT. He is also working hard on getting better organized so this never happens again. He was a straight A student in 6th and 7th grade. Is there any hope of getting into these engineering programs without any AP science courses?
Stony Brook does not mention any requirement for AP science courses, although for engineering applicants, good performance in high school calculus and physics and high scores on the math sections of the SAT or ACT are preferred. See http://stonybrook.edu/undergraduate-admissions/apply/freshman/ .
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, a small engineering-focused school, is not difficult to get admitted to and does not require any AP courses to prepare (although there is an art requirement): http://www.sdsmt.edu/Admissions/Apply/Admissions-Requirements/
As a parent of an 8th grader, be sure to review, and adjust if necessary, your financial plan for contributing to your kid’s college costs. Run the net price calculator on the web site of the colleges you mentioned to get preliminary idea of what financial aid may look like, but remember that things can change significantly over the next few years.
You do not want to be the parent who, in April of the kid’s 12th grade year (when it is too late to adjust the application list to seek financial aid and scholarships), has to break the bad news that most or all of the kid’s admissions are to schools that are too expensive.
Not sure why aggressive weeding would help the high school’s prestige, since that means that fewer students are taking AP courses and tests (a common measure of high school prestige, however flawed).
There is a difference between minimum required and what is really preferred. And I don’t really see him in a place like South Dakota. He is really hoping to go to Cooper Union in NYC, iin fact.
My son had problems in 8th grade with keeping track of assignments (generally did well on tests but those 0s are killer in the GPA). We worked on that a lot this year (9th grade) and he is much better.
We live in a district where everybody believes their kid is basically better than anyone elses. The parents start in grade school demanding specific teachers, special attention etc. We moved in when our kids were headed to middle school. Many of our teachers live in the district and therefore have parents who are their friends and students who are their kids best friends. Lots of back room dealing that we were unaware of.
So. You pay taxes too, your kid is entitled to the best the district has to offer. You will not allow your kid to be left behind. Ask them to show you how your kid can get back on the AP track if he is denied now. Have them show you the actual progression. If it is impossible which it probably is then demand he gets into the AP track now. Or just demand it anyway.
State that you are willing to sign a paper that if he does poorly you will not blame the school or teacher. If they say no go to the principal, then the administration and then the school board.
Make noise. They will give you what you want to shut you up. Heaven forbid you tell other parents what you are trying to do.
Now, you have to live with the consequences of your actions. If he can’t cut it, it is because you have put him in a position to do poorly.
So go ahead, make your demands, get him moved into the AP track and then get him tutoring or help if he needs it.
Some of the kids will fall out of AP along the way. Good luck.
By your description of your child, I have to ask if you have every wondered about ADHD. Underdiagnosed in “smart kids” who can do the easier work in early grades, it gets tougher as work more closely approximates their ability level. Just saying. DD is very, very bright - we took her to be evaluated and they said “maybe yes maybe no.” We elected to do a trial to see if it helped - it was night and day. Also would consider teaching him organizational strategies - even if he is not ADHD these are key skills that are picked up at dififerent rates by different kids.
Meaning this completely seriously, not snarkily: But where does he see himself?
That’s a rather more important question, says this individual who was always told he was smart, and therefore had to apply to engineering programs—and after unhappily spending his freshman year as an engineering major, is now (20some years later) very happily not an engineer.
This is a double edged sword. You say he missed it by two points because he is disorganized, not because he is not smart. Well, there are a lot of smart people in the world who do not apply themselves and do not get ahead. Now on the good side, this is just the 9th grade and he can do much to get himself back on track. This has probably taught him a lesson. However, if you go above and beyond to fix this for him, what he is learning is that you will fix things for him no matter what he does, even if it is his fault. This will not bode well for upper grades in high school or college. Engineering programs at school are infamous for derailing kids for missing cut offs by a point or two.
The fact that you are involved and encouraging him to get back on track is probably the best thing for him right now. Have faith, it will work out.
OP: As shoot4moom mentioned - WRITE A LETTER to get them to suggest an alternative or two to allow your son to qualify. I am not going to diagnose anything - but I do know that sometimes teachers can be wrong!
You could also “perform an audit” and cross check your son’s grades with what the teacher gave him credit for. One of my kids was a victim of Math Teacher Error - the recorded grades were those from the kid listed alphabetically below - almost cost them entry into higher level math sequence! Problem was noticed, grade corrected and they are now a successful engineer. Good Luck!
Is not taking honors bio really keep him out of all AP options for all of HS? For us, bio is the normal 10th grade track. Kids do an IPS class in 9th (either honors or regular) and then bio, or honors in 10th.
The only way for a 9th grader to get into honors bio is to have tested out of IPS in 8th grade and then tested out at a level that allowed for them to qualify for honors bio. Which if memory serves this year was 14 freshman in total.
While I have one kid on that track, the other one is not. He did Honors IPS, then regular bio (Honors Bio at our HS has a monster monster project in it that kills kids gpa’s and requires a ridiculous amount of organization skills). For 11th he is currently in AP Physics which he was able to do with an A coming out of regular Bio and next year will have APES. What are his class options for 11th and 12th if he is not successful on appeal?
To me it would seem that if he can demonstrate success, coming in well above that 90 cut off for the remainder of they year your chances of appeal are greater.
If he is limited to the regular track and takes science all four years and does well in those classes, he will have plenty of options. AP tests can be taken via self study as well. 8th grade seems incredibly early to be considering college courses to supplement.
I had a similar experience when I was an incoming freshman (not quite 50 years ago) and was locked out of Honors Bio. My parents negotiated a deal where I was placed in regular bio. If (and when!) I got an A first quarter, I would be moved to the Honors section. It was a bit cumbersome because guidance etc. didn’t expect they were going to have to “honor” their agreement, but they did honor it, although I had to drop an elective to make it work.
Yep, our school does this. The cutoff is the cutoff. Right now the cutoff for getting into AP Calculus BC is a 94. I think this is ridiculously high. Older D (who has an 87 in AP Calc AB currently) said “that’s fine, I’ll do AP stats instead”.
When the girls were in middle school I used the cutoff numbers to my advantage because the schools did a combination of cutoff numbers and teacher recommendations. The teachers NEVER recommended the girls for the hardest math or science, and I always fought it by using their test scores and grades.
You might try and get a teacher recommendation, I suppose it could work the other way around.
I would also say if your kid knew he needed a 90, and he was still misplacing labs and other stuff, then it’s going to get a lot harder for him in honors bio because it’s a veritable blizzard of paperwork. Younger D did honors bio, got a C in it, and switched to regular chem this year where she has a 97 average. She said she was tired of all the paperwork and just wanted to do labs.
So, sometimes kids will tell you, without actually telling you, where they need to be.
He doesn’t have ADHD. He has been tested. He does have severe hearing loss and is on a 504 for that. We have had some issues with compliance but it is pretty hard to pin the fact that he lost the lab sheets on hearing loss. Before this year, in fact, he was really good at getting everything in. I think he is just a typical 8th grader.
And this very typical 8th grader could change his mind about engineering as a college major ten times between now and when he actually attends college.
Write a letter and ask for reconsideration for this course. It’s the best you can do.
There will be options for online courses and the like as your kid progresses through HS.
I am pretty familiar with what it takes to succeed in the later courses beause i have an older kid. My older kid, who DOES have ADHD, just slid into bio honors, but then actually found it much easier from an organizational point of view than the 8th grade science. course. He did really well in it and scored an 800 on the SAT II Biology test that June. On the other hand, he also flubbed AP history, and dropped it midyear - and that was fine. At least he had the chance to try. There is a difference in my mind between taking the course and not doing well, vs not even being allowed the chance to take it.
I second @sax. If your child missed the cut off by two points, make nose. Fight for your child. Demand to know the procedure. I would say one of my biggest regrets is not fighting more for my kid in these things. I did it when I absolutely knew it was a make or break situation.
I was told, later, demanding parents got what they wanted for their kid). It’s similar to the Easter Egg Hunt debacle when parents grab all the eggs for their kids (and screw the other kids who may have suffered as a consequence).
This didn’t happen to me but to friends of mine. They didn’t know any better so when their oldest son missed some cutoff by two points, they just accepted it. And he never was able to get back on the honors/ AP track. What they found out (too late) was if they had petitioned, the school administration would have okayed the switch to honors. So, when their second child missed the cut off by a point oR two, they petitioned and he was allowed in.