@CaucAsianDad Glad to to hear that things are working out for your D.
In our school, where my kids started in 6th grade, math placement puts kids in Honors in Math and Science and english placement puts kids into Honors in English and Social Studies. The placement is done either Spring of 5th grade or August of 6th grade. Then it stays that way mostly for 7 years. It is rare for kids to move from Honors/AP to Standard or vice versa.
Our elementary school had 3 different math groups beginning 3rd grade. During the first period (math), they move to their leveled-classrooms and then return afterward for the rest of the day. They had reading groups as well and read different books. I did not pay attention to DS’s reading groups much as DS’s started Kindergarten not reading (three years of Montessori preschool was spent on cutting bananas and washing windows, not learning alphabets) and finished K reading. That was good enough for me. DS17 was in the first group from 3rd grade, and in 5th grade they did Pre Algebra. At 6th grade he entered Algebra 1 Honors after a placement test. (This was the interesting placement test where the secondary math teacher told me that DS17 will be in multivariable/diff eq in 12th grade. wait, What? you predict future into 6 years?)
The same elementary school put DS19 into the first group in math. Probably because of DS17. Wrong! During teacher conference the homeroom teacher very apologetically said DS19 will be moved (down) to her third math group.
I could imagine many parents pleading ‘noooo… my snowflake belongs to the first math group!’… I knew DS19 did not belong there. He was adding 2+3 with fingers while the class was multiplying and dividing. I was like what were you teachers thinking? It took him several years to be able to read analog wall clock. I did not realize because there were so many digital clocks at home.
Fast forward two years, DS19 also made it into Algebra 1 Honors and Science Honors in 6th grade and is on the same track as DS17 since then. (I had been very worried that DS19 might be placed into Prealgebra in 6th or back to Algebra 1 at 9th grade as that often happens to some students.) I figure either he caught up or “the math track” has a wide margin.