<p>At our high school the only seniors can take a strange combination pre-calc (first 6 weeks that meets daily), then AP Calc AB. That means that the only class available for juniors is one semester of trig. No junior is allowed to take trig early and because of space no junior is allowed to take AP Cal so that senior year could be a college dual credit course.
Another problem in general is that only 5 AP courses are offered, and no more than 3 courses each year can be AP or dual credit. We are in an area that mainly sends our kids to junior college or the local branches of the state systems, so most parents don’t fight this. We moved here as outsiders and were shocked that DS had to take Algebra again as an 8th grader when he had completed it in CA as a seventh grader. </p>
<p>We have a modified block schedule where you take four classes each day for longer periods. It is wonderful for advanced science classes and labs, but the day can really drag with a bad teacher.</p>
<p>My daughter had never failed a class, yet when entering high school she did not place into grade level math ( they tested for placement- but did not give her accommodations for testing- we didn’t know).
Because the school could not offer any remedial courses during the school day, her math course was held " 7th period", eliminating any opportunity to use school buses, or participate in most after school activities, including getting tutor help in any of her other classes.
This was not her freshman year, because the school had a special program for students behind in math in 9th grade ( math was poorly taught district wide), but sophomore year, the district forced the school to cut the program, hence the after school class.
( she also couldn’t take the bus in the morning, because she wasn’t scheduled for a class- & the library wasn’t open for students- I either drove her or she took public transportation)</p>
<p>Our district isn’t too awful but because of the state mandated required classes it leaves very little room for enrichment classes or just fun classes (like Astronomy, some interesting English classes etc.) My kids all dropped “band” because it took up too many class times for the entire year which I find alittle sad. </p>
<p>Basically the downfall in our district is kids having to make choices about classes they take for sheer enjoyment or interest and I find that very sad. S2 loves art so took every art class he could but he had to give up a math class is senior year and a science class junior etc. etc. S3 would love to take all the CAD type classes and he’s interested in engineering, but won’t be able to fit them all in over the 4 years. We had one zero hour which was Latin and my two oldest took that all 4 years and had a blast (at least they said the class was a blast - go figure). </p>
<p>I wish the schools would have longer days so the kids could have more choice and able to take more enrichment classes that interest them. Education should not be so prescriptive and just plain old “the same” for all kids. We have trimesters and frankly I would love it if the school would drop all the AP classes (which run for three tris) so the kids had more flexibility. They should have more flexibility to take them classes for sheer joy. My kids hated high school and are loving college (and doing well following their heads and hearts).</p>
<p>Our local school district has eliminated the “honors” level in some classes so the students either have to take the AP class or the regular class. D did fine in the AP level, but a lot of students didn’t.</p>
<p>Also, earth science and biology had both regular and honors levels, but chemistry and physics did not. I could never figure this one out.</p>
<p>My daughters school * did* offer lots of APs & additionally did not require students to be taking all honors classes before they could take one AP course as some other area high schools did.
She ended up taking 4 AP courses & at least that many honors courses. Not bad for someone who had an IEP through middle school ( in our district that says alot)
She even took AP Euro at the same time she was taking remedial math & some of her friends were in both classes.
Her school also allowed students who were on school teams to waive PE. ( She did not have to take any PE classes- beneficial because the only way you could take 4 years of science & 3 years of language was to waive PE)</p>
<p>(1) only 6 periods, which makes it hard to fit in music or art, or extra academic classes. If you do sports, that takes up one of the 6 periods, which makes it almost impossible to do full college-prep academics and participate in sports.</p>
<p>(2) they let kids start Algebra in 7th grade, which leads to AP Calc as a junior, but then there are no higher math classes and only non-calc-based physics & statistics.</p>
<p>(3) homework assigned over every break (including Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring, and Summer breaks)</p>
<p>My kids school offers AP History, a two year class, in 10th and 11th grade. However this year the 10th graders were told there was not an elective class that would fit their schedule so they couldn’t take the history class. Only a few parents complained, myself included, so now they found an elective for these students and the AP History class has five students. Its like the school goes out of its way to set these kids up for failure.</p>
<p>No waiver of pe even if you’re in varsity sports. </p>
<p>No support for ld kids in regular classroom and no team-taught classes except at lowest level. (Practically speaking, that means that most kids with IEP/504s don’t get their accommodations or help unless they are in the lowest level classes.)</p>
<p>Not nearly enough writing or vocab in English class. </p>
<p>Some of the rest just depends on the teachers: some actually go over homework, some don’t really grade.</p>
<p>zapfinao and RacinReaver- I laughed at this one also because we actually transferred our soph. to another district to take advantage of the block schedule. He loves the fact that each class is 90 minutes as he feels it gives them more time to get into the subjects in more depth. He has also been able to finish thru Spanish 4 by the end of his soph year by taking 1 & 2 freshman year and 3 & 4 this year. He will be in AP Sp. 5 his jr. year. The normal schedule includes 3 periods per day, but there are also classes offered at 7 AM if desired; next year he will take Physics AP before school for both semesters. This year instead of taking Euro. Hist. AP one semester and English H. another, they alternate every other day thru the year; as they cover the same time period, the 2 teachers coordinate the material. Having to sometimes go a semester w/o a particular subject has not been an issue for him so far. </p>
<p>The only complaint I could think of w/ our HS is that 2 years of PE are required for graduation. 2 sports can be substituted for one of the years, but they are required to take the other PE. My son participates in 3 varsity sports per school year as well as doing club soccer; seems a bit ridiculous that he was also required to take PE as he is certainly already getting enough activity!!! He would have loved that time to fit in another class.</p>
<p>Count me as another fan of block scheduling. I was skeptical when the school district made the change (before my D’s got to HS), but my kids helped convert me. </p>
<p>I agree that having required PE for varsity athletes is silly.</p>
<p><a href=“2”>QUOTE=mihcal1</a> they let kids start Algebra in 7th grade, which leads to AP Calc as a junior, but then there are no higher math classes
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</p>
<p>This is common. But they should arrange for students who complete calculus in 11th grade to take more advanced math (or calculus-based statistics) at a community college (where credit is more likely to be transferable than if they taught such math in a high school).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Probably because AP statistics is non-calculus-based. Even if the school offered the calculus-based AP physics, it may still be better to do it at community college, since the AP syllabus may not fully cover typical freshman physics.</p>
<p>I love block schedule. 45 minutes per class may be enough for middle school, but not high school.</p>
<p>The PE department was a joke at my HS. It was understaffed and we spent most of our time dancing. Now dancing can give you a good workout (I tried kathak once - look it up, it’s physically demanding), but we focused on line dancing and square dancing. At least I got to waive PE sophomore year and take 3 CC PE classes as a replacement.</p>
<p>EDIT: I forgot, once the teacher was absent. Instead of hiring a sub or giving us anything to do, they just told us to wait for one hour and forty minutes and do nothing. I wish that we could have gone home or something.</p>
<p>Similar problems for both D’s, although in different HS’s:
both D’s exhausted French courses after 11th grade
not enough AP classes (hardly any- all course were honors level or above but not<br>
officially labelled as such)
AP classes were not at all oriented to the tests
no way to excel in English or History- no honors or accelerated options, period.
glaring inconsistencies in material covered, assessments and grading across various
sections (taught by diff teachers) of same courses year after year
no Italian offered at one school
no Musical Theater available at one school
no student-run newspaper at one school
too many special days dedicated to a speaker or an issue
one school moved start of day to 8:30am- yay!, but other school started at 8:00am-
D had to get up at 6:00am to get there… tough for teens!
at one school forced to change advisor every two years
neither school started college advising till Spring of 11th grade- too late IMO
both had almost no free periods and had to cover long distances between classes
course drop/change methods were archaic and political
Ballet program at one school was much too time-consuming: all year -round, no other
arts or sports possible, classes and after-school stuff 6 days a week (might have
been worth it if teaching quality was pre-professional, but it was not.)</p>
<p>I could make equally long list about the things we did like about their schools LOL!</p>
<p>Physics AP and Calc AP-the two hardest classes in the school-are both held in the wonderful times of first and second thing in the morning.</p>
<p>same here & my D’s school started at 7:40.
I can’t imagine the teacher was awake at that hour, let alone the teens that had soccer practice till 9pm.</p>
<p>For the fans of block scheduling, I’m glad it worked out for you and your kids; it just didn’t for my daughter. In her case, I think it was due to the particular school district we were in—they just didn’t offer enough sections of certain courses for her to have taken two consecutive Latin courses in the same year, for example. Even if they had, I understand the advantages in theory, but in practice, I still don’t think that longer classes compensate for the time it takes to consolidate learning in certain subjects, like math or languages. In the end, though, it all worked out for her and she had a very successful high school career.</p>
<p>Foreign language was lacking for us - if I completed Spanish 1 in middle school, I would have to take AP Spanish as a junior, leaving nothing for senior year. Also, we had no AP French.</p>
<p>P.E. was where D learned to play a card game called “Pickle” (?). Some days, they went to the locker room, dressed, and sat on the benches playing cards. There were days they were supposed to be running the track, or at least jogging; but they were allowed to stroll and chat. Better than playing cards in the locker room, I suppose, but I doubt that she broke a sweat 10 times during the school year. </p>
<p>She danced 8-10 hours a week, so I knew she was getting good exercise at the studio. I once called the school to see if dance could fulfill her P.E. requirement, but no, they wanted her to do it their way.</p>