Reply #6: I am talking about my school system

[exboyfil]

where you have to run a gauntlet just to get into PreAlgebra in 7th grade. I don't want them to reduce the standards of that course or the following courses (which are excellent by the way), but I want a fair opportunity for my children to take these classes. My oldest had to jump a math between 7th and 8th grade to take Algebra in 8th grade (a very stressful situation). She should never had to do this if she had been properly placed in 7th grade. It is not a resource issue, plenty of spaces are available in PreAlgebra. It is the issue of one person using a 4th grade CogAT as her primary driver for all "accleration" decisions.

The second thing this person did was try to deny my oldest oppportunity to double up in Science in 8th grade. We were able to get this to happen over the administrator's objections. A friend of ours was not able to get it to happen even though her daughter was as capable as ours. My oldest has a 4.0 in Junior High so she was obviously trying to be held back for no good reason. She actually had the highest grade in her 9th grade Science which she took as an 8th grader. My youngest took 7th Science this summer just to avoid this situation. They still forced her to take a placement test to test out of 7th Science. She got a higher school on the placement test (96%) than she got on the final for her course (89%).

The gatekeeper is also the Talented and Gifted administrator. A program in which my oldest is in. My youngest is not in the program even though she is now accelerated in two classes (Math and Science), and is being Homeschooled at a 9th grade level in English (she actually helps my 9th grader with her English). I really don't care about the TAG program, but when my youngest daughter gets reintroduced into the school system in English it will probably be at a grade level higher. It is humorous to think that a student is doing above grade level work in three classes but is not classified as Gifted or Talented. Since it requires extra resources to run the program, it is her football and she can decide who gets to play. I will not let this person hold my daughters back in classes which cost the school system nothing (in fact accelerating saves money because they will never take some courses).

I agree that the standards should never be lowered, but I feel that this gatekeeper makes arbritrary decisions not in keeping with the best interests of students. I think I would love having my daughters in your classes. They work very hard, put school work first, and are very talented in other areas (writing and art). I want them to always have two periods of Fine Arts through their school years, and I have done everything that I could to clear room in their schedules early to make this happen.

The stuff you describe is way beyond our school system. I just want my kids to get a couple of AP classes and have access to Art and Music. If I want to send my kids to things like debate camps, art camps, or music camps, it will be on my nickel, and I am not sure that I can make that happen.