Do you remember how much math was the absolute minimum you needed to graduate when

[golfgal]

What interesting to me is that now, with all the credits that are required, one of my dear relations has flunked 1 class. He can make up this class and still pass in 4 years. If he doesn't, he has to make it up on his own time and dime or spend 5 years in HS. That just seems. . .well. Guaranteed to produce drop outs.

Another dear relation is taking her 9th grade classes in the 8th grade. (She is very smart, but the truth is that her BFF is Wile E. Coyote, supergenius; and they just do everything together, including taking supergenius type classes.) As those classes don't count for "credits" but do count in the progression of classes, she won't be allowed to graduate in the 11th grade. Instead, somehow or other, she'll take college classes and then graduate with her grade. It doesn't make a ton of sense to me, but somehow or other, so long as she goes to a public school in Louisiana or a school that recognizes their credits, she will start college as a sophomore (It's not AP classes, because the other dear relation is taking those.) I'm still wondering when Harry Hill will pop out of a train, because if this is true, why aren't more students taking advantage of it? I'm hoping it means the HS ships her off to one of the community college campuses her senior year, which would give her a good transition period between itsy small town life and college. We will see!

This isn't uncommon at all. Most states have some kind of post-secondary option where kids take classes that count for both high school credit and college credits. A lot of kids that do this start college with a sophomore or junior standing. In our town the kids can take classes on the college campus or many of the classes are taught right in the high school. Most of the college bound kids in our high school take advantage of these. They take a combination of AP/CIC (college in school classes) starting freshman/sophomore year. The advantage of taking these CIS classes is that the classes are free (you don't even have to pay for books in our state but others you do).

 

[browneyes106]

I graduated in 2003 and my school required three math credits. Our school used our middle school records and test scores to place us in classes. Students who weren't great at math usually took Alegbra I, Alegbra II and Geometry. Students who had taken alegbra I in middle school started with Geometry in their freshman year, Alegbra II during their sophmore year and trignometry or statistics in their junior year. I took geometry my freshman year and the next year we were given the option of taking two math classes so I took alegbra II and trignometry and I took statistics during my junior year and pre-calculus during my senior year.

 

[pandaroo]

We were only required to take one math and one science. I took four of each.

Math - algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculus

Science - earth science, biology, chemistry and physics

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I took Algebra in 8th grade. Then it was Geometry, Algebra 2, Trig and Elementary Analysis (kind of a precursor to Calculus). I needed a lot of math since I was going into a technical field but 2 years was the minimum.

DS is now taking Pre-Calculus and it's his fourth year of math. His school only requires a minimum of 2 years but pushes 4 if you plan to go to college.

WHY can DISD not allow kids to graduate with 2 years of math? WHY are they requiring 4 years of all 4 core subjects unless the child is identified as "high risk for drop out"? Have they stopped to wonder WHY the drop-out rate is like 1 in 3? Could it be, oh, maybe because they require SO MUCH FLIPPIN' MATH???

It irritates me that neighboring districts can have such variable requirements. I have been browsing college entry requirements, and contrary to DISD rhetoric, there ARE colleges that will take kids with less than 4 years of math. If DS promises to only apply to THOSE colleges then WHY does he need to have 4 years of math to get out of high school? Not fair, not fair.

 

[powellrj]

I graduated in 77 and had to take 2 years of Math and it could even be general math which I don't think they even offer anymore. We could graduate with 36 credits and that included the credits for classes like Majorettes, Drivers Ed and Recreation!

No wonder I loved High School!

 

[DawnM]

Interesting that there is so much variation, even among those of us who graduated around the same time.

My high school did not have tracks....everyone was on the "college prep" track.

We also did not have AP or Honors at my school in the early 80's. So, a 4.0 meant you had perfect scores on everything. BTW: I did NOT have a 4.0. In high school I was a little more concerned about my social life than my academic life!

Dawn

 

[bookgirl]

you were in high school?

When I was in high school only two years of math were required. I took Algebra in 9th grade and Geometry in 10th grade.

Now, many of my friends went on to take more, but I did NOT! I hated math. I believe I only took two sciences too. It may have been three.

The thread on making schools better sparked my curiosity.

Dawn

Ditto! 2 years, I took Algebra and Geometry as well. We had two years of science UNLESS you took a lab science (Biology) then you only had to have 1. We also had to have at least 1 year of PE (or two marching band), 2 years History, 1 year Forign Language and 4 years English. All the other were electives. We had lots of room for Electives. LOL

Class of '84

 

[missypie]

That's a complicated question.

When I graduated in 1988 I think the requirement must have been 3. That was in FL.

DS is a freshman, and it looks like 3 at the very, very least. The district is pushing "4x4", which is math, English, social studies, and science all 4 years of high school for everybody, no matter what. The graduation requirements do have one plan that allows just 3 math credits, but that is the plan they are using to target kids who would drop out otherwise. Typical students will not be allowed to just do 3 math credits.

DS is in algebra now. Next year he will take geometry. After that there is a class called "math models" that his high school does not offer. I suspect it is a course similar to one I took called "liberal arts math". I haven't asked how he can take that if they don't offer it. The kids can only get one semester of credit in summer school, and that is a year long course. Math models MUST be completed before algebra II, so I will need to figure this out by the end of his sophomore year.

Are you in my school district? This sounds VERY familiar. 4x4 is state law.

I took two years. What irritated the heck out of me is when the counselors would talk at parents night and say that to be successful in college, you need four years of math. Well, two years in HS and basically none in college didn't prevent me from graduating near the top of my class in law school. (Many attorneys will admit that they went to law school because they couldn't do math.)

 

[missypie]

Jackskellingtonsgirl,

From Texas Education Agency June 25, 2009 With the passage of House Bill (HB) 3, new graduation requirements will take effect on September 1, 2009. These new requirements supersede the graduation requirements in 19 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) Chapter 74.


Recommended High School Program (RHSP) and Distinguished Achievement Program (DAP) For the recommended (RHSP) and advanced (DAP) high school programs, the total number of credits required for graduation and the requirement of 4 credits in the 4 foundation areas of mathematics, English language arts, science, and social studies/economics did not change. HB 3 changes include: • providing more flexibility in the enrichment areas of the RHSP by increasing the number of elective credits to 6, requiring 1 credit of physical education, 2 credits of a language other than English (LOTE), and 1 credit of fine arts; and • providing more flexibility in the enrichment areas in the DAP by increasing the number of elective credits to 5, requiring 1 credit of physical education, 3 credits of LOTE, and 1 credit of fine arts.

 

[CoP Luv]

I went to a private college-prep high school. We needed 3 math and 3 science to graduate, but the college I went to required 4 of each for admission.

I took:

9th - Geometry
10th - Alg. II and Trig
11th - Pre-Calc. & C++ Language (counted as math)
12th - Calc.

Science: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Anatomy

 

[Disneywedding2010]

I went to public high school from 98 - 2002. I had to have 3 math credits in order to graduate.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Are you in my school district? This sounds VERY familiar. 4x4 is state law.

I took two years. What irritated the heck out of me is when the counselors would talk at parents night and say that to be successful in college, you need four years of math. Well, two years in HS and basically none in college didn't prevent me from graduating near the top of my class in law school. (Many attorneys will admit that they went to law school because they couldn't do math.)

We are in Dallas ISD. Recommended and Distinguished DO require 4x4. But the district has a dirty little secret called "Minimum". It does NOT require 4x4, it does NOT require foreign language, and he total number of credits overall is lower. BUT you have to jump through LOTS of hoops to get your child on the "minimum" plan. DS has just been in high school for 3 weeks so I haven't approached the counselors yet.

My cousin is an attorney, and she chose that partly because there was no math on the LSAT.

I am still waiting for someone to tell me this:
Is it better to take math courses you can NOT pass and let it ruin your GPA, or is it better to graduate with fewer than 4 years of math?

I am quite certain DS is not going to be up for the challenge of 4x4. He can probably manage AP English and social studies all the way through, but math and science will obliterate him. There has to be some loophole.

 

[claudia]

graduated in '73 (from a college prep HS if that makes a difference) and we were required 4 years....algebra, trig, geometry and calc....
but we also had to have 4 years of a language, 2 of which had to be Latin, 4 years history, english and science...and we had to have a grade of 70 to pass....

 

[Nette]

We are in Dallas ISD. Recommended and Distinguished DO require 4x4. But the district has a dirty little secret called "Minimum". It does NOT require 4x4, it does NOT require foreign language, and he total number of credits overall is lower. BUT you have to jump through LOTS of hoops to get your child on the "minimum" plan. DS has just been in high school for 3 weeks so I haven't approached the counselors yet.

My cousin is an attorney, and she chose that partly because there was no math on the LSAT.

I am still waiting for someone to tell me this:
Is it better to take math courses you can NOT pass and let it ruin your GPA, or is it better to graduate with fewer than 4 years of math?

I am quite certain DS is not going to be up for the challenge of 4x4. He can probably manage AP English and social studies all the way through, but math and science will obliterate him. There has to be some loophole.

I looked into taking the LSAT recently, and was surprised by the amount of logic required. In college Logic is considered a math credit... so lawyers are at least good at one aspect of math...

This thread got me thinking about just how much math I've actually taken. I graduated HS in 1994 and i believe 3 credits were required -- Algebra, Geometry, & Algebra II. In our district if you took Algebra in 8th grade it did count toward the three credits...

If anyone cares I took:
8th- Algebra
9th- Geometry
10th- Algebra II
11th- flunked out of Trig due to a serious medical condition. I ended up taking it correspondence course thru the University of Texas (so basically taught myself)
12th- Elementary Analysis

College (for my degree) was Calc 1, 2, & 3, a lower and an upper statistics course and a logic course. (Not to mention Math based sciences like chem and physics) So it was definitely to my advantage to have completed so much math in HS, I got to skip college Algebra and whatever comes before Calc.

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

In my HS, class of 2005, we had to take at least two years and complete at least through Algebra II, for a lot of people this took them through 3 or 4 years of math in HS to accomplish the Algebra II requirement.

Other requirements were 4 years of English, 3 years of Social Studies, 2 years of Foreign Language, the above math requirement, 1.5 years of PE, 1 year of Health, 2 years of Science (either Biology then Chemistry or Integrated Science and Biology) and I can't remember the amount of electives. For IB diploma students though, it was different as the requirements were slightly skewed.

I took Algebra I in 7th, Geometry in 8th, Algebra II in 9th, Pre-Calc in 10th, IB Calculus in 11th and IB Math Studies in 12th. I'm good at math so I just took those courses to look good, not because I wanted to.

For college, I have to go through Calculus III and it's suggested (aka required ) to go through Statistics II. So for me, that College Algebra (MTH 111), Elementary Functions (112), Calculus I, II, III (251-253) and Stats I & II (243-244). Lame, and even more lame because no one was allowed to test out of MTH 111, I really enjoyed re-learning all the math over again, the same stuff I took in MS/HS. But at least the classes were easy As.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

This isn't uncommon at all. Most states have some kind of post-secondary option where kids take classes that count for both high school credit and college credits. A lot of kids that do this start college with a sophomore or junior standing. In our town the kids can take classes on the college campus or many of the classes are taught right in the high school. Most of the college bound kids in our high school take advantage of these. They take a combination of AP/CIC (college in school classes) starting freshman/sophomore year. The advantage of taking these CIS classes is that the classes are free (you don't even have to pay for books in our state but others you do).

Ah. Thanks for the information! That's entirely possible, and very probable. I know the HS she's at isn't the best, but it's all they got unless you're willing to drive an hour and a half each way to a private school; the nearest 4 year college accepts HS seniors in dual enrollment, so I was kind of hoping she'd get off campus her senior year. . .but, I'm sure she'll take what she can get.

 

[tvguy]

This is the current requirement for the California State University System.

Area Subject Years
a. Social Science (Including 1 year of U.S. History) 2
b. English (College prep; English comp and literature) 4
c. Math (Including Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II or higher math) 3
d. Laboratory Science (Including 1 year life; 1 year physical) 2
e. Language other than English (same language) 2
f. Visual and performing Art (drama, dance or theatre, music or visual art) 1
g. College Preparatroy Elective (Additional year chosed from the UC A-G list) 1
-----------------------
This is what the University of California requires.
a l History/Social Science – 2 years required
b l English – 4 years required
c l Mathematics – 3 years required, 4 years recommended
d l Laboratory Science – 2 years required, 3 years recommended
e l Language Other than English – 2 years required, 3 years recommended
f l Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) – 1 year required
g l College-Preparatory Electives – 1 year required

 

[missypie]

jackskellingtonsgirl, to start out at a 4 year Texas state school, one needs to graduate with the recommended or distinguished diploma. With the minimum plan, the student needs to start at community college. But you're right....out of state schools and privates don't require 4X4.

When my sister took the GRE, she tested in the 97th percentile in verbal skills and in the THIRD percentile in math skills...she is truly math impaired. If she had had to pass four years of math to earn her HS diploma, she would be a HS drop out right instead of a community college teacher. How does it better society to force the students who are horrible at math to be high school dropouts? (Her son IS a HS drop out and can't pass the math part of the GED.)

 

[disfan07]

This is what the University of California requires.
a l History/Social Science – 2 years required

Are California students required to take a Government/PoliSci class in high school?

At my community college in california, it seemed like a good percentage of the students were completley clueless about the government and they were shocked with how much I knew and what we learned at my high school.

Where I went to school, we started civics classes in middle school. We had World History in 9th and 10th, US History in 11th and US Government in 12th. All 4 were required for graduation.

I think that US History and Government should be required across the country.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

In the college prep program, I was required to take four years of math. I don't remember much of it because I don't use it in my daily life (same with the science, social studies, and French I learned).