Graphing Calculator...school supplies are killing me(rant)

[Andrea from PA]

Guess I am lucky. My oldest got Bs in the AP course, but 5s on the test. His college was very generous accepting AP credit. He jumped in with Calc III and made Dean's List both semesters of his first year in an Engineering major.

We moved our two youngest from private school to public cyber. I was shocked last week when along with text books, graphing calculator was supplied to us from the cyber charter school.

And to the OP -- my oldest needed the graphing calculator by 8th grade. I don't find it odd at all that a 9th grader requires it.

 

[megsoro]

My husband is on faculty at a local university (chemistry department) as are many of our friends. They all say that lots of the kids who come in with AP credit in math classes really aren't prepared to handle the college level work, mostly because they do not know how to use the equations and apply them in a variety of situations. AP classes prepare you to pass the AP tests (or not), but don't necessarily teach you the course material. Depending on your major, if you have AP calc credit, they'll give you 3 unassigned math credits, but will still expect you to take college calculus- especially if you are a science, engineering, or math major. It's also interesting to me to see how many kids get As in the AP class but can't get above a 3 on the AP test. 18 of 22 kids in my DD's AP stats class got As in the class but only 4 of them got 4s or 5s on the AP test. Either the class isn't adequately preparing them for the test, or the class grades are very inflated. Something is very wrong with that.

I had a situation like this my senior year. Because of so many snow days and school closures (had the heat go off in a snowstorm, froze pipes, flooding half the building for a week) we were behind in all of my AP packed schedule. So just before the test, my European history teacher swears the test never goes past 1950. Well about 80% of the test was about the oil embargo of the 1970s. Even with self study materials a class of 12 got 9 3s and 3 4s. Sometimes outside things beyond the students/teachers control happens.

Art history was the same thing, oh, we never go past Picasso and cubism. Well hello post modern and contemporary art questions.

I will say it's the teacher and the subject. AP English was easy to study at home, as was Art history. I didn't do well on the Chem because I found out I suck at Chem. But in my high school all your cores have to be a certain level (all college prep, all ap, all standard) and I wasn't willing to let go of my other AP classes that I love.

I entered college as a late freshman for my private arts university. But they still find ways to keep you there though- my course sequencing was such that they wouldn't offer prerequisites in a timely manner. I ended up taking two quarters off because of bad course sequencing. So I'll graduate "late" anyways.

 

[tvguy]

Our high school offers credits through the University of Minnesota (CIS - College in the Schools). And PSEO is enrolling in college while still in high school. The college coursework is accredited. I'm not sure many colleges wouldn't take a University of Minnesota calc credit.

No way to tell. My daughter went to one California State University campus her Freshman year, and is graduating from another California State University campus, and half her classes WITHIN THE SAME SYSTEM don't transfer. Yet everything she took this past year at Leeds Metropolitan University in England does transfer. Go figure.

 

[NotUrsula]

What I tell people over and over is to look into CLEP instead of AP. Most state schools will do quite a few CLEP credits, and even elite schools will usually take one or two. They are much better than AP if your goal is saving money, because not only are they simply cheaper than AP and don't require a class to be taken, but you don't take the exam until after you have been accepted at the college of your choice.. Thus, you know before you invest whether or not the exam credit is going to be accepted, because it's publicly published information. To see this year's list, search your college in the grey box on the right of this page: http://clep.collegeboard.org/exam


As a general rule, for best results, "college-credit" classes taken in high school are best reserved for things that are not in your major. Individual departments decide what they will and will not take, and for the most part the perspective is that if they are going to grant you a degree, then they want control over what materials you can get credit for. As an example; CalTech accepts a few CLEP credits, but only in English and in foreign languages. It's an engineering school, and they don't care so much if your grasp of grammar isn't up to high college standards. However, they want to make sure that every math and science credit you have that is granted by CalTech was actually taught by CalTech; their reputation is riding on that.

FWIW, re: credits from European secondary schools or universities being more likely to be accepted: that is true because of the way that European high school curricula are set. There are national curricula there, and rigorous leaving exams, so there is a solid basis for comparison. As a general rule, once you get to your third year of secondary school in the UK you have begun to specialize in what you plan to major in, and thus the level of difficulty designed into those classes is higher than what it is likely to be in the same grade in the US.

 

[MichiganKris]

I agree with the OP on the increase in fees from Michigan to Illinois. I was totally shocked enrolling the first year with what I had to pay for, that was included in Michigan. Property taxes in Illinois should be paying for public education, however, with the deficit in the state, the school districts are getting partial payments from the state. Unfortunately that leaves it to employeed parents to pay, because it will be free if you are under a certain income level.

The other thing that shocked me were the manditory dentist, eye doctor and pediatrician physicals that were needed to start school.

My daughter is going into 9th grade this year, which is a manditory physical year. Unfortunately she had a physical the middle of October last year, so my insurance won't cover another until after that date. I spent an hour arguing with the school nurse at registration about this. She was going to kick my daughter out of school from October 1 until she gets her physical. Totally ridiculous since she goes to the dentist every 6 months, gets eye exams from an eye doctor regularly and gets physicals once per year. She kept trying to get me to go to a "free" clinic to get the physical done.

I think at high school registration my checks for one child (no parking pass because she can't drive), totalled about $280. She has since made the volleyball team, which has cost me about $300 more for pay to play (which is higher then needed because I have to subsidize children whose parents can't afford to pay).

Add the 11% sales tax I pay in Champaign (including on food), and our high income tax as well as one of the highest property taxes in the country. Also, somehow our state lottery that was supposed to go towards the school is not making anywhere near the money the states around Illinois makes.

Illinois, where 4 out of 5 governors end up in jail....

 

[r5moores]

I have to admit, this might turn into a rant....consider yourself warned

Ok so being a Michigan girl now living in Illinois, I still get sticker shock every July and August when I get that lovely little bill in my kids' public school registration packet that, upon full payment, allows my children to be placed on a class list and attend school come mid-August (another pet peeve, but I won't get into that here...)

So, with a brand new high schooler this year and a 5th and 3rd grader, my total so far (for PUBLIC school) comes to $1340 including the mandatory school supply list, class "supply fees", three $12 mandatory, school-issued locks for DS's various lockers, a $20 activity fee for DS's school ID, and bussing so my younger two can mandatorily safely cross a 4 lane road that is between us and the 4 blocks it takes to get to their school (school won't allow kids to cross alone nor provide crossing guards).

Ok, i'm (kind of) accepting of this. I don't like it, but accept it. Then I get a letter from Ms. Spanish II teacher saying send in $50 for a mandatory workbook. Then Ms. Honors Algebra teacher tells DS that they need a TI-84 Plus graphing calculator...by Monday. Ok, how much could a calculator be, I ask myself?

We walked out of Target today with a $124.99 TI-84 Plus calculator. Sigh.

I told DS not to open it yet because I need to see if I can get it cheaper somewhere else. I found it on sale for $99.00 at Office Max. Sigh.

Please, please someone tell me that this calculator will take this child through trig and calculus and whatever his crazy mathmatical mind will take him for the rest of high school and college?

This calculator has just about put me over the edge with this whole school fees thing...maybe its just me, but I can say that a few years ago, having to spring for all of these fees would have been impossible for my family. How does everyone do it??!!

Here, where I live, in South Jersey, in my town we pay a little over $3,000+ a year in school taxes alone. And we still have to pay for all the school supplies, expensive calculator etc . And the really FUN thing, even when all the kiddos are out of school and you have no more attending ....you STILL get to continue paying that $3,000+ a year in school taxes.