My close friend has a daughter that struggled in math during elementary school and was on an IEP (no other issues - fine in every other subject, just a little slow getting some of the math concepts back when they were learning the basics). To our school's credit, her IEP worked just as it's supposed to and her teachers told my friend that with their help her DD "got it" and no longer needed the IEP, good news. But since her DD was starting middle school my friend pushed for one more year to help the transition. No problem. That was 2 years ago.
Fast foward to end of 7th gr. - DD still getting math help (same lessons as all the other students but she's in a small class getting extra help and attention) - they let her stay another year at mom's request and she's getting all A's with the extra help, again good news. But in reality, she's probably a solid B student now if she were taking regular classes but they've given her the help and she gets A's.
Now here's the issue, in 8th grade some students (those who made all A's in 7th) are chosen to be placed in Pre-Algebra and the others (most of the students) are in regular math class. Since she's gotten A's, she qualifies for the special class. Does that make sense? My friend's not sure if they will still help her when she's in the Pre-Algebra class or if she'll even be able to handle the workload if she doesn't have help. I understand her wanting her daughter to have the best opportunities but I wonder if her DD can handle it, I wonder about all the resources being used for a B student to make her an A student when there are lots of kids struggling to just PASS math, I wonder why EVERYONE needs to make A's, I wonder what happens to the kids who don't have parents savvy enough to find the resources available.
I don't know if I'm overthinking this, it just seems unfair. For the record, it's not personal, my DD is in the Algebra class anyhow. But many of her friends who got one B on their report cards aren't. What are your thoughts?
Fast foward to end of 7th gr. - DD still getting math help (same lessons as all the other students but she's in a small class getting extra help and attention) - they let her stay another year at mom's request and she's getting all A's with the extra help, again good news. But in reality, she's probably a solid B student now if she were taking regular classes but they've given her the help and she gets A's.
Now here's the issue, in 8th grade some students (those who made all A's in 7th) are chosen to be placed in Pre-Algebra and the others (most of the students) are in regular math class. Since she's gotten A's, she qualifies for the special class. Does that make sense? My friend's not sure if they will still help her when she's in the Pre-Algebra class or if she'll even be able to handle the workload if she doesn't have help. I understand her wanting her daughter to have the best opportunities but I wonder if her DD can handle it, I wonder about all the resources being used for a B student to make her an A student when there are lots of kids struggling to just PASS math, I wonder why EVERYONE needs to make A's, I wonder what happens to the kids who don't have parents savvy enough to find the resources available.
I don't know if I'm overthinking this, it just seems unfair. For the record, it's not personal, my DD is in the Algebra class anyhow. But many of her friends who got one B on their report cards aren't. What are your thoughts?
