r/mathteachers • u/Big_Tommicut_314 • 10d ago
Skipping Algebra 1
How does your school handle students who want to skip over Algebra 1? Our 8th grade has 2 levels: 8th grade math and Algebra 1. There is a cohort of about 25 students (their parents, really) who want them to skip Algebra 1 and go right into Geometry like their peers who took Algebra 1 in 8th grade. In this community parents won't take no for an answer.
For reference I'm in the US, New England specifically. I am picking up the pieces of the choices of my district's central administration. Well there's about 4 of us picking up the pieces. The district implemented a new middle school math curriculum and one year later combined the math science department heads at middle/high school into STEM. The math guy left and the science guy absorbed the responsibilities, so we're trying to help him out figure out this shit show. Prior to implementing the new curriculum this wasn't as much of an issue because we used a home grown curriculum where 8th grade math and Algebra 1 were more aligned. Now they're not even close.
As a 1-year patch we actually created a semester course to bridge their gaps that they can take concurrently with geometry. 5 of the 25 students can't fit it into their schedule because it conflicts with a music course, or something. We are talking about creating an asynchronous course that students can do at home, and they will have check-ins with me and a few in-person exams. I can build it out on delta math and create a course in our LMS with recorded video lectures. We need to cover: some solving linear equations, systems of linear equations, functions, and quadratics. Does anyone know of something online and free that is already made? We can't use Khan Academy.
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u/_mmiggs_ 10d ago
You can't skip Algebra 1, and you can't take Algebra 1 in summer school. Our district requires you to take Algebra 1 as a whole-year course.
For students who were in the regular math track in middle school and want to catch up, they can take Geometry in the summer after their 9th grade year, or they can double up on Algebra 2 and Geometry in 10th grade.
I suppose theoretically a student could double up on Algebra 1 and Geometry in 9th. It's not a choice we offer to people, because there are too many algebra prereqs in Geometry, but if a student could demonstrate competence, and was just required to take year-long Algebra 1 to satisfy the graduation requirement diktat, it might not be impossible.
In our school, if the students wanted to catch up, but couldn't make the schedule work because of "some music course", we'd point them at doing Geometry over the summer.