Very nicely put - We struggle with the same issues at our HS. We have students leave the HS math to take courses online (VLACS) to accelerate and increase grade point averages. I think that students drive to take honors and AP have to do with neighborhood bragging as well as getting into a "good" college. If you are not in all AP and Honors courses then you will not get into a prestigious college. If we did away with those titles - then this might change the fact that our "honors" level has been so watered down it is honors in name only. It is all about the grade at the "highest level of math" and not about the learning.
I see a different perspective in 7th grade where we don't have any tracking, but it's similar: if a kid is doing well in math the assumption is that they need to move faster, not that they could explore other ideas along the way and not just race ahead of their peers. But high school is probably the source of a lot of these feelings!
Very nicely put - We struggle with the same issues at our HS. We have students leave the HS math to take courses online (VLACS) to accelerate and increase grade point averages. I think that students drive to take honors and AP have to do with neighborhood bragging as well as getting into a "good" college. If you are not in all AP and Honors courses then you will not get into a prestigious college. If we did away with those titles - then this might change the fact that our "honors" level has been so watered down it is honors in name only. It is all about the grade at the "highest level of math" and not about the learning.
I see a different perspective in 7th grade where we don't have any tracking, but it's similar: if a kid is doing well in math the assumption is that they need to move faster, not that they could explore other ideas along the way and not just race ahead of their peers. But high school is probably the source of a lot of these feelings!