My dd's school offers the following sequence after lower school math: pre-algebra, algebra I, algebra II, geometry, pre-calculus, calculus (the pre-calculus and calculus are usually a class of one or two students that are really advanced in math) in that order. We have excellent math teachers in the middle school and are getting a math specialist in the lower school for next year. Kids are also allowed to choose Math as their LEAP class (Every wednesday children decide what subjects to study and they spend 4 or 5 hours of the day in their chosen subject).

DOK, bianca!

You know, sometimes I think you're just making that school up to haze the rest of us. :p

Hi Kriston,

You will just have to come and visit!!

It's kind of a long commute...LOL!

If I was building my dream school I would have every day like this. Each day could be a different subject so you could really go into depth.

As far as math order, it sounds like it doesn't really matter what order DS progresses in. He's is enrolled in the AoPS Intro to Algebra class in which we just heard from the instructor that it is supposed to cover Algebra I AND II, so I guess my dilemma is solved anyway.

I just heard another "order" for math. As a child, I had official trigonometry after both algebras and geometry. For us, it was an 11th grade course (fast track) called "precalculus". The local schools seem to have a similar lineup, though they specifically call it precalc/trig. I've also heard it labelled algebra3/trig.

Well, a friend just told me her school offered trig with algebra 2. DD13's text does have some intro trig in it, but I think they only touch on that, if they get to it at all.

So...is my assumption that "late" trig is the norm off base? Or is my friend's school the unusual setup?

All said and done, it probably doesn't matter all that much, but I would think trig the way I know it would depend on a nice strong algebra foundation, including that "precalc" stuff.

I'm also wondering if The Almighty Spiral wasn't around for longer than we think, LOL!

Algebra 1
Geometry
Algebra 2/Trig ?
Pre-Calc/Trig ?

DS has been a lab rat for the past three years as he is always in the class that the school has just added. Last year in ALG 2 was a disester. Teacher teaching it for the first time, not all the kids up the the level, change in state curriculum etc. As the result, they did not cover half of the material.
This year, DS is supposed to have a totally new, level IV teacher for his pre-calc class and rumor has it there will only be two students in that class. If this is true, they will be able to cover both Algebra 2 again and Pre-calc. I have a feeling though that the school won't let that happen . We will see.
Have alook at this:
http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/NCTM08talk.pdf

My daughter’s school has placed her in Advanced Algebra 1 for next year. The three possible placements for freshman include Algebra 1, Advanced Algebra 1 or Advanced Geometry. The projected progression for her is;

Advanced Algebra 1
Advanced Geometry
Advanced Algebra 2/ Trig
AP Calculus

We were a bit concerned about her having to repeat Alg 1, but since our son has been participating in the online Introductory Algebra class through AoPs, we realize that she hasn’t yet been trained in depth for the problem solving aspect of algebra despite her computational proficiency.

It's all in the name Delbows! I was "shocked" at first to find your regular progression for high school starting in just algebra 1, but then realized you end up at the same place, LOL! I imagine there's a good bit of overlap in our (yours and mine) freshman algebras and junior trig/precalc.

Here's our projected progression for DD13, a rising freshman...

Honors Algebra 2
Honors Geometry
Honors Precalc (trig)
AP Calculus

And you are so right about classes like AoPS having more depth! Hopefully both your "advanced" A1 and our "honors" A2 will give some similar depth.

I'm still nervous about AP Stats with DS next year, and those AOPS books are my "plan B" -- especially the counting/ probability book, since it would fit well with the subject. I'm on the verge of just buying it anyway.