Math At Paly

Course Sign-Ups

The current Math Teacher knows a student’s strengths and weaknesses best and considers the student’s probable success (given the appropriate amount of challenge), when advising placement.
For returning students, the teacher advisor places a student in the appropriate course based on teacher recommendation.
Students new to the district are placed in a particular math course based on an interview with the IS and/or a placement test. Student and parent input are highly valued.
Student or parent initiated lane changes can be done with teacher and IS approval either during the first quarter or during the 1st week of the 2nd semester.

Any student interested in changing lanes, should speak directly to his/her instructor.
Issues we consider when recommending/approving lane changes:

Does the student exhibit effort by scoring 80% or better on Homework? If not, the student has not worked hard enough on being successful in the course and a lane change is inappropriate.
Is the student putting in an unusual amount of time on the Homework and studying (on his or her own) with no discernable gain on assessments? If yes, a lane change may be appropriate.
Has the student sought additional help from his/her teacher? From a tutor?
What is the student’s schedule?
Has the student done any extra summer work?

We do not move students to an easier course if they will not be challenged. They would distract students who were appropriately placed in that course.
Many selective colleges don’t want to see grades below a B- on an applicant’s transcript. As a consequence, if a hard working student is earning Cs in a course we allow him/her to chose between staying in the course, provided s/he is happy there, or changing down to the lane below (when possible).
We can not accommodate any teacher changes based on preference, teaching or learning style for obvious reasons: with 1700 students in the school, we would never be able to set up a feasible schedule.
The rare teacher changes made are for serious disciplinary reasons. They must be approved by both teachers and are based on a strict behavior contract enforced by the Dean of Students.

To automatically continue to the next level math course, the student needs a C- or better both semesters. Students earning a D in S1 in the advanced or honors lane must score at least a B- 2nd semester to stay in the same lane the following year. If not, they have the option to repeat the 1st semester the following year and stay in the lane, or drop to the lane below and continue without repeating the D semester.
Students earning a D in S1 in the regular lane and at least a C in S2 may be able to continue in that lane the following year with the teacher’s recommendation.

Due to time constraints, even the best summer school courses are crash courses that are not comparable in depth or breadth to the course work in our Honors or Advanced lane. As a consequence, students making up courses over summer earn just regular lane credit.
The typical HS Math summer school course offered by PAUSD is Alg.1, S2. Based on enrollment, Geom. S2 may be offered too.
Students who need to make up a semester or a whole year of Algebra I, Geometry or Algebra II can try summer school programs at St. Francis (Mt. View), Bellarmine (North San Jose) or other schools in the area. Students 16 or older can make up courses in any community college in the area (Canada, Foothill, DeAnza, etc.).