Students can choose from among 12 available math classes in their four years here, but for some, that is not enough as they try to accelerate their learning.
One path many students have chosen to take is taking college-level math classes at colleges and universities like West Valley College and San Jose State University (SJSU).
Guidance counselor Brian Safine, who helps his students register for higher-level courses, said the decision to go beyond the school’s offerings is noticeably more popular among students who are interested in very advanced math or who plan on being a potential STEM major at a selective college.
And, he said, students tend to excel when they choose to accelerate.
“The vast majority of the time when our students take classes off campus, they come back with an A,” Safine said. “That’s for a variety of reasons, mostly because our students are motivated and they’ve learned good foundational skills here at Saratoga. When they get into a broader population, they tend to stand out in terms of their ability.”
Although there are many positives, there are also some downsides to taking courses outside of school. Safine pointed out how time management and fitting these courses into their schedules can be challenging, especially when most students who take these courses are juniors or seniors.
When students sign up for classes, they are typically able to choose whether they would prefer to take it synchronously or asynchronously.
Synchronous classes are more similar to those at SHS, typically including long lectures and note-taking, with homework due the next class and tests scattered throughout the duration of the course. By contrast, asynchronous classes are self-paced, allowing students to learn at their own pace with minimal assignments, quizzes and discussion posts.
Senior Leonardo Jia — who took AP Calculus BC as a sophomore and AP Statistics as a junior — is now taking an asynchronous linear algebra class at West Valley College; previously, he took a synchronous multivariable calculus class held regularly over Zoom. One major difference he noticed in taking both classes has been the lack of community.
“[At SHS,] we see each other almost every day,” Jia said. “There’s a lot of in-person time that we spend on campus that way, so it’s much easier to get to know people and to develop meaningful connections with them.”
Jia also found a lively community while taking the online synchronous class, as students were able to see and communicate with each other in real time, similar to virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the other hand, asynchronous classes make it difficult to learn with peers when everyone is self-paced. Although Jia has met other SHS students taking the same asynchronous linear algebra class as him, he rarely experiences any interaction between students besides discussion posts.
Jia said many students such (himself included) feel less motivated when there aren’t people actively guiding him through the learning process. Without motivation to work or the engagement between teachers and students, he feels that he wasn’t able to learn as effectively asynchronously.
“Because there’s not someone pushing you, instead of actually fully understanding it, you just take shortcuts instead of actually learning the concepts that we’re supposed to,” Jia said.
Even though there are flaws with asynchronous classes, it usually takes less of a time commitment and allows for a lot of flexibility. Thus, Jia believes that asynchronous classes can definitely produce the same quality as a synchronous class if students put in the time.
“[Taking college courses] teaches self discipline and learning on your own,” Jia said. When we graduate from high school, eventually there’s going to be a lot more reliance on ourselves learning and studying material.”
