One suburban Washington school district shows a nice chart online which details the possible sequences of math coursework which a student might take through grade school and high school.
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/math/Math%20Pathways.pdf
I liked that they have cut down the extraneous courses (leaving only a few e.g. “Consumer Math”), but I was puzzled that they don’t offer an option to complete Algebra II in less than 1 year as was done in my High School. As a result, it looks like the only possible way to take Calculus as a Junior (as 5 to 10% of my High School typically did), is by having (at least) Honors Geometry in 8th grade which is not yet common in middle schools. Nationally more than 60,000 students take an AP Calculus exam as a Junior (or earlier), and schools today use a variety of approaches: adjusting the curriculum, doubling up courses or accelerating students to allow this. The obvious advantage of having strong math preparation early, is that it makes the science teacher’s job easier as many of the theoretical concepts become easier to grasp, and there is less “memorization drudgery” required if students understand the underlying math concepts.
It is interesting to view how the better public school districts, like this one, handle Math curriculum, as we try to make the new High School the best choice in the area for Science and Math.
