Why is Saxon Math no longer considered honors level anymore?

First, an apology for posting this so late in the month.  I had not intended to take off the month of July, but we had a family member in the hospital for the first two weeks of the month, and life is only just getting back to normal.  Blog posts should get back to normal as well over the next few weeks.

And now: The administrator addresses a common question about math books.

Why is Saxon Math no longer considered honors level anymore?

This has been an on-going question/struggle for many families registered with PHEA.

The short answer is because we use the South Carolina state standards to define what is required for a college prep level class. As those standards change what counts as honors does too. The old Saxon math books do not currently even meet the college prep level standard as they do not cover a number of concepts now considered to be part of Algebra 1.

One of our moms sent a link to an article explaining why the writer believed the older Saxon books to be better (http://drshormann.com/2012/02/08/differences-in-3rd-and-4th-edition-saxon-algebra-1/). I finally had a chance to read the article. The writer makes some good points. I do understand the Saxon approach and also that the new books were not written by Saxon and follow more loosely the Saxon method. For the home school family who values a certain type of training (such the classical approach explained by Doug Wilson), they will pick texts that teach to the method they wish to use. I understand the desire to follow a certain educational approach and am glad when parents have researched enough to know what they want to accomplish with their children’s education. In many cases I think picking the older books is a wiser approach as far as completing the education of the child.  I don't think the public schools work well so I don't think blindly following their methods is a good choice for homeschoolers.

The main drawback to using the older Saxon books is that the SAT and ACT choose their test questions based on the common agreement of what the scope and sequence is in Algebra 1 (or Algebra 2, or Geometry.) So as the scope and sequence changes (as it has in the past few years), what is covered on those tests changes with it. The scope and sequence is now different from what is covered in the older books. I believe this is one of the main reasons we have been watching the SAT math scores drop each year. So it is fine if a family wants to use the older book due to the methodology. They should realize, however, that in making that choice they are missing some concepts that will be on those college tests. Most of the families asking about Saxon math being honors are looking at the student’s GPA with a careful eye as they compete for scholarship money.  To earn the scholarships, the student must have high test scores. This creates a conflict for the families – give up the methodology they want, or perhaps end up with a lower GPA and test scores.

One possible answer would be to use several different books for each subject (Algebra 1, Algebra 2, etc.) to make sure they cover everything. They could still use Saxon as the main text book but use at least one other that follows the state standards as far as scope and sequence goes. By doing this, the family would not only have the primary methodology they want, they would also easily qualify the classes as honors since they did more depth and the class was more rigorous by covering two or more books. This is certainly not what the student will want to do; and many moms will not want to do this either, but it is the only way I see that they can meet both goals.