We haven't know for very long that our daughter was gifted so I am not yet comfortable with the idea of having these conversations with the school. It kind of feels unreal to be contemplating an acceleration.
Reading advocacy how-to guides helps many parents gather facts, prepare, and therefore feel comfortable with advocacy. They are written to help parents stop wondering or worrying and become empowered with facts which help explore and evaluate various options objectively.
I really don't know what will be appropriate for our daughter.
There is great research which parents can become familiar with... get the kiddo's input... gather facts... then a bit of guesswork and discussion at meetings... a plan is made... reviewed at agreed-upon intervals.
I tried to pin the teacher down as to what level she was doing and she had a very vague answer that it was a bit of 4th and 5th grade.
This does not sound vague, but rather very helpful. Children's abilities can be in a range.
What do people do to find out exactly where a child should be placed?
Some may say that it is not an "exact" science... think of a range with some comfortable work and some challenge.
Our child was 99th% on the Iowa and the Cogat, but that just tells me that she did well, but not what grade work she can do. Ideas?
- Knowing that each year most children are routinely promoted to the next grade with less than 100% mastery (as 76%-79% is often considering a "passing" grade) some families have successfully advocated for their gifted or high-achieving children to take the school's end-of-year tests early to grade-skip (one grade level or more).
- Others have had success with out-of-level academic talent search tests and the accompanying results reports with suggested academic placement.
- MAP tests give placement information.
- Keeping a dated list of books your child has read, including lexile levels, can be helpful. Some parents have shared the idea of sharing only the dates and books with the school, not the lexile levels.
- Keeping a portfolio of your child's best works, achievements, accomplishments.
- Reviewing the end-of-grade-level outcomes for various grade levels and seeing which items your child has accomplished.
