Particularly for girls, highlighting the soft skills (work ethic, study skills, self-efficacy, leadership/social skills) that are closely tied to and often dependent on appropriate instructional levels often communicates more effectively to teachers and school personnel the value and urgency of providing students with their zone of proximal development than a narrow focus on academic development may.
Well said!
I will add that this approach may be particularly effective at this time as we are in an era ushered in by common core, which is focused on
equal educational outcomes. Both standardized testing and
data collection are used to evaluate teachers on closing achievement gaps and excellence gaps among their students. Therefore parent advocacy for advanced curriculum which results in furthering advanced student achievement may work against the school's goals... but parent advocacy for advanced curriculum which results in a child building
study skills, etc, may be more palatable.
