Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Grade skipping - round two

Round two... ding!

Last year we enrolled our DD in kindergarten, where she was quickly identified as a candidate for gifted services, though those aren't available until kindergarten unless the child scores in the 99th percentile on an IQ test. They do this to keep parents from hot-housing their child by prepping them for three years for kindergarten, only to see them fall behind in a G/T program at an accelerated pace, so that makes some sense, though it makes you wonder why they felt the need to set the bar so ridiculously high. During screening for the gifted program she scored in the 98th percentile, which is pretty much what we expected.

Anyway, we argued for skipping her to first grade, where we were absolutely stonewalled by the staff. They promoted a program of enrichments instead, until she'd be eligible for the gifted program the following year, so we tried it their way, and it was wholly inadequate. With her attitude towards school and learning quickly eroding, we pulled her out and home-schooled her for the year. We took her back to school for first grade this year, where her age put her under a far more reasonable set of requirements for G/T, and she passed with flying colors. So now the plan was for her to spend a couple hours each day with the gifted kids doing math and LA, and doing other subjects and recess in a first grade class that we were promised would still involve differentiated assignments.

Well, here goes round two, because the differentiated material in 1st grade doesn't seem to be happening. She's bringing home assignments that are well below her ability levels, and she's venting frustration that she doesn't learn anything in her first grade class. So now I've asked for a meeting to, once again, discuss skipping her a grade level.

The good news is, while this is still within the same school district, it's a new school with a new staff, so there's the potential there that someone in a higher place might not be as closed-minded to the idea. And, having gone through this once before, I can anticipate some of their (bad) arguments and prepare for them.

One of the arguments that has been proposed before is this concern of "gaps." I know that this isn't some invisible boogie-man to be feared, because this can be tested for, and she can be offered compressed studies to correct any that are identified. My question is, does anyone know what tests should be used to identify any such gaps for first grade?

Our state tests against end-of-year-to-be-skipped standards, and requires a 90% pass rate.

DD barely squeaked by the 90% cutoff. A month later, all the kids in her post-skip grade were pretested against end-of-grade standards, and she was hugely ahead of average. The 90% standard, IMHO, is too high. Even with that, there were things that the other kids had seen before, that DD hadn't.

I personally wouldn't worry about identifying gaps before the skip. If something comes up that's an issue, she'll either pick it up, or you can teach it briefly at home, or the teacher will cover it in the review that at least one other kid in that class is going to need anyhow. There just isn't that much stuff that gets learned in first grade.

Oh, I'm not worried about gaps, but based on last year's dialogue, it's quite likely that the school will be. I suppose I'd have an easier time taking them seriously if I didn't hear General Turgidson from Doctor Strangelove every time the topic is raised.

Solid argument there in the last paragraph, especially the bit about the review other kids are likely to need anyway. Thanks.

We had the gaps issue when DS was in the local school (now he's at a GT magnet). They would tell us that yes they did pretest him but he didn't do well enough to be excused from the unit. But it turned out many times that it was just that DS didn't remember the terminology, and he actually did know how to do the work. After much rigamorale, we came to a compromise that DS would only have to go through the parts of a unit that he didn't show any mastery of (85%, I believe). If there were areas he missed, the GT teacher would do a very quick review to see if he really knew it, but just didn't remember terminology or just needed a quick reminder. Then the GT teacher was to start DS with new math concepts. If it turned out he hadn't ever learned a particular unit, he would join the regular classroom for that portion. Also, if the teacher found that he learned any concept very quickly, DS would be able to go to the GT teacher. This was the plan, but we never saw how well it worked because an opening came up mid-year at the GT school, and we transferred. It may have worked, but then you would need to have a GT teacher or other staff person around to basically do enrichment or tutoring. The easier thing would be to send the kid to the class working at the kid's level, but our local school would never agree to that, citing poor handwriting.

Don't know if any of my ramblings will help, but I wish you good luck!