Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Advice concerning PG child

I've been reading this forum for a few months and am ready to ask for advice, thoughts, opinions. A little background: we always knew our DD7 was extremely bright. She started public school and everything was going great until this year (2nd grade). She started complaining about being bored, and we received some (minor, yet uncharacteristic) behavior complaints from her teacher. This was enough for us to finally have her privately tested. Her scores on the WISC V:

VCI 155
VSI 141
FRI 147
WMI 146
PSI 114

FSIQ 149

We applied to a school for the gifted that's relatively close to our home. We found out recently that there is not an opening, so we are now waiting for a spot to open (I'm not holding my breath). There are other schools for the gifted in the area but would require us to move. They refuse to consider grade acceleration in her current public school.

DD is well adjusted socially...a good group of friends and involved in many extra-curricular activities. My biggest concern (other than spending much of her school day bored) is that she does not have to work hard at all to excel. Sometimes I think she'll be fine if we keep her where she is. Other times I feel like a child with this much potential should not be left in a public school.

I'm not sure that I have a specific question, but am interested in any thoughts you may have. Does anyone have experience with a PG child thriving in a public school with little to no accommodations?

It is possible but it depends entirely on the teacher. Have you checked the gifted school criteria? We don't have any but I have heard often that they aim at about 130 and can be a worse fit for a PG child than non-gifted with accomodations.I switched to a small school that is year 1 to 8 (K to 7) and have found they have the flexibility I thought I would be getting when I enrolled them in a bigger school. It may be worth looking round.

Welcome!

Read your State laws. Read your school district policies. Print out a copy of each. Save this in a ring binder as laws and policies can change over time. Look for anything regarding gifted, or serving each child to their full potential, etc, regardless of the specific terms they may use. Look for anything that may endorse, allow, or NOT specifically disallow a grade skip.

Look at the Iowa Acceleration Scale (IAS). It provides a handy checklist for making sure that all pertinent information is gathered and on the table for discussion. The information gathered can be discussed in terms of a grade skip and can also be discussed in terms of what other steps than a grade skip may be beneficial. There is simply no downside to using the Iowa Acceleration Scale. Here is a brief roundup of info on the Iowa Acceleration Scale (IAS):
- IAS - Acceleration Institute
- IAS - Great Potential Press
- post discussing tests for Ability, Aptitude, Achievement
- post discussing single subject acceleration (SSA), IQ cutoff
- post discussing whether IAS forms are needed

You might also want to read up on the pros and cons of skipping a grade. There is good and bad in everything.

HUGE red flag. Here's why.

I'm sorry, but no I have NEVER heard of that. I wish I could tell you differently. But especially in this era of common core, teachers and schools are evaluated on producing equal outcomes among students... closing gaps... this often means capping the growth of students at the top. You might want to take a look at this list of crowd-sourced advocacy tips. Too often, parents wait until a meeting is already scheduled.

Never heard of public school without accommodations working out. My son's public school experience fell apart socially, emotionally, behaviorally in 1st grade / 7 years old.

The public elementary school teaches up to grade 5. How exactly, logistically, are they going to teach one student high school level material? The elementary school here was would have had to send my son to middle school at age 8! No way! He's in 4th grade by age, doing school approximately grade 10.

I wish someone would have painted me a picture of what his academic needs might look like when he was in 1st grade. ***and your daughter's WISC-V scores are ALL higher than my son's!!!!***. I can't imagine how her needs could be met in lock-step education!

I agree to read your state laws, look for all the loopholes. Go to school board meetings regularly, figure out the system. I found so may loopholes and opportunities when I started looking!

Have you looked at applying for the Davidson Young Scholars program?

Great catch! Here's the link.

If the school is against acceleration, would they consider single (or multi subject acceleration)? What other options would they be willing to provide?

We have our PG child in a parochial school, which has supported subject acceleration (two years in his case, could work at a higher level, but the fit from a workload standpoint has been appropriate so far, i.e. not doing high school hours of homework).

There are families who have successfully managed public school with PG children. So much depends on school flexibility/mindset and the individual child. For example, our school has been flexible, but DS has not wanted to completely leave his age peers. The combination, along with weekend gifted programs, unlimited library access, etc. is working well. For now.

It is my firm belief that if teachers were evaluated and schools were rated/ranked based on maximizing the achievement of each student (rather than based on closing achievement gaps and excellence gaps), then teachers, schools, and districts would find it very convenient to match the program to the child and provide instruction at the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Flexible cluster grouping by ability and readiness, without regard to chronological age or "grade level" would become commonplace. Classrooms would mirror real life in which people live, work, and play with others of varying ages.

The current construct, ushered in by common core, in which US government schools strive to create equal outcomes, is not natural. Which is to say that it is an outcome which does not occur in nature. In nature, there is variation.

Several points in this TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson, April 2013, speak to individual variation, and may be of interest: How to escape education's death valley.

Agreed. This is true for many children.

Didn't the US have No Child Left Behind before Common Core. The same complaints were made about that. I agree though - we have targets for NCEA (grade 10 to 12 qualifications) that are so high they can only be achieved by offering lots of low level subjects. I have noticed though that a lot of the high schools are offering academic maths, general maths and basic maths whereas before they offered maths and sometimes a class referred to as 'cabbage maths'.

Yes, NCLB is mentioned in the Ken Robinson video linked upthread. There are several sources to read about NCLB online; EdWeek provides a high level summary here. NCLB was a furtherance of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) originally passed in 1965. Each re-authorization of ESEA spends more while results achieved are questionable, at best.

While concerns were raised regarding NCLB (2001), the concerns today are of a much larger magnitude. The concerns ushered in by common core (2010) include:
- excessive high-stakes standardized testing and teaching to the test,
- extensive data collection on students and teachers,
- evaluating teachers based on closing achievement and excellence gaps in their classrooms,
- rating/ranking schools based on closing achievement gaps and excellence gaps.

Glad to hear that, as raising awareness is key. Only by having a well-informed populace can people cast an informed vote and/or effect change to legislation and policy. Ability to articulate one's observations, gather evidence, understand and follow advocacy strategies, cite experts, and create impact statements (by sharing anecdotes) are effective tools for bringing about positive change.

In my experience, second grade was when the need for more became acute. I think if the standards are high and the peers are above average and there are external outlets, then you may be able to manage despite insufficient academic opportunities at school. For example, math and writing competitions, math circles, online acceleration/enrichment, and development of music/art/sports skills to a high level.