Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments New school not allowing subject acceleration

We recently moved to TX from PA where my son, age 9, had been subject accelerated in math since Kindergarten. He is supposed to be in 5th grade math, but the district we are in doesn't allow for subject acceleration in elementary school, even though he aced the end of fourth grade STAAR test that they gave him. He is very anxious and upset by this, and I am frustrated. Has anyone else had this happen? I have an email and phone call into someone at the district level to request a meeting to discuss a plan for him, but I haven't heard back yet.

To agitate things, he missed the required criteria score for gifted here by 4 points on the CoGAT; students need to score a 126 or above on 2/3 sections. He scores 146 (99%ile) in math, but 122 (92nd %ile in verbal) and 117 (86th %ile) in non-verbal. I am not that upset by this as it is a pullout program for 2 hours a week mainly focused on ILA. In 6th grade the only GT class that is available is ILA, and that clearly is not his strength. However, he really wanted to be in the program.

A few things worth mentioning...he has had an ASD diagnosis since he was 4, but is high functioning and requires no support. We are however working on a 504 plan because he has a bit of trouble with reading comprehension, and needs to strategies in place and documented. Previous speech and language therapist thinks he is hyperlexic as he learned to read fluently at 3.5 years old, but his comprehension is not nearly as good as his actual reading ability and fluency. I would agree wholeheartedly with that "diagnosis".

Previous formal testing results (privately done in 2017) include:
WISC-V: Full Scale IQ 124
WIAT-III: Mathematics Composite158 (>99.9%ile )

My question is where do I go from here? He is clearly talented in math, but I feel like this new district is holding him back in more ways than one. He has asked me if he can take a 5th grade math class online in lieu of his current class. Should I look into that? And if so, what programs would you recommend?

Thanks in advance!

Your son sounds a lot like mine! We are lucky enough to have an AoPS Academy in town, where he takes in-person math classes on Saturdays, but I would take a look at their Beast Academy classes online.

I had success getting him into the gifted program via a petition that argued that his autism didn't allow him to demonstrate his verbal skills adequately on the CoGAT. aeh was extremely helpful for helping me find documentation for that. Here is the thread.

Good luck!

Hello! If you don't mind me asking, what were your son's subtest scores on the WISC-V?

What is the school's suggestion about how to meet his needs in math?

We had similar issues with DS elementary school so we supplemented with AOPS. Eventually, he studied independently during math class and attended monthly math circle meetings. The math circle was involved in competition math which he started doing.

He completed Calc BC last year in 9th and this year is doing AP Stats plus involved in a Linear Algebra research project at a local college. Each year we wonder how we will keep him challenged in math but something works out.

It was not an ideal path but it has worked for him and better than the alternative the school offered. Even if the school had more to offer, it would not have been nearly as challenging for him as what he has done.

I came to the point with one of my children one year where I told the teacher that my son simply wouldn't be participating in most sections of the math class and would be studying independently at that time, he would of course, be happy to take any required tests to show his grasp of the material being taught.

In my experience the child would then have be presented with a test the were guaranteed to fail just to make sure they didn't get a big head. In many places that would be a very risky tactic. That said if all goes according to plan my son will have a teacher next year who will allow exactly that.

Have you looked at University Interscholastic League competitions? I grew up in TX and really liked competing in UIL events when I was in school.

http://www.uiltexas.org/aplus/events

In my experience, the child would have points docked off the test so that he did not get a perfect score and then, the parent would not get a big head! The points docked would be for something that would have been overlooked normally (e.g. the answer was in mixed fractions when the teacher wants to see an "improper fraction" or the answer was in inches instead of feet). When a parent asks for accommodation for a very accelerated kid, they set out to show that the child "is not all that" to the parent and the child suffers, and the parent moves the child to a different school. Story of my son's life!

Depressing though isn't it.

It was not our experience that our son was docked points but it was a year plus process to get things sorted. The school kept suggesting alternatives which we would try and agree to meet again in a few months. Ultimately we had a teacher that said she could not challenge him and helped advocate. Also, once they realized we were not trying to get him to skip a grade they seemed to relax.

We were very willing to have them test him as they pleased and said if he did not demonstrate mastery then we agreed he should not be accelerated. He was several years ahead of the school program so it was not an issue.

They would often suggest he help teach other kids and we refused to let this happen on a regular basis. Good luck!!

It was obvious to us that brick and mortar school would move too slowly and too shallowly to keep our daughter challenged so we went the AoPS route for Maths after school. We started with the PreAlgebra and have just finished their PreCalc.

She will take stats and compSci APs to keep her Math skills in use while still in HIgh School after she has done calc BC next school year. She is 13, almost 14.

Were I in your shoes I would just ignore what is being offered at school for maths - too much aggravation for too little return - AoPS has kept us within the parameters of sanity.

Mind if I steal your line and use it later??? I couldn't have said it better ...

If their answer truly is that they will do nothing to support his needs, then I'd enroll him in a Beast/AoPS course, explain the situation to him, and ask him to just put up with it.

Fighting the school, telling them he's not going to participate, etc., likely does not lead to a good outcome - short or long term.

This is exactly what we did 5 years ago (pre Beast Academy).

Even acceleration using regular school maths would not have helped because that curriculum is more of an industrial ‘production line’ approach which appears designed to (or is certainly taught this way) to cater to an averagely able and motivated student.

Doesn’t sound as though such an approach would be optimal for your child either. For our DD it was tough at first because girls appear to be under far more pressure to conform and dumb down. She adjusted quickly though once we got underway.

Same here, we went into AoPS pre-algebra in 4th. The school said they would accommodate but it never panned out. Just a few here smarty pants do these work sheets type of things. We also had a high school student tutor a night or two a week to help. In 5th we switched to a private school.

Being ahead of the curve has its problems too unless you surround yourself with others who are ahead also. JMO. I say that because we did a lot of competition math.

That's a great passive response and easy to take that attitude, the problem is, it doesn't take into consideration what WON'T happen if one does't fight the school or refuse to participate.

What won't happen is nothing will change, not for your child and not for the next child who's needs are ignored. At some point, it takes a few people putting their foot down and looking schools eye to eye in order for things to change, otherwise, the school simply goes on not putting any extra effort in to accommodate any advanced needs. That seems like a pretty crappy long term outcome to me.

The school trying to prove the kid doesn't need the acceleration is a real risk and can be very damaging - going through the motions at school and doing AOPS at home often causes less damage. In an ideal world this would not be so but we don't live in an ideal world.

Agreed, we don't live in an ideal world, for that, we have to keep on working toward it by not just letting schools slide on not providing for the needs of our children.