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I DO like DS's social fit, since all of his best friends in his class are more than a year older than him. Unlike with my DD, we don't want to grade skip him, just subject accelerate him in math. It's the simplest accommodation we've asked for for either of our kids, so you'd think it wouldn't be such a big deal!

I think I will ask DS's teacher when I go in to help on Thursday (if I don't hear from her before that) if he can just take the MAP test on his own without the other 2nd graders. I had forgotten this was an option even though this is just what my DD did a couple of years ago -- so thank you st pauli girl for reminding me we have that option!

So, my DS took the math MAP test yestday with the 2nd graders and exceeded the school's goal for the end of 2nd grade by one point. (He scored off the chart for reading, but we're not looking for acceleration there.) His teacher said his scores were "amazing" and that she would be forwarding them to the principal and the GT coordinator for the district. My DH talked to the principal a few days ago and the principal commented that the teacher said DS was starting to tune out (which I think confers some urgency) and that he should be in a situation where he can learn and actually be taught new information. So, now we'll move on to setting up a meeting to hammer out a deal for next year.

My worry, however, is that in past meetings regarding my DD, they have said that they prefer to accelerate a student when there are no other options and when the student would be in the top 90% of the class into which they were moving. I'm not sure if that will be the case with scores like that, although looking at what he shows us at home, I am confident that he needs third grade math next year. Also, this year we've gone the "enrichment" route, and it's just not enough -- with which I think his teacher would agree. Is this enough of an argument for subject acceleration next year? Would it help for us to ask to at least try the subject acceleration next year and if it doesn't work we could always move him back to grade-level, or would this confer some uncertainty on our part that we are not feeling? Should we emphasize that DS has never officially been taught the math he knows, since he has never been exposed in school to math that he doesn't already know, so that we imagine that he could certainly learn third grade math with it being actually taught to him?

I'm just trying to get our plan of attack in order before we meet. I'm definitely the one who will need to be making our case during the meeting since my husband thinks he should just skip again and he has the tendency to use words such as bored!

Thanks for any help and/or opinions you could give me!

Hi Mnmom, I feel for you. While it sounds like they are doing the whole 'wait out the rest of the year', maybe you could bring up the point that over the summer he is going to keep accelerating. So if he is bored at the end of the year in 1st grade, he will be really bored at the beginning of 2nd grade when they review all the past curriculum. So moving him up now is a great option because he will then develop those skills and become more proficient on 2nd grade math over the summer. FWIW HTH Good luck!

Yeah, I think this year isn't even a possibility. I would have loved for him to at least sit in on 2nd grade math this spring. And he wasn't just bored at the end of 1st grade, but throughout the whole year. I can only imagine how much he will learn this summer, so I guess if they're nervous about it, they might feel better about it in the fall. But, I don't want to wait until the fall to set something up like we did with my DD. So, hopefully, they, too, will see the advantages of at least trying an acceleration.

Have you thought of trying to accelerate him on a subject basis to see if he likes the next class? Then just move him in? I.e. when in 2nd, go to 4th grade for Math and Reading for the first part of the year, then be all 4th the second half?

My smoothest acceleration was that way. I still got to see my old class during recess.

Mr W (27mos) has been hanging out with the 4 year olds for several weeks now and they let him go back and forth, but he is mostly staying across the hall with the older kids. He goes to "recess" with his age peers, though.

That's kind of what we did with my DD. Last year she was in 2nd grade in the afternoon, but was subject accelerated to 3rd for the entire morning (math, reading, writing, art, and gym). This year she is in 4th full-time and it couldn't have worked out better. It was a great transition. DS is at the same place reading-wise as DD was at the end of first, and ahead of where she was math-wise, but for some reason we're not comfortable with grade-skipping DS. I'm not sure why. He does great with older kids (one of his regular playmates is our almost 12-year-old neighbor) and almost all his best friends in his class are more than a year older than him. So, it's not that. He does talk a little unclearly, though, especially his l's at the end of words (e.g., fall, ball, will, etc.), so I don't know if that's subconsciously playing into our thoughts of a subject acceleration only. DD was so great at following rules and not causing trouble that it was easy to imagine her skipping a grade, but DS isn't quite the rule-follower in that way; he is a 6 year old boy. On the other hand, that could indicate a skip is in order. I somehow CAN get my mind around skipping him when he is older, though. I don't know -- I've thought alot about why there is difference in how we feel about DS, but I just can't put my finger on it.

mnmom23 - do you know what the target score is for end of 2nd grade at your school?

Dazey

His teacher said that the target score for 2nd graders at the end of the year on the math Map was 191. That seems low to me given the percentiles chart I have, but I also know that first grade percentiles are listed as "based on samles that were NOT stratified to reflect the U.S. school as population." So, I don't know if that goal is only for the our school district or if it is a reasonable goal for all second graders. I also don't know if that means that most of the 2nd graders in our district obtain that score, or 50 percent, or less. I do know that, in our district, the 1st graders do not take the math MAP. And, eventhough I know that my DS seems to be farther ahead in math than my higher-level gifted DD was at the same point, I do not have DD's math scores to compare to (she took a different test). Does that help?

On the chart I have, 191 for 2nd graders is 50th%. I was just curious to see where they had their target. Thanks!

Dazey

Dazey,

Hence my concern that they will not subject accelerate him. However, they do have testing that he is gifted. They do know that his teacher thinks he is ready for 3rd grade work. They do know that he entered first knowing almost all of the 1st grade curriculum. And they do know that both we and his teacher feel that the "enrichment" activities aren't enough.

What I don't know is if 191 is at the 50th percentile for 2nd graders in this district. We have a largely lower middle class community with a large portion of students being english-language learners, so it wouldn't entirely suprise me if 191 is a higher percentile score in this district.

Does it matter that he got this score without ever having formally been taught math (or almost anything academic, for that matter!)? Imagine how he would do if he had actually been taught something this year!

Also, FWIW, I'm not sure that he doesn't know more math than the test would indicate, based on what I see and what he talks about at home. But, I understand that the test is what it is and I won't argue that point.