Because - hold on to your hats - the 'end user' child of the IAS is most likely not a PG kid. The target audience of IAS is Optimally and Highly Gifted kids.
Really? I guess I should have been able to figure that out on my own, since the IQ cutoff they use is so low (1 SD out, or 115, IIRC) that I felt confident ignoring IQ considerations entirely. I'm not really a good rule-follower, though, unless following the rules suits my own purposes.
Gradeskipping is too large a topic not to expect the kid to have some mixed feelings
Amen - and I personally felt comfortable using the most-skip-favorable feeling as the one that counted.
FWIW, here's the calendar of DD's skip of 2nd (which was not a mid-year skip, since our district doesn't like those):
May 2010: I hate school, because it is so boring. I do not care if I'd be leaving all my friends behind. I will do anything to be allowed to skip to third.
early July 2010: Maybe I will just go to 3rd for all the subjects, but be with the 2nd graders for lunch and specials. (We as parents knew this wasn't going to happen, and kept our mouths shut).
late July 2010: I don't want to skip at all, and would rather be with my friends, even if the work is too boring. (We made her test for the skip anyhow.)
August 2010: I am the slowest kid in the entire 3rd grade. I have no friends, and everyone knows how to do the stuff we're doing except for me. Please let me go back to 2nd grade.
October 2010: I am really good at the work we're doing, but I still wish I had more friends.
March 2011: Skipping 2nd grade was a really good decision, and I'm glad I did it.
April 2011: All the review we're doing is really boring. I wish I could learn all of 4th grade over the summer, and be in 5th next year. Or go to a different school that only has girls, because boys are annoying. Or be homeschooled.
(Note the vanishingly-small "sweet spot" where both academic and social comfort overlapped! And the ratio of complaints to satisfaction!)
