Sometimes you might find it's better to stay with the current class, because the kids there are collectively stronger, despite a need for more advanced individual work.
That too
. At the meeting where the middle school officially approved the grade skip for dd, I told them that I'd need to go home and think about it a little more and discuss with dh and would get back to them. On the way out, one of the teachers stopped me and told me, off the record, that I might want to include in my consideration the class that she'd be with if we didn't skip. Being friendly with a lot of the elementary teachers, she had been told that it was a lower performing group with more social and behavioral problems. Dd was coming from a different district at that point so I didn't have a frame of reference as to the kids in her grade. After three years at that middle school, I can say that she was right. The 7th grade class last year (the one dd would have been in had we not skipped her) had drug ods, a pregnancy, and a lot of other issues. One of dd's friends is in that grade and is changing schools. It does sound like, from what the friend has said, that it isn't as high of a performing grade as dd's either. Of the few kids who seem to be very able like dd, a good number of them are in her grade.
