Although I am not in complete agreement with it, I can understand why school systems like mine would not allow an acceleration unless the student tested two years ahead.
Yeah, acceleration decisions are tricky. I will say that "tests two years ahead" is a hard level of achievement to quantify - DD scored one point lower than an average 8th grader on the Math portion of the EXPLORE, so could be considered to test 3 years ahead (7th grade equivalent) by at least some measures. But if she'd been given the end-of-fifth test on that same date, I don't think she'd have passed with the 90% our state requires.
There also appears to be a cognitive jump from elementary math to Algebra so the concern is that even if she does okay in Pre-Algebra this year that she may have issues next year.
I remember being 9 or 10 (so slightly older than DD), and my dad trying to teach me some simple algebra. Based on the miserable failure that was, and how much algebraically-formulated stuff DD can do, I believe her to be significantly more mathy than I am. (Or I'm a better teacher than my dad is, which is entirely true. Or schools now introduce algebraic concepts earlier, which I also think is entirely true.) I think she'd do fine in Algebra after a year of Pre-Algebra, but she doesn't yet know all the material our district expects before you get to Pre-Algebra.
I'm unaware of any 6th graders taking Algebra in our district - it would require a double subject acceleration in math, and even a single acceleration is unusual. (That said, the district-level person who tested DD for her skip of second said once the testing was done that she thought she'd be seeing us again.)
I don't quite completely trust the assesments online (CTY, Aleks, etc.), which suggests that DS is ready for Algebra.
I know what you mean. There's nothing on the AOPS pre-Algebra test that DD isn't familiar with, and I suspect she'd get a passing score if I gave it to her, but that's not the same as really being ready for pre-Algebra. (Certainly she's not ready for AOPS pre-Algebra - she's not in the habit of thinking that much.)
Thanks! I think the adults have narrowed down our preferences to subject acceleration to 6th in math (me) or assiduous afterschooling (her, although it's not clear what the year-after plan would be in that case). We're both in agreement that there appears to be little or no material covered in 5th that DD doesn't already know, and plenty of new stuff to learn in 6th.
