Yes, he aced the end of year test last year, and his report cards for the last two years have math grades from the grade he was accelerated into.
Yes, the explanation of comparing test scores both nationally and within the school makes sense. If it's helpful to do that, the STAR math assessment would be the test we would need to use, because that's the test the school administers and would be the only test the school would have enough data on to compare. We have 90 kids per grade in our school and I’d guess we follow a typical bell curve – very diverse inner city neighborhood – with a skew toward higher achievement.
I tried to find state policies on retention; all I found was an article on an old house bill noting that retention decisions are made locally. Searching the state education dept website yielded nothing. Thanks for that suggestion, it's a good argument regardless of state or district policies.
I made the point when setting expectations for our meeting that we need to find a way under the new philosophy to maintain the boys' acceleration that occurred under the old philosophy. After that, the principal backed down from "it's not possible for them to go to 3rd grade for math" to "we still have the option to move them to 3rd grade for math, but we don't want to automatically assume that's the best option without exploring others as well." She seems open and approachable; will see.
