Well it's over. I guess it went OK. They spent the 1st half telling me that since he was not excelling in writing they could not do anything to increase the level of difficulty in the books he was reading. It appears that they almost 100% correlate the ability write with understanding. Ugh! Since I can't really argue the level of his written work I found myself at a bit of a loss. Everything else that they want to see I believe he can do but I didn't want to just keep saying "but he can do that" as they seemed fixated on only one aspect of the issue. I did manage to get the teacher to agree to send different homework so that it was something that gave him a little challenge. Right now I am changing the assignment at home but I wish this requirement to come from the school. He needs to find value in his school work.
Math, however, went a bit better. After trying for a couple of months to get math support to evaluate DS they finally did on Friday because the PT conference was on Monday. Apparently he passed K level math with flying colors and will be moved to 1st grade math. They have not yet decided what that will look like and it sounds like it take up to another month to get into place. I mentioned that I had brought the math workbook he does at home and that he learned it add 4 digit numbers in about 2 mins. the other day. At that she just wanted to try and explain that they didn't just want him to know how to do it but understand why. I know he understands why and mentioned something that happened Sunday. DS has been learning his multiplication facts through Timez Attack, thanks for the recommendation, and one of the addition problems he solved in the morning was 121+121 = 242. Hours later he states "I know what 11x22 is. 242" He explained that he knew that 11x11 was 121 and that 121+121 was 242 so 11x22 had to be 242. If that isn't understanding I don't know what is! For the first time that meeting I think they understood that there might be something going on. After that the math support teacher asked to see the workbook that I had brought, seemed very thoughtful, and asked to keep it for a while so she could take a closer look. I agreed and DS was excited when I got home to be told that he could finally try out the 2nd grade book.
This teacher seems to have taken an interest and has already approached the GT coordinator on DS's behalf. I'm taking that as a great sign! We'll see how the follow-up goes.
At the end, we'd definitely gone over our time slot, I asked if DS would be a candidate for a grade skip. They looked at me a little blankly and I explained that if he was in 1st grade I wouldn't have to argue about him getting at least 2nd grade work because that would be the natural acceleration. That in 1st he would get to do 2nd grade math instead of not even being tested for it since they're not suppose to work more than a year ahead. The math support teacher stated that it might not be true that he couldn't work higher. We'll see what she meant by that. DS's teacher stated that he had only ever skipped two kids and that both times it was a disaster and that DS was not his most mature student. I couldn't disagree with that as I've gotten to know a lot of the class. The principal happened to walk in, to end the conference, right when I brought up grade skipping. He let me know the procedure and said that hopefully I could tell from this meeting that DS was on their radar. I felt bad that the conference had run late but I had asked them earlier if they would prefer to schedule a separate meeting apart from PT conferences and they all declined.
Wow! That's long and rambling but I felt the need to put it all down in case any of you might have further insight. My biggest questions right now are how to deal with the reading/writing situation and whether I should start the grade skip process just in case it is something we choose to pursue in the future.
I did write everyone an email after I got home and thanked them all for their time and willingness to help.
Edited to add - One of the biggest disappointments was that when I told DS's teacher that he was starting to be unhappy about coming to school and repeatedly states that he doesn't learn anything and wants harder work the response was simply "well I don't see that in class." So sad.
