I hear where you are coming from and also have chosen to jump through every hoop presented to access acceleration for DS. My thought was if DS passes every hurdle with every individual/department, then there would never be an issue of DS not being in the right place.
However, I am somewhat appalled at the idea of your DS tackling 250 to 625 questions for every single year that he is trying to skip, especially since they are starting him at such a low level. It struck me as overkill and inefficient. Should the school have been testing/accelerating him on a regular basis over the last two years? You mentioned that he is a 5th grader who is 4-5 year ahead so at a high school freshman or sophomore level but not where he is course-wise. In our district, after freshman or sophomore year but without acceleration, the student would be ready for calculus at a maximum (GT students completing sophomore year) or Geometry at a miniumum(lowest level regular track completing freshman year).
So depending on what you mean by 4-5 years ahead, I would try to request testing for the last two years. For example, if he were ready for Calculus, then testing him on Algebra II and Geometry would be sufficient. Mathematics build on earlier foundations so it doesn't make sense to go back so far. Alternatively, I would request testing on only the more difficult topics and/or questions as 250 to 625 questions per year of math has to be redundant.
Obviously, if you can't get any concessions, then it is better than nothing so long as your DS can tolerate it. I wouldn't worry about him bombing these tests if he is that far ahead. Even with careless errors, he probably wouldn't score below 90% if he has mastery.
Good luck.
Last edited by Quantum2003; 04/18/14 12:55 PM.
