Sadly, the school has decided that DS8 is not ready for a grade skip due to:
1) his penmanship
2) his answering the principal for the group when he was leading the group at play
3) and the fact that he still counts on his fingers and hasn't memorized his multiplication tables yet...though they have not asked him to do so.
They photocopied the tests to which he was subjected and it made me realize how much they were against accelerating him.
For example:
His teacher asked him to write an essay about water conservation and he did. It was clear and thoughtful with proper grammar including an introduction and conclusion. It was difficult to read due to his penmanship, which was atrocious and much worse than last year. It was still legible. His teacher stated that there was no conclusion and I rightfully pointed out his conclusion statement. She then said his ideas were disordered; they were clearly in order as he had used terms such as "First", "Second", etc. and he segued gracefully between paragraphs.
At this school currently, third-grade students are tested for the GATE program in fourth grade. The principal took advantage of this meeting to let me know that the GATE program is being discontinued altogether so they can focus on Common Core. "Common Core focuses on depth, not breadth" were her precise words.
Overall, it was a disheartening meeting; not because I was forced to accept that my special snowflake ;-) isn't really special but because I realized that his school is not interested in educating him because "he's smart; he'll do fine." They intend to have him join the writer's workshop for 2nd/3rd grade as differentiation for language. It's better than nothing, I suppose and thank the stars the school year's almost over.
On the other hand, my work is transferring me to Reno and we are looking into the School-Within-A-School program in the elementary schools. They've found him eligible; we are just waiting on the commitment letter. :-)
