I am intending to email the key school people this week to request a meeting, which likely won't occur until sometime in July, and thought I should attach the report. Any thoughts on whether that's advisable at this stage? I don't see a downside to sending it now, but I'm very, very new to this particular advocacy topic.
In general, how a school or district may respond can depend upon outside factors such as the level of training they've received and the nature of that training. For example, training in teaching gifted children may range from "management techniques" such as mainstreaming gifted children, slowing them down while creating uniformity in the classroom, -vs- cluster grouping with intellectual peers and providing advanced instruction based on readiness and ability.
Previous experiences with other families may also make a school amenable or resistant to advocacy/acceleration, with the effect of negative experiences being like
smacking the oobleck with a spoon, creating an unyielding solid which is less likely to be flexible.
Other experiences have shown that families may find schools which were participating in research studies may have made decisions influenced by their research study participation (ultimately influencing the research study results).
Regarding your concern over whether to send test results along with your meeting request, some may say lead with your strongest information. Possibly the strongest piece is your knowledge of the Iowa Acceleration Scale (IAS) and your family's willingness to use this proven and objective tool? Some may say that IQ scores and/or achievement scores could give indication that a child needs
more without giving definition of what those academic needs may look like in the classroom.
Best wishes with this, and please keep us updated.
