Wonderful insight, everyone. Thank you. It does make sense that demonstrating two years advancement would allow for one-year acceleration to keep a child at the top. I can see asynchrony being an obstacle to them supporting a one-year skip, in that case. I understand from here that a one-year skip might at least provide challenge for a while, where status quo might not, even where there's 2+ year difference.
Polarbear: Informal support is better than none, that is for sure! Having a good friend who pulled her GT kid (from a different district) to homeschool in grade 5 after continued resistance from their school, and with all I've learned, I wish we'd advocated sooner for DS, and I don't want to waste time with DD.
I am in the midst of processing a ton of information after an informal meeting and, while not as frustrated as before, as my understanding has been confirmed. It's apparent that grade acceleration will meet strong resistance and is out of the norm. There is no established procedure and central admin would need to be consulted for such a path. They would be open to evaluative data we provide and consider the IAS (in a "cross that bridge when we come to it" way), but it is highly unusual for our district to grade skip, and even less likely in lower grades. Grade acceleration, even SSA, was essentially discouraged by the principal, who'd prefer to find a way to meet needs in the classroom. Apparently, the question gets asked by parents at times, but it just doesn't happen. Her teacher is encouraging me to continue to seek the right answer (she's amazing, really, and was candid with me privately) and is willing to try whatever we come up with (we might try Dreambox). She is concerned that SSA (going to a grade 3 classroom for math in the fall) wouldn't be an ideal solution, because DD would still be working with kids not at her ability level, just simply a year ahead, and she believes group work in math has value, so independent study would miss some things. "Show your work" resistance is an issue (for a highly VS learner, no surprise, I've read here). Also, teacher is not sure a full grade-skip is warranted, but she says I know my kids better than she ever will, and I'm the one who needs to advocate.
The district appears firmly in the camp of K-3 being foundational and proven, with existing differentiation being sufficient. True acceleration only begins with 6th grade. They approach our concerns about pacing by staying within the spiraling core curriculum and offering modest enrichment/depth (informal pull-out). Testing independently appears to be our best tool to evaluate where to go from here and how hard to push, whether the system can meet our needs. (No sense putting the cart before the horse.)
So -- outside testing it is! And pulling together various research from the board and a Nation Deceived, etc. ;-)
[Does anyone else ever get a little concerned about posting to a public forum that could be viewed by someone from their own school? I feel hesitant revealing even these things.]
I have learned SO MUCH already, and, man, there is so much to learn and do.
Last edited by longcut; 04/15/15 01:37 PM.
