@blackcat - "We had the same issue with our DS and math and decided that even if they moved him up one grade for math, it would still be way too easy. I advocated for having him do work within the regular grade level classroom at his own pace (for instance doing advanced workbooks/khan academy), but he wasn't supervised very well" - This is exactly what is happening with us .
Is the new school a public school? How did you advocate for the push?
It's a public school but we didn't need to move because of open enrollment in our state. It has a non-tradiational format and they combine grades so, for instance grades 2/3 are combined anyway, and then they ability group within those grades. DS was in second grade but didn't fit into 2/3 though, for math, so they moved him to 4/5 for math and he was doing 5th-6th grade math with a group of mostly 5th graders. Then the next year they just moved him along with the same group of kids and he's going to a 6th grade classroom now. I didn't have to advocate, but the school had a curriculum coordinator who used to be a g/t coordinator in another district. She just looked at his test scores and it was a no-brainer for her. She actually placed him too high and then I advocated to get him moved down a bit.
Anyway, to answer the question, it really is the non-tradiational structure of the school that was the solution, although they did know that we switched schools partly because the situation with the other school was so bad, with DS teaching himself math, and they knew that was unacceptable to us (so they were trying to do the right thing for DS). A lot of the kids are actually informally accelerated-- probably 25 percent of the kids are working a grade level ahead for math. Even though it's public, it's not structured like a traditional public school. The key is that nothing is "formal". If a kid is moved too high, then they can easily move them back down. The other district was so rigid with their acceleration policies, stating that once you move a kid (even if it's just for math) that's it. You don't move them around. So they have unrealistic policies about acceleration, requiring kids to be 98 percent accurate on tests, because they don't want to risk moving someone and then having the kid not do well. And moving them more than one grade would be unheard of.
Ironically, a lot of parents complain about the structure of the building, how grades are combined, and the openness of the system, which allows kids to move around, and the district started talking about "putting up walls" (which to me, means both literally and figuratively). So many parents get upset about a structure where their 8 year old may not be in a class of 100 percent 8 year olds, where everyone is doing the same second grade work. People want the 30'X30' square room with one teacher, which is what they had growing up. So to find this non-traditional montessori-like format in a public school is, I think, rare.
