I just want to add that the pressure to grade skip is most intense during elementary and progressively alleviates during middle and high school. Keep in mind that the elementary curriculum is too easy for a large portion of the population and that the span from the average to the top five percent widens over the years. At the same time, increasingly achievement, independence, creativity and passion overshadow cognitive potential as the relevant measure. There are certainly aspects of middle school that can be limiting for any student with high cognitive potential but there are numerous opportunities, particularly in language arts, history and foreign languages, for students to work "to their potential" if they so choose. That was seldom the case in elementary school except perhaps sometimes for writing in language arts. For my 8th graders, the sky is the limit and there is nothing stopping them from producing high school worthy essays, research papers, websites and documentaries throughout the school year in many of their classes. The biggest problem remains math although science can be lacking lab-wise. DD is in Geometry (standard GT) and DS in Pre-calculus (two years accelerated) but the slow pacing and lack of depth remain problematic; however, online resources and competition math opportunities help.
