Son, in 5th grade gifted class, is not complaining school is boring, in fact he enjoys his high A�s 97-100 on his report card and all the end of quarter and end of year benefits and accolades they get him. But he does very little to achieve those grades and we are afraid he is starting to equate his easily obtained grades with �who he is.� When work gets harder in high school AP/Honors and University level, he will lose that sense of identity and give up on the hard stuff (like Mom and Dad did.)
Only testing done were the InView achievement test in 3rd grade, he scored 98%tile. And CogAt in 2nd grade with 99%tile. We did not know they were being given, and he traditionally �questions the questions� which we have to caution him about before big tests. He�s always had advanced abilities, both in math and reading, but then so have many in family, so it�s not made a big deal.
School says they cannot offer anything but current gifted class which still has to follow state curriculum for end of grade testing. He is consistently the top of this class, again with very little effort. EOGs always come back at 99th %tile for the state. Except writing, where he has slow fine motor skills and trouble conforming to the formulaic style required for the standardized test. His teachers are very receptive to grade-skipping, administration not so much, due to all the normally quoted reasons.
Teachers would be same if he skipped, they switch back and forth with the gifted 5th and 6th graders.
He has personal goal of going to a high level Tech University and then researching for NASA but we know that won�t happen without a good work ethic as well as his abilities.

Do we skip him ahead to keep him challenged, or have him stay where he is with high grades that may get him into his preferred universities, and career opportunities? Or something else altogether? We are really struggling to come up with a solution that won�t hurt him in the long run.
Thanks for any advise or other considerations you could give.

Last edited by thebees; 09/24/07 05:21 AM.