Update: I met with DD's teacher today, but don't feel like we made much progress. Here's how it went:
DH and I went in, armed with some gifted articles, dd's test scores and work samples. We started off talking about how we want her to learn how to learn, how to take risks, etc. We suggested options like testing out of math units, working on EPGY math instead, going to a 4th grade classroom for math, reading higher level books and doing independent projects for reading. We showed where she's working in EPGY (currently the 3.6 level, but it's still a little easy). Her teacher pretty much shot down every idea, but to be fair, she seemed to feel completely restricted by the curriculum she's required to teach. She referred us to the principal to find out if any of our ideas would be possible. She also didn't seem to give much weight to dd's achievement or ability test scores, and even said that dd didn't really seem that advanced to her in reading comprehension (though she scored in the 99.6th percentile on the WIAT-II!!).
I was able to catch the principal on our way out. She said we'll have to go to a "guidance team" meeting to see about any acceleration options, though she also shared with me that she's only seen full grade skips done twice in the district, both times with disastrous results (her words). However, she took a copy of dd's test scores, and seemed to imply that she might have some pull in where dd is on the wait list for the full-day gifted program. (Background--dd was denied entrance to their program primarily based on a 'creativity test' score, and, though I can't prove it, her adhd issues. It's another long story.)
She also said there should be no problem with dd doing other work in class, including EPGY, though I think we're still going to need to address the "instead of" not "in addition to" issue.
So, we'll wait and see. The principal said she'd get back to us by Monday about the guidance team meeting. I'm also running the Star Math program in dd's class, so I know she'll have at least 6-8 slightly challenging math problems per week. (Yes, that's what the "advanced" math program entails.)
Oh, one other take away from the meeting--dd's teacher mentioned that she'd talked with the full-day gifted teacher about the gifted curriculum, but the gifted teacher couldn't share anything about it with her because it's apparently completely confidential. Does this seem odd to anyone else?
