So we've met with the school psychologist to discuss our DS10's significant discrepancies between his WISC IV and WIAT results. We didn't get much out of the meeting. The psychologist didn't offer more insights than what we've gotten from this forum (thanks Dottie and Grinity!) and from the ed. psychologist that tested our son for WISC. We did get confirmation that the equivalent of Total Math for WIAT-III is the "Mathematics" composite.
We also met with the middle school math specialist to start planning for next year. Our DS10 (5th) is working on Algebra 1 independently now. She herself was a GATE students, and she has 3 HG/PG kids of her own. She brought up a couple points for us to consider:
1. Do we want our son to continue working independently in math, or do we want him in a class? She thinks that there is so much to be gained in a classroom. Ideally, of course we want him in a class, but it means we need to slow down now and review more pre-algebra.
2. Once he is accelerated in math, he will stay on that path. Later in high school, we cannot decelerate him. He will stay with the high achievers in HS. She thinks that taking higher math class in college is much better than in HS, esp. since, hopefully, it will be taught by better instructor in college.
Even if we slow him down and have him take Algebra 1 in 6th grade, there is no guarantee that he will be able to do it in a class next year. There will be plenty of scheduling issues to resolve. His school doesn't offer Algebra 1 in the 1st period when all the 6th graders are doing math. Algebra 1 is only offered during the period when 7th and 8th graders are taking math. To complicate matters, he currently is going to 8th grade science and we really want him to continue working with this teacher. There is a chance that we will have to choose which math or science.
With whole-grade acceleration, it may be easier to accommodate both science and math. We have purchased the Iowa Acceleration Manual and have done the calculation ourselves. Based on his score, he is a good candidate for acceleration except for the fact that 6th grade is transition year from elementary to middle school. Fortunately, it is in the same school (it's K-8). On the other hand, he's happy with his current friends and if given a choice, he would definitely want to stay with them.
The principal suggested that we meet in the Spring to talk some more and make the decision. He has been very supportive so far.
What shall we do? I know many in this forum has accelerated their child. Would you mind sharing your thoughts? We're not worried about the immediate future (middle school years), but we're wondering about the high school years... Both my husband and I grew up in Indonesia and only came to the U.S. for college and graduate school. We have no idea what high school is like here, except what we saw on movies
