Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Help me identify options for DD9

They may not have been too clear on what you meant by the term...

and secondly, they may also have not been willing to put it in writing, since corporate tends to 'discourage' the practice. Of course, that goes out the window with local administrators who learn that they are dealing with a HG+ child. (Truly.)

My DD isn't the only kid like herself in the system (PG, multiple grade skips). There are about 8-10 of them in our school of 4K kids, and I know of at least a handful of them in other states.

They do (at least in theory) have a national GT specialist now. Have you tried calling locally as well as nationally?

A caution for the 6th math or prealgebra placements. Be aware of where your district is in adopting common core math standards. In our district, all kids coming out of both ordinary 7th grade math *and * prealgebra are being placed in 8th grade math, without an option to go into algebra.

Hopefully, other districts won't put this bizarre transition into place, but instead will do something more rational. However, if this were going to be the process in place for my kid, I'd consider carefully the impacts in the following year of placing my child in prealgebra.

That's not the case in our district. 8th graders can take regular math, prealgebra, or algebra I.

Academically, though, was she not even more out of step at that point? I essentially did a gap year in lieu of my senior year of high school, and IMHO the break didn't do me any favors, academically.

Since neither the child nor the parents are unequivocably in favor of a skip, I would not recommend a skip. However, I would definitely accelerate math by one year to 6th grade math. I would hesitate to accelerate to Pre-Algebra based on the info you provided (not intuitively mathy, didn't understand/know how/why to move the decimal points, can't undo a skip/acceleration, etc.). Although I am not in complete agreement with it, I can understand why school systems like mine would not allow an acceleration unless the student tested two years ahead. There also appears to be a cognitive jump from elementary math to Algebra so the concern is that even if she does okay in Pre-Algebra this year that she may have issues next year. On the other hand, Algebra in 6th would not be radical -there is a solid but small chunk of kids taking Algebra as 6th gtaders in our system.

Sorry, this is not much help -- I am musing more than anything as I am trying to figure out the math placement for DS for next year. I don't quite completely trust the assesments online (CTY, Aleks, etc.), which suggests that DS is ready for Algebra.

Yeah, acceleration decisions are tricky. I will say that "tests two years ahead" is a hard level of achievement to quantify - DD scored one point lower than an average 8th grader on the Math portion of the EXPLORE, so could be considered to test 3 years ahead (7th grade equivalent) by at least some measures. But if she'd been given the end-of-fifth test on that same date, I don't think she'd have passed with the 90% our state requires.


I remember being 9 or 10 (so slightly older than DD), and my dad trying to teach me some simple algebra. Based on the miserable failure that was, and how much algebraically-formulated stuff DD can do, I believe her to be significantly more mathy than I am. (Or I'm a better teacher than my dad is, which is entirely true. Or schools now introduce algebraic concepts earlier, which I also think is entirely true.) I think she'd do fine in Algebra after a year of Pre-Algebra, but she doesn't yet know all the material our district expects before you get to Pre-Algebra.

I'm unaware of any 6th graders taking Algebra in our district - it would require a double subject acceleration in math, and even a single acceleration is unusual. (That said, the district-level person who tested DD for her skip of second said once the testing was done that she thought she'd be seeing us again.)


I know what you mean. There's nothing on the AOPS pre-Algebra test that DD isn't familiar with, and I suspect she'd get a passing score if I gave it to her, but that's not the same as really being ready for pre-Algebra. (Certainly she's not ready for AOPS pre-Algebra - she's not in the habit of thinking that much.)

Thanks! I think the adults have narrowed down our preferences to subject acceleration to 6th in math (me) or assiduous afterschooling (her, although it's not clear what the year-after plan would be in that case). We're both in agreement that there appears to be little or no material covered in 5th that DD doesn't already know, and plenty of new stuff to learn in 6th.

In our district in the honors math, they take Algebra in 7th grade and Geometry in 8th grade. I bought a Bright Kids math 5th grade workbook for my son, who just finished third grade- it's called Algebra. It looks like it's beginning stuff.

I was the one that voted for math subject acceleration as you said you weren't as comfortable with whole grade acceleration.

"I know what you mean. There's nothing on the AOPS pre-Algebra test that DD isn't familiar with, and I suspect she'd get a passing score if I gave it to her, but that's not the same as really being ready for pre-Algebra. "

This statement has me curious. Are you sure you're not underestimating her here?

DD learned algebra through Aleks. When she was 7 and in 3rd grade she finished Aleks Algebra 1. She was able to borrow a neighbor's Algebra text just to make sure she covered what they had learned and took an algebra final. They subject accelerated her into 8th grade honors geometry as a 4th grader this year.

I'm thinking maybe it's a confidence issue? If your dd can take an assessment that says she's ready for pre-algebra then why doubt it?

I always told DD algebra was easy. So she thinks it's easy.

I would subject accelerate first, but make sure it's at the right level. 6th grade could be too easy if she is beyond that and ready for algebra.

Because the subject acceleration went so well this year, they offered dd8 another grade skip. Skipping 5th (because here I think the attitude is that 5th is a filler year and 6th grade is when it gets more interesting).

So for you if the math acceleration goes well, maybe there is a possibility of another grade skip down the road.

I was also wondering that, but then this kind of issue:
does have me worried - unless it's an isolated problem caused by a teacher explaining it wrong, but even then...

How about a combination solution: subject accelerate to 6th, *and* afterschool. Let the afterschooling focus on nonformulaic problem solving, starting easy and ramping up as she gets used to being stuck and getting herself unstuck (or not being able to get herself unstuck and needing help, and that being fine too). Aim to be ready to start AOPS prealgebra about Christmas, and do it seriously, the way they intend - start with the problems at the start of the chapter, only read on after having a good attempt at them. If that goes well, test out of prealgebra next summer.

ETA: Of course, now that Alcumus includes prealgebra, that's the obvious thing to use - why not sign up (free) and do the odd problem with DD, one or two a day? Start by doing them really together, and shift into her doing them...

Yes! The "algebra is hard" mantra always perplexes me - although I think I do understand it, really. It's hard *if* the only way you solved arithmetic problems was by applying rules you'd memorised.

There is a very high level of variation in what districts call "algebra" now. With the shift to Common Core, it gets less clear. In our district, they are shifting the material from the class that used to be called "Algebra" to be included in the class called "Common Core 8"and the class called "Algebra" now contains most of what used to be called "Algebra II"-- but it is still called Algebra. It is an acceleration of the material into earlier grades/courses, but not an openly acknowledged one, that is very confusing for a lot of parents who have not dug into the curriculum.

DeeDee