Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy grade skip question

How to figure out if a grade skip is needed? If it is then how to make a strong case for next year? Do we need to get an IQ test done or are the above average scores from group IQ and academic tests enough? Is it possible to assert to the district that your child is a good candidate for grade-skip and that they arrange for an IQ test? Will they do it? Any pointers\articles\material I can use to effectively represent my child?
DS7 scored 99 percentile in CogAT(a level up). On the third grade ITBS, he scored 97 percentile in reading and 99 percentile in Math. However he does not qualify for the gifted services provided by the district. He needs to be in top 2 percentile in both reading and math, he is there in math but short in reading. He has mentioned ITBS being way too easy so we think that he might have made some silly mistakes. He has been working at least a gradeup in his current school, however he has been sailing without much effort and complaining of work being too easy every now and then which we kept dismissing thinking its a common trend around here and he might have picked it up from someone in the school. After seeing his scores, our perception is changing a bit and we are trying to figure out if we need to take any steps and what are those?

see Iowa Acceleration Scale.
Find out if your district has a policy on skipping.
If you think a skip is appropriate ask for it in writing.

Good luck!

If you think a grade skip is warranted, start the conversations with the school now. March is a great time to start the acceleration process, if you wait until May, the school will likely say there is too little time to do a proper evaluation this year.

And I second the opinion to look at the Iowa Acceleration Scale, especially if this is the official process your district uses (but I'd recommend it even if it isn't your district's policy).

Just my two cents.

--S.F.

Joys- I read your earlier post where the teacher mentions that you should consider red-shirting, and you are now talking about grade skipping. So, to me, I am hearing that you have a child who is advancing in different areas at different speeds. That's pretty typical of these kids.

One solution that has worked well for many folks is subject acceleration, where the child can jump ahead in, say, math but stay in his own grade for social reasons. Heck, you could even red-shirt him but accelerate him in math two years.

This is all much easier said than done, but something to consider.

The thing with elementary school math is that it often spirals around and around and for these kids it can seem endlessly repetitive.

Thanks for the responses. I will take a look at IOWA Acceleration Scale and decide after going through it.

@herenow, the teacher suggested red-shirting as my child was having issues paying attention but at the same time she also agreed that she doesn't have enough in the classroom to keep him engaged\challenged for the next year so we couldn't figure out what to make out of it and we decided to continue moving him and school did not object. It infact worked out well. Looking back, I feel that we made the right decision.
I am skeptical about the subject acceleration as I as a person do not know how to effectively advocate for it and I do not know if a teacher will differentiate within the classroom - talking to a few people it is most likely that they won't, hence thinking about grade acceleration.
As far as his reading is concerned, I do not feel he got challenged there enough, he just waited for other kids to catch up. We were happy that as long as he is challenged in other areas and is not complaining he will be fine. Now I get a sense that he got so bored that he lost it somewhere in between. But he kept doing well so we did not even notice. I don't want the same thing to happen with math. He is doing great and I suspect that he will continue meeting the bar even if he'll start losing interest in math and we will not notice.

ah. I see. I didn't realize how old your earlier posts were.

Joys, that sounds crazy. 99 on a level higher cognitive aptitude test and 99 and 97 on 3rd grade achievement tests? How in the world do they not include that in their gifted program. I could see 98 & 98 on same grade testing as a req, but two grades up? seems like those are more of 99.9%

We had a slightly similar story with a happy conclusion...

DS7 in 1st grade had feedback from a few sources that maybe he should be in the highly gifted program. Achievement tests were way there (and qualified him for regular gifted services,) but basically writing and some visual skill discrepancies kept him from an interview for the HG program.

Full time regular gifted programming doesn't start until 3rd grade. So, we met with the gifted coordinator to ask how we can challenge DS next year. And shortly into the meeting she said they had discussed him the week prior and thought he should be moved up to the 3rd grade gifted class next year. Which is exactly what we were preparing to pitch in the meeting.

So, finding someone in the school who sees in your kid what you also see is a huge benefit.

It's not exactly two grades up for him as he is currently in second grade working at least a grade up. Right now he is not putting much effort as it all comes easy to him which is fine as long as he is happy but lately he has been complaining a lot. If the curriculum would get challenging in the middle school then we can wait as we are not in rush. Its more like he is rushing us, the thing is we don't want him to get into trouble at school and start resisting to go to school. We would avoid that at all cost.