Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy help please!

So we are asking for DS6 to go from 1st to 3rd grade math now. DS was given 2nd grade assessment and 3rd grade assessment. He did well on the 3rd grade, not the 2nd grade. The school wants to send him to 2nd grade, not 3rd grade math now. Any suggestions on how to get them to understand how counterproductive this is?

DS has been tested, is PG. He has scored within the average range on the MAP test for a 4th grader. I have shared the results of all tests with the school and thought that they understood. Clearly they don't. Help!

Maybe they're confused about his abilities because he didn't do well on the 2nd grade assessment. Do you know why he would have done poorly on that assessment, but well on the 3rd grade assessment? (maybe was there a subject on the 2nd grade test he hadn't seen yet, but would be able to learn quickly??)

Did the testing for giftedness have a math component that you could also use to support your point?

Sorry you're having trouble with this.

Yes the second grade stuff is stuff he hasn't seen. Simple stuff that he will learn when someone shows it to him. He hit the ceiling on the spatial parts of his IQ test...so it is evident.

my guess is they don't understand that a PG kid can fill in the gaps in very little time and think it is necessary for him to go through the 2nd grade to learn the bits and pieces he may not know?

I am sure that's what it is. I did my little presentation of PG gifted children at our meeting a few weeks ago. They said that they understood...that there may be gaps and he will fill them. But it's like-poof- they forgot our meeting! It is incredibly frustrating!

Teacher: Ready to learn division?
PG Kid: Yep
Teacher: OK, division is reverse multiplication.
PG Kid: Ah, then fractions are incomplete division. Cool.

(2 semesters of math compressed into 12 seconds)

hee - we just had this exact conversation! with the final kicker...

Kid: WHY would you leave them like that when you can just convert to decimal and be done with it?
Me: have a think on that.
Kid: oh, i guess some decimals are really long. this would be faster to write.

literally every day i am more and more grateful to have found all of you...

Doubtful, I feel the same way! My son can solve multiple equations with 2 variables in an instant, but because he doesn't know how to draw out an array to match a number story (and solved the darn problem in his head and didn't show work), they would like to hold him back. I do like his school, but I don't like how they don't get it!

I would definitely advocate for an accelerated course in the 2nd grade stuff and then moving on. We have had similar problems with teachers either not understanding how he learns or focusing on him proving HOW he knows what he knows. My son is not PG, but MG/HG (still some confusion about that), but his math-related ability and achievement scores are much higher than his verbal. This year he skipped from 2nd to third and is excelling in the math at the 3rd grade level (even though he was only in 2nd grade math for two months and therefore missed most of it), which of course is too easy for him. His achievement tests placed him at an average of 7th grade, 9th month for what he already knows. He has a lot of trouble with "show your work" or "explain how you figured this out" questions. He just knows. For example, he had homework this week which consisted of taking square tiles and experimenting with them to create shapes with certain perimeters. He was supposed to draw the final shape and explain how he came up with one with a perimeter of 10, using 4 square tiles. Well, he didn't use the tiles. He literally read the problem, sat down on the floor, and immediately drew a shape which encompassed four squares and had a perimeter of 10. What I don't like is that they have gotten on his case about explaining his thought process, and he really CAN'T sometimes, so he lied on his homework. He said he experimented to see how to make the shape, which is patently false. Ugh. Going to have a talk with the teacher to see if this can be sorted out. I don't want my kid lying about anything just because adults don't understand his abilities.

the lock-step stuff is so hard on these kids - what they "can't do" is so often simply what they haven't met yet.

while i get that dealing with a kid with gaps in their skill set seems like so much work for a teacher, it kills me that they can't see past the wrongheaded notion that kids only learn in school, and can only absorb material in one specific order at a proscribed pace - as arbitrarily dictated by the school district.

i mean, what on earth do they do with kids who move to their territory mid-year? do they not bother accommodating their gaps?