Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy how to handle this?

Our situation: DS7 was subject accelerated last year in math 3 years. No other child in the school was. Because of scheduling, they can't allow him to continue with that accelerated group. The school contacted me yesterday and told me they have a group of 5 kids in his grade who will be doing "accelerated work" in math (DS included). Sigh. Do I just keep repeating myself that this group will not be enough? Their claim is that they pretested the entire class and the 4 other kids scored as well as DS. I think this is a bold face lie. But I have no way to prove it of course. I can't exactly stand over them when it's math time to see what they are actually doing.

The other part of this is that DS7 has already started refusing to go to school..."not learning anything, so boring, etc."

Then the weird thing: last week the principal approached DS and asked him to build "an interesting contraption" for her. At home. I know this is her way of "offering enrichment". Do I follow up with this? DS asked me what he's supposed to do.

I would thank the principal, but let her know I'm quite capable of providing enrichment at home, so if she could maybe find a way to engage DS while he's at school, that'd be a big help.

That is weird. I'd be tempted to find out what the heck was actually stated/intended there. Very peculiar as it stands.

This is possible if they chose a test with a low enough ceiling - such as an 'are you ready for this grade?' pretest of the last grade's skills, or even a test of current grade skills. (You can't really get better than 95-100%, right?) Your DS's abilities may not appear different unless they do an out-of-level test, which they would obviously rather not do.

YES! My friend had this... Can we just group your kid with the other 2 who also scored 100% on the (grade below her accelerated placement) test? Ask what test they took.

Ah yes! Why didn't I think of that? Of course that's what they did! (I recall now that they were only pretesting for THIS school year. So, 5 kids may have tested about 1 grade level up.)

Wow this advocacy is exhausting.

Thank you. I will do this. We have another meeting next week.

Update: principal responded and said she was merely "getting to know" my son. The project suggestion was her way of "providing" enrichment.

Another update: the principal continues with her claim that there are 5 kids in DS class working at his level. Honestly, we are hanging by a thread here. I am really hoping that DYS is going to be able to help here even just a little. I don't want to jump ship yet.

Anyone BTDT, can DYS help us to male this work or is this just insurmountable?

To me, this looks like the "get the data" stage.

If I'm reading this correctly, your DS7 was accelerated three years in math last year. Assuming he was six, and enrolled in the age-appropriate grade, he was a 1st grader doing 4th-grade math last year. Is that correct?

If so, that establishes his level = 5th grade math. I'd start examining his math work, and comparing it to your district's grade level expectations for 5th grade math. This data would inform your next step. Assuming it's not a match, you can present this data to your principal as evidence that his group is not, in fact, working at his level.

How many children are there in his grade? I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss the possibility that there's a handful of children working three years ahead - and think how great a grouping with them would be if it's true! I'd go with "wow, how exciting, I never realised, of course that'd be great" and be prepared to be sadly disappointed if it isn't true. Fingers crossed that it is, though!
ETA just to be clear - I realise your DS has DYS-level IQ and it would be too much to expect a handful with that. But my feeling is that you don't need IQ at that level to be 3yrs ahead in maths at this age. Whether age-peers doing the same maths are a better or worse social fit than +3yr peers ditto depends on your kid. One other possible benefit: in a group who are all ahead, they might be able to do things a lot more beneficial than the next year of syllabus. I think it might be worth giving them the benefit of the doubt.