Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy WWYD - SSA test prep or wait another year?

Our district has formal testing/procedures for single subject acceleration in math. Which is very awesome from an advocacy standpoint because they have an actual policy that says each year at the end of the year kids can take the end of year test for the next year and if they show mastery, can skip ahead one grade in that subject only the following year.

Everything seems great for skipping 2nd grade+ math... you have to get an 80% on the test to show mastery.

Here's my issue -- my son is a K student and would take the test in the spring to show mastery of 1st grade math. However, the 1st grade end of year test is different and it requires the student to get every single question right, including how they show their work. Keep in mind these are K students that have never taken even a K end of year test yet and part of the test involves a teacher reading one of the problems out loud that they have to solve.

This seems completely rigged. It's kind of a well known "no one passes that test" but I'm sure SOMEONE has done it. I'm trying to ask around but I haven't found anyone yet.

My son and I are really enjoying doing math together right now. I'm doing some end of 1st grade/some beginning 2nd grade math, etc. We're also doing logic puzzles and computer science. He says to me all the time "I LOVE math!" and I believe that I'm helping him explore and enjoy math.

SO here's my WWYD question -- Would you trade that for an opportunity to SSA and pass this stupid test? In order to not overwhelm him we spend only about an hour a week after schooling math. If I wanted him to pass that test I'd have to have him do sample problems of the same format to learn how to take the test during a lot of that time.

OR I could just teach him math at home for 2 years and he could skip ahead the next year. But I also hate to think of him bored out of his mind in 1st grade math. I volunteer for math centers at his K classroom now and he completely checks out, even when I'm his teacher. Of course he just looks well behaved and happy, but I know the look. So I worry if 1st grade gets more drill or structured he might get frustrated.

Right now I guess I'm sort of doing both by easing into the showing the work part, using the singapore math challenging word problems. His math has always been ahead of his fine motor, so he's always done the math in his head. He will need to learn how to show the steps on paper either way.

Thoughts? I mean, I'm sure I'll have him take the test, but looking at the test I can't even figure out how much work you have to show to prove 5 + 3 = 8. Just draw objects? I am considering getting a 1st grade teacher that does the tests to tutor him a couple times and help me figure out what gaps need filled in. But, I don't know...

Frustrating, but I think long term the system seems like one that will help us. I feel like in the short term it makes it easy to deny SSA in 1st grade since there is some (granted, almost impossible) way to qualify through the system.

I think my DS spoke math before he spoke English, he just loved everything about it.

Every teacher is different of course, but our experience has been that nothing destroys a child's love of math faster and more effectively that years spent in elementary school doing repetitive drills of rote computation. So my very personal two cents worth: if there is anything you can do to shorten the amount of time spent on those very basic skills and move more quickly to more substantive math, take it.

With most of the year to prepare him, I would be surprised if you need to spend a lot of time prepping him specifically for the content of the end-of-year test. But that would be my one caveat - if test prep starts showing signs of ruining his natural love of math, then back off. But if you can sneak it in with the fun stuff you two are doing anyways, do so. There are so many fun, wonderful resources out there where he can learn math in interesting ways, and which you can then supplement with the minimum necessary "how to format this on the test" stuff.

P.S. Perfect? Seriously? Rigged indeed. But worth trying.

Can you find out what the text used in first grade is? I'd start by looking one over to see how much effort would be involved.

Yes, I have the exact test, proctor instructions and grading standards for the past 3 years.

Follow up on this. He took the test. He missed 3 problems and ended up with 94%.

He failed because he didn't get a perfect score. We tried to appeal it and they said he wasn't close enough to perfect to even appeal it.

I did prep him... he came to hate the practice tests we did. We did them every week for a month or two on Saturdays. He always missed one problem, though not the same one, on the same test week after week. Really he was learning to concentrate and take a test, not learning to do math.

Now I have to tell him he didn't pass and he doesn't get to take 2nd grade math next year. I'm nervous about how to handle it, but he's pretty resilient.

I think he could probably pass the 2nd grade test for next year today (he only has to get 80% to pass it). However, in order to make sure, we will have to spend a month or so next spring preparing for it again too. Already kind of dreading that!

Do I regret trying? A little. But I think we had to. He's so frustrated with the pace of math in school.

One of the things he really didn't do great on was reading clocks. You know, I try to get him to study these topic type things covered in the early grades and it can be a struggle to encourage him to master the breadth of the material when he just wants to zoom ahead deeper on certain topics. He has to think to read a clock, but is fairly quick at figuring out prime numbers right now. So disorienting for me!

He's going to do a class at an after school math academy. I'm hoping this will keep him distracted from how much he dislikes school math. Hoping for the best!

So the plan is to have him spend an entire year on...6% of the grade's course material? While I applaud the district for having an acceleration policy...100% sounds like a rather ridiculous bar. What happened to the 80% mentioned above?

I don't *think* so. Honestly, we didn't really practice it. We practiced drawing the time on a clock, which is what the test asked for in previous years. I think I could spend a couple hours teaching him to read a clock and he'd have it.

They would only show me what questions he missed, not the actual test, so I'm not sure of his mistake. He might have just been tired by the end of the test and mixed up which hand was which. Maybe he got confused by an hour hand between two numbers for something like 4:30. Not sure! In the past we have covered this and he had mastered it but it has been a while and I didn't review it right before the test.

I have his WPPSI-IV testing in front of me, would any of those subtests test this kind of thing? His weakest part by far was processing speed.

They've told me off the record that they are required to have a policy for all years, but don't feel comfortable with kids skipping 1st grade. It's impossible on purpose. I've since found out a few kids have actually passed! Apparently they've really struggled, which doesn't help our case.

2nd grade math as implemented here has heavy writing requirements. It's not just math, which makes it a hard match for kids that are asynchronous and just ahead in math. So I think the problem is less with the content they're skipping and more with the content they'll be expected to tackle if they do pass.

I'm meeting with the principal tomorrow morning to figure out "the plan." But I think it's basically keeping him as comfortable as possible for the next year and watching out for any behavior problems that may result from his frustration.

And for us personally, after school math. (Not kumon, but enrichment type math in a math school full of gifted kids -- it should be a good fit.)

Oh! We talked about his test results tonight. He looked frustrated but said "45/48 is still pretty good!"

Yes it is, kiddo. Glad he's taking it well. HUGE relief.