Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment new to gifted kiddo scene and in need of advice

MY DD began reading when she was 2. Her bday is a month after the cutoff to start K at early age 5. When she finished 3 yr pre-K her teacher recommended she be moved up to K as a late 4 year old the following year and the school refused. She then went through 4 yr pre-K bored out of her mind (the only reason I had her in was she was a peer mentor and I had returned to college and it was cheaper than daycare). Now as a Kindergartner and having turned 6 in Oct she is again dealing with extreme boredom, not wanting to go to school other than to see friends, and refuses to do work sent home with her stating why should she do it if she already knows it. As a result I am again as I have done all her life is just teaching her on my own outside of school and having her do work that is appropriate for her level at home and sending it to the teacher. Ahe is doing double digit addition and subtraction, basic multiplication tables, reading 4th grade on up books including some of my textbooks, spelling and studying science at a much higher level than elementary level. She completed MAP testing in fall and again in winter, the scores for language, reading, math are well above age in all areas. her operations and Algebraic thinking score was 175 (mean score), Measurement and data had a mean score of 174, Numbers and Operations mean score of 175, Geometry a mean score of 194. Total Math mean score was a 181 with a ranking of 99th percentile. Her language scores are Foundational 187 mean score, Literature and Informational 196 mean score, Language and writing 191 mean score, Vocabulary use and functions a 197 mean score. Her percentile and mean overall language score are 99th percentile and 193 mean total score respectively.

Her teacher has been having her do additional work that is at a higher level as well as higher expectations than the other kids (try and spell the word vs. write the letter the word starts with), and she has been doing some advanced work with one other child one day a week, and she is allowed to read whatever she wants (she is reading chapter books at anywhere from a 3rd to 5th grade level unfortunately the material is not always age appropriate such as dealing with teen issues within the story line when she is choosing to read non-fiction. I have been advocating for her as much as possible without being a helicopter mom. I would love to home-school or even take her with me to my college classes and have her do her work next to me while I'm in class, but while my school is very supportive they are unable to accommodate her attending classes with me for liability reasons, and home-schooling while I am gone 10 to 12 hours a day for my classes is not feesable, not to mention she is very headstrong and can be quite argumentative at times making the idea of home-schooling daunting at this time. Any advice or ideas on how to help her to continue making progress while stuck in class full of kids far behind her, keeping a good attitude about and in school as well as with school work and advocating for her would be welcome! I so want to pull her out of public school (they do little service to our children I feel and only teach to test, what the gov't wants them to learn and think, and don't let the gifted kids soar at their own pace) and place her in private as soon as I financially am able. I long for the educational system of the 1800s when kids even within each class got individualized attention and moved up at their own pace as they grasped the skills needed for the next level.

Welcome!

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To some extent, differentiating like that is good. On the flip side, I object to the additional part of it. If the teacher can see that she is far enough ahead to need more challenging work, then she should be just getting the more challenging work as a substitution for the regular work, not in addition to it.

The more correct answer I suspect is to look at some form of acceleration. This will be highly dependent on your state and local school. That said, with her being advanced in the academics, one of the older in her class, and unsatisfied with the pace of school as it is, she would likely be a solid candidate for a whole grade acceleration. It might not fix things, but might at least help.

I would recommend reading some of information from the Acceleration Institute, which is part of the University of Iowa, that is it isn't some crazy independent group but a reasonably respected academic institution. The Nation Empowered reports gives a very good overview of the current state of the research on grade acceleration. They also publish the Iowa Acceleration Scale, which is a guide for evaluating a student for whole grade acceleration.

Welcome! I would echo Malraux's advice. Also, the Davidson Institute's main website has some excellent articles you may want to peruse as you educate yourself about options and working with schools.

Given her MAP results, it might be worth asking for a meeting with the principal. I would ask what do they think they might do to meet her education needs, given where she is already performing? (Then, the hardest thing, be quiet while they figure out what to say...) That would give you an idea of where they are at and how flexible they are/are not.