Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Will split classroom force our hand r/acceleration

DD6 (August birthday) is starting grade school tomorrow - that's first grade where we live, kindergarten was a play based pull out program in preschool for everyone, no reading or writing instruction. The plan was two first grade classrooms with about 20 kids.

A few days ago, we received a letter that due to a number of teachers leaving, there will be only one first grade classroom with 26 kids and the remaining 11 first graders will be "shared" among the two second grade classrooms, which will then also have around 26 kids.

This being a parochial school, I expect that there will be some attrition and a few first graders will move to public school, but not many.

I do not want DD6, who probably reads at a third grade level, in the classroom with up to 26 not or barely reading first graders and a (I'm told) very nice, but somewhat flaky teacher. The alternative, is of course, a second grade classroom, one of which has a very competent and structured, but somewhat brusque teacher, and kids from our area, the other of which has another nice-but-flaky teacher and kids from others areas of town. I emailed DS9s old teacher who happens to be the vice principal and she immediately recommended the second grade classroom with competent-but-brusque teacher, mentioning that it might be great for DD to be able to work with the second graders, but not be required to do so.

Yeah. Right. I always marvel at the ability of grade school teachers to pretend that kids can sort of...turn themselves off and on...how will DD not be at least at the level of the other second graders and be completely ready to move on into third grade at the end of this academic year? And be unable to tolerate what would amount to a repeat of second grade?

We actually purposely did NOT put DS9 in a split grade classroom in the public school at the time, because I wanted to avoid this particular scenario of having our hand forced to accelerate DS, who was already entered early with a late fall birthday, into third grade at the end of 1/2. When a skip from third into fifth grade came up for DS, we decided against, since fifth grade would have meant middle school, with the gifted program option on the other side of town, and he was just not ready socially and EF wise and most importantly wanted to stay with his friends. We are quite happy with how the choice not to accelerate further has turned out socially, and academically it wasn't a disaster, since at the parochial school the kids tend to work at at very high level even in the regular classroom.

I am actually not as opposed to a skip for DD as I was for DS. With her summer birthday, she is at least entered regularly, not early as DS was, and she is not as intellectually lopsided as DS is with, her social, EF and athletic skills much better than DS's, who does present a bit spectrumy on occasion. I have a hunch that the path of a grade skip in elementary and regular high ability track in an accessible location rather than the gifted program on the other side of town which is apparently quirky central for the region, might work for her. But it's all divination of course, which is a very imprecise branch of magic as we all know.

Do I just sit back and let it all unfold? Do I speak to the teacher (who, if I know her at all won't be very receptive and will insist I am to let her do her job)? To the principal (who is new, too - the old one wasn't opposed to grade skipping, I do not know the new ones attitude)? What were your experiences with this scenario?

If you are committed to this school, my first reaction would be to sit back and watch it unfold (with your DD in the second grade room). If it turns out she winds up doing second grade work all year, it might make moving her along to third an easy conversation.

Something similar happened to us, though at a slightly older age (already-early-entered child skipped from 3rd to 5th grade), also in a small private non-GT school. Except we didn't find out that the school had done a unilateral grade skip (within the multi-grade classroom) until I saw DC's schedule in the backpack after the first day of school.

We let it unfold, and ended up having good social and academic outcomes, including additional school-initiated multiple subject accelerations. I actually think you have an even more promising situation, since I agree with spaghetti that you have the potential to have a little cohort move forward with her.

I have had that problem - ds7 was ready to move up but not allowed because of "immaturity" (overexcitibilities and the fact he kisses the autism spectrum but is not diagnosable). I changed schools. But I have also seen it where the younger kids were not allowed to advance up to the level of the next grade which limited their growth even more than usual as it is normal for there to be overlap between grades.

My son attended a very small private school for 6th and 8th grades--you may be able to see where this is going...

He skipped 5th on entry, but over the summer beforehand, the school realized that the 6th grade class was too small to be functional, so they combined it with the 7th grade. My son made friends with the 7th graders and did all 7th grade work (except in math where he was doing Algebra I).

So the next year it made sense for him to move up to 8th grade. Which meant that he was double skipped--something that we had never intended going into it.

He decided to return to homeschooling at the end of 8th grade, and now, two years later, he's decided to try the local public high school as a 9th grader.

We'll see how that works out.

There seem to be 3 distinct issues under consideration in the OP:
- class size (20 was OK, 26 is not)
- teaching style
- grade level placement

In a way it seems as though the decision for whole-grade acceleration has already been made, is the best fit (or least-worst fit) among the options currently available, and is supported with the mixed grade-level classroom. This could be a cake walk.

If you want further individualized consideration and/or assurance as to whether a full-grade grade acceleration is appropriate for your child, there is always the Iowa Acceleration Scale (IAS).

Thank you for your thoughts, all!

Turns out that the classroom is actually 29 kids! That's really about four too many for my comfort, but as a PP has noted, yes, we are committed to this school for a number of reasons.

Are we committed to the classroom? Again, I agree with PPs it's the least worst option at this point. They handed a letter to all parents apologizing for the mess and announcing that they had a number of part time options in the pipeline in order to have differentiation by actually having different teachers do different stuff with first and second graders in various combinations as often as possible, and in the mornings they have a Montessori style work period anyway, so this should mostly work. I actually do believe that it is a situation where DD gets as much attention as possible. It's just hard work for a 6yo to function socially in such a big classroom.( Still hoping for a bit of attrition!). I have to say for this particular situation the teacher is probably ideal - everyone agrees she's got complete control of her classrooms, no matter the number or type of kids (very few people were able to keep DS9s old class under control, but she was, so no surprise really that they gave her even more kids than they gave to the other second grade teacher). I guess not being able to work together with parents so well just comes with the territory. Since it's DD who's going to school every day I should probably prefer for her teacher to have her skill set focused on kids.

So. I'll just leave it to DD to show her stuff and let's hope she can learn to write with the first graders and read with the second graders, and for maths well just have to see what she'll be allowed to do. And sort of try no to think about next year. Could be a cakewalk. Will probably not be a disaster. Good enough? : p

Puffin, I love the way you put that - kisses the autism spectrum!

Just to shed a ray of hope... prior to recent decades' focus on smaller class size, I'm familiar with class sizes up to 60 kids, operating successfully. Just as there are more factors to individual success than IQ (which is frequently the subject of focus)... there are more factors to classroom success than class size (which is frequently the subject of focus).

There is good and bad in everything. In some ways, a larger number of kids in a classroom can be a benefit socially as it provides more options for finding kids with whom a child has interests in common... potential friends and groups of friends.

That said, it's good for kids to be aware of their surroundings and whether there seems to be a positive energy or a negative vibe. Without frightening kiddo, as a part of personal safety, I'd encourage kiddo to be observant of her environments as she goes about her daily routine... including being observant in the classroom. For the learning environment I'd caution kiddo to be watchful for anything which might seem to have the potential to lead to trouble... such as materials being out-of-reach, or a child who may take most of the teacher's attention, may not listen or may misbehave, play tricks on others, try to get other kids to misbehave, boast of lying, of getting away with things and not getting caught, sneaking out of class, or other safety issues which may be related to classroom management and the student:teacher ratio.

Having a dinner time routine of family members sharing and talking about their day can be helpful... for example: sharing a good thing... a bad thing... something you'd like to change or wish was different. If kids are used talking about their day, these casual conversations can provide a great early-warning system to parents.

Today I happened upon DD during recess after discussing some thing with the aftercare staff (I swear I wasn't spying - pure happenstance!) DD hugged me, sighed "mama, it's SO great here", demanded a kiss and ran off to play.
And everyone connected to the school I mention the classroom situation to (both size and split), upon hearing the name of the teacher, confidently says "that'll work".
So, exhale. The last issue remaining, will this force our hands next academic year, will just have to wait. I'll, um, just not think about it for the moment, or worry, or think ahead to middle school or anything...

I'm glad they're doing something about getting extra help. My DS entered public school as a 5-year-old in a 1st grade with 28 kids. 28 kids!! The teacher tried to convince me to send him to K instead on the grounds that the K classes had only 20 kids (and nevermind he was more academically advanced than half the 1st grade class). Thank goodness this year they have added a classroom to the 2nd grade so I expect there are only about 20 kids this year, thank goodness. (Really I have no idea, nobody posts class lists here.)

I think it does make a difference that it is an established second grade classrooml with kids who have had the same (competent and strict) teacher last year, so it's just the five or so first graders who need to be acclimatized. I think they will just have to go with the flow, but have lots of good role models for their behaviour.
That said, I just met a mum today whose older kid was in class with DS and whose younger kid was supposed to have been in class with DD and she pulled him out at the last minute to put him in public school because the size of the classrooms was an absolute no no for her and in the PS, she found a first grade classroom with 17 kids. As of week 2, DD, however, still loves it, so far, so good.