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I always struggle with how early to start advocating for differentiating schoolwork. With my incoming 3rd grade son, I wait until October conferences, and every year nothing happens, or doesn't until March. I have an incoming 1st grade girl who is very quiet and well behaved, so I worry that she will slip through the cracks. She did kindergarten when she was 4 with the intention of using as preschool (they only 14 kids, and I could avoid paying for preschool and transporting two kids to two different places). They tested her that year, and she scored in the 2nd grade for math and 1st grade in reading (she was 4). This year in kindergarten (new school), despite my prompting, the teacher ignored her in math, and made her have to read chapter books by herself during reading. I just got her spring report card, and the teacher put that she was at grade level for math (somehow she went down two grade levels???), and exceeded in reading (which she is worse at). I am assuming this means that her teacher did not ever assess or spend time with her to see what level she was actually at. So I am all ready to go to her incoming first grade teacher and demand that this does not occur again, but I also don't want to upset the innocent teacher who had nothing to do with this. Any suggestions on how to be proactive and strongly advocate while still being respectful? I feel like I have tried the respectful route for three years with my son and never got results.......

It's great to go the polite route, as long as it is also the well-informed route.
Here is a roundup of advocacy resources and crowd-sourced advice threads from these forums.

Quick Start:
- Gather your evidence for your child's progress, scores, etc, and organize into a ring binder.
- Print any applicable state laws and school policies, and add these to your advocacy ring binder (as laws and policies may change over time).
- Using the advocacy resources, your gathered data, and input from your family, develop a strategy to politely hold the school accountable to the policies and laws.

I wouldn't assume that the teacher hadn't assessed her or wasn't familiar with her abilities.. it's quite possible that her report card says "at grade level" because the teacher didn't assess past grade level. We had that happen routinely in our elementary school.

I wouldn't make any demands of her new teacher this fall, but I would meet with the teacher asap when school starts, and ask questions about the work the students will be doing this year. You can let the teacher know about your dd and your concerns, but in the first meeting I would also try to keep in mind that in those early elementary grades there are a lot of parents (at least there were here) who all think their chid is gifted and deserves "more" in the classroom - which may lead a teacher to tune you out when really what you want is a relationship with that teacher that will allow you to advocate for your dd. indigo has great suggestions re gathering evidence and preparing - I would gather as much info/data as you can this summer, have it put together in a way you can refer to it when needed - but don't pull it out first thing. Start the conversation off with the expectation that this year will work and you're interested in knowing the teacher - then watch what happens in the classroom and be ready to advocate if/when you do need to advocate. Don't wait until October conferences... and if you do have a meeting with the teacher and agree on a plan and it doesn't happen... don't wait until spring, follow up after 2 weeks (or earlier if it seems appropriate).

Re how to "be proactive and strongly advocate while still being respectful" - you've been through some disappointing situations with your ds - the way to start this year "strong" is to look back and think through what might have helped if it had been done differently. More frequent communication with the teacher? Sending a summary email after meetings is a technique that works well for documenting what's been agreed on - nothing huge, just a brief email thanking the teacher for meeting with you, restating your concerns, then state what you and the teacher agreed upon, and ask the teacher to let you know if they have clarifications or questions. It helps to set dates when you put together a plan - that gives you the option to then check in at the date to be sure whatever was agreed on is happening.

In terms of actually making things happen, it's also helpful to think through what barriers are in place to an individual student plan. You mentioned that last year's teacher "ignored" your dd in math - what was the plan that she agreed to? Was it a plan that would require a lot of extra differentiation and preparation for one student? If it's possible to somehow make advanced work just about one child, it's easier to make it happen- either through ability grouping during math, or through subject acceleration (attending the next grade level's math class). Our first elementary offered differentiation in math in early elementary but it wasn't offered in a way that was effective - students were allowed to choose more difficult worksheets after they'd finished their assigned work that the whole class did. A parent of one of the higher ability students was not happy with that approach, so they volunteered to work with a pull-out group once a week for one hour in advanced math concepts - and that really worked well. It's not a great solution in the long run but sometimes stop-gap solutions when nothing else is available.

Hope some of that helps!

Best wishes,

polarbear

You've received great advice above from polarbear and spaghetti.

Excellent point. Not all schools have this fully documented in their policies.

Some of the undocumented constraints may center around common core initiatives for achieving equal outcomes, closing achievement gaps, closing excellence gaps.

You have received some really great advice. I would reiterate that you need to discover the constraints on the teachers and the practices at your school and district first before you go on the offensive. For DS (incoming 9th grader), his wonderful Kindergarten teacher actually explained the constraints regarding math instruction to him directly, which I did not find out about until months later. I was never involved in the math conversation although we discussed his verbal ability and the fact that she already ear-marked DS for the unofficial all-GT first grade class (one out of six classrooms) in January when those decisions are usually made in May. In second grade, I went to his teacher directly and she explained why she could not differentiate but suggested a grade skip and we ended up doing subject acceleration in math (3rd grade GT, which compacted 3rd and 4th grade math).