Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy How do/did you advocate for grade acceleration?

I am seriously considering a grade skip for my HG/EG son for next school year (he's in 1st grade now and I am looking to skip him 2nd onto 3rd); although he already goes out twice a week for 3rd grade reading, and was already granted special permission to attend GATE classes, he still complains of being bored during class times. He's gotten up to the board several times to "teach" his classmates how to add 2 digit numbers (he already knows multiplication and adding 3-4 digits in his head), and he passed the reading comprehension intended for high school students regarding plastic surgery when he was back in Kindergarten. As I've heard that 2nd grade will mostly be a recap of things they learned in 1st grade, I feel that perhaps a 3rd grade environment will provide more challenge for him.

However, the principal seems to be a bit held back on the idea of grade skipping this early in elementary school, and would rather we increased the number of times he goes to GATE rather than skipping him.

We will be setting up a meeting sometime this week, and I would like to be prepared with points on how to best come to a decision/agreement on how grade skipping might be a good choice for my son. I already bought the Iowa Acceleration Scale manual, and will be toting that along to the meeting (how does that work exactly? do I add up the "points" or do they?).

I'm curious on how others here have advocated for grade acceleration for their kids, and what the effects have been.

Thanks much for the input!

I think it's best to tote up the numbers yourself and read the explainations and ask questions here on anything you aren't sure of. Then share it with the Principal before the meeting, saying "Golly, I thought you might find this fasinating." You might tote along "Nation Decieved" to the meeting.

You basic argument is that you know everyone wants what is best "overall" for the child, and that includes "learning how to learn." Then you show work he has done (in school or at home) that compares to the "end of 2nd grade standards" in each subject. Even if handwriting isn't up to par, (common issue, comes with time, or not) I still believe that putting a child in a classroom where he has no hope of learning something new, is a problem. Unless they are suggesting that he spend 60% of his time in the GATE program, then that wouldn't ge expected to compensate for the "no new material" problem. Third grade is still young enough to make friends without the gradeskip being much of an issue, and there is less damage to undo.

It reminds me of the Golden Rule - would any of them want to go back and take a class that they already knew almost all the material?

Best Wishes,
Trinity
BTW - I did all that, was refused, switched to a private school, and then got the skip a month after school started, into 6th. Son is happier than he's ever been.

Hi--

I just went through this with my daughter's school, with great results. I feel so lucky! I think what may have helped was that her current teacher is the one who initially approached the principal. Their immediate response (to full-grade acceleration in the fall--skipping 3rd grade) was no no no, we NEVER do that, etc..., with a note that they would "be glad to meet with us should we like to discuss her placement.."

So, we set up the meeting, got the Iowa Acceleration Scale, copies of all her test scores, asked the 3rd grade teacher who is currently teaching DD reading to join in the meeting and went in preparing for a battle. The meeting went really well, with the asst. principal playing "devil's advocate" (her words) with regard to social issues, but mostly everyone just actually listened to us. They were actually kind of immediately influenced by her test scores (IQ, achievement, and above-level) and suggested right at that meeting to move her to 3rd in math as well as reading.

They agreed to read through the Iowa Scale and set up another meeting 3 weeks later. Two days after the first meeting, the principal called and told me that she would like to use the Iowa scale, would be observing dd in the classroom (both 2nd and 3rd) and said that she though dd was a good candidate for acceleration.

Well, we just had the second meeting and they agreed to the full-grade acceleration, and actually moved her up full-time for the remainder of this school year as a transition. The principal told me that initially she was deadset against it, but that she was impressed by the amount of research and information we provided. She said it is obvious that the acceleration is "what needs to be done."

I did not fill out the Iowa Acceleration form ahead of time (I did it on a separate sheet at home for my own information), and kind of let them think they were in charge. I was actually prepared to go with subject acceleration, but we thought for the sake of the meeting, we should stick with requesting full-grade, so that even if they didn't give it to us, we could back down to the subject acceleration.

So, I would say to try to let them think they know best, but don't back down. We did a lot of, "yes, we have thought of that and are concerned too, but...." If the first meeting doesn't go well, you can always get more demanding, but I think it was best to keep it friendly. I kind of approached them like, well, you as experts in education can see that she needs more...

Anyway, I know we were very lucky and it's not always that easy, but I am just relaying our experience.

Good luck!

Cransaer that is wonderful news.

Thanks for sharing it. I like how you asked for "more" than you wanted/expected. I think that really helps. I also like that you filled out the scores "on scrap paper" and let them lead you through the process. I hope that quietly more and more schools are listening to the IAS.

Trinity

We successfully advocated for early entrance to first grade (skippng kindergarten).

We donated the Iowa Acceleration Scale Manual to the school, along with both volumes of A Nation Deceived. Also gave them numerous articles about meeting the emotional needs of gifted needs and the advantages to grade acceleration. But it was our private testing and the resulting scores that I think made them finally say that first grade would work for our son. That, and the fact that we just wouldn't back off! After all my research and our private testing, my husband and I were sure that our son needed to be in first grade. We were right. And so glad we skipped him.

The IAS is used as a collaborative tool, with the school staff, to put all the stuff you should consider in a grade skip into an objective, measurable perspective. I did it at home, filling in the parts I wasn't sure about with a range of numbers as possible. Then I came to the conclusion that his score on the IAS would be in the "good candidate" range at a minimum. That gave me more conviction to continue advocating. In the end, we didn't even use it at the school meetings.

I think above level testing is very helpful in demonstrating the need for a grade skip. I do believe that was more of an impact on the school staff than the IQ testing, since our son was already able to do some end of first grade stuff, on a test designed for high achieving first graders, before he had even started school!

Good luck. Hope our experience helps a little.

The Iowa Acceleration Scale hurts Mite. He doesn't do well on the achievement section of it and he falls short a few points. How do we deal with that?

The IAS still seems to limit the child to the disability rather than the ability.

Willa:
My impression, from reading through the manual, is that the IAS should be used as a catalyst for discussing the needs of the child and possible options. Not just totalling up the numbers and getting and a score, although that is the primary purpose. In Mite's case, I think (my interpretation) the authors intent for using the IAS would be to look at all the strengths, identify how his lower skill areas impact the achievement testing, consider how an IEP and appropriate accomodations would INCREASE that achievement and THEN decide about the grade skip.

But haven't they already decided to do the grade skip for Mite? If so, the score on the IAS should be irrelevant - since they already decided he is a good candidate for the acceleration.
The IAS is just intended to be used as a guide for making that decision - not a written in stone assessment. But, again, that's my humble interpretation of the IAS!

Hi Willa Gayle,
I think a big part of the equation is "will Mite be getting accomidation" or won't he. If he will, I would try and use test scores that reflec his abilities under the conditions of accomidation. You can call or email Susan A and ask for some insight. Also, when you say he fall short, where exactly is that, in the qualifying round, or in the final score?

The IAS reflects what has happened in the past, which I believe is a guide to the future, but not a limit. How did Mite do on the above level tests? I think that for a 2E kid, "one size fits all" isn't the way to go. as my buddy says: "Each child deserves to be though about well."

Best Wishes,
Trinity

Debbie - My sending a discussion follow-up email technique hasn't gotten results on this particular issue:^)At our April meeting the IEP team sounded agreeable, but at the last meeting that was specifically about acceleration, the principal said he wanted to do more research on it. blech.

TRIN - At that meeting we were told they scored an IAS on him and he missed by a few points, but they felt his disabilities were causing that. I'm not sure what they did and have asked for the data they collected so I can understand it.

I have the IAS somewhere here and I can't find it. blech!!

If he skips they have confirmed that he will have accomodations in accordance with the IEP.

Where can I find a sample "gifted" IEP? GIEP?

try
appliedgifteded.com/appliedgifteded-preparing_for_your_childs.ppt

and

www.hoagiesgifted.org/unofficial_guide.htm

and

http://www.penngifted.org/pubs/PageBulletinPDEGuidelines.pdf

I'd also reccomed looking around at hoagiesgifted.org, and sending an email to the webmistress if you are looking for particular information that you can't find.

Here in CT there is not gifted mandate, but I know of one PG boy, with significant disabilities who got grade skipping as part of his mandated IEP.

Best Wishes,
Trinity

UPDATE:

I went to the meeting today at my son's school, all prepared with my speech, a stack of books with highlighted references to grade skipping, and test results - but funny enough, the whole meeting was pretty short, and all I had to do was sit back and listen to them.

The principal took charge and it seems they already had a mini-meeting last week to discuss my son's progress. They all agreed that grade acceleration to 3rd grade next school year would be in my son's best interest. So from 1st grade, he'll go to 3rd next school year, and he'll be doing 5th grade reading (his report card will have 3rd grade marks for the subjects). And since right now, he's already grouped in with the 3rd grade GATE students, they will put him with the 4th graders next year, starting off with one block at first as opposed to two blocks of GATE like he's getting right now.

They talked to me about things I can do this summer to get Lyle ready -- ie, introduce him to cursive, master shoe-tying, help him become more responsible with his work/things, get supplemental reading to read up on things he'll miss (knowledge gaps). They're also aware that he might not make much improvement on his handwriting, so they are open to providing him a laptop to use in the classroom for word processing use in case he gets too frustrated at taking too long to write out his thoughts. The Highly Gifted office said they can provide one for my son if the school's laptop supply is limited, but the principal said they want to have him try first at handwriting like everyone else and have the laptop option as backup if he gets really frustrated.

I have to give Clark County's Highly Gifted program much kudos for all their help and guidance, and also my son's school principal and teachers. As a single mom, I've been unable to afford a private school for my son, and to have the public school system that my son's currently in right now work around his needs -- it's simply a blessing!

Yippee!
Well Done all around!
Big round of applause.
Here's the Handwriting Without Tears website - for really good materials for handwriting and printing - very cheap. Hint - order the 500 notebook paper, there is just something magical about those blue lines. We tried the "printing power", as we've all given up on cursive at this point.

I would reccomend working on touch typing over the summer even if he doesn't use it at school. One of the drawbacks of acceleration is that the expected homework amounts can be high compared to the age of the student, and ease of touch typing really levels the playing field.

I'm so glad for you and your son!
Trinity

I think my son's scores helped with the decision to accelerate him.

His Stanford-Binet composite score was a 153, and last week the Highly Gifted program administered the KTEA-II on him so we can submit it along with our application to the Davidson YS program, and the achievement results were:

READING
Raw score: 53
Standard score: 159
Percentile rank: >99.9
Descriptive category: Upper Extreme
Grade equivalent: 8.2

MATH
Raw score: 31
Standard score: 135
Percentile rank: 99
Descriptive category: Upper Extreme
Grade equivalent: 3.5

WRITING
Raw score: 50
Standard score: 118
Percentile rank: 88
Descriptive category: Average
Grade equivalent: 2.9

Also, a lot of positive feedback from the GATE teacher helped. My son had trouble finishing up work in his 1st grade class, but not in GATE. Also, he was able to handle himself pretty well with the older kids in GATE, and his GATE teacher saw no problem in accelerating him up a grade.

Thank you so much Trinity! This forum's support, encouragement, and recounting of personal experiences have helped my son and I tremendously in our journey thus far.

I'm so glad that your school is being flexible with your son. Isn't it interesting that for our kids, hard is easy and easy is hard? But, yes, it doesn't suprise me at all that he has no problems finishing up his work for the GATE program. I might have trouble finishing up 1st grade work if I had to do it day after day after day, and my coping skills are preety well developed - wink!

I'm so glad our support helped you through. Pat yourself on the back. For me, the challenge has been at this stage to step back from the advocacy role and back into the parental role. I've had to say to myself: "ok, I've given him the opportunity to learn and grow, I've given him a fair shot at being successful at school. Now it's up to him and "the unknown" to see what he will do with it."

I do occasionally step back into the advocacy role, when needed, but I have tried to spend most of our time together teaching values, having fun, and introducing him bit by bit to the rest of the world. Currently that means teaching him folk guitar, and doing impersonations of classic rockers he may want to look into. Also trying to figure out together what the meaning of Neil Young's song, "Pochahontas." Cooking, Gardening, Reading fiction and a little woodworking. I'm so glad that school is doing it's job so that I can do mine. Wheew!

Love and More Love,
Trinity