Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Question -- gifted school/acceleration

Just a recap of our situation for those who don't know ...

My ds, 6yo KG, started first grade this fall at a private gifted school, after a year in public K during which he was not accelerated for any subjects. His WPPSI testing last year put him 2 points shy for Davidson on IQ and well over their requirements for achievement testing -- so he's a pretty quick kid.

His new gifted school groups children in 2-year-split homerooms (he's in a first/second grade class), and then they break into 4-8 child groups for math and language arts. From what I know right now, he'll most likely be placed in a 3.5-grade-level group for both reading and LA.

In math, he was *almost* placed in the 4th grade group but had a few "gaps" in his knowledge, according to his teacher. We'll be watching the classwork for the next few weeks to make sure we think he'll be appropriately placed there or if it will be mostly review for him; if we don't feel he's appropriately placed, we'll make some noise. If it's only a few "gaps," we'll happily fill those at home with a bit of afterschooling so that he'll be up to speed with the 4th grade class. I've heard from several parents that the squeaky wheel really *does* get the grease at this school!

The first semantics question: Does this count as an acceleration? If I were discussing our situation to other GT-initiated people without going through the whole above story, would I say he was "accelerated 2 years in math and reading"? Would you consider him "accelerated," even though he's with age peers for the rest of the day?

My other question is, are there issues that might arise, "gap"-wise, that might come up from what is in essence a multiple grade skip? Might he have gaps there that *aren't* intuitive for him to figure out, like parts of speech or things like that? And since this class will supposedly be taught at a "gifted" pace with children from multiple grades, I'm just *slightly* worried he might be given less time to cotton ... I should worry about these things, or should I count on him to "catch up" as I would with a standard acceleration?

From what I'm thinking in my head, he hasn't been accelerated a single year in these subjects; he's been accelerated more than 2, at once. Are these valid worries or am I being paranoid?

Yes, it sure sounds like acceleration to me! Subject acceleration, specifically.

From what I've seen of 2nd grade so far I don't think you should worry about gaps. But then we're at a public school so I may be comparing apples and oranges

Mia -your school sounds nice! I hope your DS likes it. From what I hear from others on the board with HG+ kids likes yours, you shouldn't have to worry about gaps too much. If there are any, your DS should be able to easily catch up. And unless your private gifted school is a private gifted school for HG kids, your son will probably be one of the quicker kids in his classes anyway.

As for semantics, I lifted this from the MN dept of education website: re: common forms of acceleration:

What types of acceleration are there?
Whole-grade acceleration (commonly referred to as grade-skipping) is just one of 18 forms of acceleration. Other forms of acceleration include:
-- early admission to kindergarten*
-- early admission to first grade
-- grade-skipping*
-- continuous progress
-- self-paced instruction
-- subject-matter acceleration/partial acceleration*
-- combined classes
-- curriculum compacting*
-- telescoping curriculum*
-- mentoring
-- extracurricular programs
-- correspondence courses*
-- early graduation
-- concurrent/dual enrollment*
-- advanced placement*
-- credit by examination
-- acceleration in college
-- early entrance into middle school, high school or college
* A common form of acceleration (Colangelo et al., 2004)

Lots of options, including pros/cons, in Rogers' book "Reforming Gifted Education". It's a great resource to kickstart thinking about different acceleration/extension options. Most of the profiles she uses however are kids < IQ 150 but none of the profiles she uses match kids > IQ 150. Despite this shortcoming, I thought it was an excellent resource... jojo