Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Regions PA - GIEP with radical acceleration

We're former homeschoolers, current have our PG-ID'd child (age 9) in private school for the first time this year with one grade skip (4th into 5th), as well as additional subject acceleration. It's not working, and we're considering other options for the future.

Today, I met with the curriculum/instruction supervisor at our local school district. I emailed her our son's WISC/WIAT report in advance. She is a very strong gifted advocate who is sadly retiring at the winter break this year. I am hustling to get our GWR and GIEP arranged, if possible, before she retires. She is VERY interested in helping us find a good approach; she said that she's only seen scores like this once or twice in 35 years, and she recognizes our quandry. We are under no obligation to enroll our son in the public school if the GIEP is not a fit, but if it is, we would possibly be open to a mid-year school switch.

Based on his education history and his IQ/achievement scores, she said that there are several options, including having him mainstreamed full-time in 9th grade (with obvious social caveats) with various classes at whatever his learning level is within the high school, mainstreamed in 6th grade with most academic accommodation coming from 8th grade gifted classes (pull-outs) and high school classes, mainstreamed in 8th grade with some classes at the high school, or a variety of other permutations.

Has anyone here dealt with radical acceleration with additional single subject acceleration? We're looking at a minimum of 2+ for the base grade (with pullouts for most subjects), with the possibility of 4+ or 5+ as the base grade. 1+ with a math pullout is definitely NOT working. While the academic part is critical, so is the social part, and that is what concerns me. She did mention having him excused from health class if he was mainstreamed as a 9th grader, since health class discusses date rape, birth control and abortion options, and so on, topics that would not be appropriate for a just-turned-10yo child.

But I'm also concerned about the day-to-day practical social stuff. Middle school is not a kind place. But high school might be too much of a leap--if we go with a mid-year switch, he would be skipping most of 5th grade and all of 6th/7th/8th grades. I still want him to have friend-friends, if that makes sense, friends he can hang out with after school, invite to his birthday party, etc. If he's in high school full-time, I don't see that happening. We just moved to this area a few weeks ago, and he doesn't have any local friends yet.

Any feedback or advice is much appreciated!

ps: We're in PA, Philly metro area.

Good luck Drum, these are not easy questions to address. I think a lot depends upon how ready he is to be an oddity. The kids I know who did well with radical acceleration in institutional schools didn't care much at all about sticking out. They had less need for a peer group, and though they might have good friends their age, they were basically "lone wolf" type kids.

Good points from CFK and Lorel, and lest anyone think I'm ignoring the question, I emailed the "long version", .

Sorry, nothing from personal experience, but if you are interested google Terry Tao. You should find some interesting articles regarding his radical acceleration from varying perspectives.

Thanks for your feedback and advice.

Lorel, I don't know how ready he is to be an oddity. We had a little of that in the past two months, with other kids asking him why he was doing high school math. When the 5th graders found out he was a year younger than them, there were lots of questions about that, too. DS's main feeling was of annoyance because he had to field the same questions over and over again, until we spoke with the teacher and she made a general statement about it. After that, no more questions or issues. But the pullout for math is 1:1 so he only had to deal with questions from his 5th grade classmates; there was no class of older kids to consider.

Previously, we had homeschooled, and it's been my policy not to even use the word "gifted" around him. I celebrate his strengths but do not emphasize how advanced his academic achievements are from same-aged friends. This has been relatively easy to do, because he has friends who are incredibly advanced in other areas (music, dance, sports, etc.), and I can point to them and remind him that some people have other strengths. My main emphasis has always been that he has a lot of ability but still has to work hard to give meaning to that ability.

I would feel more comfortable mainstreaming him in 9th if he already had a group of local friends close to his age. The private school is about 45 minutes from us, and there aren't any kids in our neighborhood who go there except a few high schoolers. If he was mainstreamed in 9th in the public school, I think it would be difficult for him to make friends close to his own age. It might be a better fit for him to be placed in 6th or 7th grade and spend half the day at the high school. Of course, all of this is theoretical until we sit for the GIEP meeting. He's globally gifted (not just math) and really needs to be in english/history classes that are geared at least at the "honors 8th" level. I'm honestly not even sure what 6th grade classes would be appropriate for him academically.

Some of you know me and our son from DYS, and he's a pretty easygoing, extroverted kid without any screaming social issues. He keeps the more advanced areas of interest to himself unless he feels there is a kindred spirit involved, and is just fine playing Wii light saber duels with other kids. The kids in 5th grade had no idea he was younger until they started talking about birthdays. He's tall for his age and might just appear to be a short middle schooler for a while if we went that route. I don't know. I would hate for him to be academically accommodated at the expense of social detriment. I am feeling that this will be very difficult to balance.

ps: This all came home for me this morning, when he lost a tooth while brushing his teeth before school. My "baby" is still losing teeth, for crying out loud, while I ponder whether or not full-time high school would work for him. The asynchrony sometimes slaps me in the face. I don't know anyone in my everyday life who would understand this.

I just wanted to say hi and wish you the best of luck with these very tough decisions. <<hugs>> Things are different in our state, we don't have gifted laws. Our local school district has been great but in the end their hands are tied. We have to continue to homeschool to accomodate our children. Socially my DD wouldn't do well with the local high school crowd. That being said, she is a girl and things are different for girls.

That's definitely tricky. I didn't get an opportunity to accelerate until I was in middle school (more than a decade ago, granted), but, once I had done it, I found that the older students in high school, especially some of the juniors and seniors in my classes, were a lot more accepting of me than the students closer to my age. However, I had been friends with some of the older students before I transferred into their classes and had no friends in my current grade. Does he have any older friends in the classes he would be taking at either school?