Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy How do I know how much to accelerate???

Well, here I am back for more of your great advice! So here's the deal...DS10 (5th grade) needs to subject accelerate, especially in reading. A few years ago SB5 with 139 score, level 3 according to Ruf. According to the report, he is able to handle reading-based and mathematical materials three to four grade levels successfully...Suggessted that high school history and humanities courses would be excellent places for him to work on his writing. He is very high in his knowledge and quantitive reasoning, and has such a strong interest for acquiring info through reading, all of which indicates an intrinsic thirst for knowledge. Amazingly, principal and g/t coordinator are in support of whatever we suggest for DS!!! Sadly, this is a new thing for the district. In all of these years, to their knowledge, not one student has subect accelerated or grade-skipped...The good news is, is that they are willing with my DS to be the guneia pig LOL and DS wants it so much. This is where I have so many questions...What do I need to know about the Iowa Acceleration??? I suspect when school psychologist meets with DS, that he will be taking that. Next, how much do I ask for??? Should I just get radical and ask that he go into 8th or 9th grade reading right off the bat??? 9th grade starts our highschool...Does that make a difference??? Should I ask to see the curriculum and textbooks or should I just trust that DS can handle it??? Do I just do reading or humanities, history??? Those are his strongpoints. I don't evern know what classes they teach in highschool these days. For his "light" summer reading, he did buy "On the Shoulders of Giants" by Stephen Hawking, "The Big Bang Theory", and "What Darwin Got Wrong"...He absorbs the History Channel like a sponge. According to his report, he is suppose to handle higher math as well, but I'm not so sure about that. He seems fine in his classwork, though he does say he wants to be moved up. I see that sometimes though, he struggles with the basics. He doesn't love math. He does EPGY and doesn't exactly love it. He will particiapte in math masters in the spring. He also has a strong interest in science but g/t coordinator is working on getting him a science mentor and DS is having fun with his current science 5th grade class...He's making a terrarium. I know he is capable of more, he's reading Stephen Hawking for goodness sake, (!!!) but he seems happy with his current class. I am suppose to hand in a formal request with everything I want. Everyone seems to be on board and willing to make it work. I just don't know how much to do. What if the load is too much for DS??? How much do I ask for??? He has a brother in 6th grade. Our middle school is 7th and 8th and then high school is 9th on up. Diffrent buildings. HELP!!!

Wow. that is great, but a lot to decide on your own. I think given how helpful the school is, I would ask them to partner with you in determining your son's level of placement.

A bunch of thoughts come to mind:

1. when is this supposed to happen - immediately?

2. Are you looking at subject acceleration or grade or a combination of both (skip 5th and additional acceleration in one or two subjects?). My DS was adamant that he not be grade skipped, although I can see situations where I would not let the child dictate the result.

3. What achievement scores do you have for him. By his age, I don't think IQ would be what I would be looking at for determining placements, at least in isolation.

4. Math should not be that hard to figure out. Work with the district and ask them to give him the end of year 6th grade test, 7th etc. until you get to where he no longer knows the material. Math builds upon earlier concepts. If a kid doesn't know how to multiply and divide fractions and decimals, it is going to be awfully hard to learn alegbra (you can fill in some gaps, but if he only knows 50% of the 6th grade material I would probably not put him in 7th grade math). I would likely correlate the science to the math, perhaps with a provision for some special projects, a science mentor or something along those line (this in part because often upper level science requires math knowledge).

5. Is there a curriculum specialist you could meet with re: the reading/writing curriculum. I would start there. If not, I would review the curriculum and see what it says and where is a good fit. Remember, you could do 2 years and see how it works, and then do another year up if you need to - this can be incremental. How are his writing skills and concentration, etc. For example, my DS loves to read and consumes adult non-fiction regularly, but if he had to write a 5 page report it would probably not be 4 years above his level (maybe 2, but prob. not 4). He understands the concepts and has the knowledge, but has not yet developed the skills to communicate well in writing. Once again, you have to think about the demands in terms of homework, tests, etc. I would guess that a social science placement could mirror the LA placement (a simple proxy, so maybe one that others will have more insight into).

Remember, once you do one thing, it isn't set in stone. Baby steps are fine. And at some point, if you sub. acc. in all subjects, it seems like the school would likely just want to grade acc. him.

let us know more, Cat

Actually having an older brother one grade up may be your biggest hurdle with the Iowa Acceleration Scale. The IAS is just a tool to help with decision making so its not a "test" or a required next step. There has been recent discussion about that on this board.

The fact that ds's school is gung ho is very positive. (My dd is also an acceleration guinea pig. Other than being told to surf the internet at home to complete a research project about beavers it has turned out okay.)

I would figure out some of the logistical stuff like: where is the middle school? where is the high school? are they on the same calendar? maybe ds was to start his day at one school and end his at the other. If so, looking at the course catalogs, can you lump together possible classes. Since they haven't done this before, the out of the box thinking might be there biggest hurdle. For us, a daily schedule that works and doesn't require dd to be in two places at once is just as important as a perfect match academically.

Wow!
I wouldn't worry about Iowa acceleration scale at this point it's moot. The only keys that apply to your situation is -
1) Will it crush 6th grade sibling if younger brother is taking high school or middle school classes?
2) Does your 5th grader want a full grade skip? As Catalan says - if he is totally set against it, then you may need to ease into the full skip or work around it all together.
3) Can he type? Efficiently?

My next question is to pull out the report and look: Was it 18 months ago or 4 years ago? It doesn't really matter, but it's one thing to say that a 1st grader can do 5th grade Math, and a totally different thing to say that a 5th grader can do 9th grade Math.

I would then call the tester and outline the situation, including 6th grade sibling, and get professional recommendation. It's ok if you mess up and have to rearrange things, but it's better if you don't.

The next thing to look at is logistics. Is the high school near your son's current school. Is it closer to the middle school? Then you have to think about grades. High school grades 'count' on the college application so your son had better be ready to type 6 page papers or whatever the honors 9th grade English or History kids do before he gets those classes on his transcripts. He could perhaps 'audit' 9th grade English and History and be given credit "Pass" for 5th grade English and History.

It's idea if you have a friend who saves lots of her kid's work who is in 8th and 9th grade so you can get a good eyeball at both the syllabus AND the level of writing expected of kids at that level.

Being able to think about 9th grade level ideas and being able to communicate about them -when the grades count - are two different things. If I had the freedom to choose for my son, I would have had him audit 9th grade English and History as a 5th grader, audit 10th grade as a 6th grader, etc, and then do 9th grade 'for real' when he got to chronological 9th grade. But my son has ADHD, so even though he's also Ruf Level 3, getting it down on paper at the 'A' level is a whole different struggle.

If they don't buy the 'Audit' plan, a reasonable compromise plan is for your son to do Math, English and History in 8th grade with hand-selected teachers, so that your 5th grader can still be called a slimy 5th grader by big brother, and next year 5th grader can be out of the building in time for 6th grader to enter. I think it's really sad that boys self worth and status is so tied up in their grade level, but it's a reality for many kids. That way 5th grader has a chance to deal with the increased product requirements before he hits 'grades that count.'

For some families high school grades aren't as much of an issue, but I couldn't deal with closing off 'certian options' because I was sending in a young kid to deal with big kid levels of homework. Other level 3 kids are better at reading social cues, and have no problem getting As 3 to 4 grade levels up.


Aside: In some schools '8th grade Math' has a lot of options: Basic Math, PreAlgebra, Algebra 1, Geometry. They will have end of year tests that will help determine where your son is. If getting the 5th grader out of the building before the 6th grader gets there isn't an issue, you have more flexability. My son went from finishing 4th grade Math to Honors 7th grade Pre-Algebra with no Hothousing or preperation. After 3 months we brought him back to 6th grade Math because he just wasn't getting the Pre-Algebra and it was a logistics nightmare. The next year he did the Honors 7th grade Pre-Algebra and had a wonderful year. Same teacher, same textbook - and none of his famous 'class clown' behavior. It makes me smile just to think about it.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Oh yeah - be sure to get a booklist from any possible English class. Different kids are more or less able to tolerate sensitive subjects. It probably won't be a problem, but....better to be prepared. You may be able to negotiate a bit.

We are accel. guinea pigs here too (first time ever done in the history of the school.... SAD! I KNOW! But hey, they have to start somewhere). We just did one grade accel. for now so we could get a positive experience and debunk any myths that are common with accel. I am in teh same boat. Guess what... DC is not challeneged still! BUT... I do see challenge in other ways besides curriculum, which is positive. DC now switches classes, has a locker, has multiple teachers, is learning to take notes, and learning time management skills. So far, those changes have been enough to keep her occupied (I'll get back to you around Xmas when the fall out usually happens and let you know where we stand! HAHA!) BUT, I keep asking myself, would we allow another skip? Would we consider subject, though DC is strong across the board. Then I way in how much of a skip will the actual social start playing a role? I don't know that there is a right answer. All's that I can suggest is not to go too drastic at once because if it isn't successful you can prob. forget about the school trying it again or being as accomodating. Maybe taking baby steps, re-evaluating where you are at, and proceed from there would be a better approach (at least that is what I am going to try.)

Good luck and keep us posted!

I have no answers, but I want to give you my support. I think there are quite a few of us who face the multi-acceleration issue. We started homeschooling exactly for this reason, but know it will be staring us in the face as we get closer to high school/graduation. For some of these children, it only gets worse, too, as their learning continues to outpace a school year.

It does sound like a lot of parents here are finding success with single acceleration and then multi-level subject skips. We're also starting to research the idea of asking for DS to join multi-grade-skipped classes a few periods each morning, then coming out for afternoon homeschooling.

Please keep us posted with your journey!

BTDT!.... You sound just like me, oh about a year ago. My DS made a radical jump from K to 4th, crashed and burned. We homeschooled for a year, then he was accepted into a small charter school that focuses on math and science.

He is now enrolled as a 7th grader at the tender age of 7 and it couldn't be going any better. I think a lot of the success of these kinds of jumps is determined by the child himself and what he wants. My DS could care less about the social aspects of age mates so for him to be surrounded by older kids is fine. The first jump was done without his input. The second he was all for and it made a huge difference.

As far as the IAS goes, it does not recommend multi grade skips at all. I called them and asked that specific question. They think that in those situations a child should skip one year every year ie: K, 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc...

Doesn't that sound like a fantastic way to make sure a kid never has any friends in school? It takes my DS (and me) most of a year to get to know someone well enough to feel they're really a friend.

Good morning to all! First of all, I want to say a huge thank you Your kind support was exactly what I needed...Your wisdom, questions, advice, and experiences gave me so much to think about. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you so much. Yesterday, I arranged to have all the 7th, 8th, and 9th grade English, history, and science textbooks to be picked up by me today. I'm so excited to look inside! Yay! The curriculum director suggested I ask to see if psychologist who tested DS would be willing to interpret scores and recommendations via video...Received e-mail back saying yes, no problem...Suggested that DS receive an achievement test either from her, or to have the school do one. I don't know why I'm nervous about this...He can be so random on school tests...What if he doesn't do well??? Would his IQ still help him get accelerated??? Sigh, so many questions...Never, ever thought about class credits and permanent grades on transcript...duhhhhh...So overwhelming. Big brother is totally supportive. He knows he needs more. Big brother is luckily very secure with his own school successes. Well, just got off the phone from middleschool principal. He would like a meeting on Monday to discuss their curriculum. He stated that not all classes have a so-called "textbook" and a lot of learning is through the internet etc...Yesterday got a "parent grade acceleration checklist" in the mail from elementary principal...I will keep you updated on the journey!Again, thank you so, so, very, very much!