So my DH and I met with the school principal again to discuss how to best deal with our DS and his math knowledge. We had met in the middle of March without much movement except an acknowledgement that he was HG and needed to be challenged, and the principal had said she wanted him to meet with a math curriculum person - for unspecified reasons FWIW.

Well, the meeting of our DS and the math person never occured, so we set up another meeting with the principal. The principal says all the right things, and states that she hopes to have a small cluster group of "good in math" kids in one of the 3rd grade classrooms next year (in our district, gifted is pretty much a dirty word - you have to say "high achieving" or child with an "exceptional readiness to learn." And that was pretty much it. We explained that we still don't feel like he is being challenged enough, that no one has ever tested him to see what he can actually do (I don't even know where what he does falls grade-wise), and we are not confident a cluster group will resolve those issues. In addition, she is talking about a cluster group of only 3-4 students, and most of the research I have read about cluster groups working well (so they aren't overlooked by the teacher) uses cluster groups of more like 6-7.

My read on this is that while the principal is knowledgable and sympathetic, she has different issues on her plate. First, we are of course interested in our one child, while she has to worry about a large number of them. I can respect that, but it doesn't help my DS of course to wait while the school district figures out how to respond. Second, it seems everyone thinks the problem is the math curriculum, which is not challenging even for middle level kids - so it is hard to express that even a strong math curriculm would prob. not challenge DS. Third, she clearly is not at all open to subject acceleration - our district is all about differentiation, even though it doesn't happen or happens only in classrooms with excellent teachers (not sure how it can happen in classrooms with 24 kids). A friend asked how the meeting went and I said "if I was trusting I would give it an 8, but since I am a cynic I have to give it a 3."

So, where do we go from here. My DH and I plan to write her an email asking her to clarify:
1. is subject acceleration against a formal policy of the district or school
2. asking for someone to test him on above grade level material in math so that we can see ahead of time what he knows or doesn't know and where he would fit best given this knowledge.

Any other suggestions? We want to keep the pressure up on this. We are also going to write to the super (it is a small district) as he once said he didn't think the district did a great job for the HG/PG, so ...

Thanks for listening to my vent. Cat

I would love to hear other opinions on this, but my understanding on cluster groups and differentiation is that they aid kids who are working about a half a grade level above the regular kids in the class. In my DS9's school, the teacher will typically group the kids into 3 groups: kids who are a half a grade level behind, average kids, and kids who are a half grade level above the norm. At the beginning of the year, say 3rd grade, you may therefore have kids who are performing at midway through 2nd grade, kids on track at the beginning of 3rd grade, and the more advanced kids who are performing halfway through 3rd grade.

I'm sure that this is dependent on the individual school and the individual teacher. We have been told by DS's teacher that she could not "step on the toes" on the next teacher by providing DS with any material outside of his grade level. I hope other kids have had greater success with differentiation than we have had.

I would suggest that they test your child to see where he is in the math curriculum. Our discussion with the school began when DS's 2nd grade teacher gave him the end of the year tests, which he passed easily. It is hard for the school to argue that the child should sit in a classroom if the teacher has proof that he has already mastered the material. There is also not a great deal of waiting around and stalling for tests to be ordered: Your school's teachers already have these tests ready and available. You may therefore suggest to the school that they give your son the end of the year 3rd grade math tests or several of the math test during the year to gauge his math knowledge. If he demonstrates knowledge on those tests, then you have ammunition to ask for additional testing (like the Woodcock-Johnson III achievement tests) and subject acceleration.

Just remember that your child's school may not have seen a child before who needed additional services beyond their normal differentiated classroom environment. You may need to educate the educators before you can proceed.

Thanks this is helpful - I agree with you that they may likely not really have any sense of where he is (we don't really quite frankly). Having him do the in-school test seems like a great option because they can do it right away (although I'd rather they did it right before school starts b/c he is learning so much so fast right now - thanks to Life of Fred). I had no idea that was how they tended to break levels - it makes sense, but won't work well for a kid who is substantially above grade level.

Good thoughts. Cat