http://www.proteacher.net/discussions/showthread.php?t=295005

I just couldn't stop myself from digging around a little more on that pro teacher site. Found one with a first grade teacher desperately trying to find a way to challenge a gifted student without having him do anything but first grade maths, ie in his case single digit addition, going nuts because she just couldn't find any extension activities, such as strategies for single digit addition, that might challenge a gifted child, but completely refusing to "teach" anything she was going to have to "teach" him anyway a few months later, such as gasp! Two-digit addition...it would be hilarious reading if it were not also so sad.
Note that not one of the teachers responding actually bothers to try coming up with a solution for her specific problem, with the exception of one who suggested having him make up his own word problems for, you guessed it, single digit addition. They all waffle in differentiation speak about menus to choose from, center time, etc...every single one of them skirting around the issue...
Lady, after having put your no doubt considerable powers of mind to the problem of challenging a gifted first grader with single digit addition and having come so far that no, there isn't any way, why not trust this reasoned outcome and try to overcome your deep seated discomfort with having a kid be able to handle arterial above grade level, even material you may not have taught him yourself?
Again, I wonder, is there anything this parent could do?

This is what I have banged my head against for 5 years and as that parent I haven't found anything that I can do

Last year I met with our brand new VP. I thought the meeting was going well and she was all keen to differentiate things for DS. Then I asked for some examples (because they'd been giving me the differentiation line for a long time with nothing actually being done). Her examples for grade 3 were "while the class is doing 2 digit addition he can do 3 digits....". Really, because that is soooooo much harder and he didn't figure that out 3 seconds after he figured out 2 digit addition a few years ago.

She then talked about science which I had earlier said I was wiling to concede because it would be too much work for a teacher to manage. She then insisted that science was super easy to differentiate and said that while the other kids were learning that plants get their food from the sun he could learn that it is called photosynthesis (oh and she said it nice and slow so I would be able to understand her complex science word). Seriously. I'm proud that I got out of there without swearing. I'm at a complete loss.

(sorry for the rant - hit a nerve)

This is, officially, a feel-free-to-rant-whatever-makes-you-feel-better thread.

The fundamental problem is here:

"but i do not feel comfortable teaching that in 1st grader and i do not even know how i would find the time to teach him individually."

A 1st grade teacher has not been trained in how to teach the math beyond the 1st grade level within the context of their curriculum (sigh), and teachers really do not have the time to consistently provide differentiated instruction. She's looking for curriculum that requires no instruction.

I'm honestly sympathetic to the problem. Her job likely depends on each kid mastering 1st grade material with no incentive to move kids beyond. She sees the magnitude of the issue in her classroom, and does not want to pass on more of an issue to this child's 2nd grade teacher. Time, classroom management, and teacher annual progress are not issues to sneeze at.

The only teacher either of my kids have had that consistently provided high quality differentiated instruction and curriculum was (1) the math teacher leader in the district, and (2) held DS after school for 5 minutes each day to provide the instruction.

This teacher needs to head to administration for help, not other teachers.

I'm somewhat sympathetic, too, but on the other hand, there is probably ONE other kid (and perhaps more than one) who can do something other than add single digits in her class. Teachers do a lot of small groups and independent work these days. It's not all..."Okay, class, repeat after me: 2 plus 3 is 5." She could rotate between groups and work on different things, and provide different activities and sheets, etc. And they are told, repeatedly, to differentiate.

Since "differentiation" often does not happen (and in fairness to teachers, I don't see how I could teach N different lessons to 20 children at the same time), often the only way to get a more advanced curriculum is to skip a grade. Not that many school districts are open to that, either.

I wanted to add that as much as it inspires a rant I am on the other hand very sympathetic. I personally don't see how they can expect to meet either of my kids needs via differentiation for many reasons listed above but from discussions with the school/admin it appears that they think it can. It is always brought up as the solution for everything and they are so proud of their amazing differentiation.

This year I'm oddly ok with DS's science teacher that said "I honestly can't teach him anything in science, I think he knows more than I do". I know she's doing the best she can and she has a class of kids to teach. On the other hand, I find it frustrating that they think that adding a digit onto addition problems is actually meeting his needs. The most frustrating part is that they don't have any idea of just how far off this is from challenging him and yet they are so proud of their differentiation.

I just want to yell "I do not think that word means what you think it means" whenever they say the D word.

Well, Princess Bride quotes are always appropriate.

It often feels like I'm caught unawares in a Monty Python skit when I engages in conversations about "differentiation" with educators.

It's often surreal, and while they are brightly and cheerfully chattering on about the joys of "differentiation" I am left looking for John Cleese's big entrance.



Absolutely. The surreal part is that they all seem to fervently believe that it CAN happen. Which is where Princess Bride quotes become suitable to describe the situation, which is otherwise--



yeah, okay, it is just inconceivable.

I poked around that site a little and it was fairly discouraging to see some of the attitudes regarding gifted students and how unprepared some teachers are.

I don't think it's inconceivable. But it's hard, and time-consuming, and in most cases, children not in the "middle" won't be actively taught as well or as often. DS is being heavily differentiated for but not so much...taught, right now...not at his level, I mean (except in GT pull-out, maybe). Still, thinking of it as inconceivable suggests we should simply give up on educating children of different abilities in the same classroom, and I don't think we should. That said, some kids do need to be skipped or put in different environments.

I'm impressed by how firmly that teacher wants to stick to "first grade concepts," despite evidence that the child already knows them.

Even if there is ability grouping, so that 60 students are split by ability among 3 teachers for math and language arts, there will be variations in ability in each 20-student class, so "differentiation" will be needed. But deliberately maximizing the variation within each class through heterogeneous grouping is an ideological decision.

Every year our elementary school principal emails us about how she is assembling "balanced" classes for next year. Her definition of balanced is that each class should have the same number of dull, average, and bright children (although she would never put it that way). It is interesting when credentialed and reasonably smart people operate in precisely the opposite manner that you think they ought to.

"'Ello. My name is I-won't-stop Mom. You failed my son. Prepare to die."

OK - maybe a little extreme. How about: "Prepare to suffer way more lost time in meetings than you would ever have lost just spending a little bit of time trying in good faith to give my child what he needs."

Sue (who thinks Princess Bride = best movie ever).
P.S. You see that I didn't even demand success. I'm only asking for good faith effort.

I just sat in a meeting where a bunch of junior high math teachers INSISTED that the best way to teach middle school math was to lump "most" of the students together. There reason was "research" all shows that this is best for the struggling students and not a problem for the average to above average students. (Gifted math students were allowed ONE faster track.) That in classes of 35-40 kid they can best meet all of these kids by teaching them all at the same speed. They seem to have bought the tracking is bad ideology hook line and sinker. This kind of tracking is OK at the H.S. level but those struggling in math must still try and keep up or those not struggling must be bored.

Quote from OP at other board:
"If i teach them 2 digit addition without regrouping now, then what would i teach them in the spring when the rest of the class is learning--my "high" student would be learning the same thing all over again "

The lack of logic here just boggles the mind. She's already teaching the kid stuff he knows right now. Remember the parents are saying the kid can multiply and divide (which the teacher clearly can't even believe). The teacher can't come up with anything for this kid to do, not because she doesn't have the time, but because she doesn't want to teach anything she's not already planning to teach. Sure, she may not have the time, but that's not her objection here.

And sure she feels bad about it, but I just don't think that feeling bad is enough of an excuse to get out of doing anything. "Sorry I'm not willing to rub two neurons together to try to help you in any way, but I do feel bad about it."

I want to be sympathetic toward public school teachers. I really do. First, it's politically incorrect not to be. Second, I'm the kind of person who likes to like people and think the best about them.

I only wish more of our own interactions with our public school district encouraged that sympathy.

Districts and teachers definitely vary. I've certainly read posts here where they've been accommodating in addition to the horror stories. The more asynchronous the child's development the harder it is to meet their needs in a group setting. Our district does a reasonable job at accelerating kids 1 or 2 years ahead in math especially as they get older. I'm very grateful for the walk to math options that my older son had starting in Kindergarten. However, if a kid is beyond that point I don't see much to do except wait until they are mature enough to advocate for some kind of independent study.

You know, this isn't just a public school problem.

My DD is applying to two private schools that screen children for cognitive abilities. I was surprised when I toured one of them that all students were working on grade level math. This school is famous for their STEM focus and they are doing amazing things at high school level (although I didn't see one single girl in their advanced robotic class....).

I understand how ability grouping might not work in all situations but a school that charges $21,000 a year and has 12:1 student teacher ratio can only do grade level workbook math? REALLY?

Agreed. Our DS had a horrible 1st grade year at a highly-touted private school with a pricetag to match. Workbooks and outright resistance to the possibility that he was gifted (despite their own testing pre-admission of his reading beyond a fifth grade level).

I'm going to use material from that website as part of a prompt for an interview question for teachers now.

I'm sorry, but what?! My son could describe photosynthesis in detail at 2. How is that even remotely acceptable for an older child?! I feel for you, chay.

I don't even know where to START talking about all the things I've heard from teachers! Although I do think the math teacher who singlehandedly eliminated the ENTIRE upper math track (that's right, no students can take algebra before eighth grade, because someone might just have a fit) gets a good shoutout, right along with the elementary school teachers who (I hate to say, successfully) attempted to slow reading progress by purposely just not testing any one of the advanced kids. Really? I mean, they thought if they just told everyone they weren't progressing, they wouldn't?! (In case that didn't make sense, I'm referring to a certain set of little red books apparently leveled with letters of the alphabet....I can't even find it on the internet so it's almost like they made it up...)
Phew. Rant over.

"there is probably ONE other kid (and perhaps more than one) who can do something other than add single digits in her class. "


I don't know about that statement... we moved to a new district, high socioeconomic, fabulous rankings, every child seems a foot taller than at his last school, all seem to be in training for some unique and unusual talent, etc.

The new (public) school actually brought up the gifted issue with us spontaneously, which is wonderful. I won't go into what they are proposing for DS7 yet, lest I jinx it or it turn out to be one of these empty promise situations I read so much about here.

Anyways it was a shock when I asked "is there another child in his grade with noticeably above level abilities in math?" and the answer was no. And DS is not that far ahead nor particularly fast at math, he is perhaps solidly 1 grade ahead and 2 or even 3 grades ahead in some aspects (though he's uninterested, he could be further along if he had had the interest). But I don't think 2 grades ahead in math is that extraordinary at age 7, it would only mean they could divide and multiply small numbers.

They said there were several above level kids in other grades, just not in his. It averaged out to roughly 1 in 30 kids. I wouldn't have been surprised at his previous school but it was a little surprising to find here in a white collar utopia.

This school does seem to teach about 1/2 grade level higher than his previous school. So I guess noticeably above level means noticeably above this slightly boosted level.

I would normally disagree categorically and assume the school is missing the abilities of some kids in there, but I don't know, I've talked to most of the kids by now and seen stuff they've done etc posted up on the walls... I have no reason to doubt the school. Still it's surprising.

Apparently it I'd easier for the teacher to have someone to 'spark' off. Here gifted isn't acknowledged - it is assumed the research that high average kids don't suffer means gifted children (including pg) won't suffer either. I made a bit of a fuss this time and possibly as a result (or random chance) my youngest has not be separated from all the more advanced kids. A 6 year old boy spending all year in a reading group with 7 year old girls really didn't work. He kept comparing his writing with them even though I pointed out they had had a year more to practice (unusual system in NZ).

The reading levels, yep. "Our classroom books go only to level K so he can't be assessed at a higher level".

BUT, our first grade teacher said in a staff meeting "I can't differentiate enough for this handful of ready-for-4th-grade-math kids, any suggestions?" and a 4th grade teacher said "they can come see me during my prep period 3-4 times a week and I'll take them through the 4th grade math curriculum at their depth and pace". Are you surprised that the 4th grade teacher had previously been the school's gifted class teacher?

Last year, DS had a first grade teacher who made him do grade level math with no differentiation. She told me she was going to have him do a second grade level workbook (from a different curriculum) instead, but never did it. We transferred schools mid-year, and the new teacher put him on the computer to do above-level testing and almost everything came back at a 3rd-5th grade level for math. She sat with him everyday for a few minutes and taught him the concepts that the test showed he needed to learn. She asked paras to help him. The school had an open format with very few walls and there were paras everywhere. She printed out worksheets online of those concepts that testing showed he needed to work on next. When she was instructing the other kids she put him on the computer to do Adapted Mind. She was amazing but she admitted it was very difficult.
Now he is in second grade and the teacher's idea of differentiation is to give the kids logic sheets which are basically word problems and don't necessarily even involve that much math. It is definitely not above grade level in terms of math. While I think it's great for DS to do some of these types of problems, he also needs to learn new math. I threatened to pull him and homeschool and now they are having him do Khan Academy on the computer (he's at the end of 5th grade) and some workbooks that I sent in. He is completely teaching himself, watching the videos on Khan. It's a terrible situation, although it beats him being forced to sit through second grade math lectures. They refuse to accelerate him more than one year because of district policies.

For reading, he has been assessed as being the same reading level for the past two years. I don't think there are even any reading ability groups. Luckily the teacher allows him to read books brought in from home.

... which presupposes that all gifted students are autodidacts, or at least amenable to that kind of approach.

Come to think of it, that must be why educators deny the existence of children who are both gifted and not already autodidactic.

Yeah. That must be why my 13yo needed a teacher for AP physics. Because she's... not... actually... what she seems to be. Must have been a fluke that she did so well on the PSAT. And the SAT. And the ACT. I know-- we COACHED her into that.


If she were really all that, she could have already had a Nobel prize in medicine for curing cancer, and a Pulitzer too, for her first novel. Without any instruction, of course, because gifted children don't need any.

This is really heartening to hear, actually-- I'm glad that there are SOME teachers that really can do more than just "try" with gifted students.



Hmm- well, not if they are using Math Foundations By Pearson (tm).

I think that Val has nicely explained rather frequently what "Math Instructional Materials" are like these days, and the situation is...


not good. So sure. If you just turned your child loose with The Shopping Network on the cable tv, a few old Sesame Street DVDs and a stack of US Weekly magazines, I suppose that they could learn to read using those materials. Probably. With some help, I mean. But it wouldn't be very systematic. Or pedagogically sound in terms of higher literacy.

If you think that I'm exaggerating, believe me, you haven't seen one of these textbooks. Dog's breakfast is putting it kindly.

[quote=HowlerKarma

... which presupposes that all gifted students are autodidacts, or at least amenable to that kind of approach.

Come to think of it,that must be why educators deny the existence of children who are both gifted and not already autodidactic

Without any instruction, of course, because gifted children don't need any.

[/quote]

This is what frustrates me too.

Honestly-- I wanted to scream about that when DD then developed socially-prescribed perfectionism. Gee, wonder where that notion came from?? So... we expect you to get 100%. On everything. To prove to us that you belong in your accelerated placement, see... and, um... we aren't going to actually give you any HELP to learn the material.

{DD} I have no idea where you got the idea that the world expects you to always already know everything perfectly before you have even been shown this stuff!!



That thudding sound is my head hitting the table, incidentally. I'm really, really sick of the mythology surrounding this kind of thing. Yes, HG+ kids learn VERY quickly-- like sponges. But no, they aren't all little Newtons, figuring out all of integral and vector calculus from scratch and just from their observations in the playpen.

That doesn't mean that they aren't still "that smart." It just means that they need instruction. Like other human children-- and quite probably a bit less of it than most, since they often need less repetition.


The other thing that I find incredibly frustrating is the notion that a child reading 5-7 YEARS beyond his peers might be 'accelerated' one grade via a part-time pullout or move to a different classroom, where... he is still bored out of his mind, the other students don't know him and he decides that they are still not that interested in the things he cares about any more than agemates are...

and this is labeled "social immaturity" and a "failure" in terms of the accelerated placement. Better still, sticking a child like this in the corner alone while classmates all do fun (but educationally useless) activities as a group is used to argue that the child in question "lacks maturity" if s/he acts out over this kind of thing, or seeks attention in maladaptive ways.

All while overlooking the painfully obvious fact that this is STILL in no way an "appropriate" educational placement for that child. This really just stacks the deck against such children. I watched this happen to my own DD a few times, too.


Makes me see red, it does.

This thread is hitting a nerve today. Getting 1st grader DYS DS6 ready for school today, and he was in a VERY bad mood, wailing, "I don't want to go to school! I'm not learning anything!" Of course, I tried to cheerlead him, "Of course you are, honey! And you will see all of your friends."

It is getting harder to talk him through the rough spots, though - his most recent math achievement scores came back... showing that he is on pace with the gifted 4th grade math class at our high performing schools (or 6th grade for the "regular" students; school's data is consistently above national average).

When I recently talked to the teacher though (because this isn't the first time DS has sounded unhappy), she was incredibly focused on the importance of exposure to all of the grade-level standards and the fact that DS occasionally has made a computation error (and he is already a budding perfectionist - ugh!). I'd hope she reads and understands these new scores, but I'm afraid she might just look at the 99% again and set them aside.

Yep, this is basically what we're getting as well from the teachers. The teacher told me that DS doesn't know how to do a proof theorem with sticks and circles. She said "I bet XXXX (first grade teacher last year) didn't teach him sticks and circles!" I said "No probably not, because he learned place value a long time ago, like in preschool." I think his second grade teacher is actually a bit annoyed that the first grade teacher taught him advanced concepts and not the regular first grade curriculum. I told her that DS already passed the district test for second grade math, which the first grade teacher gave him last spring (he was 99 percent accurate out of 140+ questions!), so she shouldn't need to bother with any of the second grade curriculum, and she said "You keep bringing up that district test, but I was involved in writing that and it doesn't test EVERY SINGLE STANDARD. Those standards might be on the state test!" So basically the teacher was wasting so much class time trying to find the 2 percent or whatever that DS may not have been exposed to, while giving him "logic sheets" maybe once a week when it became too painfully clear that the work was too easy. I put my foot down and the principal, IEP manager, and other district admin got involved, and now he's being sent out of class to work independently but it's obviously still a ridiculous situation.

blackcat- that is frustrating.

I can sympathize with the teachers feeling the pressure to make certain their students meets, standards, too - I really can...to a point. While I am patiently trying to explain that they really do not have this concern with DS, however, he is dissolving into a puddle.

This is an area where educators and administrators may truly be operating at cross-purposes from parents. As a parent I would prefer that there were topics on standardized tests that my daughter felt she "had no clue about" and the earlier in her life, the better.

That is, I would have WANTED her K-3 state tests to have a few topics that she DID NOT know inside and out-- because it might have sent the message that she isn't supposed to "already know" what she encounters in any testing situation.

Yet another way to reinforce perfectionism. Now, teachers and administrators want perfect (or near-to-perfect) scores, not situations that promote growth mindset. I get it, and I understand why they must act in that manner. But it's really bad for gifted learners.

You have to wonder what she thought she was doing as part of the district test development team, if it wasn't designed to be reflective of the standards assessed on the state test. I mean, isn't the whole idea that the 2nd grade district test will be predictive of performance on the state test? If anything, it ought to have wider coverage than the state test, as the state curriculum standards are supposed to be the -minimum- that each district covers in instruction.

Yes! Maybe include a smattering of a few 1-3 grades above level questions on each topic, that aren't included in the composite score for state testing, but which serve as a basic screen for giftedness and have the dual purpose of deterring perfectionism. It would be cheap and easy to implement. The efficiency and effectiveness of my proposal is probably why it hasn't been implemented; the same agency probably produces the battery of other tools, and a consolidated test would eat into margins.

I so sympathize with you and remember this sort of thing from DD's earlier years.

I have to say though that lying to our DD never helped. She knew she wasn't learning anything and just got annoyed that we didn't believe her - when we were just trying to boost her spirits. Just like when we said things like "the teacher is trying her hardest and wants what's best" she knew that was a lie too and that, in fact, the teacher found her annoying and wanted her to shut up and get all 100% if she was so smart.

Why not just lay it out "OK, I appreciate that you aren't really learning anything and that it sucks... let's brainstorm ideas to make you feel better." Even if you can't do everything you come up with (because of external constraints of the school or whatever) you are at least transferring the locus of control onto you and your DS and away from the teacher.

Teachers hate that, by the way, but it has worked great for us.

I have to say though that lying to our DD never helped. She knew she wasn't learning anything and just got annoyed that we didn't believe her - when we were just trying to boost her spirits.

Ditto.

I hear you both. This, however, was said to a 6-year-old who was working himself into an upset state that was about to manifest itself in him melting down and possibly refusing to board the school bus.

DS knows that we've needed to "keep learning" at home (afterschooling, anyone?), because he has felt that school is "sssoooooo easy." We are trying to foster his "growth mindset" at home. So his feelings are being acknowledged, but I am trying to avoid the outright refusal to go to school while I try to get the school to understand his needs (which I HAVE been trying to do, albeit unsuccessfully, so far).

I don't want to - somebody tell me I'm justified in not extending this upstart kid, oh and how do I blow off the parents with the least amount of confrontation

Ds7 is OK with school because he likes sport.

Right now though he has a full leg cast and it will still be on when school start at the beginning of February. I am a little worried.

I have noticed though that the teachers don't really undwrstand that I don't want my kids at the top of the class at everything - I deliberately don't push them to do their spelling homework for instance.

I don't understand it either. Also, they give the kids computerized testing that goes above level 3 times each year and the SIP is supposed to predict how they will do on the state test. DS's math SIP was 98 percent meaning he will get approx. 98 percent of the state questions correct. I emailed that comment to the teacher as well as telling her that the district is teaching to the test. She never replied. I got DS's most recent computerized test results for math and they are above the 75th percentile for 10th graders taking the test in the spring. He's only in second grade. Yet the district completely ignores these results. Do they think it's just lucky guessing or what? If so why do they even bother giving the kids the computerized testing. It's really frustrating. I could take these scores to the admin and say "What the heck are you guys thinking? Look at these scores" and they wouldn't bat an eye.

blackcat - exactly! They do all of this repeated testing that supposedly gives a number that is independent of grade (our testing is much like yours), our gifted kids score WAY above grade...and then they continue to teach them lockstep, the grade-level material. Then why do the testing???

There seems to be an attitude of "if your kid is gifted, then they must also be magical...and teach themselves."

Dear god. If they can ignore those kind of results in their own testing they can ignore anything. I am banging my head against the wall on your behalf.

Eventually, we simply flat out told the teacher that our son wouldn't be participating in the homework nor any in class math work until they were teaching something that would be new grounds for him. It wasn't a threat, it wasn't being difficult, it was simply informing them so they'd know.

All too often we as adults see our time as valuable but we don't view a child's time as valuable. Combine that with increasing frustration levels and as a parent eventually you get to the point where you say, "That's it, that's enough, this just isn't going to happen anymore. I'm not putting my kid through this."

I figured what's the worst thing that can happen in elementary school? My child will get an "Unsatisfactory" in math? I can live with that.

This is what we did last year at this time when DS's teacher kept sending home the 1st grade 2+3 homework. The teacher told me that she wanted him to do it so that his handwriting improves. If she wanted his handwriting to improve there are more appropriate things she could have given him! I wrote her an email saying that DS would not be doing the homework anymore and eventually she stopped sending it. I started sending in work that I chose myself as his homework. I didn't tell DS to not do the classroom work since I thought that would send him the wrong message, but it was tempting. Eventually we just took him out.

Blackcat, I'm so frustrated on your behalf. What else do they need to see to prove he needs to be accelerated in math? It's beyond reason.

So far for DD5, differentiation in kindergarten means she gets to help others count and add and build block towers all day. Kindergarten is a two year program here so she also gets to teach the other kids sight words that she "learned" (already knew but had to repeat over and over) last year. She continues to be taught the letter sounds even though she's known them since she was two and she can now read fluently.

I can appreciate the problem DD presents to her teachers. Intellectually she is on par with a grade two student, emotionally she is five, in fine motor she's a four year old.

There is no work sheet that they can easily print out and give to her to meet her needs. Teaching her requires more thought than just looking at the next skill box to check in the kindergarten section of the binder. I think they have no idea how to handle this situation without a new specialized check list provided to them by the board - which they don't have so there's nothing to do. I think this is what they're doing with Blackcat's DS, just giving the tests and checking the boxes because they need their file to be complete.

I don't even think they understand what differentiation means. I know they know it means "different" but they don't seem to connect that the degree of "different" is dependent on the child. They just make up "different" stuff add a number here or there and then call it differentiation!

It is a sad state of affairs and so we continue to afterschool.

And kindergarten teachers are in a particularly difficult position as far as skills and training, because most of them are only certified for early education (age 2.9 through 8). Unless they have an additional certification, they literally have only been taught how to teach through second grade skills. So not only are they dealing with situations for which they have no prepared curriculum or routine experience, they have zero training as educators for any level of material beginning from grade 3.

Since early ed certification usually goes up through grade 2, you have to expect that many second grade teachers are in exactly this situation; they've topped out their instructional range. Actually, this might be a subtle argument for double promotion from second to third, if otherwise on the fence, as it raises the probability that the teacher will have skills for above grade-level instruction.

I think they would accelerate him one year for math if I pushed them (last year at this time they refused), but it would be pointless because he already knows the entire 3rd grade curriculum. No one is ever accelerated more than one year, which is odd because DD is in the same district and she's in fourth grade working out of a pre-algebra textbook. Her teachers are allowed to do what they want because she is in the gifted program (in a classroom where everyone is gifted), and DS is not in the gifted program because he's not old enough. Never mind the fact that DS is actually scoring higher than she is on their computerized achievement testing. They require kids to score 98+ percent accurate on written district tests in order to accelerate. If a kid makes a couple careless errors or hasn't been exposed to a single concept, they are below that. Say, for instance, they forget what an isoceles triangle is. They could be taught that in 1 minute, but if they miss it on the test, it could prevent them from being accelerated. At this point I think DS is better off sitting by himself and doing Khan Academy and 5th-6th grade level workbooks than being accelerated to third grade for math. We need to figure out something else for next year, though, and I've found some promising options.

Ugh, 98%. So, do you have to score that to be promoted to the next grade, for regular kids? *rolleyes*