Hi there

My 2nd grader has had numerous assessments (IQ, achievement, and cogat) that have all scored him in the 99.9 percentile (equally gifted in all areas). I approached the district about acceleration for a subject next year because their GATE class is not happening anymore at the school. I have just been advised that the GATE office will conduct additional assessments to see if he has met the 'mastery criteria' for end of third grade and will qualify him to go into 4th next year for a subject only. He is 2e so we have no desire for whole grade skip. My question is what is this testing? Is it very difficult?

I know his reading and comprehension is beyond the expected level without a doubt. Language arts is the subject I would like for him to be accelerated but hearing this I'm quite worried. We literally do no academic work outside of school however writing is one of his hobbies. The teacher considers him very advanced (her words were 'the smartest child in the grade - by far'). But given he needs to have mastery criteria for every part of the subject and we haven't done any additional exposure to this stuff I am really unsure. I don't even know what it is expected that he will know

I know in math there is no way ( and tbh I don't even want him tested in that area because he simply doesn't know the 3rd grade curriculum) but ela he would benefit from it so much.

We are not test prep people at all but I'm wondering if I should give him a chance to learn prior to the test?

Different schools may use different end-of-year tests or mastery tests. The material they would be testing on would most likely be aligned to the common core standards, published online. Reading the standards may help you understand whether your son has mastered the material described.

The ela standards are here.

Our school uses MAP, so yours could be that. It's a computer adaptive test. There's a separate math and reading test. If you get the questions right, then it gives you harder questions, and then harder still, until you converge towards your final score.

Mastery criteria sounds less like MAP, and more like end-of-course assessments, or benchmarking assessments for third grade, which could be unit tests out of the curriculum, or achievement testing, or any one of many other instruments. I wouldn't worry too much about prepping him. If you want to know what the criteria are, I would echo indigo, and suggest you read the CC standards or, better yet, take a look at your state's curriculum frameworks document for ELA third and fourth grade.

Ask them what he has to score. I have heard stories on this forum of kids having to get excessively high marks to skip.

Thanks all. They said some will be paper based and some computer based. So maybe a combination of things.

The person at the district said mastery was 85% but who knows if he scores that they would let him.

Part of me is worried that they will have extremely high criteria but do the testing as a way to say officially he doesn't qualify.

We haven't pushed at all for any extension or acceleration for him until now. I can't say he'll know everything he hasn't been taught but I do know that he is extremely bright and could learn anything they needed him to in a flash. They seemed to want to ensure he has all of the skills before allowing him to go to 4th.

Part of me wonders why they make it so difficult - they have a perfect cogat score, 151 on the wj and an IQ of 99.9 percentile. They have benchmarks that show he is at 5th grade. A perfect achievement report. And a teacher who has professed to do anything in her power to make sure he gets a plan in place to be challenged. On top of that he has good friends in the higher grade and a 1:1 shadow who would accompany him to the higher class and offered support with transitions etc. He is also highly motivated to do so.

puffin and Minichi - this old post describes a bit of what you mentioned.

On the other hand, 85% sounds like a reasonable level to score. Given that information, the testing requirements may be to protect your child and the school: Having a process/procedure with a paper trail of documentation may help ensure that a child is likely to achieve success with his/her single subject acceleration. This could keep an child from being "pushed" ahead when s/he is not ready.

Yes you are right indigo... i don't want him pushed into something he isn't ready for. That won't be enjoyable or confidence building for him at all

Hopefully the school is seeking ways to make things work... not reasons to keep from teaching him at his zone of proximal development.

Whether or not he receives the single-subject acceleration you are seeking, he may need "more" in order to remain challenged... for example, this may take the form of curriculum compacting in math, math club, math camp, entering math competitions, etc.