Our 7yr old son recently tested gifted (just missed Davidson admission so we may try applying again later). In the mean time, he's just started 2nd grade. He's 'bored' every day when he comes home. He took the SCAT for CTY at JH and tested 78% compared to 4th graders in Verbal and 18% compared to 4th graders in math. Frame of reference - he had just finished 1st grade and the test is meant for 2nd graders, we didn't prepare him for the test at all and went in cold. We are wondering if pushing for a grade skip to 3rd would be appropriate. I found an IOWA acceleration scale form online several months ago (can't find it now) and according to my assessment he was high borderline to skip. We docked him points due to his small size, underweight, some coordination issues etc. BUT, now we are re-thinking. Does anyone have insights? Where to begin? We're especially interested in telescoping and continuous progress methods. Thought they might allow him to stay with age peers/size peers a little longer, but let him begin to get into some more advanced materials.

I do like compacting curriculum quite a bit, as there is less of a concern about gaps, and one can document for schools that everything in the state requirements has been mastered. If you can get the school to do it, it's also relatively easy and affordable, as you simply use the existing materials. In another recent thread, we've briefly discussed pretesting through unit/chapter tests, and giving mastery credit for any unit/chapter with at least 80% accuracy (or 70%, depending on what you and the school decide is best). For lower scores, the teacher teaches through that unit/chapter only.

If the school has both grades, you can also explore cross grading (say for reading into higher, and math into less high) for core academics, and staying with his age mates for content areas (social studies, science) and specials (art, music, gym). For placement purposes, the most straightforward option is to use the school's curriculum in that subject to place into the correct grade level for single-subject acceleration. If there is no placement test in the curriculum, then one can use the same pretest method as for curriculum compacting, until your DC begins consistently scoring below the cut score. At that point, back up to the nearest beginning of a grade level, and that's his cross-grade placement in that subject. (Or, if he's really close to the end of a grade level when he reaches his ceiling, I suppose someone could tutor him into catching up--but I think there is value in placing children slightly below true instructional level for grade skips or SSA, as moving up also involves increased social-emotional and executive function demands, for which he will need to reserve some of his cognition.)

A great deal depends on the school's willingness to try different approaches. What is your sense of their understanding of high ability children and their flexibility?

There is some very good information in the free, public guidebooks on the Davidson site. I'd suggest reading those if you have not already done so.

Each of our children has had a different educational approach. One has had the cross-grade placement aeh mentions above - first in math (based on end of year testing) and then in language arts - with peers otherwise. This has worked quite well in general. We are making an adjustment in language arts as he enters middle school, but his math placement remains accelerated. He is one of the youngest in his grade, due to a late summer birth date and not being held back, as many boys are in our area.

Our other son was full grade accelerated in first grade. This has taken him from being middle-of-the range agewise to being youngest. He has flourished academically and seems to be doing well socially. He was so far ahead in all subjects then that the school suggested the acceleration (this would have also worked for his older brother but he was completely against a full-grade skip). He also was quite excited by the skip!

Some of the oft-repeated and very good advice we received was to be ready to adjust as time goes on - this has been true and helpful for us. You don't have to come up with a perfect solution -- just one that works for now.