Wow, thanks for the great responses. I spoke with our principal and he has encouraged us to appeal. Our principal explained that it would be ideal to have more levels of math within the regular classrooms but the district does not have the funds for this at this time. He also cautioned me that although she may be gifted, they can only take a certain amount of kids and the others are just left out. That is what is most upsetting. There are kids who NEED this and there just isn't space to accommodate everyone. So....Frustrating!
It's so interesting how diverse kids can be. My youngest is nothing like the other two. I think that is what is throwing me off. She is not motivated by grades or scores. She is not a teacher's pet. She kind of gets lost in the middle because she's not a problem. If she is not challenged by work, she would prefer to not do it. She will make small computation errors because she's really not engaged. When we introduce new/more challenging material, she digs right in. She is good at "mental math". Sometimes she shows no work and her teacher assumes she guessed. She loves logic puzzles and math games. I think her teacher has mislabeled her.
Worse case, we retest next year. I've heard it's harder to enter these programs once they begin. Because of the acceleration, students have more and more to catch up on. Worst, worst case.....I pick up the slack and make sure she is challenged at home.
Thanks for all of your support. It's such a touchy subject and it's hard not to let emotions take over. I can't talk to friends about it because they don't see the problem with my "smart" kid.
