No experience here, but very interested in the topic.
My twins are in 4th grade now and have never been skipped before. Both took the Explore this year and scored well (dd's composite score is at the 99th percentile for 8th graders). They are in a 4th/5th classroom with 2 teachers, and staying in that classroom is an option for next year. Both teachers are advocating for them to stay, and have made significant commitments for differentiation (like completing the middle school math curriculum by the end of 5th grade). But then yesterday we had a voicemail from our district TAG coordinator asking to meet. I believe she is going to push for them to skip 5th and go directly into 6th/middle school next year. (But wait, I thought *I* was supposed to be pushing for a skip, not the district!!)
My take is that if they stay in 5th next year, they'll have a 9:1 student/teacher ratio (there is also a full time special ed. teacher in their class) with 2 excellent teachers who know/love my kids. The biggest down side of this would be lack of a peer group at their academic level, but it is not clear that would be much better in the middle school, as our district has a strong commitment to heterogeneous classrooms. Which brings me to thinking about doing a skip in middle school. (There is some temptation to skip the whole three years!)
I am interested to hear advice/experiences regarding which year to skip for this age range.
Dottie, is your advice to skip 7th rather than 8th because preparation/planning for high school starts happening in 8th?
