I am not sure how they use the IAS a measure for their gifted program as really it only makes recommendations as to whether or not a child makes a good candidate for a whole grade acceleration or if not, what other accomodations, such as enrichment, subject accel. etc. should be made. I strongly urge you to highlight the key points in the IAS and make sure they are using it the correct way. They certainly can't rule out a grade accel. and you should urge them to use the manual for its intended purpose. It would eliminate any false ideas about acceleration etc. We used it to advocate for our DC's whole grade skip and it was a very useful tool. We went straight to the principal and presented a portfolio, research backed info. supporting acceleration (be sure to reference the acceleration institute website for valuable information that may help back your cause). I am certain that if we went to the GT and the teacher, they would have used a personal biased of the negative effects of acceleration and the fact that it had never been done at the school and most likely wouldn't to deter us, but to our surprise, there is a first time for everything!
Be well prepared and tell them all you know on what you'd like to see done to accomodate DD. I find that taking the guess work out of it for the school can move mountains but going in saying, what can we do tends to get pushed to the back burner.
