Sorry to repeatedly post! That's good insight, though, kcab. We've found that to be true as well. Generally here decisions regarding math subject acceleration are made in 3rd grade. The kids who don't subject accelerate in 3rd or 4th grade have a really difficult time being accelerated later even if they meet the achievement score cut-off. The tendency is to keep them in grade level accelerated classes at that point.
We did get around that with dd10 this year but only due to a GT teacher's desire to keep dd at the school b/c we were pretty clear that the options we had at the start of the year weren't working.
The kids who have been accelerated also have a significant advantage in terms of continuing to test high enough to be eligible to do so in middle school. For instance, to take 7th grade math in 6th grade, you have to pass the end of 6th grade math exam with something like a 70% as well as having a certain MAPS math score. The kids who have done the 6th grade math in 5th grade are, obviously, at a distinct advantage in terms of both that test and the level of knowledge they have for the MAPS test.
