Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School What we suppose to do? --updated on 1st page

My daughter, almost 6, is now in K at a private school in Jersey City. In the past 6 years, she was enrolled in 4 daycare/school (including the current 1) due to our relocation. She never hesitated to go into a new classroom and making friends. She started to play puzzle at her 1 year and half, and knew all the letters and numbers at that age. In Pre-K3 and Pre-K4, she was selected to move to the higher class during the summer time, and mingled with older kids for about 2 months. The summer before the pre-K4, we noticed that she was eager to read and write. Checked with her class teacher, we learnt that two older kids can read and write. So we bought her some Dr. Seuss�s books , Little Critter�s Read it Yourself storybooks. She worked so hard on decoding. When she is comfortable with decoding, we started to ask her what the story is talking about after each reading. She did it very well. Meanwhile, she started to do math (addition and subtraction) without finger counting. Her Pre-K4 teacher said she would do well as she is such a good listener.

She started K in September this year. Unfortunately, we noticed that she is bored. A couple times, she was not rewarded star due to chatting with other kids in the class. She said she knows everything taught at school now. Her focus shifted away from learning. She is happy as she is elected as representative of student council, and she is happy that she draws boys� attention back to class, and she tried to encourage other kids to write better�We feel she lost the focus on the class given the content taught, and that hurts her learning habit. She would get used to spend less effort but gain same reward. We submitted the grade skipping request�let her go to Grade 1.

Assessment was made for reading and math by school. Math is at the level of end of Grade 1, and reading is at the entry level of Grade 1. But they said no because she has lots of friends in K, and she is happy in K, why give her pressure?

I told them she would be happy in Grade 1 too and she would enjoy the challenge at Grade 1. They just say no.

Do you have any advice what we can do to persuade the school? Any idea is greatly appreciated.


Update on 12/1/2011:
Based on all your advise, we prepared a letter and articles in a folder to restate our opinion. It was delivered to principal in a month after the first meeting. She sent us a meeting appointment. While waiting for it, we noticed that my dd was still assessed "by principal's friend", or so.
I went to the meeting by myself and I prepared she repeated her decision again. Surprisely she changed her mind. She got help from third party, and gave dd another assessment, and they suggested to let her go for 1st Grade Math at least. She decided to let her go for 1st grade math every day, and 1st grede teacher gives her 1-to-1 1st grade reading lesson, then will have another assessment in 6 month to move to 2nd grade directly.
I simply couldn't believe my ears, but now dd is doing like this.

And as we expected she became a kid we know before. She got up early in the morning without our yelling and put on her clothes without help. Her behavior is more mature. The best thing is that after school she picked up the homework given by us and worked on it by her own. She told us she is having an oppotunity to compete with 1st grade, she does not want to fail. Thanks God.

Thank you again for all your help. Let me know if you need anything from me.

I would talk with her K teacher about adjusting her work... when my son was in K he was given a stack of other work in his chair pocket, and when he complete the regular class work, he would move onto that work (it was stuff she had gotten from the 1st grade teacher.) This worked quite well for his K year. The teacher also had him be her 'helper' quite often - run errands to the office, pass out papers, and sometimes she would have him help other students.

Good idea. Get something from 1st grade teacher. Actually her K teacher supported her move to 1st Grade at the very beginning, and has been giving her extra homework. But the principal does not support. So now her teacher hesitated do do what she did, and stopped giving her extra work. I may need to talk to her again. Thank you, Epoh.

Master of none, the principal said to us clearly that she does not support the advancing from the first day, in addition, my dd's reading and math are not at same level. Other than that, she noticed that she has lots of friends in K, playing in the field happily. so she should stay in K and enjoy K. She said she wish she had a crystal ball...She said there is one kid, who skipped grade 6, didn't do well. But she cannot come back. She worried same thing will happy to my girl.

Where do you get the DYS consultant? Does the consultant help? Anyway, thank you for your message. Have some takeaway.

Here's a great article that agrees with you.
http://www.portage.k12.in.us/cms/li...685/pdfs/April/Whatachilddoesntlearn.pdf

Many schools want the child to be at the top of the new class for a skip. Your dd with what you have said will be average. I would ask them to give her enrichment work. We get the same homework BUT with different expectations. The class may have to say 5 words that rhyme with ten. He has to write the 5 words. For math, we get completely different work as his scores are that of the average third grader.

Similar to what frannieandejsmom said, the Principal of the K where my son goes to school put it this way: learning doesn't always have to be vertical, it can be horizontal; In other words, if the class is doing counting to five and your daughter already knows that, maybe she can do word problems related to counting, or maybe she can create word problems (just an example). Her point was that perhaps there can be work given to her that is related to what the rest of the class is doing, but calls upon different (more challenging) skills. That is of course, if grade skipping is not an option for you.

Also, you mentioned that "All the tests support her decision, and she wants my daughter stay in K and enjoy K" What tests? I'm a bit confused, sounds like all the evidence points in the opposite direction.

La Taxican, thank you very much for the article. Cannot agree with it more. Very help.

Frannieandejsmom, You brought in a great point that they want kids to be at the top of a class. The principal said if my dd advanced, she would always be the very young in the classroom in her whole life. She said it would be very bad. I really didn't see why not.

Currently in her class, other kids are learning counting the numbers, she already two digits addition and subtraction. Other kids are learning letters, she started to write her own stories. Her teacher feels hard to keep her up.

I think your kid is in progressive learning environment, where kids are encouraged to move in their own pace. Maybe, we need to find such a school.

Great article.

The comment in it about China, Inc is true.

I work with a lot of Asians, both Chinese and Hindu, and they refuse to accept what the publics do and spend a lot of time on outside tutoring. A number of non-Asians are also doing this and getting good results.

I think much of the problem with public schools is that many of the teachers and most of the school leadership are not that bright. And they have low expectations for the kids and for their own work.

I am looking at this site.

http://www.accelerationinstitute.org/

And an objective guide.

http://www.amazon.com/Iowa-Accelera...mp;ie=UTF8&qid=1320317509&sr=1-2

I think that if the school does not support acceleration then they also have a hard time giving the right level work. Their idea of harder work is more of the same boring work- not more challenging. My ds9 is probably doing work 2 grades higher in math currently- of course that is outside school. He will probably be starting Algebra in the near future. We just started back to dealing with acceleration needs after a very long illness and would be a lot farther along if he had not been sick and set back a couple years. We send our kids to an after school program with predominately Asian children because they get the extra academics. That is where they get their enrichment math. My dd7 also takes Chinese when it can fit into her schedule- it interfered with the math class this year so we picked math as the priority. However in school- the behavior problems in school are starting again because he is BORED. My ds9 reads several hundred pages a day- IN SCHOOL because he gets to read when completing his work- I feel like he sits with a book all day half listening to the teacher and outputting work only when demanded- I could be wrong but it is all way too easy for him. He honestly likes it to be easy but admits he could use more challenge- I can't wait to see him in a school that challenges him DAILY!
I am touring a school Friday that specializes in acceleration kids at their own rate- My gut says he will be going there next year. When I talked to the owner- he said your ds sounds just like mine, this place was made for kids like him.
Good luck getting the academic needs with your dd, I have not found schools to be that successful in the acceleration or even addressing the pull out curriculum well and my kids go to one of the top exemplary schools in Texas that feed into the top public high schools in the state. I hope your are better!