Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Help! Requesting subject acceleration in English

Does it, really? Stats is not my strong point, but suppose we're measuring on the usual normal distribution, SD 15 basis. Suppose School A has, because of local population or because of explicit selection, a distribution which is shifted one standard deviation above the population distribution. Then half of School A's students are above their mean and above the 84th percentile of the population (50th percentile in School A is 84th for the population) , and 16% of School A's students are above the 98th percentile of the population (84th percentile for School A is 98th for the population). I don't know how to interpolate, but this seems to be roughly the scenario we need to make the school's statement true.

I couldn't quickly google convincing proof, but I don't think this amount of distribution-shifting as a result of an area having mostly privileged children is implausible, at least in the UK. It's unlikely to arise by chance, but children aren't sorted into schools by chance.

I have to say that given this cluster of schools I would not be surprised if the above scenario were in fact true. (Of course I also believe that test prep plays a role here.)

Yes, that's about where the math came out for me, too - that you'd need a 1SD shift of the mean, but a similarly-spread normal distribution. I don't know that you'd keep the same standard deviation, though - there just aren't that many kids at the very top end to spread the curve out. I guess if it's just a selection effect, rather than some sort of floor, maybe.

Ah, nevermind, I know what the issue is. 95th percentile to 99.9th percentile looks like a small range. Converted into standard deviations, it's an enormous range. Like saying, "the top 50% of our kids fall between the 50th and 95th percentiles, so your 95th percentile kid will be in good company."

So, I filled out the form and dropped it off today. Fingers crossed.

So after processing it some more I think dd is perfectly capable of doing the work. I just don't understand why doing subject acceleration is such a big deal and why they just can't do it that way. Oh well--interested to see how this goes! I can't really see any reason that they won't agree to it if they use the IAS.

In our elementary school subj. accel. is a big deal because of the scheduling. No two consecutive grades do math or language arts at the same time, so it affects all subjects, not just the subject you want acceleration in. At least with a full skip, you don't get lots of weird schedule problems that are hard to resolve with the staff they have.

DeeDee

Now dd is totally onboard. So no question of her appearing unenthusiastic to the school! And dh was all, "That is what I said to do 4 months ago..." I guess I am just slow with this stuff. I don't think I can put it strongly enough how competitive and crazy this cluster of schools is...the high school has like 70 kids with 4.0s (and those are kids taking all kinds of AP classes and playing on state championship sports teams etc.) My friends who went to the most highly prestigious private schools in this area all said it was just as intense if not more so than their schools. Yes, I will make sure about the math too--I figure it shouldn't take that much time over summer to fill in gaps--Aleks or Khan academy should do it, right? Now to right the letter to the school re: dd5 and kindy (parents can't request a specific teacher but can write a letter with any concerns). Parenthood...

Hey DeaconGirl - sounds exciting. Glad to hear that DD is onboard. Competitive districts drive me crazy too - every silver lining has it's own cloud, I guess.

Good luck!
Grinity

So the process is moving forward. This from the assistant principal:

"Excellent, thank you. Please be on the lookout this afternoon for a form coming home with XXXX giving us permission to test her. We believe we will be able to use current testing you've provided, but will also have to assess her with a 7th grade aptitude test. We will begin testing next week or as soon as we receive the tests from the county office. I believe this testing to take place for one hour each day for four days. We will let you and xxxx know the day before we begin testing. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!"

That was quick. Nice job!

DeeDee