In trying to lobby for acceleration, the teacher tells me that the MAP test doesn't align with EDM. So, she said it's great that DS excels with "regular math" (MAP test), but since he doesn't excel in EDM, she disagrees with an acceleration. She gets a vote. How the heck do I deal with this?
Ask the team that makes the acceleration decision to give your ds a test that *does* measure EM curriculum achievement, since the MAP doesn't. Seriously... I am sure they must have some type of end-of-year assessments or end-of-unit assessments that they could give to your ds - not just the year he's in but ahead of grade level.
Also ask for the specifics of why the teacher is saying he doesn't excel in EM - if you haven't already got that info. If you have that info, I'm curious what she's saying is happening. Our kids didn't have EM but they had a similar curriculum in early elementary and there were a lot of group projects, measuring things, making charts etc as a group. And there were tons of "explain your work in three different ways" problems. So - perhaps the issue isn't his mastery of the math concepts involved, but his mastery of group project work or mastery of ability to put his thoughts into words to describe an overly simple math problem - I'm just guessing that chances are it has nothing to do with actual math!
Another point to bring up - not that they'll appreciate it - but fwiw, one of the concepts behind EM is that everything repeats itself, cycles through, so that a concept is introduced early (let's say making a chart from your data, for example)... it's done once or twice, then left behind, then revisited the next year, then left behind quickly, then revisited again and so on and so on... the problems may get a bit more complicated as the grade level moves up, but the general idea is repeating cycles with the same concepts (at least that's how it worked in the places I've seen EM). Completely BORING and non-necessary for a HG/+ child, right? So you might be able to argue something in that direction...
Last thought, if lack of EM mastery is the only reason they put forward for not accelerating, offer to tutor him in what he needs to learn in EM over the summer so that he's ready across the board next fall when he steps into that accelerated class
And if all else fails, I'd after-school him all the way through Pre-Algebra and let him take the test (can't remember the name of it, but it's widely used) that is supposed to predict a student's readiness to take Algebra. That would most likely through the team for a loop lol (and I"m only half joking there!).
How many weeks of school do you have left? Do you think that other than EM everything looks ok (per the staff) for an acceleration, or do they have other areas they are arguing against acceleration?
Hang in there!
polarbear
