Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Grade Advancement, Middle of Year, PLEASE Help!!!

My son, 7 years old (turns 8 in late March) and in 2nd grade, had his IQ tested in October at the request of my wife and I. Typically in our county they don't test until third grade but we were urged to have him tested by a couple of close friends who have been in the teaching profession for over 20 years each. We got the results back about 2 weeks into December. He ranked 7th out of all the third graders in the county (and he's in 2nd grade). The only reason I mention this is so you will have all the facts before you give me advice.

At that time the person over the AIG program for the entire school system sent an email to my son's principal, teacher, and the AIG person at his school saying that they needed to meet because significant modification was needed for him.

The school system AIG person met with the people mentioned above for two hours today discussing all the possible modifications that they could do for my son.

When I returned her call this afternoon she said they felt like Grade Advancement to 3rd grade would be the best for my son.

My main concern is:
Is this really a good time to be advancing him a grade?
- he has missed almost half of the third grade year
- students are given End of Grade Test for the first time in 3rd grade (missing half the curriculum has me worried he won't do well; which in turn means it may hurt his self esteem and possible placement in higher classes later on)
- how do I catch him up with the curriculum he missed
- how will students in third grade treat him after seeing him move up from 2nd grade

I mentioned some of these concerns and she said that she didn't feel like him catching up would be a problem and they could give him some help in doing so. She said right now he's just spinning his wheels in class, he may even do some of that if moved to 3rd grade, he's explaining the Math to the teacher before she teaches it, and that his teachers say he is easy going/goes with the flow so they felt he would handle the change well.

The county AIG person said that in our meeting (my wife and I, her, teachers, principal) later this week we can discuss all our concerns as well as other options if we (or our son) don't feel comfortable with grade advancement.

I mentioned possibly having him go to 3rd grade for a couple classes but remaining in 2nd grade and she said that was a possibility and something we could look at in more detail.

I would greatly appreciate any help and advice you can give my wife and I on whether grade advancement at this time of year is unwise, what might be other options we should consider, personal experiences with this decision, and any other information you can give to help in our decision!!!

This is a huge decision (my wife and I are almost physically sick over it) and we just want to make sure we look at all the options available, look at each option under a microscope, and decided what is in the best interest of our son.

Thank you very much for your time!!!

TripleB

TripleB - I'm in a rush and really don't have time to give much worthwhile advice, but there is one piece of your concern that I'd think through - the 3rd grade standardized testing - you need to find out if it's actually meaningful in the long run. I don't know anything about where you live, but where we live it really doesn't mean *anything* for any given individual student - so if you were living here, I would take that worry out of the equation all together. What it's used for in my area is to assess school performance, and although parents receive a copy of the results and it stays on the child's school record through elementary school, it's really non-consequential.

I would definitely take into account how your ds feels about school right now - our ds was extremely bored in early-elementary and it's something that he internalized rather than sharing with us at the time... and that came back out in a not-so-great blow-up later on in school. Sorry no time to explain at the moment! Just something to think through.

Best wishes,

polarbear

First, it is remarkable that the school is encouraging this for your son.
That is a good sign, in my estimation.

How about thinking of this as a trial period vs a momentous irreversible decision? Could you suggest that to the school? That may take some pressure off and allow clearer thinking.

Children change classes mid year all the time, sometimes for acceleration (a boy in my son's class was moved up a month or so into the school year), family moves or school changes.

Hi TripleB,

Is the recommendation based on anything else besides an IQ test? and was it a full battery IQ test or a screening type assessment like CogAT? Has your son had any sort of achievement testing done so you have a fair idea of how he might do a grade up? (It sounds like the teacher feels he will be fine or maybe a bit bored even with a grade skip, so there is possible no reason to be concerned, but it's good to have all the facts before making a decision).

If you have access to the Iowa Acceleration Scales, it might ease your mind to fill that out. It is an objective assessment that determines whether a student is a good candidate for acceleration. It is possible that the AIG person used this. I would ask the school if they have it.

What does your son say? If he's asking for this too, that's a good sign. Can you meet the class he would be moving into?

I agree with ConnectingDots - if you can arrange a trial 6-week period, that might ease everyone's minds.

FWIW, my son has done two types of skips -- first he skipped first grade, then mid-year second we found that a grade skip was not enough so he transferred to an accelerated program that worked at least a year ahead. Because generally in elementary, there are so many repetitions of subject matter, there were no real struggles for our son (though his handwriting was pretty bad). It helped a lot to go through the Iowa Acceleration Scales when making that first skip.

ETA: I agree with Polar Bear -- state testing is not important individually for students in our state too.

Oh, another thing. I am guessing that you wouldn't have had your son tested if you didn't suspect something. It sounds like he is recognized by teachers as being very advanced, at least in math. Is he equally advanced in all subjects? I ask because you mentioned possibly just accelerating for a few subjects. If your son is advanced across the board, it makes more sense to skip the full grade/all classes.

Another possible concern is sports or academic contests, which you didn't mention. If your son is very competitive in either sports or you think he might like some academic competitions, you may want to consider the subject acceleration a bit more if you want him to compete with age-mates.

TripleB let's break it down:

You have a highly intelligent child spinning their wheels in second grade.
They need more challenging material and sound like they can not only cope with that but will do well with appropriate work.
The school is advocating a grade skip.
Your child is easy going and happy and the school thinks he will be fine.
As parents you are anxious and looking for the possible downsides. That is not unreasonable but don't let that overwhelm all the positives.
He is skipping the rest of second grade and from your comments, he already knows that work.
It is highly likely he already knows the third grade work. You can check. The teachers can run through the material he has missed with him.
You are concerned about the end of year test but I am not sure what the import of a third grade test is? We don't have that here. Is it really so bad IF he didn't do well. That is a big IF because he still has many months to work up to it.

Our DD skipped into third grade halfway through second. The biggest problem is that the work still wasn't challenging. You may be over rating what third grade entails.

What happens if you don't skip? That isn't a neutral position so make sure you see the negatives in staying put. Are they as scary as the potential downsides of moving forward.

Take a deep breath and get the teachers to run through the third grade material with both you and your son in a meeting. Then you have an idea of whether it will actually be a problem.

Thanks for all your help so far...a lot of fantastic advice with many ideas I hadn't thought of before. Let me try and address all the questions and thoughts one at a time.

@polarbear: In our area the third grade end of grade test helps in other ways than just with teacher evaluations and school evaluations. The two that stand out to me are qualification for the AIG program in our county (the EOG score, teacher recommendation, IQ score, and one other I can't think of) and deciding whether a student passes third grade. I've asked him if he likes school and he truly does...I also asked him if he was learning a lot and he says not really, I already know almost everything we've talked about.

@connectingdots: Yes, we've been very impressed by his school and the three teachers he's had so far...they've really created a true desire for leaning in him. I love your idea of a trial period for the grade advancement. Give it a couple weeks to see how he handles the change and if he feels like third grade is a better fit for him or not. If he chooses to go back to second grade he could always say he went up to third grade to get some needed skills or something.

@st pauli girl: I think the recommendation is based on his InView IQ Test score, the ability he has shown throughout the three years (his current teacher said he was 'labeled or marked' since Kindergarten), and his high ability level through reading test he has been given every since Kindergarten - he maxes out the test when they test for "Reading letter sounds", "Reading whole words", "Reading fluency", "Reading with accuracy", "Retelling a story", and "Instructional reading level." The AIG person today even mentioned some of his scores in Kindergarten. No 'achievement' testing as such that I know of.

I have not talked to my son yet...definitely plan to...but want to wait until my meeting with the school to see what all the options are so I can discuss each with him.

What's funny is that I'm a Math teacher and I think he's much more advanced in reading (got Harry Potter 6 and 7 for Christmas, finished 6 and is half way through 7). I think he's more advanced in reading because he likes it better but also he can push himself in reading more so than learning Math. Having said that, he's pretty advanced in Math as well (adding and subtracting with negatives in Kindergarten).

He has tried 7 sports over the past two years but didn't like any of them enough to repeat any. His athletic abilities definitely aren't up with his intelligence

@ndw: Thank you very much...what you said makes a great deal of since. We've been thinking about the negatives about advancing without ever considering the negatives of leaving him. I guess it's tough because skipping a grade isn't the norm so if it doesn't work out I'll be second guessing myself forever. But then again my son isn't exactly the "norm" either is he?

Thanks for everyone's advice so far and taking the time to respond. It has given me a lot to think about but has really put some things in prospective.

TripleB

I can't give any advice, but I can say my DH and I share your concern!! We have a meeting with our school next week about grade acceleration for DD9. We swing between worry about maturity issues if the skip happens and worry about what will happen if DD doesn't move up. Our DD is very vocal about how awful school is!! She didn't mention it until the end of 3rd grade (last Spring).I was shocked by how much she disliked school, and how unhappy she said she had been for such a long time.
After I read some posts here I will be working on the Iowa Acceleration Scale that some have mentioned. I found a copy of the worksheet online and am interested in what score I come up with.

We just completed a 2-year subject acceleration right before the holidays. Extremely successful so far.

Based on our family's experiences, I'm in favor of midyear changes in placement-- I think it's actually easier to orchestrate, because you can do the "meet the teacher, check it out, see it'll be fine" business in the course of a normal school day if you want to.

You sound a little calmer and more focussed TripleB. It's never easy to make these decisions but it often goes better than you imagine, especially as you are taking a considered approach.

Our DD is not sporty so that was never an issue. Her maturity and executive functioning developed, or were more exposed by each acceleration. We can see her confidence has expanded with the prospect of advancing again this year. It flows into her social skills too.

We offered her a trial of one term, about ten weeks, for this skip. As it turns out, it is unlikely to be needed. A trial needs to be at least 6 weeks to give everyone a fair run. I think the idea of it being a trial just allows all participants to feel more comfortable, especially parents. If you go that path then do it as soon as possible so it doesn't get caught up with concern over the end of year exam.

About the math versus reading....we thought DD was verbally advanced not a math kid until grade 5. Turns out she just didn't have an opportunity to demonstrate math reasoning until then and took off. She hated times tables and rote learning. Lots of kids show different aspects of themselves at different times