Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy 1 Yr Math Advance -DD Needs 3-No Teacher Support

It sounds to me like you actually have 2 concerns: (1) whether or not your child is actually learning anything at all; (2) whether she might get kicked out of the program in the future because her scores aren't keeping up.

For #2, I would definitely be supplementing with resources at home. But not IXL. IXL is great for practicing skills you already know, but not good at teaching them. KhanAcademy has some great videos and that's where DD has probably learned the most. She also likes Dreambox.com which is more "fun". You could also simply buy a curriculum for 4th grade math and do it at home. That's what we did last year--I bought a textbook off eBay (same curriculum our public school uses) and we started the 3rd grade textbook last April and finished it in August.

For #1, I think you've gotten some suggestions above so hopefully those will help. I had no luck whatsoever battling the powers that be in our old district. And I can't take much credit for accommodations in our new district; they were simply much more helpful from day 1.

We haven't been in quite the same situation but I can see that we would have done had we not after schooled. The standard curriculum moves at the pace of a heavily sedated snail. We after schooled with SG Maths - the books are quite cheap, portable requiring no electrical outlets, follow a proven curriculum and a reasonably bright and motivated kid can work through them with minimal adult guidance.

I think that when one hits a wall, one can either beat one's head against it or one can seek an alternative route that bypasses it entirely...

Based on her fall school, the appropriate placement would have been in 4th grade math *in the fall*. The second score could mean that she isn't learning anything (because she is placed inappropriately).

However, the second score could mean a lot of other things too. One year my son took the MAP in the fall and again in the spring. We were homeschooling so I knew how much progress he had made in math, and it was a lot--I mean really a lot. But his MAP score only went up two points. And his reading score actually went *down*--and I know he made a lot of progress there as well.

One of the criticisms of the MAP is that it is not as sensitive as it claims to be.

Great advice!

The teacher has asked for a meeting with us for tomorrow morning. I'm not sure what it will accomplish as she is clearly not going to teach the appropriate subject matter. DH asked her again to honor enrichment so that DD could meet her goal. She pulled her for about 5 minutes and reviewed something DD already knows. She told DD not to tell her parents about what they had reviewed (sends up red flags to me) and when DD did and she found out she got snippy with DD.

I would prefer to just go it alone because I feel any interaction at this point may result in retaliation for DD for the rest of the semester and affect her grades. I feel as another poster said before "some teachers care and some don't". I'm concerned about meeting her and feel reluctant to go but DH is all for it.

Can anyone provide me any pointers for handling a sticky situation like this. I feel weird asking point blank why she isn't following the improvement plan when it's clear DD is not showing growth with the low level curriculum.

Well, you can always say you're busy tomorrow. :-)

I agree, any teacher who says not to tell parents ANYTHING is raising a huge red flag.

Have you discussed any of your concerns with the principal yet? I may have missed it but didn't see that in the thread.

If you have not, I would suggest either calling/meeting w/the principal to raise your concerns and to ask for support in meeting your daughter's educational needs. Perhaps the principal can join the meeting with the teacher.

There's some information on the NAGC site that may be helpful as a handout for the teacher/principal. FYI, there is one article that mentions that too much repetition has been shown in some studies to actually be harmful to highly gifted students.

We had similar issues with DS when he was in second/third grades. Our approach was to supplement his math at home and at the same time just continue to push the elementary school. It took us almost two years but ultimately we were successful.

I think oftentimes the teachers are unable to tailor programs for children that are accelerated so in our case we purchased materials for him to work on at school. Not ideal as he had to work independently but we felt it was a better choice than having him learn nothing.

Picking up this thread late. Shifrby, I hope your meeting with your DD's teacher resulted in some positive changes. I wanted to suggest an alternate option if you feel you are still getting nowhere. You can part-time homeschool your DD for math if you feel that would be a better option than dealing with the school's instruction. Check her out for math, and hire a tutor to teach her twice a week or do it yourself, and then keep her in class for other subjects.

We're going to be doing this with DS10 starting next week, using a tutor and I think the Singapore math curriculum, and are feeling good about it after five years of working unsuccessfully with the school on math. I didn't know part-time homeschooling was an option until a few weeks ago, so wanted to suggest it.

Coll, that's a great idea.

You can if it is allowed where you are. Some people also get permission to do an alternative programme at scho but I think the teacher would sabotage it in this case.