Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums THINKING BIG About Gifted Education Polling Davidson forum members on acceleration

Thanks, Indigo, I filled out the survey. I suggest adding the following question:

If your child did accelerate, did he or she do so through
(A) the public schools
(B) a private school and later transfer to a public school
(c) a private school, without a later transfer to a public school

I answered the poll but there wasn't really a choice that fit our situation. We did a full grade acceleration (plus some additional acceleration for math after some time had went by), and it worked well for a couple years, then the negatives started outweighing any positives, so I checked that "it was not helpful". I am not sure at this point whether we will try to "undo" the full grade acceleration. The reason why the negatives seem to now be outweighing positives is because of the EF issues and being diagnosed 2e since the acceleration. It wasn't a "horrible" decision, and it did help for a couple years, but I don't know that it was the right thing over the long term. Of course we don't know what things would have been like if it had NOT been done...maybe worse or there would have been other problems to deal with.

Val,

As usual, some very cogently presented and valid points.

We too, are not planning any further skips for our DD due to concerns over EF demands in addition to social strain during an asynchronous (relative to her peers) puberty.

To give readers a balanced perspective, if I were going to construct such a poll, I would also ask, in addition to the questions above, "Did you choose not to enroll your child in kindergarten early?" and "Did you choose not to have your child skip a grade?"

Our answers to both of these questions are yes for our now 15yo, and having stats on this choice could help reassure the sanity of some new posters considering the possibility of *not* accelerating, especially since, imo, this forum already generally conveys a strong bias in favor of grade acceleration.

Great questions, everyone!

In creating the draft poll upthread, I learned a few things, including that one cannot go back to edit or add to the poll(s) in that particular post. As a "Post Option", the Poll Manager is presented underneath the text window only when creating a new post (specifically when utilizing the "Reply" feature, not "Quick Reply"). The Poll Manager is not available when editing a post.

With that new insight in mind, please consider adding your questions (they are all GREAT questions) in a poll in your new posts on this thread. In this way, the poll can be piece-meal, with questions and response options contributed by ALL, over time.

What are your thoughts? Are others ready to create a poll post or two?

As an alternative, if another poster would like to create a more complete poll incorporating everyone's input, I would graciously delete the draft poll upthread and defer to the new poll anyone chooses to create.

Yes. Totally agree. We also did not accelerate (though in part because of the school's policy) and have been mostly satisfied with the decision (DD is also 15).

Just a note that studies have been conducted by the University of Iowa (Nation Deceived and the new Nation Empowered) on the topic of acceleration.

Yes, these resources (studies conducted by the University of Iowa on the subject of acceleration, A Nation Deceived, and the new report A Nation Empowered) are frequently mentioned on the forums.

Rather than the existence of researched studies quelling discussion and answering poster's questions, the sharing of those resources seem to spark additional interest in discussing how the personal experiences of current forum members compare with researched studies... as both research and anecdotal evidence are valued by forum members.

Also linking to:
- an old post discussing acceleration (Tamara Fisher archives: Unwrapping the Gifted)
- a few thoughts about gym class:
Grade skipping tradeoffs,
Grade skipped and facing middle school,
Subject Acceleration and Changing Buildings.

Also linking to more old threads on acceleration:
1. Accelerated schooling - skipping a year
2. Skip a grade?

I understand, indigo. Just mentioning for newer members since Val's post suggested that a study might be in order.

Great idea, however a study can be time consuming, while polls on the forum can provide instantaneous information, as well as preserving anonymity, and allowing the parents to be in control of what is being asked (by creating the poll questions in our new posts). There is nothing about creating polls on the forum which precludes a formal study. Quite the opposite, the presence of forum polls on various aspects of acceleration may provide insight into the information which parents may be seeking to consider when contemplating acceleration for their child. In that way, forum polls may help inform questions and hypotheses for future research studies.

That said, in case someone comes across this thread and not others on the topic of acceleration, I'll add a link to the work of the Acceleration Institute so that those resources and prior research are present in this thread, including
- A Nation Deceived
- A Nation Empowered
- Iowa Acceleration Scale (IAS)

ETA: Here is a link to a post which seems to understand very well why many students (and their parents) choose full-grade acceleration. In addition to expressing understanding, this post also mentions the research on acceleration:

Originally Posted by aeh

I have first- or second-hand knowledge of an unusually high number of acceleration stories, including many radical accelerants into early college, and it is clear to me that a significant number of those individuals would have suffered loss or injury to important aspects of themselves had they not been accelerated. The costs of acceleration were well worth it for them. Those observers who believe the costs -were- too high generally have not grasped the severity of pre-acceleration psychic pain they were experiencing. These are the kinds of data captured by the longitudinal research on radical acceleration.

Click on the link to read the full post.

ETA: Here is a link to a post which mentions potential costs of NOT accelerating.

Here is a link to a roundup of acceleration threads.