Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy How to Get School to Challenge Your Child

I really needed to hear this today. Thanks for articulating how to approach this situation if it happens for my own DD again.

I did have several in person meetings with the principal but they lasted like 5 minutes. I felt totally blown off each time. I've ponied up for full IQ and achievement testing, which is scheduled for next month. The psychologist will also come to his school for a scheduled meeting, so I'm hoping armed with his results and a psychologist I will be taken more seriously next year.

Thank you! I'm still working my way through these posts and resources and they've been very helpful for my planning.

Odd thing is I spent last year searching to try and figure out how to get help with this and never found much useful. I was only googling unschooling to help a friend and stumbled on this forum. Best google ever.

The school has all the results as he was tested monthly by them. His Star reading scored peaked at grade 6.1 in March, which is when he gave up on trying at school. It then drifted down to 5.1 by June.

For Star math he had to take the 1st grade test which doesn't give grade levels past 4th grade. He always tested at >4th grade level, but again his scaled score peaked in the 800s in March and drifted down to the 600s by June.

I am getting full testing done this summer so will have more data to strengthen my case.

I really don't have many options here. The public school is the only other viable option, as we're zoned for a supposedly good one. However it is very overcrowded, so much so that the school just went year-round. They've already made the classes for next year, so if we switched now he'd be stuck wherever they could fit him, as opposed to wherever would be the best fit. I've emailed the vice principal who is the one who talks to parents and tried to make an appointment to discuss possibly transferring, but have gotten no response, which doesn't make me sanguine about how responsive they'd be to his needs.

There aren't any good private schools in my area. There are a couple of good ones that are a 40 minute drive away, but that really isn't doable for us. I'd have to spend almost 3 hours a day driving back and forth between home, school and work. He would have no time for any after school activities and would hardly ever be able to play with school friends since most would live far away.

There are only two secular private schools in my area. One is so rigid they suck all the joy out of learning and the other seems to be all show (fancy facilities, etc) but no real substance.

I love everything about his school except the academics. It is a small charter school with a very safe environment. While his 1st grade teacher was not good, his classmates were the nicest group of kids and families. If I pull him out, he would never get back in, which makes the decision really hard. The waitlist to get in is long. If not for this I would give the public school a try and if it didn't work out just go back to the charter.

I feel crazy as I've posted this a couple of times and the posts seem to have gone *poof*. Something I posted after appeared, so here's a third try.

The thing that irritates me the most is that the school does know how gifted he is. They Star test all the kids routinely -- monthly if they are above grade level, more often if they aren't.

His Star test for reading peaking at grade 6.1 in March, which is when the meltdowns began and he quit trying at school. It then drifted down to 5.1 by June, which is the score my 1st grader got with no effort whatsoever.

Star math similarly peaked at >4th grade and scaled score in the 800s in March and then drifted down to the 600s (still >4th grade) by June.

I am getting him formally tested this summer, but they already have the data that shows him performing better than the 99th %ile. I shouldn't have to pony up all this money to show them what they already know, but if it gets things done it'll be worth it. The psychologist we're going to will go to a meeting at the school, so I hope armed with test results and her, we can make 2nd grade more engaging for him.

Marcy, between my 2 DYS, I have every flavor of standardized test score for (WISC, EXPLORE, WIAT, MAP (multiple subjects), ITBS, CogAT, State Tests) - all high - and so far it has gotten us very, very little in terms of actual different instruction. Most of this testing was done through school. What the testing did do was get our older DYS into some advanced programming available at the schools. Our younger DYS is still waiting to be old enough to test into these programs. So far, the school's set programs have offered a small amount of help. I think we have realized along the way, though, that our DC need more. Unfortunately, testing does not always help if the school is ultimately unwilling to do anything...and we had been promised all kinds of things. It wasn't until we actually finally asked for something...that we realized that the school really would not do much of anything other than plop the kids in the age-for-grade classroom. (Sigh). But I think that our schools are overly-cautious and afraid to accelerate.

If you decide to have any testing done, I would simply make certain that your school uses/acknowledges/values the results of that particular test.

I thought a STAR assessment was more of a swag of approximate achievement level. The tests are usually quite short and more for planning appropriate skills to teach as they align with Common Core. I also didn't know you could take them that often.

Anyways, our DS couldn't stand them, even though they were so short.

Hi Marcy -

We have a very similar situation. I would echo the other posters who suggested trying to get a face to face meeting with the principal or other administrators. Our school does not offer any accelerated or advanced math for elementary school kids (just a weekly enrichment pull-out for 40 mins) and we tried a few different forms of advocacy before sitting down at the end of the school year with the principal and two different administrators. I can't tell you we've had success so far (we've been given excuse after excuse, actually, and are now waiting for them to get back to us) but it's a necessary step in the process to show them how serious the issue is and hopefully you will have better luck than we have had to date.

At the least, if he tests in >99.5%ile the district has a highly gifted program that he would be invited to. They do things like robotics classes after school, where they invite all the highly gifted kids in the district to attend. Not only would that be something he would enjoy, but he'd get to meet other kids like him.


I'm blazing new trails with this school, so I do need a starting point. Once I have the testing done, and the gifted IEP written out, I'll be more aggressive than I was last year. I didn't fight when the curriculum coach just threw a problem at my 6yo and left him to try and figure it out himself -- this year I will in no way accept that as legitimate enrichment.