Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Grade Skip - Yes or No?

This is great. Have you also discussed each of the IAS items thoroughly at home? Are each of the parents in agreement? Is your child in agreement? Is your child in favor of a grade-skip at this time?

True. If the school remains uninterested in the IAS, you still will have benefited... by having increased your knowledge base.

Personally, I would NOT pro-actively disrupt the school's process or procedure. Unfortunately this sounds a bit like your plan is to steamroll over anything which gets in your way... not a good approach for sustaining positive relationships with spouse, school, or others.

I would advise that you attend the meeting, listen well, ask clarifying questions, and take notes. After hearing ALL that they have to say, if there are factors which they did not consider and which are presented in the IAS forms, THEN you may wish to inquire as to their thoughts on the importance and weight of those factors.

The overall idea is to:
- build your own knowledge base (which you have done),
- learn about the school's knowledge base (which you will do at the meeting),
- build a bridge of understanding. You may find that you are already in agreement, but have taken different paths to arrive at that point.

yes, I am glad I read through the manual. There is so much information on acceleration that I have not known before. We filled out the forms together and DH seems to be in agreement so far. DS is interested in the grade skip as he believes the 4th grade classroom may teach stuff that he already does not know.
I understand why I should not bring out my forms in the meeting. I will have them with me and bring them out only if I find them not considering some of the aspects. If the tool they have is as comprehensive and complete as IAS, I may not have to. Thanks for the advise, as always. I am also making notes of some of the citations from IAS, which I can use during the meeting. The research and clinical findings presented in IAS have dismissed many of my concerns in this advocacy step.

Thanks for sharing.
I believe the meeting will go well, due to your careful preparation.
You will be confident and be able to evaluate what they are presenting.

I'm looking forward to the next update.

Of course, thank you indigo for the detailed guidance, all the way. I would not have been this well-prepared, if not for you. I will definitely keep you all posted.

We had the meeting yesterday with the guidance team. It was planned for 45 minutes and ended up going on for an hour, which still was not enough. The gifted programs people are clearly hesitant to go with the acceleration. They had a lot of 'what if's for me and I tried to give my best answers. As the school board does not have a process in place other than everyone talking about what they think about acceleration, I talked to them about IAS and showed them the forms too. However, they were not ready to look into it saying IAS was designed for kids in non-accelerated programs and it cannot be used for my DS as he is already in the gifted program. They did say about obstacles he will face in middle school like the last one to drive, puberty related differences etc. Overall, the meeting was more like sharing information, rather than making a decision. I was told that they need time to discuss among themselves and that they will let me know soon about the decision. I have the feeling that this may not happen after sensing all the hesitations and resistance to change the status quo from yesterday's meeting.

ss62, sorry to be so slow in responding... my time is at a premium these days.


Background info -
The IAS does NOT express that it is limited to only students in general education programs (and does not apply to children in gifted/accelerated programs), therefore I would suggest that the school made this up.

The IAS can be used even for multiple accelerations. It is not uncommon for a child to skip a grade, and later skip another grade.

Ideas for Next Steps -
1) Rather than allowing the school to put you on the defensive and have you prove that "IAS can also be used for kids in accelerated programs", I would ask the school for a link or supporting document that supports their assertion that "IAS takes into account only non-accelerated kids." What is their basis for this claim?

2) You might also want to contact the Acceleration Institute. The e-mail address is provided on the About_Us page. The Acceleration Institute may be very interested in hearing the school's statement, and may be able to provide some guidance or tips to you directly and/or through an update to their Acceleration Institute website. The Parents page may be of interest.

3) Keep in mind that the goal is not to win an acceleration, but to meet your child's educational needs for continued growth and development. Therefore if the school is reluctant to arrange an acceleration, you may wish to point out perceived gaps in meeting his needs... and inquire as to their plans to meet his needs. If the school does not see a gap, and believes his needs are being met, then keep documentation at home, regarding signs that he is not appropriately challenged for his continued growth and development. You may later select items from this list to advocate to have his needs met.

Wishing you all the best, in supporting your son. Advocacy is a reiterative process. Don't be discouraged. Keep in touch.