Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Skipping grades?

Best Wishes Niki!
I think that in some situations the single skip really doesn't help, but in many that little bit helps a lot. And one of the biggest advantages is that it opens up the school's eyes that 'here is a kid who needs more and different' so that the really important changes, such as the Math Subject Acceleration, can happen.

Savor these moments!
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Grinity

Today we have parent teacher conference for my DD. Make a long story short..about a month and a half ago we had met with the teacher and all agreed to move her to 1st grade (she is 5 currently and her birthday is Nov. 14th). The principal wasn't to keen on it come to find out so we then had another meeting to decide what to do with her. The plan was to keep her in K and then go to 1st for academics and some speicals until parent conferences. So here we are today and we will see what happens from here. Dad and I are all for the move (and so is she and the K teacher) but I think we will have some convincing to do to make it a permanent move. I will post tomorrow to let everyone know where we stand. For some reason I am a little nervous about this meeting because I just want what's best for my DD!!

Thanks for all of your input. Sorry it has been a while... we have been waiting for the Iowa Acceleration Scale book and it finally arrived!

Niki--thanks for the updates on your son's experience. I envy you!

tigerlb923--how was the meeting? I have a feeling that we are going to encounter resistance from our school as well. Any suggestion?

Right now, we are trying to go through the Iowa Acceleration Scale book to see if our kids are well-rounded enough for skipping a grade or should we consider the home school option. I am totally clueless and very thankful for this website and for all of your input.

According to the Iowa Acceleration book, formal testings are necessary or highly recommended. Has anyone skipped a grade without the formal IQ/achievement test? I called around and realized that the price for these tests are not cheap....

Thanks again!

DS skipped first grade but the school is the one who suggested it. At the time he was at private parochial school and I was very surprised when they came to me a few weeks into first grade and suggested the move to second. I was not surprised at his ability but shocked that the school was the one making the first move. The public schools would never have done that even with the tests.

You are right that private testing is not cheap but if you suspect some high scores I think it is worth it. My only regret is that I did not research to find someone experienced with gifted kids.

To update everyone: The honeymoon is over in our house.
At the beginning DS was so excited about the move (into first). Couple weeks later, he is quite frustrated with it. He keeps saying that it is still too easy. I think that he just had different expectations.
It feels, like I have a different child at home. He is grumpy and seems to lost his spark. He starts more and more to talk about homeschooling and the way we used to do things before he went to school. Oh well.
And we thought we had a solution, at least for a little while, anyway...

You really shouldn't. There is a good reason the IQ scores are a required piece on the IAS. We did have those for dd#1, who skipped 5th a year and a half ago, but our district does skip kids without it. The results of those skips are much more random. One of dd's acquaintances would be one of those kids and, from what I've heard, it isn't working too well socially or academically. For some of the others kids without the IQ testing, it has worked well but they probably do have the scores, they just haven't been tested to verify it.

We did agree to the skip prior to getting back the above level achievement test scores for dd b/c she was still an excellent candidate with a bunch of zeros in that area, but they did support it when the scores came in.

Our school's GT coordinator did mention that they might be able to do some of the testing w/in the district for kids who didn't have the testing yet. Might your district be able to have a school psychologist with a PhD administer an IQ test? Grade level achievement tests are not too expensive, so that piece you should be able to get from the school b/c they do those all the time already (MAPs, ITBS, etc.).

The meeting was just okay. Didn't really change much accept that she only goes to 1st grade for reading now and then back to K. Then a Math specialist pulls her out in the evening to work with her a couple of times a week. Their reasoning for doing that was so that she would have more time with her age appropriate peers which is just plain silly. She was not happy with it either.

Actually her K teacher is the one who approached us about moving her to 1st grade but when the principal found out about it is when things changed. All I can say is back yourself up when you go to advocate for it such as the IAS.

Question for you....Are you doing the IAS yourself or does it also require the teachers get involved with it? I have been thinking about going that route too.

Unfortunatley I have been told that I am becoming obsessed with this whole grade skip thing by my family and friends and I have lost my gusto for it. I shouldn't be that way because it's what's best for my DD but what do you do when you feel you have no back up. It's been a very frustrating event to say the least!!!

Hi tigerlb923--we are reading the IAS book by ourselves hoping to be better prepared when we meet with the school.

Parts of the IAS evaluation does require teachers' input and assessment. It basically has 10 sections of evaluation (such as school history, ability and emotional assessment, etc.). Base on the final score, you can consider your options of skipping vs. not skipping grades, etc. (I have only gotten to chapter 2 right now.)

If you have a good local library, definitely consider checking it out. (Our local library does not have any of the books people have recommended, like this IAS, or books by Dr. Ruf, etc.)

And as far as being "obsessed," you are just doing what you believe is right. After all, kids only experience their childhood once. I was really discouraged when my formal DD's preschool teacher said "just let her be a kid" or "what's the rush." Then, I found out that during "reading time," DD was sent to a corner to read by herself while the teacher taught the others to read. It kind of made me sad (because DD was kind of sad) and decided that we might need to find other ways of schooling. So hanging there.... and it is great that we got this site to talk about these issues.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! (No school next week, so not sure how often I will get to check the site.)

We have a tiny library also but I live on interlibrary loan.

Have you looked at A Nation Deceived ?

I found this when my pediatrician tried to tell me "the research doesn't support acceleration". Funny what can be found when you actually read the research.

Maryann