Advice welcome- student performing grade levels above

[Anonymous]

Hi! I realize that this forum is primarily for Fairfax, we are in an adjacent neighborhood, but I'm interested in recommendations as I'm sure many on this forum have children with similar profiles. What do you do with an elementary school child reading and doing math 3+ grade levels above and basically teaching himself these skills. Do you keep in public school? Is there an appropriate private school? Any advice to plan for the future?

[Anonymous]

It is unlikely that public school will be able to provide instruction at your child's level. Your best options are to either homeschool, or keep your child in public, put him in outside enrichment classes, and accept that he won't learn much in regular school.

[Anonymous]

With the exception of the most exclusive and expensive, very few area privates have the math offerings in high school that the publics do - or at least FCPS with their dual-enrollment at George Mason option. I say that as a parent of kids at private who used to be cheerfully challenged by AAP math (1 grade level ahead, basically).

Are you in an adjacent county where TJ is an option? He'd find peers 3 grade levels ahead there if he maintains his current trajectory.

[Anonymous]

OP here. We're in Alexandria, TJ is unfortunately not an option. I would consider moving to Fairfax if offerings are considerably better. I don't know much about AAP in Fairfax or how it compares with ACPS, but PP you mentioned they will teach one grade higher. What grade does that begin?

[Anonymous]

How old is your kid?
Mine is like yours, he’s been lucky enough to have teachers who have provided extra challenge (we are in APS) He started an outside algebra program in middle school. I basically decided to try to nurture his interests at home and let him have a regular school life.

[Anonymous]

We are also not in Fairfax County, and my kid is three years ahead in math and seven years ahead in English. She skipped a grade, which helped a lot, but came with the expected issues -- the other kids have phones and mature interests, and they are also starting to go through puberty. She is still more childlike, and it shows. It's better now than if she hadn't skipped a grade, but even though she could easily skip another, we are not going to go for it because it would widen the social gap further.

I don't think there are any easy answers. We supplement math and have plans to supplement in English, but she is simply not the exact equivalent of a child who is three or seven years older. She's barely a preteen. The supplementation is mostly to make sure that she doesn't spend her elementary years coasting and thereby losing the opportunity to build a decent work ethic. We try to follow her interests, and help along her friendships, but she is just different, there is no getting around it.

That said, she is cheerful, healthy, and unconditionally loved. We receive compliments on her maturity and good manners. I hope that she finds her interests and her people, but I don't think that will really happen until she enters university.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We're in Alexandria, TJ is unfortunately not an option. I would consider moving to Fairfax if offerings are considerably better. I don't know much about AAP in Fairfax or how it compares with ACPS, but PP you mentioned they will teach one grade higher. What grade does that begin?

It's recently changed. It used to be in 3rd they would teach half of 4th, then 4th would get you through half of 5th, and by the end of 5th they were doing 6th grade math. Now in 3rd it's just extensions, and I think based on the pilot they did next year 4th won't be accelerated either, but they will compact everything in 5th. The older accelerated model worked really well for my math loving but not grades-ahead kid and for my merely bright, but not amazingly math-focused kid. I know it was still boring for the ones who were truly far ahead. At times our math resource teacher had the bandwidth to come give those kids extra extensions and at times she didn't.

The new system seems like a step back, unfortunately. There have always been schools that waited until 5th to accelerate math, but people have always hated that. Just adding more depth won't help kids whose minds crave moving quickly through math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi! I realize that this forum is primarily for Fairfax, we are in an adjacent neighborhood, but I'm interested in recommendations as I'm sure many on this forum have children with similar profiles. What do you do with an elementary school child reading and doing math 3+ grade levels above and basically teaching himself these skills. Do you keep in public school? Is there an appropriate private school? Any advice to plan for the future?

Some combination of grade acceleration, after school supplementing, summer enrichment (e.g. Epsilon camp, Mathpath, MathCamp), and good old reading during class downtime

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t put a kid like that in public school. My kid is maybe 1 grade level above and he barely is taught anything at school. It’s a lot of supplementary work at home.

[Anonymous]

Sorry if i missed it, but how old is the kid? It's common for younger kids to sprint a bit but then slow down and even out with other bright peers.

Also, being ahead is less relevant at younger grades because the skills being measured are simple. Lots of AAP 3rd graders can read 8th grade books in the sense that they factually comprehend, but they cannot do the analysis that an 8th grader can. Those kids can be adequately supported in AAP or a good private. If your 5th grader is doing HS level analysis, that's a different ballgame.

[Anonymous]

This is normal for UMC suburban students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if i missed it, but how old is the kid? It's common for younger kids to sprint a bit but then slow down and even out with other bright peers.

Also, being ahead is less relevant at younger grades because the skills being measured are simple. Lots of AAP 3rd graders can read 8th grade books in the sense that they factually comprehend, but they cannot do the analysis that an 8th grader can. Those kids can be adequately supported in AAP or a good private. If your 5th grader is doing HS level analysis, that's a different ballgame.

This is good information to know. Thanks

[Anonymous]

Grade acceleration is generally a bad idea because the kids can end up being socially isolated. I know more than one person who skipped grades and then ended up dropping out of college for a while because being so much younger than their peers made it hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if i missed it, but how old is the kid? It's common for younger kids to sprint a bit but then slow down and even out with other bright peers.

Also, being ahead is less relevant at younger grades because the skills being measured are simple. Lots of AAP 3rd graders can read 8th grade books in the sense that they factually comprehend, but they cannot do the analysis that an 8th grader can. Those kids can be adequately supported in AAP or a good private. If your 5th grader is doing HS level analysis, that's a different ballgame.

This plus the fact that the grade level standards are not that high to begin with so it's not terribly difficult for a child to be a few grade levels ahead in a subject in the younger years.

You mentioned you are in Alexandria and your best bet is Lyles Crouch and even then it wont be that amazing. A lot of Alexandria parents pick private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grade acceleration is generally a bad idea because the kids can end up being socially isolated. I know more than one person who skipped grades and then ended up dropping out of college for a while because being so much younger than their peers made it hard.

Your anecdotal experience has long been disproven by actual research.

There is general consensus in the field, supported by the extant literature, that acceleration is a uniquely appropriate instructional strategy for gifted learners (Argys, Rees, & Brewer, 1996; Colangelo, Assouline, & Gross, 2004).

(...) Few studies find negative social or affective consequences associated with acceleration for groups of students,

Read it yourself:

https://www.apa.org/ed/schools/gifted/rethinking-giftedness.pdf