1st grader (fall bday) reading 3rd-4th grade level. Ask to skip a grade?
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Anonymous
| Read the other thread about the parent asking for opinions about a 16 year old starting college. That gives a different perspective and brings to light a new set of issues and worries. Leave her where she is and look for opportunities for enrichment instead of acceleration. |
Anonymous
| So many people redshirt their kids and you want to do the opposite? Think about it. Why do you want her to have to deal with boys in her classes who are routinely a year or two older than she is? |
Anonymous
| LOL. Former teacher here and parent of sixth grader reading on 12 grade level on latest test. This is not a reason for skipping a grade. If you think your child is gifted get a WISC test (IQ) from a neuropsychologist. |
Anonymous
I appreciate everyone’s perspective. The school has sent me a letter saying they want to get her tested, but they need my permission. |
Anonymous
+1 it evens out later. |
Anonymous
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"So many people recommending you don't advance her. They have never met your kid and are quick to dismiss her talents.
Take your own counsel OP and that of your DH and her teachers" This. Plus, most teachers don't give a flying fig about trying to accommodate advanced students - without parent advocacy, they are perfectly happy to let the most highly-abled kids sit in a corner being bored all day, every day. Ask me how I know. |
Anonymous
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I wouldn’t do it without a full WISC, or something similar. I would want to know that she was really high on at least some the important sub tests.
I would also have a tutoring center, like Huntington Learning Center, assess her math to ensure she doesn’t have any holes in her learning. Their business model is to find things wrong so they can charge you for tutoring. If a tutoring center says they can’t find gaps, then you can rest assured that there aren’t any at that level. That being said, skipping grades is usually not good for kids socially. Ask your teacher to weigh in on that as well. I have only ever met one kid who would have been well-served by skipping, so I would proceed with caution. - former teacher |
Anonymous
What we're saying is that a 1st grader reading 2-3 grade levels ahead is NOT advanced. "Grade level" is a low-average, so reading a year or two ahead does not mean that your child is gifted. And in most educated areas, a good 1/3-2/3 of the class is reading ahead in 1st grade. |
Anonymous
Absolutely not. While it is a wonderful thing, reading 2-3 grade levels above grade-level is not that exceptional. Allow her to access gifted services, but do not advance her grade. |
Anonymous
The one difference here is that the child is very old for her grade. Rather than being a year ahead, she'll be the youngest by three weeks. In some places she'd even be the right age for the older grade. |
Anonymous
+1 to everyone saying that "reading level" is low average, and that being an "advanced" reader in early elementary has almost zero correlation with actual giftedness. Reading level at this age is enormously variable and means very very little, other than assessing which kids were in a literacy-rich environment in preK. When you look at "grade level," you are looking at the benchmark that every kid is supposed to cross for that year. So it is set up to be attainable even for kids who came into kindergarten with zero preliteracy skills. Being well above that bar is wonderful, and hopefully your daughter goes onto a lifetime of loving to read, but it does not tell you anything about how she will perform past about third grade. |
Anonymous
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My 5th grader read at 11th grade level according to his school. He did not according to me. This test is no good. He is a good test taker and that's about it.
I would only move her if you plan to do an extra year abroad and then she would end up graduating with her original class. |
Anonymous
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DS was very similar to your DD - advanced in reading early on, but also advanced in other subjects and advanced socially. Oldest in his class with an October birthday, but too young to make the cut-off to test in early.
He's now in 6th grade, and he is still academically and socially ahead of his peers. His closest friend is 2 years older than he is, and he basically hangs out with older kids all the time, rather than kids in his grade. I think he could easily be in 7th grade right now and he'd be doing just as well, although I think that being in the "right" class with his same age peers is still the better option. |
Anonymous
| Our oldest is currently in kindergarten and far ahead of all classmates in reading and writing, but is average maturity-wise and missed the cutoff by four months. Nobody was interested in skipping a grade. But her teacher proposed to send her out to do certain reading and writing instruction with higher grades a few times a week. I don't know if something like that would be possible at your school (ours is a small private). |
Anonymous
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Everyone on dcum assumes that every child is gifted and advanced and nothing special. So ignore all those comments, because none of us know your child.
The Iowa Acceleration Scale is a good tool to help you and your kid's teachers think through all the issues and help you reach a good decision. Here's some hopefully helpful info: https://www.hoagiesgifted.org/iowa_accel_scale.htm |