For Elementary school first grade, how will the lesson be assessed?

skip a grade for boys and girls

• My son is 7 and is currently in first grade. Here is his "academic history": 1. He went to a Montessori kindergarten and learned to read and do 4-digit addition and subtraction. 2. When he entered first grade in a good neighborhood public school in the fall of 2004, his teacher gave him an assessment and told us that his reading and math are both at the 2nd grade level. There were four kids in his class at about the same level in reading, so the teacher gave these kids different reading lessons and my son made a lot of progress in reading. In math, however, the same lesson was given to the entire class, regardless of the kids' actual level. At the end of the fall semester, he made a lot of progress in reading, but no progress at all in math. In December, he could do only 2 digit addition, less than what he could do in kindergarten. 3. In the winter semester of 2005, we moved to another city temporarily for sabbatical and transferred him to the local Montessori school. There, he could learn essentially anything he wants. Curriculum is tailored towards each individual student. After five months, he is now reading chapter books, and has finished division. 4. We are moving back home in the summer. The plan is to send him back to the same public school (as the Montessori schools are both far away and expensive). Our dilemma is whether we should let him skip a grade in the fall, and go directly into third grade. The pros is that he will be intellectually challenged, rather than bored. However, I don't know the implications for his growth in social skills. Will he be at a disadvantage socially to be in a class where everyone is one year older than he is? What's the long term effect of skipping a grade? Will he always feel and act like he is always the baby of the class? My casual observation in his preschool class was that the boys had a hierarchy which were completely based on their age. The oldest boy (by a month!) was the leader of the group, followed by the 2nd oldest, etc. Are there any studies in education or psychology on the effect of skipping grades? Are the effects different for boys than for girls?

• Answer:

  Hello, amadeus123-ga! First off, congratulations on raising such a bright and healthy boy! I can tell you care tremendously for him and worry a great deal about making the right choice concerning his next grade level. Wouldn't it be nice to have a looking glass into the future to help us know that we are making the best decisions for our children? Unfortunately, in most cases, we never really know if our decisions are the right ones - at least not until our children are grown. No matter what you decide, there are ways to supplement your son's education if he is bored and you decide to keep him at grade level. Conversely, there are ways to help him learn to adjust to the older boys if he is a bit nervous as he moves through each grade. Extracurricular activities will also help him find his niche and learn to be comfortable with himself so that peer pressure and the opinions of others are not so important. Plus, involvement in activities that interest him will help him find his own group of friends early on. That is a great advantage. The following references should do a good job of providing some answers to your questions. Once you have read through them, it will be up to you to use the information you have read and apply it to your child, as ONLY YOU can do. You know your son best. I don't think a decision either way is going to affect his future to a tremendous degree, since you can always step in to help and supplement with academic, emotional and extracurricular support! For some further opinions and reassurance, you might also consider meeting with a counselor who can do a simple evaluation of your child for age-readiness. The John's Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth has some testing suggestions and assessment options on their website. The center might also be able to steer you to someone in your area. About the John's Hopkins Diagnostic and Counseling Center http://www.cty.jhu.edu/dcc/index.html Students showing early promise: http://www.cty.jhu.edu/dcc/earlypromise.html ARTICLES FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION ********************************** "Acceleration," by Carol Fertig. Primary Peeks http://www.ccsd.k12.co.us/gt/Resources/Primary%20Peeks/acceleration.htm = "Acceleration - A legitimate means of meeting the needs of gifted children," by Dr Sarah Evans. http://www.nexus.edu.au/teachstud/gat/evanss.htm = "Should Gifted Students Be Grade-Advanced?" by Sharon J. Lynch. ERIC EC Digest #E526 August 1994 http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/eric/e526.html = "Helping Your Highly Gifted Child," by Stephanie S. Tolan. ERIC EC Digest #E477 1990 http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/eric/e477.html = "A case for acceleration," by Hultgren, H. Understanding Our Gifted, Open Space Communications 1989 Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 1, 8-10 http://www.ditd.org/Cybersource/record.aspx?sid=11446&scat=902&stype=110 Excerpt from "The Case of Kurt" "This description will illustrate the difficulty one faces in making the decision to accelerate a student, in this case by multiple grade skipping and subject acceleration. A bright boy, quiet and a little slow to develop motor skills, Kurt began kindergarten at five years. By the time he had finished fourth grade, he was academically well in advance of other 10 year olds. His parents initiated a request to have him skip the fifth grade and begin sixth grade at age ten. At the same time Kurt was completing his second year of private tutoring in German and was working weekly with a mentor on paleontology projects. Kurt did skip 5th grade, and after four months of observing Kurt's adjustment to 6th grade, his parents requested that he be permitted to transfer fulltime to the junior high, where he had taken 7th grade honors math. They cited as reasons, "the fact that the 6th grade curriculum was largely review," "his current elementary school demonstrated no effort nor interest in trying to meet his needs in the classroom or in the gifted program," and "Kurt has repeatedly initiated dialogue concerning his wanting more challenges in school." His parents felt that he had made friends in the junior high and that additional acceleration would benefit him." (Read further........ = From "Skip a grade?" http://www.austega.com/gifted/provisions/gradeskip.htm "Is skipping a good idea? What are the drawbacks? "The major drawback is the transition being handled poorly and conspicuously, thus putting heavy and generally unnecessary pressure on the child, with this pressure coming from peers and/or teachers. Other drawbacks are the possible adverse social consequences of the increased chance (by no means certainty given the large age range for say puberty) that the child will reach biological milestones later than his classmates, and that some existing friendships can be lost. If you are contemplating a change of schools anyway then it seems that many of these drawbacks either do not apply or are minimised." "The advantages are increased probability that the child will find schoolwork interesting and "school learning" meaningful and indeed possible, increased probability that the child will find intellectual and emotional peers to relate openly with, and by no means least that the child will have gained a year of his or her life that might otherwise be wasted in redundant schooling." "There is some debate about whether gifted children are typically more emotionally mature than other children of their age. Obviously each child needs to be considered individually - they are all so different. But research suggests that the emotional age (as measured in psychological tests) tends to lie between chronological and intellectual ages. There has been discussion in this forum of emotionally brittle gifted children - they certainly exist. My view here is that the majority of emotional brittleness seen in some gifted children can be traced to inappropriate placement in school with the child finding themselves uncomfortably placed with children that he feels different to but is told are his peers and equals. This and most children's (and adults') need to belong can lead to all sorts of problems - disastrous self-denial and low self-esteem; clowning and acting-out behaviour to try to gain acceptance/attention; anti-social or rebellious behaviour (particularly in boys); and/or total turn-off and turn-in and/or underachievement." = From "Should Gifted Students Be Grade-Advanced?" Project Appleseed. http://www.projectappleseed.org/gifted.html "Is Educational Acceleration Harmful to the Child Emotionally or Socially?" "This is the aspect of educational acceleration that seems to worry parents and educators most. Generally speaking, children who are well-adjusted and socially at ease who accelerate report having two groups of friends-they belong to a circle of older students, but they also retain friendships with children who are the same age. Note that children naturally choose to play with children of all ages in their neighborhoods." "Children who are socially withdrawn or who have difficulty making friends may experience similar problems when placed with older children. On the other hand, there are cases in which a gifted child is more at ease socially with older children than with age-mates. This may be true more often for girls than boys. The receiving classroom teacher in an accelerated setting can be a valuable ally to the younger student, helping him or her find a niche among the older students. Remember that schools see no problem in placing "precocious" athletes with older teammates." = An excerpt from "Gifted and Talented - Question and Answer by Noreen H. Joslyn, LISW, ACSW http://www.familyeducation.com/experts/advice/0,1183,63-28074,00.html "There are obvious advantages to seeking a challenging program for a gifted child through grade-skipping. There are also disadvantages that I am sure many have already told you (his friends will date and drive before him, he will be smaller in size for sports, etc.). One disadvantage that I never see mentioned is that your child will leave your home one or more years sooner if he is grade-skipped. Sure, he might postpone college but that is not the norm. We only get to have our kids with us for so long and I hesitate to speed up that time without the most extenuating circumstances." = An excerpt from the answer to a letter on the ParentKidsRight website: http://www.parentkidsright.com/pt-earlykindergarten.html "I have recently reviewed the literature on early / late starts as well as skipping a grade. Guess what? It depends on the individual child and the family. Some children thrive in a challenging intellectual environment and do suffer from boredom if not challenged. Some children are hesitant in new situations and don't seem to get bored with repetition of the same material." = "Alternatives to acceleration for the highly gifted child." Lewis, G. Roeper Review, The Roeper School Spring 2002 Vol. 24, No. 3 http://www.geniusdenied.com/Cybersource/Record.aspx?lib=1&sort=SourceName&scat=902&stype=110&sid=11420&NavID=7_24&sterm=%22Acceleration%22 "Case studies of two highly gifted preschoolers demonstrate the widely varying abilities of children at the highest ends of the intelligence scales. The article discusses pitfalls in providing programs for the highly gifted and warns that acceleration is not enough. The author suggests that three key components -- assessment, flexible scheduling and counseling -- are critical to the success of any program for children with advanced intellectual gifts." "Children seldom fit neatly in to boxes, even when we group them in the hope that they will. It is convenient to educate children selected for homogeneity, but the more highly gifted the group, the less likely they are to fit into pre-arranged profiles." (Read further....... = "Guidelines for grade advancement of precocious children." Feldhusen, J., Proctor, T. & Black, K. Roeper Review, The Roeper School September 1986 Vol. 9, No. 1 http://www.geniusdenied.com/Cybersource/Record.aspx?lib=1&sort=SourceName&scat=902&stype=110&sid=11396&NavID=7_24&sterm=%22Acceleration%22 = Options as your son gets older: "Educational options for gifted learners." Davidson Institute for Talent Development http://www.geniusdenied.com/Cybersource/Record.aspx?lib=1&sort=SourceName&scat=902&stype=110&sid=13064&NavID=7_24&sterm=%22Acceleration%22 Additional Reading and References =================================== "Yesterday's Whiz Kids: Where Are They Today?" By Melissa Hendricks. Johns Hopkins Magazine. http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0697web/whiz.html Hoagies Gifted Education Page http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/acceleration.htm *** You have a lot of information to sift through! I hope you find it both encouraging and helpful. As I stated earlier, I don't really think you can make a wrong decision either way! Take care (and happy reading!) umiat Search Strategy skipping a grade in the early years pros and cons of skipping a grade for boys is it easier for girls to skip a grade than boys?