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Supposedly in the old days really good students would sometimes skip grades in school when they were attending the grades K-12. From what I know they don't do that much anymore and instead a really good student, particularly in high school, might be taking more advanced classes or AP classes. Maybe they should go back to skipping grades, just a thought.
Research on the effects of grade skipping tells a different story. In spite of the concerns expressed by educators, studies show that carefully selected students who skip grades do as well as or better than their new peers in all areas of achievement. Nor have researchers discovered any link between acceleration and social or emotional difficulties.
To help ensure a successful experience for a child skipping a grade, gifted education experts Gary Davis and Sylvia Rimm recommend these guidelines:
· The child should have a measured IQ of 130 or higher.
· No matter how far advanced the student may be, he or she should skip only one grade at a time. Further acceleration can be considered the following year.
· The child should be evaluated for any skill gaps that may occur as a result of missing coursework, and assisted to make up the material.
· The child's new teacher should be supportive of the move.
· The child's parents should be supportive, and prepared to provide assistance with the adjustment.
· Grade skipping decisions should be made on a case by case basis, and should consider all aspects of the child's development.
· Acceleration should be done on a trial basis, so that the child may move back to the lower grade without feeling like a failure.
Another way to meet a child's need for advanced instruction is "subject skipping," allowing students to attend an older class for the subjects in which they are advanced. With careful planning and support, either strategy can be effective.
Actually, that does not seem to be true according to the research.
I DID say it was my opinion (based on being in the system for 18 years), not scientific proof.
But your link supports my opinion.... "Another way to meet a child's need for advanced instruction is "subject skipping," allowing students to attend an older class for the subjects in which they are advanced. With careful planning and support, either strategy can be effective. "
No grade skipping where I came from. Teachers (my family knew a lot) flat out told my parents that advanced kids would never be skipped there because they inflated the average on the standardized tests. (This was when the tests were getting more and more important.)
The reality is that grade skipping has not been all that common. In my 30+ years (25 at the same high school) we likely had less than 2 dozen skippers.
Most did ok in high school due to strong parental and staff support. Several had issues of maturity in college.
Supposedly in the old days really good students would sometimes skip grades in school when they were attending the grades K-12. From what I know they don't do that much anymore and instead a really good student, particularly in high school, might be taking more advanced classes or AP classes. Maybe they should go back to skipping grades, just a thought.
They can, and they do, do both, OP. If they're not challenged by the material in grade school and are bored, and there's no gifted students program, they should skip. Then in the 2nd half of HS, they can take a university class or two in addition to their HS program, or take a bunch of AP classes, or whatever.
I don't know why you say "supposedly" in the old days.... Yes, kids skipped, and the same kids also would either a) finish HS a year or two early and go on to university at 16 or 17, or b) include Uni or college classes with their HS schedule, or c) take as many AP classes as they could.
When I was a kid in middle school on LI we had an SP, or Special Progress class comprised of students with IQs of 132 and up.
Together we did enriched subject matter for grades 7, 8, and 9 in two years.
It was a very gratifying experience even if I was somewhat immature socially. I then started college at 16 well prepared.
But I can't say it had anything but the best effects on me as I would have felt both intellectually AND socially isolated had I mainstreamed for those years. You see we were 'birds of a feather' and we loved it!
Except for one little guy who had a nervous breakdown.
Oh well.
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