Academic Acceleration
Having entered Kindergarten a year early after a comprehensive evaluation, and having spent time in both public and private schools due to Connecticut minimum school age laws, I have a lot of experience with the topic of acceleration (for which grade-skipping is just one form). I spent much of my young adult life blaming some of the issues I faced in school on having been a year younger than most of my classmates. However, I was wrong; my blame was misplaced. That's a topic for a whole different post.
Here is an advocacy video I made (with limited time, so please excuse the amateur audiovisuals) for a class project as part of my degree in Educational Psychology-Gifted and Creative Education. My hope is to help people understand that academic acceleration, in its many forms, is an exceptionally well-researched yet stunningly underused intervention in today's schools.
Here is an advocacy video I made (with limited time, so please excuse the amateur audiovisuals) for a class project as part of my degree in Educational Psychology-Gifted and Creative Education. My hope is to help people understand that academic acceleration, in its many forms, is an exceptionally well-researched yet stunningly underused intervention in today's schools.
Resources
The Acceleration Institute at the Belin-Blank Center
A Nation Empowered: Evidence Trumps the Excuses Holding Back America’s Brightest Students
http://www.accelerationinstitute.org/Nation_Empowered/
Developing Academic Acceleration Policies: Whole Grade, Early Entrance & Single Subject
http://www.accelerationinstitute.org/Resources/Policy_Guidelines/
National Association for Gifted Children. (2015, April). New report shows acceleration strategies are underused in nation’s schools despite their efficacy, https://www.nagc.org/sites/default/files/PressReleases/A%20Nation%20Empowered%20(4-2015).pdf
A Nation Empowered: Evidence Trumps the Excuses Holding Back America’s Brightest Students
http://www.accelerationinstitute.org/Nation_Empowered/
Developing Academic Acceleration Policies: Whole Grade, Early Entrance & Single Subject
http://www.accelerationinstitute.org/Resources/Policy_Guidelines/
National Association for Gifted Children. (2015, April). New report shows acceleration strategies are underused in nation’s schools despite their efficacy, https://www.nagc.org/sites/default/files/PressReleases/A%20Nation%20Empowered%20(4-2015).pdf
Dear Parents and Teachers-- Some gifted children need less, not more
But which ones? Which of our youngest are becoming disengaged before middle school, or beginning to mask their unusual talents and quirks to try to fit in? Which ones are slowly becoming complacent, or even intolerant of individual differences, particularly of students or teachers they perceive as slowing them down? Which ones yearn for more than the minimum 5 hours a week of gifted programming, despite the best intentions of knowledgeable, dedicated teachers who are often expected to perform superhuman classroom differentiation feats? And which ones don't have or want alternative educational options than their local school?
It is rare in education to do more with less, but whole grade acceleration (grade skipping) is a shining example. It isn't a bulletproof, magic solution to all of the above problems, but it is a heavily underutilized tool. We accelerate far fewer than 1% instead of double or triple that number. I’m on a mission to help begin to change that locally.
I used to be part of the problem. Years ago, when people asked how early grade acceleration affected me, I used to tell them it turned me into a misfit with social and emotional problems that caused myriad consequences beyond college. I warned people not to do it.
But I was unequivocally wrong.
Worse, I ignorantly perpetuated harmful myths and anecdotes. The truth thoroughly sunk in recently after a multi-year period of self-reflection. As a designer of satellite algorithms for 14 years, I had specialized in finding and fixing the root causes of complicated technical problems. In young adulthood, I had tried to apply that same fault-finding methodology to a set of far more complex psychosocial issues. In hindsight, I am fortunate that my parents listened to the preschool teacher and psychologist.
Why am I passionate about acceleration? Efficacy (it works), Equity (it's fair), and Value (it's cheap).
Efficacy. A solid research base spanning more than half a century supports many of the numerous forms of acceleration, not just grade skipping. Can you guess what Michelle Obama, Sandra Day O'Connor, Oprah Winfrey, Neil Armstrong, and Martin Luther King Jr. have in common educationally? Researchers have repeatedly discovered both short and long-term academic benefits: accelerated students earn higher grades, pursue more challenging courses, and even earn more than non-accelerated peers. And accelerated students are no worse off socially or emotionally as a group, contrary to common fears. Some effects are correlational and not causal, of course, and no educational intervention yields 100% success. A small percentage of children will have problems; I won't pretend the data shows otherwise. But we’ve learned many best practices for reducing that risk, so let’s do precisely that!
Equity. Acceleration is a highly defensible way to meet the needs of rapid learners. Very few parents would ask, "Why did that child get to skip 2nd grade, but not mine?" It respects individual differences while avoiding criticisms commonly levied at other gifted service models like enrichment and differentiation using pull-out classes and cluster grouping.
Value. Grade skipping asks less, not more, of overburdened teachers during precious classroom time. It costs less than many other programming options, despite the need for a child study team meeting and some additional testing. A time-tested framework exists for holistic evaluation across multiple criteria: the Belin Blank Center's Iowa Acceleration Scale, used in all 50 states and also by City Schools of Decatur.
Acceleration is also the gift of time. If college is the new high school and graduate school is the new undergrad, it's no wonder kids have gray hair before they finish! Many take advantage of dual enrollment and other advanced offerings in high school. How many more might benefit from fewer years in K-8, especially since early entrance to Kindergarten and 1st grade is, disappointingly, still prohibited in Georgia?
And it’s not just for formally identified “gifted” students. Did your highly motivated, high achieving child undergo evaluation but barely miss Georgia's cut scores for both Mental Ability and Creativity? If you suspect she can demonstrate mastery of most material at the next grade level, please consider this option.
A more provocative title for this letter might have been, "We are wasting public money on some gifted children." Let's help more kids possessing a favorable combination of intellectual gifts, attitudes toward school and learning, motivation, personal characteristics, and interests. Let's not lose sight of the highly gifted, which are far more numerous in many districts than most would like to believe; evaluating them for early acceleration should almost be a no-brainer.
Let's boost these children up before they start to lose some of the precious traits that make them excellent candidates for acceleration.
I'm so passionate about the much broader goal of helping children and their families thrive that after degrees and a career in Aerospace and Electrical Engineering, I am reinventing myself as a psychologist specializing in gifted and twice-exceptional children. I would love to find teachers or families who are willing to share their positive or negative experiences with me to help me learn more, inspire others, and build a case for a model statewide acceleration policy like Ohio's. I want to share my knowledge and experience, answer questions, and give people the confidence to ask whether acceleration might be worth considering.
If you are interested, please get in touch with me!
It is rare in education to do more with less, but whole grade acceleration (grade skipping) is a shining example. It isn't a bulletproof, magic solution to all of the above problems, but it is a heavily underutilized tool. We accelerate far fewer than 1% instead of double or triple that number. I’m on a mission to help begin to change that locally.
I used to be part of the problem. Years ago, when people asked how early grade acceleration affected me, I used to tell them it turned me into a misfit with social and emotional problems that caused myriad consequences beyond college. I warned people not to do it.
But I was unequivocally wrong.
Worse, I ignorantly perpetuated harmful myths and anecdotes. The truth thoroughly sunk in recently after a multi-year period of self-reflection. As a designer of satellite algorithms for 14 years, I had specialized in finding and fixing the root causes of complicated technical problems. In young adulthood, I had tried to apply that same fault-finding methodology to a set of far more complex psychosocial issues. In hindsight, I am fortunate that my parents listened to the preschool teacher and psychologist.
Why am I passionate about acceleration? Efficacy (it works), Equity (it's fair), and Value (it's cheap).
Efficacy. A solid research base spanning more than half a century supports many of the numerous forms of acceleration, not just grade skipping. Can you guess what Michelle Obama, Sandra Day O'Connor, Oprah Winfrey, Neil Armstrong, and Martin Luther King Jr. have in common educationally? Researchers have repeatedly discovered both short and long-term academic benefits: accelerated students earn higher grades, pursue more challenging courses, and even earn more than non-accelerated peers. And accelerated students are no worse off socially or emotionally as a group, contrary to common fears. Some effects are correlational and not causal, of course, and no educational intervention yields 100% success. A small percentage of children will have problems; I won't pretend the data shows otherwise. But we’ve learned many best practices for reducing that risk, so let’s do precisely that!
Equity. Acceleration is a highly defensible way to meet the needs of rapid learners. Very few parents would ask, "Why did that child get to skip 2nd grade, but not mine?" It respects individual differences while avoiding criticisms commonly levied at other gifted service models like enrichment and differentiation using pull-out classes and cluster grouping.
Value. Grade skipping asks less, not more, of overburdened teachers during precious classroom time. It costs less than many other programming options, despite the need for a child study team meeting and some additional testing. A time-tested framework exists for holistic evaluation across multiple criteria: the Belin Blank Center's Iowa Acceleration Scale, used in all 50 states and also by City Schools of Decatur.
Acceleration is also the gift of time. If college is the new high school and graduate school is the new undergrad, it's no wonder kids have gray hair before they finish! Many take advantage of dual enrollment and other advanced offerings in high school. How many more might benefit from fewer years in K-8, especially since early entrance to Kindergarten and 1st grade is, disappointingly, still prohibited in Georgia?
And it’s not just for formally identified “gifted” students. Did your highly motivated, high achieving child undergo evaluation but barely miss Georgia's cut scores for both Mental Ability and Creativity? If you suspect she can demonstrate mastery of most material at the next grade level, please consider this option.
A more provocative title for this letter might have been, "We are wasting public money on some gifted children." Let's help more kids possessing a favorable combination of intellectual gifts, attitudes toward school and learning, motivation, personal characteristics, and interests. Let's not lose sight of the highly gifted, which are far more numerous in many districts than most would like to believe; evaluating them for early acceleration should almost be a no-brainer.
Let's boost these children up before they start to lose some of the precious traits that make them excellent candidates for acceleration.
I'm so passionate about the much broader goal of helping children and their families thrive that after degrees and a career in Aerospace and Electrical Engineering, I am reinventing myself as a psychologist specializing in gifted and twice-exceptional children. I would love to find teachers or families who are willing to share their positive or negative experiences with me to help me learn more, inspire others, and build a case for a model statewide acceleration policy like Ohio's. I want to share my knowledge and experience, answer questions, and give people the confidence to ask whether acceleration might be worth considering.
If you are interested, please get in touch with me!