Gifted students in the Collinsville Unit 10 School District can now skip grade levels if they meet certain criteria.
Photo by Roger Starkey
The grade acceleration policy for elementary and middle school students was adopted by a unanimous vote of the School Board Monday and was put in place because some parents and staff have identified at least two students who may be ready to advance more than one grade level, Superintendent Bob Green said. The district does not have a separate gifted program.
The policy will be administered using the Iowa Acceleration Scale, 3rd Edition. Green said IAS is a nationally recognized leader in whole grade assessment and will help the school district objectively perform assessments to determine if a child is ready to skip a grade level.
“We want to be as objective as possible and do what the data tells us,” Green said.
Any parent in the district can begin the process by contacting the child’s teacher or the school’s principal, but Green told the School Board Monday that he anticipates as few as two students per year will qualify. Although parents, teachers, students and district administration will be involved in the process, the final decision will be made by the Unit 10 administration team.
In addition to prior academic performance and teacher recommendations, applicants may be asked to take specially designed tests. The district guidelines call for consideration to be given for student attendance, motivation and psychological factors also.
Psychological factors will be considered not only for the student, but also the possible impact of a sibling who may have a younger brother or sister in the same grade, or above, or who may be left behind. Assessing a student’s social readiness to skip a grade will take into consideration that a gifted child’s social interaction may be different than other children of the same age, Green said.
Qualified students will typical skip a grade level between school years, but in a rare case, the child may be advanced during the academic year, Green said. It is also possible, Green said, for a student to skip more than one grade level.
The policy goes into effect immediately. Any parent interested in initiating the process for the 2014-2015 school year should contact the school principal by Aug. 7.
