1 By: Peggy Humphries

 “Progress through an educational program at rates faster or at ages younger than conventional”(Pressy,1949,p.2) 2

 Effective intervention for high-ability students  Carefully planned acceleration decisions are successful  Grade-accelerated students generally out-perform older classmates academically  No negative effects on social-emotional development 4

 Do you have an assessment of the accelerated student’s academic performance?  Acceleration should not have a negative impact on social and behavioral adjustment.  Is there going to be enough academic challenge for the student? 5

 Absolute age requirements for entering school  Curriculum requirements for entering school  Curriculum requirements for specific grades  Prerequisites for certain courses or programs  Limiting participation in dual enrollment programs  Attitudes of parents, teachers, counselors, and administrators 6

 Research has not addressed whether poor and minority students are less likely to be grade- accelerated than others with similar academic achievement. 7

 Students are challenged and less likely to experience isolation and underachievement  More likely to be in gifted and talented program in high school  Improved achievement test scores than older students with similar achievement  More time to pursue interests after college  More likely to enter graduate school and further their education  Saves the district and taxpayers money 8

 Quest to raise achievement levels of the nation’s lowest-performing students  Ignores the three to five percent of children nationwide that are considered academically gifted  Ignores gifted learners rights to equity in education 9

 If work is not challenging, students become invisible  Drop out rates are almost as high as non-gifted students  Failure to accelerate may cause relationship problems  Become underachievers and never reach their potential  Never develop study skills 10

 Nation’s schools are lagging behind other countries  Our nation’s brightest students are being held back  Excellence can become complacency and apathetic  National standards are being lowered by ignoring our gifted students and not allowing them to reach their potentials 11

 Martin Luther King, Jr., - leader of the Civil Rights Movement and Nobel Peace Prize winner graduated from high school at 15.  Justice Sandra Day O’Connor – Supreme Court Justice graduated at 16.  W.E.B. DuBois- graduated from high school at 16.  T.S. Eliot- finished his undergraduate degree at Harvard in three years, his masters degree in one year, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature. 12

 Fears that motor skills and stamina are not advanced enough  Children will be hurried out of their childhood  Acceleration hurts children socially  Political concerns about equity  Other students will be offended if one child is accelerated 13

 Acceleration is the most effective curriculum intervention for gifted children.  Acceleration has long-term benefits, both academically and socially for gifted students.  Acceleration is very economical.  Acceleration provides a better personal maturity match with classmates for gifted students. 14

 Cloud, J.B. (2004). Saving the smart kids. Time, 164(13),  Colangelo, N.A. (2004). A Nation deceived. Iowa City: The University of Iowa.  Colangelo, N.A. (2010), Guidelines for developing an academic policy. Journal of Advanced  Academics, 21(2),  Delisle, J.P. (2003). The survival guide for teachers of gifted kids. Minneapolis: Free Spirit  Publishing Inc.  Kuo, Y.L. (2011). The timing of grade skipping. Journal for the Education of the Gifted,  Neihart, M. (2007). The socioaffective impact of acceleration and ability grouping. Gifted Child Quarterly, 51(4),  Pollins, L. (1983). The effects of acceleration on the social and emotional development of gifted students. John Hopkins Universtiy Press.  Shepard, S.L. (2009). Early entrance to college and self-concept: comparisons across the first semester of enrollment. Journal of Advanced Academics, 21(1),  Vanderkam, L.W. (2009). Whatever happened to grade skipping? Education Week, 28(37),  Viadero, D. (2004). Report urges acceleration of gifted students. Education Week, 24(5) 5.  Wells, R.L. (2009). What factors are associated with grade acceleration? Journal of Advanced Academics, 20(2),  Winebrenner, S. (2001). Teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom. Minneapolis: Free Spirit Publishing I Inc. 15