Access to accelerated learning has long been wildly inequitable. Here’s what schools can do to reduce the financial and logistical barriers, according to Ilana Walder-Biesanz, writing in Chalkbeat Chicago.
“I went to high school at age 11.
“Without the chance to skip grades, I would have completely disengaged from school. Even three years accelerated in all subjects and five or six in some, I found the pace of many classes infuriatingly slow. Only the open-ended exploration of high school and college courses kept me from boredom.
“Acceleration shouldn’t depend on a family’s available time and income. That’s part of the impetus behind the new nonprofit I run, National Math Stars. We work to ensure that mathematically extraordinary students, regardless of resources, have the acceleration and enrichment they need.
“During the 2023-24 school year, we supported a pilot cohort of 12 mathematically advanced students from across the country. Many are students of color; most come from low-income households. (We worked with Art of Problem Solving, a math enrichment provider, and the Partnership for LA Schools to identify extraordinary math students for this inaugural cohort.)
“We’ve worked with families to advocate for whole-grade or subject-specific acceleration. We have made good progress, as districts have granted permission for students to skip grades and join math classes alongside older students. (Other organizations like the Davidson Institute provide similar advocacy support to families of profoundly gifted students.)
“During these advocacy conversations, schools have requested a dizzying array of parent-provided evidence, such as IQ test scores and records of advanced coursework outside of school, to initiate a conversation about acceleration.
“Many schools resist whole-grade acceleration due to social concerns.
“Expensive data gathering and outside help need not be a prerequisite. In one instance, it wasn’t. Our student David’s school proactively recognized his talents, coordinated IQ testing for him, and presented acceleration options to his family. He skipped fourth grade. Since even that didn’t meet his math needs, his school arranged and paid for an online math class, which it allowed him to take during regular math time.
“Schools I talk to tend to be more philosophically comfortable with subject-specific acceleration, but they raise practical concerns around scheduling and ‘capping out,’ or exhausting all available classes. I frequently hear questions like:
If fourth and fifth grade math don’t meet at the same time, how can we let a fourth grader take fifth grade math?
What will that student do next year, if sixth grade is on a different campus?
And what will they do in high school if they finish calculus sophomore year but need three years of math credits to graduate?
“My own educational journey involved a range of solutions: taking online courses in the school library during math time, working on self-designed or teacher-designed independent study materials during class in lieu of traditional coursework, and walking to a nearby campus for courses at my level.
“There’s no one right way. Consider whole-grade and subject-specific acceleration as a tool for meeting your students’ needs. Look out for students for whom it might be the right choice and initiate the conversation with their parents. Try to eliminate financial and logistical barriers to making the right placement decisions. Reducing the burden on parents can make access to acceleration more equitable.”
Chalkbeat Chicago
