More talented students need accelerated pathways

This story was Originally published by Chalkbeat. Subscribe to their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

I went to high school at 11 years old.

Within two years, I had run out of math and Spanish classes there, so I walked from my public school campus to nearby Lewis and Clark College to study differential equations, symbolic logic, and the plays of 1830s Spain.

People often ask me if it was strange being a teenager fresh off college in classrooms full of seniors. The truth is, no one knew my age unless I told them. I was just the kid in the front row, youthful-looking and overly enthusiastic.

Without the ability to skip classes, I would have completely disengaged from school. Even after three accelerated years in all subjects and five or six in some, I found the pace of many classes maddeningly slow. Only the open-ended exploration of high school and college courses kept me from getting bored.

My parents and the school district eventually got me into the right course, but it wasn’t easy to get it. Our family incurred enormous expenditures of time and money to convince my public school to allow me to accelerate the course and then to ensure that I could access appropriate content. At one point, we hired a school advocate to lobby the district to accommodate my needs. Then there were the costs of testing (for the SCAT at age 7, the SAT at ages 9 and 12) and the costs of online and college courses. My parents missed days of work to attend countless meetings with administrators.

But acceleration shouldn’t be contingent on a family’s time and income. That’s part of the drive behind the new nonprofit I lead, National Math Stars. We work to ensure that students with extraordinary mathematical backgrounds, regardless of their resources, have the acceleration and enrichment they need. We help these students access pathways to become inventors, researchers, and leaders.

During the 2023-24 school year, we are supporting a pilot cohort of 12 advanced math learners from around 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 Partnership for LA Schools to identify extraordinary math learners for this inaugural cohort.)

We have worked with families to advocate for grade-wide 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 such as the Davidson Institute provide similar advocacy support to families of gifted students.)

During these advocacy conversations, schools have requested a dizzying array of parent-provided evidence, such as intelligence test scores and records of advanced coursework outside of school, to spark a conversation about acceleration.

Expensive data collection and outside help need not be a prerequisite. In one extraordinary case, it was not. Our student David’s school proactively recognized his talents, arranged IQ tests for him, and presented acceleration options to his family. He skipped fourth grade. Since even that did not meet his math needs, his school arranged and paid for an online math class, which he was allowed to take during regular math hours.

I wish more schools would do the same.

Many schools resist whole-grade acceleration because of social concerns. Whether skipping a grade will be positive or negative for a student’s social-emotional development is a very personal thing, but for me it was hugely positive. Each time I skipped a grade, I built stronger friendships in my new class. Research has shown that, on balance, concerns about harm to students’ psychological well-being are unfounded. A 35-year longitudinal study, as well as short-term analyses, show neutral to positive effects. Tools like the Integrated Acceleration System can help districts determine whether acceleration is the right choice for a particular student.

The schools I speak with tend to be more philosophically comfortable with accelerating specific subjects, but they raise practical concerns about scheduling and “capping” or exhausting all available classes. I frequently hear questions like:

If fourth and fifth grade math are not taught 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 held at a different campus?

And what will they do in high school if they finish calculus in their sophomore year but need three years of math credits to graduate?

These are difficult questions, but they can be solved with a little flexibility and creativity.

My own educational journey involved a variety of solutions: taking online courses at the school library during math time, working on independent study materials designed by me or the teacher during class instead of traditional courses, and walking to a nearby campus to take courses at my level.

The options have only expanded since my school years.

The variety of interesting and challenging online courses has increased. (Art of Problem Solving is a favorite among our students, both for its advanced takes on the standard curriculum and for its more unusual offerings, such as number theory.) In addition, the rise of video conferencing means that some students can access higher-level math courses over Zoom, reducing transportation barriers.

There is no one right way to do this. My plea to schools and districts is this: Consider grade-wide and subject-specific acceleration as a tool to meet the needs of your students. Look for those students for whom it might be the right choice and start the conversation with their parents. Try to remove financial and logistical barriers to making the right placement decisions. Reducing the burden on parents can make access to acceleration more equitable.

I loved my high school years. Although I had the option to go to college full-time even earlier, I chose to spend four years in high school because it met my social needs and, with accommodations, my academic needs as well.

I want that joyful experience for all deeply talented students.

Chalk rhythm It is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Related:
Personalized Learning: eSN Innovation Roundtable
Agency and self-direction: giving voice to students
For more news about talented students, visit eSN's Innovative Teaching Hub