1. What is acceleration?
2. What are the forms of acceleration?
3. Is enrichment the same thing as acceleration?
4. Which form of acceleration is the best?
5. Why should a student be accelerated?
6. How is the decision to accelerate made?
7. Are there some gifted students who should not be accelerated?
8. How many students are accelerated in the United States?
9. If acceleration is a recommended practice, why don't more schools do it?
1. What is acceleration?
Acceleration is an academic intervention that moves students through an educational program at a rate faster or at an age that is younger than typical.
Acceleration helps match the level, complexity, and pace of the curriculum with the readiness and motivation of the student. It is about creating a better match between a student and the level and pace of instruction.
Acceleration does NOT mean pushing a child. It does not mean forcing a child to learn advanced material or socialize with older children before he or she is ready. Acceleration is a strategy that respects individual differences and acknowledges the fact that some of these differences merit educational flexibility.
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2. What are the forms of acceleration?
There are at least 18 forms of acceleration.
For many people, “acceleration” is synonymous with "grade skipping," although grade skipping is just one form of acceleration. Grade skipping is the form that tends to receive the most attention. Some curricular adjustments are possible while the student remains in a classroom with age- and grade-peers. The forms of acceleration and their definitions are listed in the document linked below.
18 Forms of Acceleration
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3. Is enrichment the same thing as acceleration?
Acceleration and enrichment are not the same thing.
Acceleration refers to moving the student through the standard curriculum more rapidly or at an age younger than is common. For example, it can include grade skipping or subject matter acceleration. Enrichment refers to opportunities to learn concepts and skills that might not otherwise be covered in the standard curriculum. Enrichment classes can be offered on evenings or Saturdays, or qualified students can participate in pull-out programs during the school day.
There is room for both acceleration and enrichment. An accelerated student may master the standard curriculum and take advantage of enrichment opportunities. Acceleration is recommended specifically for students who have a need for academic challenge that is distinct from grade peers. Many educators advocate for enrichment because it is believed to serve a much broader segment of the population.
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4. Which form of acceleration is the best?
Choosing an accelerative intervention requires careful consideration of many factors.
Because there is such a wide range of abilities, talents, and personalities in gifted children, the type of acceleration that works well with one child may not work well with another. The support of family and friends, the student’s level of academic and social-emotional development, the student’s age and physical development, and the beliefs of local school personnel are all factors to consider. For example, students who skip grades need emotional maturity as well as academic ability in order to succeed. With single-subject acceleration, however, the more important criterion is academic ability, and social-emotional maturity may be less of a concern.
A comprehensive assessment and feedback from psychologists and teachers can help recommend a form of acceleration. The Iowa Acceleration Scale (IAS) is a useful tool to aid decisions about grade skipping or subject-matter acceleration.
Through research at IRPA, we hope to better understand the factors that moderate success between the different forms of acceleration and students’ cognitive and social-emotional needs.
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5. Why should a student be accelerated?
Acceleration is a matter of educational equity. All children deserve the opportunity to nurture and develop their talents. Lack of academic or intellectual challenge leads to disengagement.
Educational equity might mean remedial efforts for some at-risk students and acceleration for some academically able students. Just as a low achieving student could be hurt by lack of access to remedial instruction, a high achieving student could be hurt by lack of access to an appropriately matched curriculum.
In classrooms across the nation, the intellectual needs of gifted children are not being met. Children who enter school with zeal to learn can become bored, restless, and unmotivated when they are repeatedly given work below their level of achievement and are told they cannot work at their level. When these students are not given opportunities to nurture and develop their talents, they may develop behavior problems or, paradoxically, underachieve, in the classroom. Students who do not learn how to cope with academic challenge do not learn how to surmount challenges in the pursuit of excellence.
When students are given the opportunity to be with intellectual peers, to work to their potential, and to engage in the pursuit of excellence, they tend to have a more positive outlook on schooling, maintain an interest in learning, develop socially and emotionally, and sustain a healthy self-concept. The Iowa Acceleration Scale is a tool to help in the decision making process regarding a child’s suitability for whole-grade acceleration. Among the factors to consider in an acceleration decisions are:
Acceleration should be open to all academically able children, regardless of economic means. Some families have the financial resources to provide accelerative options through private schools, mentors, and private lessons. It is incumbent on schools to respect the right of students to learn and to provide curriculum flexibility for all students. Families with fewer financial resources will be more reliant on the schools to provide opportunities for intellectual development.
Through research at IRPA, we hope to comprehensively document the outcomes of acceleration decisions.
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6. How is the decision to accelerate made?
The decision to accelerate is best made in concert by the student, parents, teachers, and other professionals after careful evaluation of the student’s academic and social-emotional needs.
The question about whether to accelerate initially may be raised by the parents, who can be the first to notice the mismatch between their child’s intellectual level and the level of school work. The mismatch may become apparent when their child complains of being bored at school or exhibits certain negative behaviors in the classroom but not in other settings in which there is a better intellectual match. For example, a gifted student may seem distractible at school but not at home. Teachers, school psychologists, or gifted and talented coordinators also may make recommendations for acceleration.
Recommendations about acceleration should be based on a psycho-educational assessment from a licensed psychologist, evidence of academic accomplishment (achievement) well in advance of age- and grade- peers, likelihood of continued accomplishment, and discussions between parents and their child’s teacher, principal, or other school administrators. A gifted student may also want a voice in the decision. In fact, the discussion about acceleration is sometimes initiated by the student. The Iowa Acceleration Scale is one useful tool to help with acceleration decisions.
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7. Are there some gifted students who should not be accelerated?
Students benefit when the curriculum flexibly meets their learning needs. However, acceleration may not be appropriate for every student who has high academic performance.
In particular, grade skipping may not benefit a student who is not socially and emotionally ready or whose level of academic development varies across domains. Acceleration may not be the right solution for a student who expresses a preference for the status quo. The academic needs of such students would be better met with accommodations in the classroom.
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8. How many students are accelerated in the United States?
No records are kept that systematically detail how many students benefit from acceleration.
There is a real disparity in our knowledge of interventional approaches with at-risk, low ability students when compared to our knowledge about academically talented students. In light of the recent push for educational standards and school accountability (for example, with the No Child Left Behind legislation), studies detail how many at-risk and learning-disabled students receive curriculum adjustment based on academic need.
Unlike the extensive record keeping that surrounds at-risk students, schools, states, and the federal government tend not to keep records documenting the prevalence of and attitudes about acceleration. This is particularly true for academically talented students in elementary and middle schools.
Nation-wide surveys, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES; 2005), have only recently provided a glimpse into acceleration options available to high school students. The NCES reports that, in the 2002-2003 school year, 71 percent of public high schools offered dual credit courses (simultaneously earning high school and postsecondary credit by taking college level courses; 1.2 million students). Dual credit courses can have an academic focus e.g., English, math, writing)—an accelerative option—or a career or technical/vocational focus (e.g., automotive technology). Of the 1.2 million students enrolled in dual credit courses, 719,000 took classes with an academic focus. Exam-based courses in the form of Advanced Placement were offered in 67 percent of the schools (1.8 million students), and 2 percent offered an International Baccalaureate (165,000 students). What the survey does make clear is that many high schools, especially large high schools in towns and urban fringe areas, are making some accelerative options available for students.
Some parents pursue other educational options such as homeschooling and private schools. We do not know how many students in these alternatives to traditional education are gifted and/or receive instruction above their age and grade level. Anecdotal reports suggest that homeschooled children work one or more years ahead of their age group, suggesting the need to study alternative forms of education to see what forms of acceleration work.
Research underway at IRPA aims to measure the prevalence of acceleration in our nation’s schools and assess the attitudes of parents, policy makers, and educators toward the different forms of acceleration.
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9. If acceleration is a recommended practice, why don't more schools do it?
Many school administrators, teachers, and others are unaware of the benefits of acceleration and myths abound.
- Many teachers do not know that acceleration is an option for gifted students or may know only a limited aspect of it (such as grade skipping). The research about acceleration has not been widely disseminated to the education community or the public.
- Many of the nation’s Colleges of Education do not teach about giftedness or acceleration to future teachers, school psychologists, guidance counselors, or administrators. The reasons for this are complex, but stem in part from philosophies that interpret curriculum adaptations for gifted students as anathema to the democratic ideals of education, in which educational equity means educational sameness.
- Some education professionals argue that gifted students should be left with age peers for the benefit of those age peers. The belief is that through instructional approaches such as cooperative learning and group projects, gifted students will model thinking and problem solving to the less able students. If gifted students are removed from the classroom, the argument goes, then the low achieving students will not have an intellectual role model.
- Concerns about the social-emotional development of gifted children often override the intellectual needs of these children. However, gifted children tend to be socially and emotionally more mature than their age-mates. For many bright students, acceleration provides a better personal maturity match with classmates. A school system in which students are rigidly tracked by age limits the intellectual peers of gifted students.
- Because most school districts do not have policies in place to facilitate acceleration, the process may be unfamiliar. Without a policy or precedent, some administrators are unwilling to try acceleration. Change can be intimidating. There can be bureaucratic and personal belief obstacles to acceleration.
- Daycare providers and preschool teachers typically are not taught about giftedness in their early childhood education training. Educators who do not recognize the needs of young, gifted learners often overlook children who would benefit from early entrance to kindergarten or grade skipping to 1st grade. Parents of young gifted children often have no outlet for information on how to assist their children or how to advocate for them.
- There is a failure to understand the range of individual differences in achievement within grades. Because our educational system is designed to meet the needs of the typical student, policy makers may come to expect—incorrectly-- that all students in a classroom will be at the same intellectual level. Studies show much greater variability in student achievement within grades than between grades.
- Academic excellence is not valued as highly as other forms of accomplishment, such as athletic prowess or musical accomplishments.
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