General Q & A

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.

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 and overviewed in Volume II of A Nation Deceived (page 5).

Acceleration and enrichment are not the same thing.

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.

Acceleration is a matter of educational equity. All children deserve the opportunity to 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 can be hurt by lack of access to remedial instruction, a high achieving student may 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 excited 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 grow, they may develop behavior problems or, paradoxically, underachieve. These students do not learn how to cope with academic challenge, which makes it very difficult or even impossible for them to reach their full potential.

Students given the opportunity to be with intellectual peers and work to their potential tend to have a more positive outlook on school, maintain an interest in learning, develop socially and emotionally, and sustain a healthy self-concept.

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. However, all students have the right to learn, and schools must provide curriculum flexibility for all students.

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 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 (IAS) is a tool to help in the decision making process regarding a child’s suitability for whole-grade acceleration. For more information on acceleration policies and best practices, please see our report, Guidelines for Developing an Academic Acceleration Policy.

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.

No records are kept that systematically detail how many students benefit from acceleration.

In light of the recent push for educational standards and school accountability (for example, 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) and constitute an accelerative option, or they may have 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 schools (1.8 million students), and 2 percent offered International Baccalaureate (165,000 students). 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 acceleration in alternative forms of education.

Schools avoid acceleration for many reasons.

• School administrators, teachers, and others are often unaware of the benefits of acceleration and incorrectly believe that it is harmful to students.
• Many teachers do not know that acceleration is an option for gifted students or have only limited knowledge of acceleration. 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, and administrators. This is due, in part, to the belief that curriculum adaptations for gifted students are inconsistent with the democratic ideals of education. This philosophy confuses educational equity with 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, the low achieving students will not have an intellectual role model. This belief puts unfair pressure on gifted students to “teach” their peers. All students, including those who are high-ability, deserve to be students first and focus on their own learning.
• 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.
• 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, and 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 source for information on how to assist their children or how to advocate for them.
• Because our educational system is designed to meet the needs of the typical student, policy makers may come to expect 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. In other words, each classroom encompasses an extremely wide range of achievement and ability, and one curriculum is unlikely to work for all of the students in that classroom.