Working with our Davidson Young Scholar (YS) Family Consultant, our daughter was successfully accelerated from first grade to third grade.

When our daughter entered first grade the teacher sought to find challenges for her, including a pullout enrichment program that was for third grade. Even with support and help from the teacher, our daughter was not challenged and we decided to advocate for acceleration.

Our Family Consultant coached us on the best practices to advocate for our daughter in a non-confrontational manner. She made us realize that we should work with the school and that we were in this for the long haul. We began to value the teachers and respect them as professional educators.

We had test scores and other evidence that supported our desire to accelerate our daughter, but we did not force this upon the school. Evidence is good, in a supportive role.

We sought the teacher’s opinion on whether our daughter would be a candidate for acceleration. In her entire career at the school, no one had ever been accelerated, but she would present our case to the principal.

We still had not provided any test scores or other data to the school, but in conversations we let them know we had done research on acceleration and would provide any information they wanted at the proper time. We wanted this to be a decision made with the school’s full support.

We also let the school know that the Davidson Institute had consultants that are experts in the field of the education of gifted children and would be willing to help.

This meeting turned into many more during the next few months. Our Family Consultant exchanged emails and phone calls with the school. The school asked for all test scores and the Iowa Acceleration Scale (IAS), which they administered.

The process was longer than we would have wanted, but we knew working with the school would have long-term benefits. During the last two weeks of school our daughter moved to the second grade for a trial run. The last day of school the principal called and told us our daughter would be accelerated to the third grade. Success!

We learned to take advice from the experts, work with the school rather than demand change and to be patient. We believe our daughter’s acceleration was due to the help of the Davidson Institute. We are grateful for the support and help that we received.

Our daughter has just completed third grade with complete success. She is very happy and is being challenged. The teachers are supportive and they have made sure the transition was a success. Thank you, Davidson Institute, and especially to our Family Consultant.