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Instructional Management / Acceleration
Subject-Based Acceleration Subject-based acceleration can be defined as any option that allows a gifted student to gain exposure to advanced content and skills beyond the average curriculum standards that are expected for a certain age or grade level. The most common subject-based acceleration options are:
Early Entrance to School Early entrance to school is the practice of admitting a child to school at an age earlier than allowed by the school or school district policy. Early entrance could be as “small” as allowing a child to enter kindergarten a few days or weeks earlier than the mandated age, rather than waiting until the next year, or it could be as “large” an acceleration as allowing a child who normally would be starting kindergarten to enter first grade instead. Early entrance could also mean allowing a four-year-old to enter kindergarten or allowing a kindergartner to move to first grade halfway through the year. For any of these cases, the child is unlikely to experience any additional acceleration beyond the early entry unless the teacher has other bright children in the class or has had some special training in how to differentiate curriculum and instruction for bright children. If the early entrance is handled well, neither the school nor the teacher will draw attention to the child’s younger age, nor will the child’s parents. Compacting Curriculum Although the practice has been around for several decades, the term “compacting” was first defined by Joseph Renzulli and Linda Smith in 1978. Compacting means streamlining or shortening the regular school curriculum in a specific subject area by pre-assessing the gifted child to discover what she has already mastered with replacement learning experiences or curricula that are new and more appropriate. What makes compacting different from subject acceleration is that the child’s actual levels of subject mastery are assessed, and this becomes the basis for what the child will learn next. Curriculum compacting therefore involves both diagnosis (pre-testing or assessing what is already known) and prescription (replacement experience planning). In the last century, and up until 1978, this procedure was called “compression,” because it was seen to reduce the number of times children would repeat or review what they already knew. Single-Subject Acceleration Single-subject acceleration curriculum modification allows a gifted student — where substantial advancement or proficiency has been observed in a particular area — to bypass, skip, or move more rapidly through the usual progression of skills and content mastery in that single subject area. In most cases, the student continues to progress in other subjects at the regular pace of those “regular” classes. Single-subject acceleration is defined as the delivery of the curriculum by either physically moving the child into a higher grade level within the same building for instruction or by having him work on curriculum in a specific area, such as math or science, that is one, two, or three or more years ahead of the child’s actual grade level. The child may go to another classroom — in a higher grade level — to do this; or, more likely, the advanced curriculum will be given to the child to work on independently in his own classroom with occasional help from his grade-level teacher or perhaps under supervision from the higher grade-level teacher. Single-subject acceleration is related to — but is different from — curriculum compacting. Both allow the child to avoid repetition of the grade-level curriculum he has already mastered. Compacting usually provides enrichment that is broader and deeper in most subjects; however, compacting may also involve working ahead and actually may become subject acceleration. Subject acceleration involves working on curriculum that ordinarily would be found at a higher grade level. Concurrent Enrollment Concurrent enrollment, sometimes called “dual enrollment,” refers to the practice of allowing a high-potential student to attend classes in more than one building level during the same school year. For example, a junior high or middle school student might attend college for part of the day, but will also attend “regular” level classes for a part of each day. Concurrent enrollment is most easily carried out when the buildings for the two levels are physically close together, so that the student can just walk from a class in one building to a class in the other. It is also helpful if the school district has transportation available between buildings that are not physically close. Large districts with extensive magnet school programs, for example, often have this type of transportation plan already in place. Perhaps the most critical issue involving the success of the concurrent (or dual) enrollment program is whether or not the student can move gracefully within two schools’ schedules without having to show up late for classes already in progress. Talent Search Programs The idea for Talent Search programs was initially proposed and conceived by Professor Julian Stanley at Johns Hopkins University as an option for highly gifted middle school or junior high students who performed well on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) at a significantly earlier age than when the test would normally be taken (high school). In 1974, The Center for Talented Youth (CTY) began offering the Baltimore, Maryland, schools advanced classes in mathematics, science, the classics (Greek and Latin), German, and writing. These courses were offered throughout the school year, after the regular school day or on Saturdays on the college campus, and were offered more extensively in summer. In order to qualify for these programs, students must be in the top 1% of performance when compared to their age peers. The Educational Testing Service has established norms for grades seven through eight performance on the SAT and the American College Testing examination (ACT), and over 140,000 younger students take these tests annually. Correspondence Courses, Independent Study, Distance Learning These options are courses that a gifted student takes outside of regular school time either for personal interest or for credit. A middle school or high school student who is extremely advanced as a writer, for example, might take a writing course on-line via computer or through a college independent study or correspondence course catalog. A high school student who has exhausted what her high school can offer her in a specific subject might sign up to take a university course by correspondence or on-line. Advanced Placement Courses, International Baccalaureate Program This option generally refers to courses with advanced or accelerated, college-level content, offered usually at the high school, which afford the student an opportunity to “test out” of or earn credit for completion of college-level coursework by passing an examination. The Advanced Placement Program was established in 1957 by the College Board of the United States. Currently, the program offers advanced curriculum and external examinations in 16 different subjects — as well as to become “Advanced Placement Scholar — by successful performance on six AP examinations before the completion of high school. In order for a high school to offer an Advanced Placement course, the instructor must attend extensive training in the content area and learn instructional strategies for teaching the course at an appropriately advanced level. In other words, specially trained high school teachers offer college-level courses in a subject area and prepare students to pass stringent college-level examinations in that area. Another program with rigorous curriculum standards is the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, first established in Europe in the 1950s. The IB diploma, which allows a student admission to virtually any university in the world, requires fluency in a foreign language and four years of a laboratory science, among other courses. Several selective universities in the U.S. readily accept students for enrollment as second-year students upon successful acquisition of the IB Diploma (achieved by scoring 7s on IB exams in prescribed academic areas). College-in-the-Schools This option refers to the practice of allowing local colleges or universities to offer college-level coursework on the high school campus. Often, these classes are co-taught by a college professor and a high school instructor, although some variations in instruction can also take place — e.g., a college professor can teach the course alone at the high school, or a high school teacher trained in the college course can teach it by himself at the high school. Frequently these classes are offered before or after school, rather than in the middle of the school day. Students who enroll pay a nominal fee for the course and texts, and when they “pass” the course, the local college offers college credit, usually accepted only at that college or within the same college system, such as community colleges throughout the state. Sometimes this type of coursework is used as a recruiting effort on the part of local community and state colleges. Generally, these courses are offered to students who have exhausted the regular curriculum at the high school. Mentorships Mentorships or internships for gifted learners refer to the practice of placing a student with an expert or professional for the purpose of exploring and advancing a specific interest/proficiency that cannot be provided within the regular educational setting. This implies that true mentorships do not occur until a gifted student has exhausted what her current school system can provide in the student’s intense area of interest. There are other kinds of mentorships available which would be suitable to regular learners too, such as mentorships that reinforce what a student is currently learning or that are offered in addition to the student’s coursework. But mentorships that push the gifted student forward in her learning are what make this option a form of subject-based acceleration for gifted learners. Post-Secondary Options Post-secondary options are a variation of the concurrent enrollment option mentioned earlier. Post-secondary options allow gifted students who have completed all available course-work at their high school in a specific academic area to take courses at a local college for simultaneous high school and college credit. In some cases, the high school will be required to pay college tuition for the student from state monies provided for the student’s “seat time” at the high school — a factor that discourages some high schools from wanting to participate in this option. For some students near the end of their high school years, this option allows them to continue being mentally challenged while still actively engaging in the social life and extracurricular activities of their senior year in high school. Post-secondary options can be considered a variation of concurrent enrollment when a student does attend both high school and college part time, but many students participate in post-secondary full time as well. Unlike concurrent enrollment, post-secondary options are usually a state-legislated option and may not be available in every state.
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Another form of instructional management is acceleration. This method either shortens the number of years a child spends learning the K-12 curriculum or allows a child to work ahead in curriculum that is above her current grade level. Acceleration is often used with gifted children because their rapid learning makes it imperative.
