Acceleration Lets Students Excel

…School districts in Ohio were required by law to adopt an acceleration policy for this school year for advanced learners, allowing them to move through traditional curriculum faster than usual.

The state offered a model policy that districts could adopt or allowed districts to adopt a similar version. The policy covers early entrance into kindergarten, single-subject acceleration, whole-grade acceleration and early graduation. The model is available at: http://www.ode.state.oh.us/GD/DocumentManagement/DocumentDownload.aspx?DocumentID=7694”

"There was a concern at the state level that some districts were putting up barriers to acceleration, and that acceleration is an underused mechanism for students who are gifted," said Laurie Frank, assistant director of the Office of Student Services in Sycamore School District.

Much resistance from educators occurs because of an outdated and unfounded notion that kids who skip a grade will be harmed psychologically, said Tom Southern, a Miami University educational psychology professor who has studied acceleration for 20 years.

At the request of the Ohio Department of Education, Southern and Eric Jones, a Bowling Green State University professor, looked at acceleration policies and practices that the state's 600 districts had for gifted students in 2004.

They found:

While all districts had policies on early admission to kindergarten and first grade, which were required by state law, few had policies on grade or single-subject advancement.

The policies frequently discouraged the practice of acceleration, citing potential harm that is unsupported by research.

Some policies contained over-rigorous standards with little relationship to academic success, such as a student's height.
The educators found the rate of grade acceleration in Ohio was less than one child per district during the 2004-05 school year.

"What seems clear is that many districts are resistant to grade acceleration and more or less ignore it," the study said. "Some are actively hostile to it. In these districts, it would seem unlikely that they would engage in the practice at all. In the districts where policy seemed to be well-thought, there appeared to be more acceptance of this intervention."

Acceleration has been an issue long debated in the history of gifted education. It has fallen in and out of favor through the decades.

"People have been trying to determine for years whether accelerating a student is academically, socially and emotionally harmful," Southern said. "There's been no documented harm, academically. Kids who are accelerated tend to operate at the head of their new placement. There's also no documentation that shows harm, socially and emotionally."

In fact, Southern said, research shows that kids who are accelerated do much better, academically, in terms of achievement.
"I think the state is reacting to that, as well as the idea that, in many instances, acceleration is a relatively economical way to meet the needs of students. You already have the books and the teachers," Southern said. "With the pressure on school budgets, it you're going to meet the needs of gifted students, you ought to have this in your arsenal.."

To read the rest of this very interesting article, please go to:
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061210/NEWS0102/612100366

You have read this article with the title Acceleration Lets Students Excel. You can bookmark this page URL http://universosportinguista.blogspot.com/2006/12/acceleration-lets-students-excel.html. Thanks!