NPR – Owen Phillips
“On the first day of school, perhaps the only person more discussed than the “new kid” is the “new kid who skipped a grade.” Words like “gifted,” “brilliant” and “genius” get thrown around to describe these students. Education researchers generally refer to them as “accelerated.” It’s a catch-all term to describe students who have either entered kindergarten early, grade-skipped or taken single subjects above grade level. Part of the hype comes from how uncommon it is. Researchers estimate no more than 2 percent of students fall into these categories. But two new reports in the past few weeks argue that there should be a lot more of this acceleration, and that states and school districts often get in the way. Researchers at the University of Iowa cite one pervasive, unsubstantiated myth: That jumping ahead is bad for students, even high-achieving ones. There’s a powerful belief that placing younger children in classes with older, larger, more developed kids may do more harm than good.”(more)