Think you have what it takes to skip a grade in school? Before leapfrogging your buddies, you may want to consider what comes with the turf.
For starters, we talked to kids who have skipped a grade. And they said there’s more to an education than getting high marks.
Salem N., 11, has some regrets about grade skipping. In the middle of 2nd grade at a private school in Chicago, her teachers and parents decided she was ready for 3rd. Everything went well for her in 3rd grade, even though she joined in the middle of the year. The troubles began when Salem reached 4th grade.
“I was already young for my grade,” Salem said, “and I was taking some classes with 5th graders.” Partly because she didn’t fit in with her older classmates, Salem fell behind in her work. She finished 4th grade, but attended a different school the following year.
Salem’s advice: “If you feel the need to skip a grade, you should get a look at some of the materials you’ll be working with. Also, talk to the teachers and find out as much about their classes as possible. It may save you some trouble.”
Certainly, skipping a grade is not always a good idea, according to one educational expert. Some kids, for instance, are nervous around older children and tend to clam up. “They may do better to stay with their age group,” says the expert, Sharon J. Lynch. (She researches education issues and is on the faculty at George Washington University in D.C.)
Still, Lynch says accelerated students generally do better in school than kids who have never skipped a grade. But skipping a grade is a decision you should talk over with your parents, teachers and others at the school. You may want to consider early advancement, Lynch says, if your test scores, particularly on achievement exams, are many grades above level or off the charts entirely. Another sign: If your schoolwork seems too easy, to the point where you’re bored by it, then it may be time to consider moving up.
For Brian M. of Baltimore, early promotion proved to be a good thing. Before coming to the U.S. for the first time a few years ago, Brian had lived in Nicaragua and Africa. After completing 5th grade in Baltimore, he went directly to the 7th grade.
“I knew Spanish and had seen some of the world,” says Brian, now a high school freshman. “Skipping a grade seemed like the right thing to do.”
In grade school geography, whenever a tough question came up, everyone turned to their well-traveled classmate. “If you’ve been to a certain place, you tend to remember where it is,” Brian says. He advises skipping a grade only if you’re “100 percent confident you can do it.”
Ana S., a Chicago 9-year-old, didn’t skip a grade, but she did start school early, entering kindergarten at the age of 4. Ana says she was smarter than her classmates in those early years; in fact, things were great until she got to 3rd grade. That’s when homework began to get more difficult.
“I tried to do well,” she says, “but soon it just became too hard.”
Still, she managed to finish 3rd grade and advance into 4th Her work problems continued, however, and in the middle of that year, Ana (like Salem) transferred to a new school this time going back to 3rd grade.
“I was proud again because I was the smartest kid in school,” Ana says. There was a catch, though: She didn’t make friends easily in the new place, devoting most of her time to her work. This year, she says, making friends and doing good work will be equally important.
