Radical Acceleration

Research has found that teachers' objections to accelerating gifted students are mainly based on a fear that acceleration will lead to social or emotional damage. Ironically, it is the academic and emotional maturity which characterizes intellectually gifted students, coupled with their high le...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inUnderstanding our gifted Vol. 17; no. 2; pp. 22 - 25
Main Authors Gross, Miraca U. M, Van Vliet, Helen E
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Open Space Communications LLC 2005
Subjects
Academic Achievement
Academically Gifted
Acceleration (Education)
College Admission
College Attendance
Early Admission
Intervention
Maturity (Individuals)
Student Motivation
Students
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Summary:Research has found that teachers' objections to accelerating gifted students are mainly based on a fear that acceleration will lead to social or emotional damage. Ironically, it is the academic and emotional maturity which characterizes intellectually gifted students, coupled with their high levels of academic achievement, which makes them such excellent candidates for school acceleration. Radical acceleration is an intervention that addresses the needs of students who can move at a very fast pace through the prescribed school curriculum. It is defined as any range of accelerative procedures which result in a student graduating high school three or more years earlier than is customary. Radical acceleration is most successful when students are strongly motivated to achieve, show persistence, and are passionate about learning in at least one subject area. For some highly gifted children, single grade advancement is not enough of a remedy. In general, these young people are best served by radical acceleration which allows them to enter college three or more years early through a well-planned and thoughtfully monitored combination of accelerative approaches. To withhold this from these young people because "it sounds as if it shouldn't work" is both irrational and counterproductive.
ISSN:1040-1350