The Rockwood School District adheres to a Board of Education policy that recognizes and supports acceleration as a key intervention for providing challenging educational opportunities for advanced learners. The following steps are recommended when parents believe that more accelerated offerings should be provided for their child:

1. Meet with your child’s classroom teacher to discuss your child’s academic needs and to hear about interventions that might already be taking place in the classroom. Consider having a follow-up meeting to get updated on progress and to share any additional information that would be helpful to the teacher.
2. If discussions with your child’s classroom teacher have not resolved the issues of concern to you, make an appointment to talk with the building principal about your concerns.
3. If classroom accommodations are not viewed as adequate after repeated efforts to discuss the situation with building staff members, consider completing a Request for Whole-Grade Skipping Form. Forms that are completed should be submitted to the Gifted Program Director (Whole-Grade Skipping Form).
4. District personnel will gather information about your child and consult with you about recommendations.

A brief description of the "Grade Skipping Packet" is provided below, along with a link to the necessary forms. *Please note that this process takes approximately 60 days to complete.  Due to this timeframe, the application window will close on April 1 of each year.

Grade Skipping Packet

The packet describes a step-by-step procedure for making decisions about whole-grade skipping (double promotion) requests. It is called “Grade Skipping Packet” and is based on recommendations contained in a national publication entitled, “Iowa Acceleration Scale Manual” published by the Connie Belin and Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development (Great Potential Press, Inc.). The process includes a Request Form to be filled out by a teacher or parent and the collection of academic, social and developmental information. The Gifted Program Director will serve in the role of a case manager for all requests for double promotion. The Gifted Director will work with building principals and staff, as well as gifted program staff, in determining a response to double promotion requests. The Superintendent or Superintendent designee gives final approval for any grade skipping decisions.

Grade Skipping Packet

Parent Form

Final Comments

The procedure described in this packet is not intended to increase the number of requests for double promotion or to initiate a large number of adjustments to the curriculum in most classrooms. Rather, they are for the exceptional situation in which on-going classroom accommodations for students with advanced ability are not sufficiently differentiated to make school a challenging place for individual students to learn. It should be pointed out that all building principals are familiar with the Board’s Acceleration Policy and expect teachers to differentiate instruction in the classroom based on formal and informal assessments. Therefore, the expectation is that teachers are familiar with their students’ strengths and needs and successfully accommodate learning differences on an on-going basis in their classrooms. It is also expected that parents with concerns about academic challenge have worked with both the classroom teacher and building principal before taking the step of completing a Grade Skipping request form.

If you have follow-up questions, you can email the Gifted Program Director and they will be happy to discuss individual concerns or questions with you. Also, if after reviewing the packets you have suggestions for future changes, please feel free to let the Gifted Director know. We are always looking for ways to improve our offerings and to serve you and your children in the most thoughtful manner possible.