Academic acceleration

Academic acceleration is the advancement of gifted students in subjects at a rate that places them ahead of where they would be in the regular school curriculum. Because it provides students with level-appropriate material, academic acceleration has been described as a "fundamental need" for gifted students. Although the bulk of educational research on academic acceleration has been within the United States, the practice occurs worldwide.

Well-administered academic acceleration programs have been generally found to be highly beneficial to students. Effective administration involves ensuring student readiness, both academic and emotional, and providing necessary support and resources. Cohort acceleration programs, in which a number of students are accelerated together at the same time, are often especially effective. However, acceleration programs often face difficulty due to many teachers, administrators and parents being skeptical of the benefits of acceleration. Adults who have experienced acceleration themselves, however, tend to be very well-disposed to the practice.

The influential 2004 U.S. report A Nation Deceived articulated 20 benefits of academic acceleration, which can be further distilled into four key points:

The 2015 follow-up to that report, A Nation Empowered, highlights the research that has occurred over the past decade, and provides further evidence that academic acceleration, when applied correctly, can be highly beneficial for gifted students.

Academic acceleration comes in all shapes and sizes. One influential study has defined 18 forms of academic acceleration.

In early admission to kindergarten, students enter kindergarten prior to the minimum age for school entry as set by district or state policy. This form of acceleration poses fewer obstacles than others, as places the student in a peer group with whom the student is likely to remain for some time. In many US school districts, early admission requires evaluation, which may include a mock class to test emotional readiness.

Often occurring where early admission to kindergarten is not permitted, this practice can result from either the skipping of kindergarten, or from accelerating the student from kindergarten in what would be the student’s first year of school. This second approach, of skipping kindergarten entirely, is however often resisted by US school administrators.

Early entrance to high school enables the student to avoid being stuck in the "holding pattern" of middle school.

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Wikipedia