Jen and Michael agreed that it felt like a mixed blessing when the kindergarten teacher told them she thought their daughter was "very creative." The teacher had commented on Allison's love of dramatic and imaginative play, her bold and expressive artwork, her knack for solving problems with numbers and shapes, and her delight in finding…

Acceleration is one tool for providing high-ability students the opportunity to learn something new every day. Some people talk about acceleration as taking a student out of step. In actuality, what one is doing is putting a student in step with the right curriculum. Whole-grade acceleration, also called grade-skipping, usually happens between…