Extra year tacked on at the end, or repeating a grade - which looks better

[AimeeM]

... on transcripts?

Neither looks great, I would assume.

 

DD is classified as 2E - dyslexic and gifted, but although we know she's a visual learner, and intelligent, her strengths are generally buried under her struggles. She's made huge progress, but this year - with high school level work - again her struggles are shining more brightly than her strengths.

 

Her QUALITY of work is good. The AMOUNT of output she's capable of right now, however, is NOT at a place I'm comfortable with calling "high school level."

Is she doing high school level WORK? Yes. But it takes longer for her to give output, which means either her school day is so long that she's melting by the end of it, and hates every second, or what would take a neurotypical high schooler one class period to complete, takes her 2.

 

 

1. I absolutely do have to report her grade level. It's why we couldn't just do a "gap year" - I had to report a grade. In hindsight, I wish I would have held her back in 8th grade. On top of the dyslexia, she is a young 9th grader (makes the cut off by only a week). Stamina just isn't there yet.

2. I do have to provide transcripts to our accountability association. 

3. She does want to attend college.

 

It looks, from where I'm sitting, like my two options are to hold her back in 9th grade, on paper, or have her do an extra year at the end, slowing her pacing this year. 

I'm open to other suggestions, but like I said - I do have to report to somebody and I can't think of any other way to go about this.

I guess my other option is just to slow down to just the cores this year, knowing that the local high schools (public) tend to do a "Freshman Academy" in 9th grade, which is a bit more slow-paced than 10th-12th grades.

[klmama]

What kind of output are you requiring of her?  Is it all written?  There are many types of output that are acceptable for high school level work, and with a formal diagnosis of dyslexia no college is going to fault you for making accommodations.

 

 

[wapiti]

I'd prefer to focus on quality over quantity.  If she can master the content by the end of the course, I'm not sure the volume of output matters for credit purposes...?  Have you looked at whether you can reduce some of the daily/weekly output demands to a more manageable level?

[PeterPan]

Can you just rebadge her has 8th grade this year?    

[AimeeM]

What kind of output are you requiring of her?  Is it all written?  There are many types of output that are acceptable for high school level work, and with a formal diagnosis of dyslexia no college is going to fault you for making accommodations.

Any written output takes her twice as long as it would take others.

 

The difficulty is that she isn't going to master the courses as they're laid out currently - she will only get about halfway through, if there is any written output required. 

Well, with the exception of math - she'll complete that. 

With that said, if I want to make more accommodations (which I'm fine with), I need to re-work her courses... which is, of course, time intensive. 

 

Part of me feels like she's melting simply because of pressure. She knows that this is a "transcript year" - essentially the first year that her portfolio matters, her grades matter, etc.

I think it's making things worse.

[AimeeM]

I'd prefer to focus on quality over quantity.  If she can master the content by the end of the course, I'm not sure the volume of output matters for credit purposes...?  Have you looked at whether you can reduce some of the daily/weekly output demands to a more manageable level?

I have to keep a portfolio. I guess I'm not sure how to do that without some output (open to suggestions).

[AimeeM]

Can you just rebadge her has 8th grade this year?    

I'm going to ask the accountability association - but I don't think so. Her grade level will have already been reported to the state. Hopefully we can, though. I think that would make everyone happier... and it's what we should have done in the first place.

I feel badly that we didn't just keep her back a year, but she had progressed so much I didn't feel comfortable - at the time - holding her back. I didn't feel like I had any good reason to warrant it. The material this year, while a natural progression, just seems to scare her. 

[Tsuga]

Twice as long is long.

 

 

 

Is she doing high school level WORK? Yes. But it takes longer for her to give output, which means either her school day is so long that she's melting by the end of it, and hates every second, or what would take a neurotypical high schooler one class period to complete, takes her 2.

 

My high-school step-kid doesn't have to give much output at all throughout the day except in groups. It's not output all day long. She is very neurotypical, about 70th to 90th percentile in everything. She has MAYBE one or two written outputs per day and those she only has to work as fast as the third-slowest person (with the slowest people obviously not finishing).

 

You may be requiring way more output than is necessary in this case.

 

I don't know, I'm not there, and I don't know your whole curriculum intricately. But a lot of work is just processing and projects. I would say DSD and DSS have about one or two homework assignments per day.

 

This doesn't answer your question. It's just something to consider.

[hepatica]

I completely sympathize with your dilemma. My DD is 2E also, also dyslexic, and classified, in our state,  as a young sophomore even though she just turned 15 a few days ago. She is only doing 4 academic classes (she is also a dancer, so she has limited time to get work done). We both recognize that it will likely take five years to complete something resembling a high school course load, and that's with including a good number of performing arts credits as electives. I think when people with more average or typical children talk about output they simply don't understand the mental exhaustion these sorts of kids have been dealing with all their lives.

 

That said, we have lived at an elite boarding school for 20 years. It is very common to have students repeat ninth grade (in fact the local private feeder school goes from K-9 and students typically then enter as ninth graders), and it is common for students to do a post graduate year. It never fails to amaze me what lengths the heavily advantaged take to give their children what appears to be an edge over other students. So, IMO, it is not a problem to do either of the things you suggest. Repeat ninth grade and she will likely mature some the next year (bright dyslexic students are notorious for being late bloomers) or call the fifth year a post graduate year. You can justify either if necessary, although it might be easier for her just to get the extra year in now. 

[Another Lynn]

Is it possible that what has been reported to the state and what appears on final transcripts will not have to agree?  Maybe it's different with an accountability association, but I can't imagine a college looking at transcripts and then contacting the state to see if what was reported to them for grade level matched up, kwim?  Where I am, I send in a notification letter to school board every fall with grade levels.  I have one whose birthday is close to cut off, but beats it.  I have always reported him at the lower grade level to give us breathing room, and essentially to delay the decision until he's older.  Maybe there will be a grade skip in his future, maybe not.  Either way, I don't think colleges are going to care about my notification letters.   

[G5052]

I don't know about your state requirements, but I have several local friends and a relative who basically did 5-year high school. Locally that wouldn't be a problem at all. They just want a note when you submit your annual packet that you are repeating a grade, and that's it. My relative had some kind of form and explanation she had to submit.

[foxbridgeacademy]

I also have a young (Mid-July b-day) 9th grader who is dyslexic.  Luckily in our state we can stay fluid with grade level, but we may be moving soon to a state that requires grade reporting.

 

What I've done is severely reduce any written work.  We are using ibooks (Miller/Levine Bio and Arreola's Geography), which have multiple choice quizzes and tests for every section and chapter, respectively.  He's doing Sign Language (often reccomeded for dyslexics) for a "foreign" language and is doing amazing, The only written output I require is for English and that comes from WWS and a couple pages a week from Word Roots.  If I were to need to show work then I can use these as well as the multiple choice quizzes.  You can also have her do projects and presentations, those as well as discussions or "narrations" of info learned could be recorded to show learning.   

 

 

[katilac]

Taking 5 years to complete high school is not the same as 'failing' 9th grade. 

 

It is not going to be a big deal. I doubt any college even asks about it, but if they do - dd simply tells the truth, that the dyslexia slowed down her transition to high school work, and that she preferred to keep to higher standards even if it took longer. 

 

You can also do her transcript by subject - some schools do require that you put a 'grade completed' next to each subject, but grouping by subject still keeps the focus on what was accomplished overall. 

 

For example: 

Latin 3; 9th grade

Latin 4; 10th grade

French 1: 9th grade

French 2: 10th grade 

 

and so on. If it takes your dd 2 years to complete French or whatever, you simply put "10th grade" for the completion date instead of 9th. 

 

 

[klmama]

You certainly could choose to have her high school take an extra year.  However, your dd has a documented disability; it's fine to accommodate that and still call what she does high school level work.  Everything doesn't have to be done the usual way. 

 

Have her compose her essays using speech to text software (like Dragon Naturally Speaking or the kind pre-loaded onto some computers).  Have her edit them when she's done.  She should still work on how to write essays the "old-fashioned" way (in case she isn't allowed the same accommodation for essay exams in college), but give her double the amount of time for those.

 

Have her give oral presentations for a grade.  Her portfolio could include a CD or flash drive with recordings of those presentations, or maybe you could play the recording for the speech to text software to generate a transcript of those presentations (check it over for errors, of course).  Grade/comment on the transcript so there is evidence that she was given feedback.

 

Quiz her orally.  Give some multiple choice exams, not just essay.  Have her use the software for the essay exams.  Have her make something to demonstrate understanding.  Take photos of any non-flat projects and include them in the portfolio with an evaluation sheet.

 

Whatever you choose to do, write your own IEP spelling out her areas of difficulty and the accommodations you provide to address each one so that there is documentation, in case it's needed later.  Be sure to have her professionally reevaluated later in high school, and share the success of your accommodations with the neuropsychologist (or whoever diagnoses dyslexia) so that they can be included in her recommendations.  Be sure to get that reeval early enough so she qualifies for extra time on the ACT/SAT.