FAQS: Frequently asked questions about giftedness

When is it advisable to skip a
grade level?
If a student is chronically and significantly insufficiently
challenged in most subjects, steps must be taken
to ensure that he or she does not develop motivational
and learning problems and remains eager to attend school.
Initially, efforts should be made to improve the situation
for the child or adolescent through individual differentiation,
for example, by assigning more challenging tasks or
by eliminating redundant exercises that are repetitive in
nature. When a student’s underachievement is particularly
or exclusively evident in one subject, arrangements can
be made for the student to attend classes in that subject
at a higher grade level (revolving door model). In many
cases, these actions already lead to considerable improvement.
Sometimes, however, they are not enough and the
question of whether the current grade level is indeed the
most appropriate place for the student should be considered.
It is possible that the requirements of the next grade
level would better align with the child’s or adolescent’s
learning opportunities and learning needs. In that case,
academic acceleration (i.e., skipping to a higher grade
level) may be an option to consider. Legally, this is possible
in all German federal states (i.e., Bundesländer). Generally,
prior to making the decision to skip a grade, students are
assessed to determine whether their intellectual aptitude
is well above average and their academic performance in
all core subjects is satisfactory or better. If these conditions
are met, it is very likely that the student’s academic acceleration
will be successful and that he or she will be more
motivated to learn in the higher grade level and feel more
content at school. For highly gifted and fast-learning students,
however, it is important to realize that skipping a
grade may not suffice as a support measure, because they
may quickly catch up and, due to their fast learning pace,
they may soon be underchallenged again. Thus, in some
cases, skipping a grade is a necessary but by no means
sufficient intervention.
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