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elchivito · #22 10-19-2011, 04:13 PM

You've got everything you need here in your original. I fiddled with it a bit, added pgph's, reworded for clarity and added a bit in a couple of places. Principal needs to know that you've looked into this business of moving kids up.
Hope it helps.

Thank you for your time involved dealing with my forth grade son ZZZZ TTTT(HIS NAME) with regards to challenging him in his math studies and classes in general. I know you are extremely busy and taking time out to deal with one student means quite a bit to me and to my son.
ZZZZ as you may know achieved a perfect score on the math section of the FCAT and is co-captain of the both the chess team and academic/scholastic team. He has already taken the fifth grade math final exam and scored close to 94% if I recall correctly.
He has attended SSS (school initials) since kindergarten and his teachers and your staff have done an outstanding job in educating him to achieve the level of success he has recorded so far. For this I am truly grateful. However, he felt unchallenged in the forth grade advance math class and was at risk of becoming inattentive. Indeed his teachers have reported to me that he was reading for pleasure in class, but was still able to “multi-task” and respond correctly to the questions and lessons at hand. Since I was much the same in school when I was young, I graduated early from high school and at age 17 was a sophomore in college, I worried about him. I know that the devil makes use of inattentive minds so to speak.
I asked his fourth grade team what we could do about challenging him a bit more and during our conference was came to the conclusion that enrolling him in the Florida “virtual school”, while still attending fourth grade advanced class was the solution.
Enrollment in the virtual school has not taken place at this writing and instead he has been moved up to fifth grade regular math class. To accomplish this, his schedule had to be re-arranged and he was taken out of his home room and put into more fifth grade classes. Now he has all fifth grade classes and this upsets him emotionally.
ZZZZ is advanced intellectually but not socially or emotionally. I do not believe he possesses the emotional maturity to handle classes where everyone is older than he is and already established in their social groups. He is quite upset about being removed from his friends and being placed into fifth grade where he has no friends and is not really equal socially to the fifth graders.
In addition the fifth grade math class progress is actually behind the fourth grade advanced class. He is in fact reviewing subjects which he already understands and covered previously. If the purpose of moving him up was to further challenge him, it will surely backfire.
I do not believe he is ready to be mixed in with fifth graders and his crying, worrying and nearly refusing to go to school on numerous occasions’ supports this conclusion. I do not know if this is a passing emotion or something which could have delayed consequences later in his academic life. I am aware that there is considerable academic research on the advisability of moving advanced students up in grade level against their wishes, and the outcomes are mixed at best.
Frankly I do not know what to do about this reaction from him other than to ask that he be returned to his fourth grade schedule and enrolled in virtual school. I would like this to happen soon. If this cannot happen I believe he will need counseling to assist him in the transition and reduce the negative consequences of the move. It's my understanding that in many schools the counselor is one of the first consulted when such a move is considered.
As the SSS chess program parent president, registered school volunteer and multiple career day speaker I know I’ve given ZZZZ a good attitude about school and I don’t want to see his attitude towards school deteriorate. Please help me and him so that we can continue to see a star student shine. Again, thank you for your attention to this matter and for your role in assembling such an excellent staff which has enabled ZZZZ's academic success.
Sincerely,