Acceleration refers to educational provisions whereby learners meet curricular goals at an earlier age or at a faster pace than is typical. Well known forms of acceleration include grade skipping; early entrance to kindergarten or college; ungraded schools; and special-progress classes, in which a class of learners
completes, for example, three years’ worth of work in two years (Rogers, 2007). For example, a girl completed her advanced level in Zimbabwe at the age of 14 and had already enrolled at the university, which under normal circumstances she would have done so at the age of 18 (The Herald, May 31, 2012).
As a programme that can be used to cater for gifted learners, acceleration is ideally suited to academically gifted learners, that is, young people who have an enhanced capacity to learn. Acceleration does not mean pushing or forcing a child to learn advanced material, nor to socialize with older learners before he or she is ready (Colangelo, Assouline, & Gross, 2004). Rather, it is the direct opposite, and about appropriate educational planning, matching the level and complexity of the curriculum with readiness and motivation. It has been defined as “respecting individual differences and the fact that some of these differences merit educational flexibility”(Colangelo, Assouline, &Gross,2004, p. 1). Accelerated learners should be expected to achieve, relative to their new grade peers, at a high level that is generally comparable to their performance in the previous grade:
…typically among the top 10% in a class, and they should be expected to remain in the top 10% throughout their academic careers. To be clear, there is no evidence that acceleration has a negative effect on a student’s social-emotional development (Colangelo, Assouline, Marron, Castellano, Clinkenbeard, Rogers, & Smith, 2010, p. 182).
Generally, acceleration can be divided into two types, (i) grade skipping or double promotion, which allows the student to bypass an entire grade and be accelerated to the next; and (ii)curriculum compacting, which allows the student to complete the normal amount of work in less than the normal amount of time (Baxter, 2009). Colangelo, Assouline, & Gross (2004, p.12) identify different forms of acceleration as follows:
• Early entrance to school
• Grade-skipping (whole-grade acceleration) • Subject matter acceleration (e.g., maths only) • Self-paced instruction
• Curriculum compacting • Advanced placement • Early entrance to college.
Colangelo, Assouline, & Gross, (2004, p. 96) provide several acceleration options that schools can utilise:
Early admittance to school: The student is allowed to enter school prior to the age specified by the district for entry into kindergarten. The suggestion is that the option is the best for meeting the needs of gifted learners whose advanced abilities are evident at an early stage. The advantage is that it allows them to enter school with a peer group with who they will remain.
Grade skipping: The student is allowed to move ahead of normal grade placement by one or more years. This is especially recommended for highly gifted learners who are advanced in all subjects relative to their classmates or for those who missed the age cut-off for school entrance or were held back by their parents for a year because they were close to it.
Entering college early with or without a high school diploma: The student is allowed to leave school one year early in full standing to an advanced level of instruction at a local college or university.
Entering a college early – entrance programme: This is offered at special universities in the USA. Although the institutions are said to vary in their philosophy and approach, the programmes are designed to meet the needs of learners who are ready for college work but would like to be part of a peer group who have made the same decision to leave high school early.
The international baccalaureate programme: The programme is
designed to bring a common curriculum to multinational learners living in various countries around the world. Its philosophy is to develop the whole student with challenging and in-depth learning experiences through a general and comprehensive curriculum at a pre-collegiate level pitched at first-year university learning.
Content acceleration: It involves taking a course 1 to 2 years earlier than is typical. If a student is reading at the level of the fourth graders in his or her school, but is placed chronologically in the second grade, the student should be allowed to take reading with the fourth graders.
Dual enrolment: Learners take advantage of college curricula at a local college, community college or university while still enrolled in secondary school. The curriculum is compressed or compacted in such a way that gifted learners can complete it in less time. Learners are allowed to skip those units in which they have already attained mastery and to streamline the follow-up content material.
Some of the merits of acceleration are that it can reduce educational costs for school systems and parents. It is virtually a cost-free intervention in which learners spend fewer years in school (Colangelo, Assouline & Gross, 2004, P. 5). Colangelo, Assouline, and Gross (2004) view it as the best educational intervention for high-ability learners and as usually effective in terms of socio- emotional adjustment.