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What is Subject Acceleration?
For students who are academically gifted in different subject areas, we offer subject acceleration with cluster grouping. We use multiple data points including Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) and NWEA Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) to help guide us in determining who is best qualified for this pathway. Students who consistently score at or above the 95th percentile may qualify for subject acceleration.
Subject acceleration includes the opportunity to advance to the next (or beyond) grade level’s content standards and to potentially earn early Simley High School credit in math and English Language Arts as well as some science classes.
IGHMS students who subject accelerate in middle school and earn early high school credit have the opportunity to continue that same pathway into Simley High School -- often beginning their 9th-grade year with 10th- and/or 11th-grade English and math courses and potentially earning early college credit before they graduate from high school.
Students who open-enroll into Simley High School or students transferring from other middle schools may have transfer credits from their previous school or may need to participate in a Credit by Assessment process to qualify for acceleration at Simley High school.
What is Cluster Grouping?
- For students who are academically gifted in math and/or English, IGHMS offers clustered subject acceleration.
- Cluster grouping is a strategy that intentionally groups about 3-8 students of similar academic talents into the same mixed-ability classroom with a teacher trained in differentiated instruction.
- The research-proven benefits of cluster grouping include:
- reducing the range of student needs in a mixed-ability classroom
- providing opportunities for academically gifted students to learn from and interact with peers of the same ability as well as peers of different abilities on a regular basis
- improving achievement levels of all students
- positively impacting the cognitive, social, and affective needs of academically gifted students