Skipping a grade in elementary school is just fine for kids, new study finds

A new study looked at the long-term effects of skipping a grade in elementary school, and found no negative effects on kids' mental health.

Skipping a grade in elementary school, also known as “academic acceleration,” involves academically gifted students skipping an entire year of school, or even several years.

Crucially, this allows bright students to move forward at their own pace.

Even if it means leaving their age-matched peers behind.

Yet quite a few studies claim – incorrectly, as it turns out – that grade skipping harms the psychological well-being of these bright young students.

So now a new study has examined the long-term effects, and found only good things: researchers followed these children for 35 years, and found no effects of psychological damage at age 50.

In fact, the subjects’ psychological well-being was even above average. “Concerns about long-term social/emotional effects of acceleration for high-potential students,” the authors write, “appear to be unwarranted.”

Looking back at a century of skipping a grade in elementary school

Of course, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

For decades, academic research has found grade skipping to be an effective way of addressing the learning needs of intellectually precocious kids.

These students can take in complex learning material very quickly, and often get frustrated if things move too slowly.

A 2016 review looked at some studies stretching back more than a century old and reached the same conclusion.

Yet many educators and counselors continue to believe that this practice has harmful psychological effects.

For example, a 2019 study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology claimed that “being in a low-achieving group relates to better emotional well-being compared with being in a group of high achievers.”

It also claimed that “placing individuals in high-achievement groups may incur emotional costs.”

Brightest of the bright

The study looked at 1,636 intellectually gifted students who skipped at least one grade in the 1970s and 1980s.

All were in the top 1% of cognitive ability.

About 220 of them even scored in the top 0.01%.

That means their average SAT scores were 700 (math) and 630 (verbal) at age 13(!).

The researchers found that grade-skipping students did not suffer at all in terms of psychological well-being at age 50.

And these results remained basically unchanged even when the researchers controlled for the students’ social-economic background.

Likewise, the study found that the accelerated children did not regret their grade-skipping decision.

Many of them actually wished that they could have accelerated more.

Grade skipping boosts careers

And indeed, several studies have found that skipping a grade in elementary school actually boosts students’ professional and creative achievements in adulthood.

Examples include the number of PhDs, academic publications, tenured professorships, and patents that they had received by age 50.

The authors suggest that instead of fretting about the negative consequences of grade skipping (which, again, don’t seem to exist), people should think about the possible negative consequences of not grade skipping.

These include boring kids by teaching them things they have already learned, or the potential loss to society of holding back these budding geniuses – fewer patents, fewer discoveries, etc.

So as the authors conclude, we should allow these students to pursue their own passions, at their own pace.

Skipping a grade in elementary school is just fine for kids, new study finds

Backgrounder: what is “grade skipping”?

Skipping a grade is the process of moving a student to the next grade level of education without having to complete all the grades that come before it.

It is usually done for academic purposes such as moving students up one or more levels so that they can be with students of similar age and intelligence level.

Grade skipping is a type of acceleration policy that lets students skip grades and go to the next level.

This means that a student can graduate high school at 15 years old instead of 18 if they skipped two grades.

Students who benefit from grade skipping are those who are behind their peers, those with learning disabilities, those who need to repeat a grade, and those who want to get ahead in school.

Another advantage is that students will be done with school by the time they turn 18 and they will be more prepared for college or for the workforce.

4 reasons why it’s beneficial to skip a grade in school

There are many myths about skipping a grade in school, however, the truth is that it is not for everyone.

It’s important to think carefully before making a decision.

Still, the evidence suggests that it is generally beneficial to skip a grade in school when possible, and many people and parents are now aware of this.

Some of the most common benefits of skipping a grade in school include:

  1. Improved academic performance
  2. Greater options for high school course selection
  3. Higher rate of college acceptance
  4. Greater chance of earning scholarships

Here are 5 tips on how to skip a grade

So how do you skip a grade, especially seeing as the evidence suggests it’s a good idea.

Below are five tips on how to skip a grade in school.

Focusing on these 5 points is a good place to start!

  1. Pass the academic test that will give you permission to skip a grade. In general, testing is the main way to get permission to take an exam that will allow you to skip a grade.
  2. Get support from your parents and teachers to help you get there. Talk to them about your progress regularly so they know what’s going on and can help you out with anything that may be holding you back.
  3. Take care of yourself academically and socially by getting the right amount of sleep, eating healthy foods, managing stress, staying active, etcetera
  4. Take advantage of all the resources available like tutoring sessions or reading assistance programs that can help improve your grades and test scores.
  5. Find something you are good at and work on it: In school, we are told to keep a positive attitude and a healthy perspective. Some students find this easier than others, but either way, it is important to follow your passions and find what you are good at.

What are the downsides to skipping a grade in school?

In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about grade skipping and whether or not it’s a good idea.

While about 1% of high school graduates in the U.S. will have skipped at least one grade, there are mixed opinions about whether or not it’s beneficial to skip grades.

Some people argue that kids who skip grades often struggle with social skills and end up having trouble making friends because they’re so much younger than everyone else their age and don’t know how to interact with them.

But as the above study shows, the long-term evidence for this belief is pretty meager.

Conclusion: the best advice for deciding on what’s right for your child

The best advice for making your decision on what’s right for your child is to find the right balance between the need to prepare them and not over-preparing them.

Weighing the pros and cons of both possibilities, you will be able to make an informed decision on what is right for your child.


Study: “Academic Acceleration in Gifted Youth and Fruitless Concerns Regarding Psychological Well-Being: A 35-Year Longitudinal Study” (link)
Authors: Brian O. Bernstein, David Lubinski, and Camilla P. Benbow
Published in: Journal of Educational Psychology
Publication date: July 2, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000500
Photos: by klimkin and Nguyen Dinh Lich via Pixabay

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Douglas Heingartner

Douglas Heingartner, the editor of SuchScience, is a journalist based in Amsterdam. He has written about science, technology, and more for publications including The New York Times, The Economist, Wired, the BBC, The Washington Post, New Scientist, The Associated Press, IEEE Spectrum, Quartz, The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times, Frieze, and others. His Google Scholar profile is here, his LinkedIn profile is here, and his Muck Rack profile is here.