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Parent advocate says his daughter should be allowed to skip grades
School system would enroll her in advanced elementary classes
Caitlyn K. Singam always has been ahead of the curve, whether it's passing county and state tests at a high school level or helping older students comprehend scientific experiments.
She's even helped the state Department of Education rewrite a question on the annual Maryland School Assessments, said her father, Kumar, a parent advocate in the county.
That's already quite the resume for a 9-year-old. However, there's one obstacle that Caitlyn and her family are still trying to hurdle.
Caitlyn, who has been home-schooled with the Calvert School curriculum since leaving Seven Locks Elementary School in first grade, has the certificates to show that she can handle middle school coursework. Yet, the school system will not allow her to enroll in middle school, mainly because of her age.
Caitlyn, who lives in Bethesda, would go to Cabin John Middle School in Potomac, if allowed, despite the fact that she's of fourth-grade age.
Her Calvert School certificates, obtained by The Gazette, show that she has passed the fifth grade and completed math at a seventh-grade level. According to her father, a staff member at Cabin John told him personally that Caitlyn should be enrolled at the school.
"I have proof that my daughter is beyond third grade," Kumar Singam said. "We took her out of the system, and we're asking the school system to place her according to her grade accomplishment."
Martin M. Creel, the school system's director of Enriched and Innovative Programs, said that officials have offered Kumar's daughter the opportunity to take advanced courses in elementary school.
Although Creel could not speak specifically about her case, he said that the system buses students to nearby middle schools for advanced courses. And, because Caitlyn is certified to handle middle school math, "that is something that we would certainly offer in this case," Creel said.
Also, he added, county students have to enroll in schools based on their age before being skipped to another grade. Therefore, the 9-year-old Caitlyn must first enroll at Seven Locks before administrators determine if she can advance to Cabin John Middle.
Kumar Singam claims the system is retaliating against him because of his aggressive style of advocacy. Singam, a medical researcher, often uses school system data to compile his own reports on the county's gifted and talented curriculum.
Last year, he claimed that Creel and Brian K. Edwards, Superintendent Jerry D. Weast's chief of staff, purposely kept him off the system's advisory committee for accelerated and enriched instruction. County school officials repeatedly have denied that is the case.
While grade skipping can be useful for some children, it is not for others, said one parent on the GTALetters listserv, a forum that county parents use to discuss gifted and talented education. That parent asked not to be identified because his child finally was skipped after a lengthy battle with the school system.
Also, the parent said, grade skips make more sense in kindergarten to second grade than in sixth to eighth grade.
In making his assertion, Singam pointed to the case of Jeff Sukkasem, a 14-year-old Bethesda resident who fought to be admitted to county schools after growing up in California and Thailand.
School officials initially had said that Sukkasem was living in the county for the purpose of obtaining a free public education. In late June, he finally was admitted to Walter Johnson High School.
"All he had to do is show what grade he finished, and he's placed in the grade," Singam said. "If Jeff could be enrolled, then why can't they enroll my daughter? Why is my child being subjected to this?"
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