Early Entrance & Grade Acceleration

• Families must reside within District 15 and have their child registered to attend a District 15 school at the time of application.
• Early entrance to Kindergarten or Grade 1: Applications accepted January 1 – June 1.
• Grade acceleration (Grades 2 and above): Applications accepted throughout the year until April 1.

Parents begin the process by completing the Early Entrance & Grade Acceleration Application.

After the application is submitted, your child’s school will schedule assessments.

Tests Administered:

• MAP Reading (or MAP for the Primary Grades)
• MAP Math (or MAP for the Primary Grades)
• CogAT Verbal (or Nonverbal if the child is not yet English proficient)
• CogAT Quantitative

Teacher Input:

• If your child currently attends a District 15 school, their teacher will be asked to complete an online questionnaire about classroom performance, independence, and skills.

Language Supports:

• If a language other than English is spoken at home, the District’s Multilingual Department will coordinate any needed supports.

All testing takes place at your child’s District 15 school.
 

District 15 uses a national percentile scoring system to determine eligibility.

• Each of the four tests provides a percentile score (1–99).
• These scores are added together to create a total score.
• The combined score can range from a low of 4 (all tests at the 1st percentile) to a high of 396 (all tests at the 99th percentile).

Eligibility Rule:

• Total Score of 350 or above → Eligible for early entrance or grade acceleration
• Total Score of 349 or below → Not eligible

This consistent system ensures fairness across all requests. A slightly weaker score in one area may be offset by strong performance in others. Teacher feedback is also reviewed to provide important context beyond test data.
 

• Parents/guardians receive a written report with test results and the eligibility decision.
• If eligible, families must complete PowerSchool pre-registration. The school office will review and finalize placement.

Parents may appeal if they believe unique circumstances prevented their child from demonstrating their full skills during testing (e.g., illness, disruption, or technology failure).

• All children must meet the District’s eligibility criteria. Appeals cannot be used to waive or adjust the criteria.
• Appeals focus on situations where testing was disrupted, administered improperly, or otherwise interfered with performance.
• Appeals must be submitted within 10 calendar days of receiving results.
• Appeals received after July 15 may not be reviewed before the first day of school.
• Appeals must include a rationale and any supporting information.
• A district-level committee reviews appeals. Retests are only granted if exceptional circumstances are verified.

Students transferring into District 15 are generally placed based on school records, teacher input, and assessments.

• Children who are young for their grade but have successfully completed grade-level coursework elsewhere usually do not need to apply for acceleration.
• For international transfers, records are reviewed by the Multilingual Department before placement is finalized.
   

• Requests to accelerate by two or more grade levels (e.g., from Grade 3 to Grade 5, or skipping directly to Pre-Algebra) follow the same process and scoring criteria, but results are evaluated against the highest grade level requested.
• Completing an application does not guarantee placement; it begins the process for careful consideration.

For more information or assistance, please call 847-963-3000.