This theme issue on acceleration of gifted students offers an Ontario (Canada) perspective on early entrance to school and grade-skipping. It begins with a history of acceleration programs and then outlines their current status, with less than 40 percent of school boards with gifted programs using some form of acceleration. It goes on to analyze acceleration's effectiveness; outline reservations of educators; examine research on social and emotional effects of acceleration; and review identification of candidates for acceleration. Guidelines on how and when acceleration should be used are presented, pointing out that a comprehensive assessment must include noncognitive factors, that acceleration of cohorts of children can help avoid social difficulties, that the system's readiness to support the child must be assessed, and that the possible consequences of not accelerating the child should be considered. A concluding section revisits the definition of acceleration, concluding that it is not simply a controversial theory but a recognition of the needs and skills of individual students. (Contains 24 references.) (JDD)