Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Picking a public school

What Would You Do? In this state commuting to work is not common and gifted education is not funded. Would you pick the public school that has a formal gifted program, but a 45 minute commute to work. OR would you pick the public school without a formal program, but supposedly the teachers work with you and no commute to work. Both schools are highly ranked and comparable besides the G&T formal program. The other school simply does not have the funding for it.

Do you have the opportunity to visit each school? Has your child shadowed? Have you read the policy/practice statements for each school (often found on the school website)? What does the formal G&T program consist of (once a week 30-minute pull out... teaching capped at grade level ahead... or matching the curriculum/pacing to the child?) Does each school have students with a similar intellectual profile to your child? Have you had the opportunity to ask questions? Chapter 14 of the book A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children discusses Finding a Good Educational Fit. Included is a Table of Questions more important than "Is my child in a gifted program?", by Dr. Donald Treffinger.

That being said, as you mentioned, so much comes down to the teacher and his/her willingness to work with a child at their level.

LOL, after conducting careful research, all things being equal I'd probably pick the school nearby and save 1-1/2 hours each day (7.5 hours per week, 30 hours per month, 270 hours per school year) plus the gas money. Then I'd play with kiddo, chat about the day, and do other fun things!

I visited both schools. I agree that it's mostly about fit which is why I visited. I like each school for different reasons as being good fits for my kiddos, and they each have their drawbacks. The children did not visit nor do they have the opportunity to shadow. The lack of G&T support in the entire area concerns me. I appreciate these questions and the book reference. I will use them when I speak to the schools again this week.

LOL. Agreed, the commute is what's holding me back from selecting the one school/town.

I agree with Indigo. Unless the GT program is an excellent fit, it probably won't be worth the commuting. I'd rather spend that time with my kids and do all kinds of learning on our own. Can you get in touch with parents at both schools and get some ideas on how things have been going with their kids? I found that, most of the time, parents (those who are really involved) give the most accurate account of how things really are at a school.

I can tell you why we ended up making the decision to commute 1.5 hours a day for the last three years and why we won't be doing it next year.

We commute for a highly gifted program. At the time we started, my DS was a 3rd grader in a 3/4 combo class - he had done a mid year skip in 1/2 so it gave him the opportunity to work another grade level up. Little to no emphasis on grade standards and opportunities to learn something new most days. The principal at his old school did all she could for him, but they were not really set up for anything more than enrichment worksheets and an occasional enrichment activity after school. In essence there was no gifted program and we just could not see him in a regular classroom for another year.

This year while he is 5 in a 5/6 they no longer teach them all in the same classroom - they switch and stay with their grade mates (although he was advanced to the 6th grade for math). Much more emphasis on grade standards - less overall learning much new at this point. He's tired of the program and the commute. Next year, we have an agreement with the District for flexibility - he will go to our local middle school (a 5 minute walk from our house) do some online, some in class - he will have PE, Band and another elective and an enrichment class that will support his online math. His in class subjects will be a cohort of gifted kids that will take most of their classes together.

While I do not regret at all commuting for the program he is in now, I have more recently felt that what we have given up in time, etc. has not been worth what we have been getting from the program. I felt just the reverse the first few years.

Much of what you wrote applies to our family, too. Our two youngest have been in a private school that's a 30-minute commute. It was worth it until this year, when two things happened. Fisrt, the math teacher changed, and we've been unhappy with her in the extreme. Second, the homework requirements for both kids have increased, and homework plus a big commute doesn't work out well. The commute eats too much free time. They're going to switch to a school that's 5 minutes away next year.

DD is techinically a GT student but I have yet to figure out how this actually makes a difference. The district has "gifted clusters" which means they group kids together who have certain ability/achievement test scores and put them in the same class. Theoretically the teacher should be pulling the cluster aside and working with them as a group but I never saw this happen. Just recently, in the last couple of weeks, the class is now divided into reading groups and the teacher meets with the 4 cluster kids (plus a couple others in that group)...but now that we have about a month left of school it's too late to make a difference. For math, about 8 kids in the class get an "enrichment packet" that they are supposed to do on their own but no new concepts are taught. If there are new concepts in the packet they are expected to figure it out on their own.

Meanwhile my DS is too young to be identified as G/T but his teacher in a different school is bending over backwards trying to give him work at the right level. She even gives him individualized spelling words. I didn't ask for any of this, all that I told her is that he needs to make academic progress and she went with it.

So I think it boils down to the overall attitude in the school about gifted kids and whether they think it's important to give differentiated work, as well as individual teachers. Our district rattles on about how important it is for kids to learn at their level, they go on about how they have a gifted program, but other than the magnet which very few kids qualify for, it is all talk. They can put it on their glossy brochures to advertise and attract people to the district. It was a group of parents who advocated for the magnet to the school board about 5 years ago but it only benefits a few kids in certain grades.