Well, after many delays I had a phone meeting with the Director of Curriculum for my DD9 today. The school district is stuck on the chronological age thing. No middle/high school classes until then. When we discussed other options I was told that elementary will only differentiate within the classrooms. When I raised the idea that it wasn't possible to expect a teacher to differentiate to the degree necessary, a grade level is one thing more just doesn't happen, the director disagreed. I know it wasn't happening in my DD's classes last year. The teachers were wonderful but you just can't expect them to do that for 26 kids. The teacher tries real hard in ELA this year as well but there is only so much she can do. I still think to some degree they just don't get it yet, despite all the testing that was done, and the recommendations from those tests. I spoke to the person who administer and interprets all the testing done for the school today and she said we should be talking about 2-3 grade levels for math alone. (I guess I knew that but it was still a shock to hear someone from the school say it!
, my denial again I guess.)
So the school won't be able to do anything for a while yet. We plan to try and do the same things again next year with ELA under a partial enrollment. I talked to the director at length about long term options and we will have a meeting again next year before my DD9 would enter the middle school to see if she is ready for another grade skip in ELA and if anything changes or there are any new options.
The director and I discussed many new resources that they are using in the middle/high school and she gave me some suggestions for sites they are using to build their curriculum on, with new GLCE's listed. She also gave me some suggestions for things that she thinks we need to see my DD9 cover over the next year or two. She is such a nice person and really really wants to see the students get what they need, I really enjoy talking to her. The upside was that any classes that my DD9 takes between now and "chronological age" that she gets transcripts from an accredited school for will be considered when it comes to high school placement. They will not necessarily accept them as credit, I can petition for credit at that time but it isn't guaranteed. She may also test out for credit for a certain number of classes. This may also mean that she might be eligible for college classes earlier in high school under dual enrollment with the community college. She also mentioned contacting the colleges in our area and enquiring as to what is available for GT kids earlier and what scholarships or financial aid wouldn't be hinged upon her having a high school diploma to see if some of their classes might be an option earlier than we are thinking.
