Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Regions Highly/Profoundly Gifted Schooling Options in LA

We are considering sending our DS5 to the Mirman School, if he is accepted. It's a huge commitment for the the family because we would have to move and the cost. Are there other options? Does anyone know of a highly/profoundly gifted homeschool co-op?

Thanks!

LA has public schools for highly gifted kids. I don't know anything about them, except that I'm pretty sure they go K-12.

Val

I think that would depend on what your reasons are for wanting to send him to that school. There are quite a few HG/PG kids on this board whose parents have been able to find ways to accomodate their children in public schools or local private schools. It has generally meant grade or subject acceleration, though. Are you opposed to those as options?

I'm touring a highly gifted elementary school in a couple of weeks, but that doesn't start until 2nd -- which we are willing to hold out for. Kinda of tricky though since we don't technically live in LA. The program (only 2 classes within a resident school) can only take kids who have been tested by LAUSD and because of recent budgets cuts as of this year, a kid can only be tested if they are a LAUSD student. We would need to figure out how to maneuver this.

We're not overly keen on grade skip because he is afraid of things and doesn't like to play pretend "fighting" games with the other boys. He is pretty advanced on all subjects for subject acceleration to work. But, things can't always be perfect and we realize that you have to accept the circumstance.

Hey there. I'm also interested in gifted schools in LA. We'll be making a move shortly, and need to work fast to be prepared for September 2010. So far, I've found Mirman and Lycee (not "gifted" per se, but rigorous, academically). Does anyone have any other suggestions, public or private, that we should check out? Thanks in advance.

Los Angeles has lots of options in comparison to most areas of the country including but not limited to private schools , public gifted and HG/PG magnates, public SAS (schools of advanced study) and homeschooling groups. I don't know of any gifted charters, but there may be. There are also some 2e options for older students.

My DS attends an SAS school where they allow him to do self-guided independant study projects and have assigned a 1:1 math tutor since he is doing middle school math. They allowed him to join upper grades for Friday electives to allow an escape from a more boring unit and study aerodynamics which appeals to his scientific mind. They have also been able to address areas of slow skill development or in some cases to skip over things he finds too boring to focus on and allow his motivation to carry him through a more challenging level to keep his interest. I don't know if there could be a better program for him except that he is still a bit lonely, advancement may help him socially. He likes to work at his level but he is not necessarily looking for a 'rigorous' or high pressure environment.

Gifted options for the kindergarten set are probably limited to a handful of enlightened SAS programs (where it is up to the individual principal) or private schools since LAUSD tries to hold off giving the test as long as possible and does not address early giftedness at all even if it is a very obvious case or factors into an IEP. Thier rationale is that they only give the test once and that kids tend to do better when they take the test as late elementary schoolers. Exceptions exist but are rare. Because of this they don't have sufficient numbers of gifted younger students to support gifted kindergartens or preschools.

Here's a website describing some of the LAUSD choices: http://echoices.lausd.net (Charter, HG Magnets, SAS, etc.)

I've heard mixed reviews about the gifted magnets but mostly positive about the HG magnets. Some are elementary only and some go through high school. If you look at the criteria for the gifted magnets the required scores may be lower than you would expect, http://echoices.lausd.net/Magnet/GiftedCriteria.aspx, so an LAUSD gifted magnet may not get you were you want to be (to the person that mentioned HG/PG), but perhaps a HG magnet would. I have also heard mixed reviews about the Mirman School, specifically that they are great with MG kids but (like many other schools) they are less great about accommodating the needs of PG kids. I don't have any personal experience with that school, this is just based on comments from friends who did have personal experience.

There are also lots of other resources available in Los Angeles - early college opportunities (Cal State LA's EEP program, for example), lots of community colleges where younger kids can take classes, summer programs like SIG at UCLA or CTY in Pasadena, Westlake and LMU, etc.

There are also many very good school districts in/near LA but not a part of LAUSD, like San Marino USD, Beverly Hills USD, Palos Verdes USD, La Canada USD, South Pasadena USD, Las Virgenes USD, Arcadia USD, etc. Some of the smaller suburban districts have fewer specific gifted programs but offer more in terms of regularly accelerated curriculum (like IB, AP, etc.) If you need info about a particular area, PM me and I'll give you whatever info I've got.

The best private schools in LA, and even some of the not as great ones, are very expensive (as an example, tuition at Harvard Westlake School, grades 7-12, is near $30K). Also if you want to send kids to one of the best private schools expect to have to compete with lots of other families for limited slots!

Another option that we've been exploring in our parochial school is subject advancement for our PG son. It really took one teacher taking him under her wing -- and suddenly doors started opening. Now he's attending classes 3 grade levels ahead of where he'd typically be in math and literature, but still at grade level for history, sociology, religion and writing. This keeps him socially w/ his friends, but keeps him at least a little more academically challenged. My DH and I were prepared to fight for what he needed, but apparently the school had had inter-departmental mtgs about him w/out our knowing and determined that the drive for tougher academics was coming from him and not his parents. Therefore, they decided to pilot this program to accommodate him. He'll start this Fall....we'll see!

If you want an objective measure of a school's ability to serve GT students in CA, I'd browse this list of National Merit Semifinalists for the schools in LA area and then look up the number of students in the senior class and calculate the percentage earning National Merit. If a Public School is top on the list, then you need to look at the feeder middle and elementary schools. By definition, NM winners are in the 99.5 of their class.

http://www.ibabuzz.com/education/wp-content/uploads/files/2009/09/natlmeritsemifinalists.pdf