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    Joined: Mar 2014
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    We live in a rural area and DD attends her local public school. She has had a pretty miserable first grade year and we have been looking at schooling options. She is HG+ at least (results vary among tests) and pretty evenly developed (no 2e). Her local public school gave her out of level map tests to determine her instructional levels in reading and math and she was successful (above 95th percentile) through mid 5th grade math and through end of 5th grade reading (it is elementary school so they did not have the reading test beyond 5th grade). There is a gifted program one day a week that does fun projects etc. but the school does not consider grade acceleration and is not set up for subject acceleration due to schedules not matching up among grades. Our only other option is a small private school. Curriculum there runs about a year ahead and they are willing to do subject acceleration they were not as enthusiastic about grade skipping but said they would consider it depending on the maturity of the child. The private school also has more field trips and extra activities (robotics, math team, geo bee etc..) and seems like it would be more fun. I get that my child is probably not going to find a challenging academic environment in elementary school, I am just going for not miserable. For those who have struggled to find the right environment for their child where have they been happiest and how did you find a balance with their education? Any input is appreciated!

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    Let me be the first to ask the standard question: is homeschooling a possibility?

    Failing that, I think I would go with the private school with at least an acceleration in math (preferably a fully adequate acceleration to 6th grade work -- doing 4th grade work instead of 3rd grade work does her no good if she already knows it). That plus the enrichment you describe in various content areas might do the trick.

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    Is tuition affordable, relatively speaking?

    Even if the private school isn't a perfect fit, if there'd be money left after paying tuition, you can do enrichments like summer courses, travel, and lessons. I can see my DD being happy in a similar situation since for her, school is mainly a social experience.

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    Sounds like the private school is the least-worst option - at least they'd consider further grade acceleration whereas the public school won't. Are there reasons you're reluctant to try it? Can you try for a year?
    Aiming for not-miserable is a pretty low bar but at least it's better than staying at miserable.
    Does your DD have any opinions?

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    My husband and I both work so homeschooling is not an option right now. I don't know that DD really cares other than she is not particularly happy now. The tuition at the private school is surprisingly reasonable and we could still do some enrichment. However, for right now there are not a lot of camps etc.. in our area and DD is not quite old enough to go to camp herself so it is mostly family stuff. It seems like now most of what we are doing with her could be classified as after schooling and keeping her engaged at home. I know ideally she would be at her instructional level but emotionally she would not be ready for anywhere near 5th grade anyway. It seems as though the private school is the lesser of the two evils and they do seem to try to include younger children in things and make school more fun.

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    Originally Posted by sallymom
    Curriculum there runs about a year ahead and they are willing to do subject acceleration they were not as enthusiastic about grade skipping but said they would consider it depending on the maturity of the child.
    Schools are sometimes reluctant to grade-skip because that may decrease their revenue (one less year of tuition for each grade skip) and/or due to potential impact on test scores (top performer cannot pull up grades of chronological age peers). Are you familiar with the Iowa Acceleration Scale (IAS)? Going through the process with the school may allow them to convince themselves that grade-skipping may be appropriate in some cases.

    Schools can also be reluctant to provide meaningful subject acceleration, as that may seem like picking who will be the "winners" on the ACT/SAT, etc, among the cohort of chronological age peers. It is wonderful that the school would consider subject acceleration, and you may wish to learn what form that would take. For example, would your child visit the classroom of a higher grade to join their math class? Would your child work independently or in a small group, on higher level computer-provided curriculum in their regular classroom? Or might your child be expected to choose between joining the regular class lessons or teaching herself without instruction? Would your child complete worksheets?

    Does either school have other students who are near intellectual peers? Would the students be grouped together?

    I'd choose the school which offers the most flexibility and/or near-peers.


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    My daughter was miserable at public school, so we moved her to a private school. In the short term, it was a big improvement. The have her a grade skip. However, they were really against add skipping and we quickly realized they planned to make her repeat the grade rather than stay ahead. They didn't make her repeat it once they saw her standardized test scores, but we were unsure for a while. We found the private school to be as inflexible as the public school. So there were positives and negatives.

    What I have found is that they are most willing to negotiate if they realize you might switch schools. I don't think it is a good idea to suggest a switch without meaning it, but I have found that schools offer quite a bit when they realize a child is leaving. When I moved my daughter to private school, the public school offered quite a few things they had never suggested before.

    Anyway, the main thing is just to make sure to keep your options open. Try to keep a positive relationship with all of the schools and be careful of private school contracts that may make it difficult to switch. At the same time, negotiate before sending your child because they will be more flexible (in many cases) than once you have made a commitment.

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    Originally Posted by sallymom
    I know ideally she would be at her instructional level but emotionally she would not be ready for anywhere near 5th grade anyway.

    It comes down to this, I fear. Unless you have a very enlighten GT school in your area that gets and accommodates asynchrony, you'd always be going for the least worst option as opposed to a great option.



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