It's a public school in an established upper-middle-class neighborhood of professionals. The cutoff for the gifted program is 130 on any subsection of any number of tests; it's well known that there are psychologists who will test a kid in who might not belong there; 45% of the student body is staffed as "gifted." DS is regarded by the other moms as the brightest kid in the class.
That said, there are a few other kids in the class who are also clearly very smart. Certainly there are enough kids in the class to hold a 3rd grade level reading group.
It's my perception that the teacher seems reluctant to give differentiated work. She made it clear to me that she'd prefer to skip him. DS has actually ASKED to be skipped, but DH is adamantly against the idea. The teacher has been teaching gifted for a long time, and she wasn't surprised we asked for differentiation; she said, "oh yeah, every couple of years you get a kid who needs to be moved up." I did make a point of telling her about the refusal to take the test open book; I thought she might find the sentiment that he never learns anything new in her class a bit insulting.
At any rate, she's in England until the first week of October. I'm hoping to make an appointment with the Asst Principal (chain of command and all) and get some of this hashed out.
As far as homeschooling goes, I consider that a last resort. I'm not the most patient teacher, and DS isn't the most patience-inspiring kid.
One other thing -- DS scored 142 on the WPPSI when he was five -- but he spent most of the processing section staring out the window. Is is usually helpful to re-test to get a more accurate IQ score? Guess I could wait and see how things go with administration too.
Thanks to all of you for the support and advice!
