Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Ability grouping experiments in public schools

My kids were in a full-on Montessori for two years. They told us how the kids were grouped by multi-ages/grades, and it's great because your child can work above grade level. Of course, they didn't tell us that the school was super overcrowed.
At the time, my older boy was in first grade (he had a 144 WISC score and was doing math/reading at a third grade level). They put him in the PreK-K room with promises that it's a montessori and above grade level, blah, blah. They didn't have room in the first-third grade room.
We realized that for the younger kids, it was great! They had a HG older child who could serve as a mentor/teacher to them. But there was basically nothing in it for him! IT's the same in his regular public school class- the brighter kids can pull up the slower kids, but frankly, the slower kids pull down the brighter kids. The pace of the class is slow since the teacher must cater to the average...
It's really not our family's problem or job to raise the mean of the class. Our job is our kids. They are above grade level and catch on very quickly to things. I would not want them long-term in a class with lots of slower kids since it drags them down. Fortunately, our G/T program starts in 4th grade and is full-time and self-contained. I am hoping, perhaps fruitlessly, that this will yield some good results.