Thanks petunia, these are great suggestions and the exact reason I came here looking for ideas on how to approach this.
We are currently in a district with a third through sixth half day per week pull out. It is only enrichment. There is nothing for junior high students and I have never heard anyone say anything good about the local high school.
Our top choices right now include the following:
District A: Lots of community support for the schools and plenty of smart kid friendly enrichment programs at school like science club, chess, lego club, etc. Gifted kids get their own curriculum plan but there is no grouping. Differentiation is in the classroom. I have heard from another parent that subject acceleration is no problem and that while they don't have a program for gifted kids, they are flexible.
District B: This one seems to understand gifted issues more than the other. There is a self-contained program for grades 2-6 and a gifted magnet junior high. There is also an gifted mentor at each school to help make curriculum adjustments for gifted kids who are not in the self-contained program. There is a snippet on their website that their program seeks to serve a student population with different needs and that the program isn't necessarily for the highest achieving students. There is even a part addressing the gifted underachiever and gifted students as "at risk" for underachievement and dropping out if they are not given an appropriate education. The only real red flag for this one is they specifically state there is no consideration of outside testing in either the initial application or an appeal. They use the CogAt and ITBS. I know of one disgruntled parent who thought their kid should qualify but didn't. I don't know the kid or the parent that well so I am not sure how much that matters.
Testing data for option A v. option B has A way ahead. The community that feeds into option A is much more educated/affluent and most students are going to be from homes that stress academic achievement. Almost every option A high school student graduates and attends college. Option B has a more average spread.
