I am so very very sorry to hear this. Based on our previous experience I was afraid this might happen to you guys. I think the portfolio and rating scale are both ridiculous. My DD's rating scale was done by her teacher who had no gifted training whatsoever. The first time she completed the rating scale she scored DD at a 45. Yep, she scored my Davidson Scholar at a 45 which means she didn't think my DD was gifted at all. The only reason DD is even in the gifted program is because I asked for a meeting with the principal and teacher to disuss the checklist results. The teacher had no idea we had already done IQ testing and was extremely embarassed when she found out. She re-did the rating scale about a month later and gave her a 76 (just barely qualifying) and said she thought that perhaps DD's ADHD was masking some of her gifted qualities before. Complete BS if you ask me.

I know I mentioned it before, but even with DD finally getting into a full time gifted spot it wasn't nearly enough. It's the same curriculum as the other classes, but it's a quicker pace with some enrichment and special projects thrown in. Oh, and their spelling words are a year above grade level. Essentially, it would be a decent fit for more moderately gifted kids, but completely useless for the HG/PG bunch.

At this point you may want to start looking into a grade skip with perhaps additional subject acceleration. That along with a very good and flexible teacher may work for him. Florida recently passed a bill that requires all public schools to offer subject and grade acceleration options to all students regardless of whether or not they are even in the gifted program. Here is the link to it for more info. http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-6465/dps-2012-111.pdf

I also have the grade skip scale/criteria the school district uses if you would like a copy. It's a bastardized version of the IAS basically, but I had to go through a lot to get the school district to let me have it. PM me with an e-mail address if you'd like to see it.