First grade at our elementary, DS is 6. It's considered the best (public) elementary in a 40 mile radius.
Reading: 3 ability groups. Two of three are above basic benchmarks for grade, the lowest group is easily on grade level but not above. The top group is mostly not reading real chapter books and they are still mostly monotone readers that stumble fairly often. In addition there is a once a week pullout, it is kept quiet, a couple kids from each class are in it and we were not even informed when DS started it.
Even in the "gifted" reading pullout a couple of the kids have maybe a 3rd grade or so reading level, ie they are still learning to read. Others do have a higher skill level. It's a more relaxed atmosphere than the regular class and DS liked it better than regular class. It is short in terms of time, maybe 30 minutes.
Spelling is a ability grouped into 3 groups, none higher than 2nd grade. They label this "individually differentiated".
Math: 3 ability groups. Top group is called "gifted" but consists of entire 1/3rd of the class. Some kids in it struggle with 1st grade concepts. They do pretests for every section. But I don't know yet what that leads to if anything, so far it doesn't seem to lead to differentiation. They call this group "accelerated" because in our state they legally have to offer acceleration. However acceleration means doing the 1st grade concepts in a bit less time than the other groups. In the leftover time they do something enriching - that DS did not enjoy, he said it was just more of the same.
I believe some years they form an additional math pullout. But I think that wouldn't have happened yet as they just started the ability groups. My guess is they do not do a pullout unless parents pressure them. We have not said anything yet because it's becoming clear to me the problem is not solvable with any 30 minutes a week solution.
I believe from the teacher's and school's perspective this point in the year is considered just the very beginning and they are only just now getting kids who need remediation set up with extra help. I would guess in a few weeks once that is more settled they might be more open to discussing accommodations for high achievers/gifted.
Reading the district policy guide ahead of time I was lulled into a false sense of security by the terms "differentiation", "acceleration", etc. But the reality here is that differentiation or acceleration only has to be "significant". The meaning of that latter word is pretty much whatever you want it to be if you are a school official.
DSs elementary I consider now from his experience to have ability grouping but not a gifted program, despite the school's terminology.
While the school's definition of gifted is not a good solution for DS, I think the school and almost every other parent is extremely happy with it. So it meets the needs of the widest range of families possible. I can't fault the school for it. I just wish they had some system for identifying students that are not served by it.
I find it all intensely discouraging. DS is busy cementing his impression of school as a complete waste of time. And not just empty of interesting content but actively frustrating because he writes poorly and writing is perfused through the day.
We are going to suggest some more unusual sorts of solutions to his teacher and if she won't do anything then we'll have to homeschool. The current situation is reasonable to just endure for a month or two, with lots of sick days etc, but not for a year.
But before we can work with the teacher we have a lot of groundwork to do first. We need to carefully set it up so she has trouble saying no. If I would stop posting here and instead use my time to do a DYS application maybe that would give DS some more forward movement too.
