I'm not bashing Montessori...I love it. It was a good fit for my daughter....but not a great one. It was a perfect fit for me!
There are a few gifted magnet schools in our area, and DD did have a spot at one, but we ultimately declined that as well. We decided to go with a charter school that follows a Basic School philosophy. I didn't want to sacrifice diversity, and I also wanted a school that had a strong focus on music and arts (none of the gifted magnets do), since that is DD's passion. The school has a great student:teacher ratio (11:1 is the max), which allows for a lot of differentiation in the classroom. K had some moments that were a struggle (particularly math, since differentiation was still not high enough to meet her on her level), but overall we were happy. We have the same teacher for 1st (kids stay with the same teacher for two years), and are extremely happy so far this year.
I was almost brought to tears when I went in for parent-teacher conferences in August, and her teacher showed me all the extra educational supplies she purchased to meet my daughter at her level.
As for testing, we paid $500, just for IQ. We didn't do achievement testing, because of the cost. We found the psychologist through word of mouth.
