Kriston and I are in the same state and I know that our community has very high levels of kids who are identified as gifted. The last report from our gifted teacher (to a parent conference) claimed that 50% of the total number of kids had been identified as gifted. (If you have x number of kids in the district and y number of gifted kids then y/x is 50%.) But careful... That does not means that half of all of the kids are gifted. It means that if my kid is gifted in math and receives a math pull-out class, and a reading pull-out class, and he is in a High IQ cluster, then he is counted three times. So that inflates the numbers quite a bit. (good for the back-patting aspect of the district!)
And so yes, all kids are tested by generic tests like the CogAt and IBST in third grade. I believe that you have to be in the top 95% in either math, or reading, or have scored a 130 or above on the IQ test to be in the gifted program. So they count kids who are good at math or reading along.
I found out that the average IQ of our students is just under 120. So you only have about a 10 pt. IQ difference between the normal kids and the gifted kids in the High IQ group. Our neighborhood seems to match fairly well to 'Neato's in that people move here because of the schools. And the community prides itself on the quality of the schools. But... They design their classroom instruction and pace to be quite challenging for the 120 IQ kids, and they have pull-out classes for the kids who are labeled gifted. (If you can call spending 8 weeks planning a birthday party for a centennial at a local senior citizen center as a cluster pull-out class... <fume, fume, fume!>
(Can you tell that I'm not happy with our pull-out classes?)
But they make no differentiation between LOG. I keep trying to point out to someone (anyone!!) that if 10 pt. separate the ND kids from the GT kids (and they should get extra instruction), then what do you do with kids who are 10 pt
and beyond the gifted kids!!!
Okay, that is my very first time (I think!) of using the mad icon. But I really get infuriated with the blank stares that follow that statement.
