You've received great advice already. I'll just add that you may wish to make a school comparison chart to aid you in your decision making. A spread sheet makes it easy to list pros and cons of each learning environment in a simple grid format, and to add more weight to the factors you believe are most important, at this time, for finding a good "fit" in a learning environment.
The
Davidson Databse has articles on school selection, including some questions parents may wish to ask.
You may wish to arrange to have your child shadow for a day in each of the possible placements, and see how each felt for "fit".
Keep in mind that the public school may not have another student of your child's caliber, may be less flexible, may believe a once-a-week-pullout will meet needs of a child, and may have students with similar behavior problems as those expressed to you by the current school... without disclosing this to you proactively.
One easy method to help parents plainly understand plans for a child's pull-out program despite buzzwords which may be used is to categorize the information the school provides into the categories of Who-What-Where-When-Why-and-How (
5Ws ).
WHO:
Who is involved in the pull-out? Will your child be working in isolation or grouped with similar ability students? Will the students be of various ages, from multiple grades? Is the pull-out group lead by a teacher, aide, or volunteer parent, etc? Or is there no adult leader, leaving the children on their own to figure things out?
It is unrealistic to expect all gifted children to be self-taught/autodidactic in all subjects. WHAT:
What types of learning experiences will students have in the pull-out? Will students be doing more work at the same level? Work one year advanced? Individual work, at each student's level or zone of proximal development (ZPD)?
WHERE:
Where do the students meet... in the back of the classroom? School Library / Media Center? Higher grade level classroom? etc
WHEN:
Timing, frequency, and duration... Weekly? How long is each pull-out session? What is the duration of the services... one semester... full year, etc?
WHY:
Why do students attend the pull-out? Have students been identified as having a need? What is the criteria for identification/qualification? Are there individual developmental goals to be met through the pull-out?
HOW:
How do children learn in the pullout experience? ... mode? ...media? Is the pull-out learning experience teacher-led? Individual tutoring? Computer classes? Auto-didactic completion of tasks, etc? Does the pull-out replace a class, teaching curriculum at a higher level? Is the pull-out in addition to other grade-level work? What do children "miss" in order to participate in the pull-out (What is the rest of their class doing at this time?) Is there homework assigned in the pull-out?
Considering questions such as these may help families evaluate the quality of a gifted program.
