3. K-8 Open Classroom style multi-age classroom charter school with no gifted program. The principal does not believe in a program for gifted kids since the kids have a lot of freedom to design their own curriculum based on their own interests. The academics are weak by regular testing measures though they do cover the Common Core requirements. Parents are required to put in a lot of classroom volunteer time which I see as a plus.
I actually see a lot of red flags here - but they are all based on my experience, where I live, with the local schools here. Anyway, these are the things I've found in a semi-similar school situation:
1) If parents are required to put in a lot of classroom time - it can be a red flag that the school really doesn't have the resources to offer the qualify of education you might be hoping for for your child. It's great to be at a school where parents *willingly* put in a lot of time and feel included as part of the school community, but when it's an expectation, quality isn't always there, the actual expectation can turn into more than is advertised, and chances are good it's only going to be a portion of the total parent population that contributes, which can get to be stressful if the school is really truly dependent upon parent volunteer help.
2) I wouldn't choose a school with weak academics when you know from the start the academics are weak. I wouldn't choose that for either of my kids - gifted or not.
3) My kids have been in programs where they had the freedom to design their own curriculum to a certain extent - and they didn't work out as advertised. This *might* work out ok but I'd do a lot of research into what other family's experiences have been with the school - try to talk to people who've left the school as well as people who are currently at the school. The other side of this - I thought this type of flexible curriculum would be *great* in elementary school for my EG kiddo, and he really never got into it. He was much happier when he transferred back into a college-prep high-expectations structured academics school in 5th grade - even though it wasn't really all he needed for academics - he just preferred it to the school that had less structure. Again, very dependent on school and child's personality.
4) Teachers make all the difference in the world.
5) If you're interested in the opportunity to work with kids of different age levels, we've found that there are some elementary schools where this happens anyway.
6) I wouldn't worry too much about having to change schools again after 5th grade - in most neighborhood schools (and most gifted magnet programs I've known of), the kids who were together in elementary go together to a common middle school, so he'd still have friends he made in 5th grade with him. And also wouldn't discount the value of switching to a program that works as reason enough to switch anyway - I don't know how past school changes have gone for your ds, but my ds has switched schools "cold turkey" twice - where he didn't know anyone in the new school - and the switch wasn't because we moved, but because he had an opportunity that he wanted to pursue in a school that would be more academically challenging. He's not outgoing and doesn't make new friends easily, but he was very happy he'd made the switch both times for the academics.
I also wouldn't count out the magnet school simply because it's highly populated with high achievers vs high IQ kids. Being in a classroom with high achievers only is going to most likely be higher-paced overall than the regular neighborhood school and the classroom makeup will most likely be such that the regular classroom teacher (in the HG school) will have more time to teach and less time devoted to kids who are having issues or need help with very basic concepts. This did make a big difference to my EG ds. OTOH, I'd check and make sure that the school differentiates in math and LA if you are able to get that at the neighborhood school.
Hope some of my rambling made sense!
Good luck with whatever you decide
polarbear
