Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Looking for advice on when to give up on advocacy

Hello all - I know a lot of folks here have tons of experience and insight on where to go with advocacy and I am hoping someone can offer advice on our family's situation.

I have been advocating for more than a year for improvements to our school's gifted program/services, particularly in math instruction. I've also been advocating specifically for my kids, who are now in third grade. After limited success, I am wondering if/how I should continue to advocate or whether I should basically give up.

Our school district is small and while it considers itself to be one of the best school systems in the country, it offers very little in the way of gifted education. In elementary, it's a pull-out model. There is no subject matter acceleration and classrooms are heterogeneously grouped with some clustering of a few gifted kids in each class. We have two tiers of gifted ID - Levels 1 and 2. Level 2 is higher and those kids go to small pull-out groups with the school's GT specialist in the areas of math and language arts. The specialist is a wonderful teacher and person but works within a framework that is not designed for kids at the top end. There is one GT specialist for three grades. The district has been identifying more and more kids as gifted each year, so that now, in my kids' grade about 50% of kids are id'd as gifted. About half of those kids are Level 2. Because the numbers are so high, each Level 2 kid now sees the specialist only for 45 minutes every 8 days, which is close to once every two weeks. (whereas it used to be that kids would go 2-4 times a week). The district does not want to hire additional GT specialists, from what I understand.

I have been advocating (along with several other parents) for grouping kids by level for math instruction. The school used to do this but stopped a few years ago. The administration looked into it again over the summer (after we raised the issue) but they have apparently decided not to do it. I could not get any explanation why, other than that they would rather strengthen in-class differentiation.

At the same time that I've been trying to make more systemic changes, I've advocated for something for my kids specifically. At the end of summer, the principal created a "Level 3" group consisting of a handful of kids (incl my two) (they are all in the same class by design this year). We were told that these kids are at a math level above all other students in the school, which goes from 2nd-5th grades. But the principal said that he will not allow them to go to a higher level math class. Instead, we were told, they would get accelerated math instruction in a small group with the GT specialist and in the regular classroom. We took this to mean that they would be getting truly differentiated instruction in math. It sounded great and I was excited for my kids, who have been dying to "do harder math."

Turns out this was not true. Instead, they are seeing the GT specialist 3 times every 8 days and the other days they are in the regular classroom for math. (we have never been notified of this; I know only because I saw the schedules that were posted on each student's desk). So far in the regular classroom, they have either been doing what the rest of the class is doing (things they mastered three years ago) or they sit in the hallway outside class working on a packet of 200 math problems while the teacher teaches the rest of the class. Sometimes they get different homework. Again, I learned the above facts only from my kids. (This is not to bash their classroom teacher; I really like her but she is in a tough position and IMO too much is being asked of her).

My question, finally, is - what should I do at this point? At the end of last year and over the summer, I spoke to the principal, the assistant superintendent, classroom teachers, gifted specialists. I joined the district's committee on gifted ed over a year ago but have not been able to make much progress there. I have recently started a parent advocacy group. No matter what I've done, the answer from the administration seems to be that in-class differentiation will solve everything...but that has not worked for my kids (and there are others in the same boat).

Is it time to give up on this school district? Or do I have unrealistic expectations? What would you do?

If you have read this far, thank you so much and I would love to hear your advice.