Agreed, aeh. A great many children do not have a lot of enrichment and exposure, and those children who do not have a lot of books
available in their homes are certainly less likely to attain literacy early (just as one example).
Programs that pull on the basis of achievement testing are especially prone to over-estimating the ability of children who begin school having come from backgrounds with substantial academic preparation. When that is
also a proxy for high SES (and it's a rough correlation-- but an imperfect one, obviously)-- then the children who are identified late
also tend to be those who most desperately need enrichment THROUGH the free public school system, because they
will not be getting those opportunities at home.
A fair and appropriate system has to identify children on the basis of what they have been taught, and how well they've learned it, and how rapidly. For a lot of children, that
is best done later-- but for outliers, it needs to happen a lot sooner. Still, I really do think that most teachers are going to see HG to PG children for what they are by around Christmas, without anyone telling them a thing. At least if there aren't 2e issues getting in the way, and if the teacher genuinely understands what gifted children
actually look like-- and doesn't look for perfect compliance and perfect seat work as evidence of it.
I know that I've told this story before-- but DD, at six, was SO clearly an outlier, even on the limited data that our charter school had of her (she had been homeschooled, and we had a single CAT-5 battery, slightly out of level, that we had administered at home)-- they immediately placed her in 3rd grade. They NEVER evaluated her, and did an additional grade skip after that-- all with no formal evaluation of her ability. It was simply
that obvious.
I know that isn't always the case with children who are gifted-- but for the ones that are, it's
truly a no-brainer.
I also still believe that calling gifted services "Special Education" would go a very long way to leveling things with clamoring parents. It's true, anyway, and frankly, it shouldn't be seen as a negative
or positive thing to have a child who needs special educational services. Besides, that REALLY improves things for 2e and (3e, etc) students who need services all over the map in special education.
And prestige seeking parents maybe won't be quite so keen when they have to explain that no, Janey isn't in "Special education" classes because she is BEHIND grade level, but ahead of it.
Heck, maybe it's nice when there isn't an awkward silence when other parents use the term to describe their children who are in the 3rd percentile in literacy, either.
Anyway. That's a soapbox for another day entirely, I fear.
