I attended an after-school picnic recently for AltSchool parents. Not a valid sample but half the parents I talked to said their child was gifted. At the same time, one noted that AltSchool does not have nor plan to have a gifted policy. Now if the percent of applicants or matriculates is really double digits, I do wish they'd address this issue. At least make sure their teachers are exposed to say
https://education.arts.unsw.edu.au/about-us/gerric/resources/pd-package/ There are however many reasons many schools choose to bury their heads in the sand regarding gifted. To not test for gifted. Primarily that it could polarize the parent community. Though, less so at AltSchool, where every student gets customized learning.
I would (and may soon) put it to AltSchool that if 20% of their customers care about gifted, they may like to pivot towards them. However, their goal is to get funding and open more campuses. Their current investor-facing messaging has attracted $133 million and their current parent-facing marketing has attracted 600 applicants. So they may feel, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
I can't completely blame them for this, as they did not go about selling me a product any different than what they delivered. Though I do blame some gifted schools for co-opting the word gifted, when they actually only admit HG but not PG, or when they say they cater to GT SEN but then just accept lower IQ kids who are easier to manage or extroverted (may correlate with lower IQ) and need less of the SEN that they supposedly understand and can deliver.
I should also note that Google Classroom seems to share some the features of software AltSchool has developed. AltSchool at one point talked about licensing their software to other schools.
