Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums THINKING BIG About Gifted Education Seattle Public Schools to end "tracking"

With respect to the effectiveness of in-class differentiation, from my son's experience, it is ineffective the way it is usually implemented. What usually ends up happening is the teacher gives the advance kid (after the parents asked for it) some advanced math worksheets to work on in class -- alone, with little to no help or checking from the teacher. Eventually the child loses interest and stops doing it and the teacher just tells the parents well your child isn't interested what can I do.

My son also experienced the pull out group in the lower grades. It was equally ineffective. They tried to group too many kids of varying abilities in one group, and worked on stuff that primarily aimed at the lowest level kid in the group. The worksheets are mostly again enrichment (more problem solving) rather than teaching new material. Plus it was only 2x/wk for 40 minutes each time. The rest of the time they remained bored to tears.

Our district's full time self-contained gifted program only goes from 3rd-5th grade. The math was supposed to be a 3rd/4th grade combination class, the top third of the class remained bored and unchallenged, while the bottom third struggled to catch up. Most of these classes are again all about enrichment (i.e. busywork) rather than acceleration.

I have heard from parents that the full time gifted class made no difference, that when their children got to HS, they are taking the same classes and getting the same grades as those who didn't get into the gifted class. In our district by middle school the self-contained gifted class goes away and all kids are allowed to self select into advanced math and science track, though they are limited to advancing only 1 grade level ahead in math and science. My one child who didn't get into the gifted program ends up taking the same advanced classes and grades as the kids who were in the gifted program. I think what this means is the gifted class was ineffective in advancing the gifted kids. Too much enrichment aka busywork not enough acceleration.

Most schools, like our district, just put in a half-hearted gifted program so they can check off a box. The kids who are outliers in the gifted continuum will remain bored and unchallenged. They are better off letting these kids skip grades as mine ended up doing. It's hard for the kids when they skip alone. But if there is a small group of kids who skip 1 or 2 grades together, it won't be so bad. They will have a peer group to socialize with.