It also seems like a good model for an environment where the majority of the students are high achievers or there are parents who want to treat a gifted program as a status symbol.
I am absolutely worried about this situation. Should one parent get wind that another child might be getting "special" consideration, it could get very ugly. We have to be very very cautious about how this works. Thus, the need for a very carefully thought out plan for identification.
Our district did away with identification and essentially uses a modified Renzulli model. The population here is exactly what you describe, a lot of high achieving kids and the label of gifted programming was very attractive to parents and kids alike.
I won’t bore you with details but try and give you the short version. All our AP and honored level classes are open to everyone, regardless of ability. There is a teacher recommendation process, but parents can override it frequently, and do. The result is that the vast majority of honors/AP classes are taught with a lot of scaffolding. For a gifted kid, that can mean a lot of frustrating busywork. My kid rarely studied, either, but she did drown in endless amounts of frustrating homework.
Examples include many more practice problems than she found necessary, but they were required, and graded. Notes being collected and graded. Having to turn in index cards and outlines for research papers, for a grade (my DD created these after her paper was finished, complete waste of her time).
I have very conflicted feelings overall about this. I agree strongly that having the opportunity to take advanced coursework should be available to every kid who wants it. I find some of the gatekeeping measures taken to prevent kids from attempting more challenging work to be abhorrent and capricious- what is the downside if the kid struggles or fails and has to,drop to a lower level class? However, the comments above about a tutor industry accompanying this kind of policy are certainly true, and we see it here, primarily with math but also foreign language and other classes.
However, if one provides access to all kids, then there has to be flexibility or adjustment of expectations. My kid doesn’t need to do a review packet, or dozens of problems set problems, or detailed index cards. And that should be up to her, not part of her grade. Having those resources available is great, and can comtribute to the overall success of all students, but they shouldn’t be a requirement. If it’s truly advanced coursework, the kids need to be able to manage it that way, the problem is many of the kids taking it are not ready for that responsibility,
It’s a huge problem- I wish you luck and hope you find a solution.
