Our state mandates identification but not programing. I would be suprised if very many local districts are in compliance with this.
Our district did away with pull-out programs in favor of 'in class enrichment' and there are very rare instances of subject accelerations and grade skips. Our elementary public school didn't have a gifted coordinator. For kids who act out, the pressure to accept a special ed diagnosis in order to get services that might include a subject acceleration is quite high. Kids who 'behave themselves' just mark time. Individual teachers may be wonderful or terrible or somewhere in between. Individual teachers may work with parents or not.
In Middle school about 25% of the kids get to be on the 'honors Math' track, and take Algebra 1 in 8th grade. I know of a boy who is one of two boys who recieves gifted services in science. He gets tests that are 'fill in the blank' while the rest of the class gets the same test with multiple choice answers. Once every 6 days, the teacher and the two boys stay together during lunch/recess and do science experiments.
In the High School, the subjects are divided into 'Core' 'Advanced' and 'Honors.' The Honors classes lead to AP classes later. Multiple sections are offered in each of the Honors classes, so I'll guess that 15-20% of the kids take any of the Honors classes. I would guess that only a relative few take more than 3 Honors classes at once, as sports are very important in our district, and very time consuming.
((shrugs))
Grinity
