Does it really put that much of a financial or staffing burden on a district to educate the high academic ability kids?! According to Teaching Gifted Children in the Regular Classroom, it doesn't. I can tell you that our district is spending more time and resources on meetings, letters, phone calls, etc. dealing with my advocating for DS than if they would just let him do an online math course in place of the regular math a few times a week... Plus, you'd think a district would be motivated to keep kids like DS in the district who are a shoe-in for getting "advanced" on the standardized tests, thus more $$.
This is what always grinds my gears! It is NOT expensive to subject accelerate. It IS expensive--in ways more than $$$, even--to refuse to educate kids.
<shaking head>
This is the part that just makes me want to scream! Use a wee bit of creativity, schools. Show a wee bit of interest in making it work. Sometimes (though certainly not always) I see a real lack of good faith effort on the part of schools/adminstrators/teachers. If they hold the "What's wrong with being bored for 3 years?" attitude, then there IS a lack of good faith effort. And I fear that too many educators have that attitude.
Heck, ONE educator having that attitude is too many...
