Hmm ... how do you define a years' worth of progress? If gifted kids are capable of learning much more in a years' time than your ND kid (and I think that most of us agree that HG+ kids are), then is this goal even measurable? If we're looking strictly at academics versus social goals, it seems like a "year's progress" is a prohibitively nebulous term.
I guess I've become increasingly cynical that the traditional model is the ideal for our HG+ kids. There is just no way to really include them in the system without shortchanging them in some way -- the system is simply not built for them. Short of a one-on-one situation ... there is no ideal, educationally speaking, for these kids. Which is *so* frustrating to see as a parent!
Although ds6's private school is working well and he's happy there, I can see that educationally, he's best suited working on his own. Even among gifted (125+) peers, he often chooses to work alone in his math class, when the other students (mostly 7, 8 and 9yos) are working in groups -- he prefers his own methods and his own thought processes, which work great for him -- and he's excelling there. Working with other kids distracts him and slows him down, and even at 6yo he recognises this. How much more so must this be true for the HG+ student in a standard classroom?
Quite honestly, I don't know how "gifted education" can really work for our kids without dedicated classrooms for like-ability kids. I wish heartily that there was an HG+ school in our area (preferably a public school!) because I think ds6 would be *best* suited in such an environment. Short of that ... it's an uphill battle to make ensure that he's working at his max potential at school, and getting all the benefits -- ie, real peers -- that ND kids get out of school. And honestly, he's the happiest kid he can be when he's being really, really challenged at school -- he told me recently that he likes his school because he learns "hard math" there.
Ideally, it seems that gifted kids would work with other equally gifted kids that can inspire and challenge them to do their best. Unfortunately, this is the most "radical" gifted ed approach, and the hardest sell to the Powers That Be. Others, with kids who are radically accelerated, please tell me that I'm wrong! Do you think your child is best served in their placement with older kids, or do you think a class-worth of equally (or near equally) GT kids would be better, even if that class consisted of only two or three kids?
Can you tell I'm just a *little* jaded here?
