Well, Trinity, as far as I can tell, the facts about school administrators are, if anything, even more depressing than the facts about teachers. Basically, school administrators are a lot like teachers, except that they're farther removed from the actual daily sufferings of the kids the system can't adequately serve. So it's easier for them to be callous.
Which, from their point of view, is generally a big plus. After all, in their dealings with the parents of gifted children, school administrators are essentially gatekeepers -- which is to say, they think of it as their job to say "no."
This, they believe, is more or less always the right answer, for at least three reasons. First, they want to keep their passive-aggressive subordinates as quiet and cooperative as they can, which means placing no additional burdens on any teacher. Second, they want to steer clear of complaints that they've favored any kid over any other. And third, they want to assert their authority. Saying "no" to a proposal, especially a proposal from the parent of a gifted child, is plainly more assertive than saying "yes."
These days, the preoccupations of district administrators are pretty easy to see. They want to ensure that none of the schools for which they're responsible gets tagged as "underperforming," and they want to persuade any major local business they can think of to contribute cash to the district (in one way or another.) Whenever they can, they want to pass local school bond issues, and get the city to approve subsidies for teacher housing. That sort of thing.
And this is all very natural, of course. But with concerns like these on his mind, it's hard to convince a district administrator that he should go out of his way for gifted kids. After all, gifted kids are never going to keep any of the district's schools from slipping into that dreaded "underperforming" category. Those major local businesses he's courting are just as wary of being labeled elitist as school administrators are. And a gifted program costs money that might better be put into those housing subsidies.
If you need to understand the thinking of district administrators, Trinity, I'd suggest that one good way to go might be to scan a few recent issues of the professional magazine that serves them,
http://www.districtadministration.com/page.cfm?p=1 On the whole, though, this is unlikely to give the parent of a gifted child much cause for rejoicing, I'm afraid. Still, it's worth noting that there are some interesting things going on here and there, and a few rays of hope clearly do shine through the gloom. For example, take a look at this:
http://www.districtadministration.com/page.cfm?p=1057 It's hard to escape the conclusion, I think, that if only more districts had administrators like Stan Olson, life would be a good deal easier for most Davidson parents.
