Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion What's better: another comparison

OK sorry to do this but I am honestly VERY curious.

So two public elementary schools in the district -- they are about 2 miles from each other. One is a smaller, older school with a bit lower income. In first grade there are two classes. In four years only one first grader has been identified for the gifted program. There are more special needs kids on the other end and that seems to be their forte.

The other school is much larger in a slightly upscale neighborhood. In first grade there are 5 classes, and about 4-5 gifted kids. The school is known to have a lot of gifted students and tend to cater to those kids.

What do you think? Is it "obvious" that the bigger, "smarter" school is better? Or is there value in the smaller school without all of the smart kids?

Thanks

Well, I'm thinking that a gifted child might be more likely to be identified in the smaller school since they would be more likely to stand out. Possibly, as a result of the greater discrepancy, a student might be more likely to be subject or grade accelerated.

OTOH, I think that at the larger school a gifted child would be more likely to find academic peers among their age peers. If several students are performing at a similar level, then enrichment might be more likely to occur. However, because the school is more used to seeing gifted kids, they may be more likely to "normalize" it or even minimalize it, even if your child's needs were above the norm. So, I would think that accelerations might be less common at the second, larger school.

Of course, the wild card issues are always the administrators and teachers. Their beliefs and experience will always trump other factors, I think.

Lower income schools typically have more resources for dealing with students who are outside the norm, even if they mostly focus on the other end from what you are focused on. I'd do some research and talk to the administrators before deciding.

Thanks. I am sure you are right -- it comes from the top down. Given they are the same district the "supposedly" have the same approach. But I do know the principal really runs the team and decides how on board they are. We are at the smaller school and I am just finding they really do not know what to do with my DD6, who still hasn't been tested -- but will be this year -- and what to do with her. While they seem to be interested in helping her, they are really falling down on the execution. Maybe the larger school with more gifted kids would be more experienced in what to do and how to handle her needs?? I am stumped!

Either way, she will be identified this year (unless she isn't but I kind of doubt it, and the standards are the same at both schools). And the "other" bigger school is almost equidistant for us -- we just need to put in for a transfer. I hear it is the "best" in the district for gifted -- and this was from a SENG group leader/facilitator who I guess should know?

What to do!? What to do!?

I hear you.
I would see what the testing says, and where she is academically. If she's in the range of gifted that the big school is used to seeing, it could be a great fit. If not... I grew up in a rural town and was obviously different from the other kids. Since they had to design a program for me, it was designed for ME. I thought it would be better for my kids to grow up in a district with more gifted kids - and socially, I don't regret it, but they feel they already know what gifted is and so my daughter's education was designed for somebody else.

If the big school is so close, maybe you could get together with the gifted kids in her grade for social purposes without switching schools, and get the best of both worlds.

Well, I would agree if I felt they were designing a program for her....but they're not. As far as classroom differentiation, they are used to differentiating for kids who are moderately ahead, not kids as far ahead as she is. And for gifted, the teacher told me that if she's the only one in second grade they will not teacher her one-on-one, they will be pulling in other kids they are looking at for the program, which makes it sound to me like it'll be the exact. same. thing. they are doing this year?

ok...so my two cents is that I left our DD in a "smaller" school like that, believing they meant it when they said the small classes would allow for more individualized instruction. I would, of course, NEVER deny ANY child what they need to be successful, but there is a difference between fair and equal. The former school had NO IDEA of what to do with our DD and last year's teacher even SAID to take her to a different school...

right now we are homeschooling with a wonderful independent study program our district offers...

I would go over to the "big" school and check it out. Two school in the same district are likely mandated to use the same test, depending on how yours does it (in ours they test ALL the kids at the end of second, but some places, the kids have to be referred for testing), but the philosophies may be VERY VERY different...trust me...

Our experience was that the former school WAS wonderful at helping the struggling or left behind kids, but woefully inept at looking at my DD as anything other than a behavior problem....

Hi,

I agree it all depends on an administrators.

We started dd at a small school thinking it would mean that dd wouldn't just be a number. She was grade skipped, but the school really had no idea about gifted kids having never dealt with one before (or at least not knowingly!) and once they'd done the skip felt they had done enough - it was a complete disaster. Had the principal and teachers had a clue about what to do, I think this would have worked really well - dd did well socially and because the grounds and buildings were small she didn't feel physically overwhelmed.

We moved her to a big school with a cohort of gifted kids. There are 3x the students and perhaps 10x the space. Huge. Dd kept worrying about getting lost, but had it figured out eventually. The facilities are great and it is nice not to have to talk in circles about giftedness as they're open to it as an idea. However, because they are 'experienced' they have very particular views on what gifted kids look like and how they should be taught. Dd is HG++ and I suspect most of their experience is based on high achieving and MG kids and I can see how they would be well accommodated by the school. The 'we know best' attitude can be somewhat galling, but so far I haven't found anything better. Despite there being a cohort of gifted kids, dd hasn't found any strong social connections among them.

In my view, in a perfect world you would find a school that had an administrative team that trusted and listed to parents (this I think is what is missing from every school I visited) and were open to learning about giftedness if they were not already experienced (and interested in learning about your child as an individual if they are). If either school comes close to that, I'd go with that one

Best of luck!

FWIW, our kids are in the highest academically ranked schools in the district. One of the biggest reasons we moved to this district is because with the upwardly mobile families, the better technology, also comes parents who are more active about advocating for academically challenging curriculum, services for their kids, etc. There are gifted mentorships with community businesses/academic institutions that are only available at this school, and it is a direct result of so many parents being involved in higher institutions, high tech businesses, etc.

So we chose bigger classrooms because of the extra funding and services that came with that option.

I have no idea if this would be the case where you are, though.

It really comes down to the administrators.

We originally had Mr W at a small local daycare that ran through K and which was highly rated. Initially we thought it was flexible. Then we found out it was not.

We moved him to a larger group of day cares that runs through K owned by a very bright man and with a very bright director who has GT kids of her own. They had no problem skipping him 1 or 2 years.

We've also looked at the K-12 privates here and some are open to skipping and some are not. None of the publics do anything.

There is one we have settled on as our first choice. After asking us about Mr W and before we started asking our questions, she asked us if he was skipped and what we thought of that. DW and I just stared at her with our mouths open.

One tip that we got from a friend who teaches in a top public HS is that we can get Mr W skipped in private then switch back to public. The publics then have to take him. Ie, get 1-3 skips in a private, be at the top of the class, then switch back to a Tier public for 7-12. At least in TX.