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We have a year to decide on this and any commentary, suggestions, experience is welcomed.

Wolf is 7 and in an Independent Study program in a neighboring district. Besides hand writing he is working at least two levels above his age (that's in his lowest subject, math, which is speeding up now that multiplication has been memorized) and has already had one grade skip. He is currently at the end of 3rd grade on paper. There is only one other kid his age in his program and he almost never even sees him. He is mostly around middle schoolers.

There is a program in our district (not the one he is in) that is a middle school charter school. It is called the Nature Academy, is very science and nature based, does a lot of classwork outside no matter what the season, etc.. It is very well regarded. Being a charter school, even though there is an essay required to enroll, the enrollment is based on a lottery.

Wolf's teacher will be retiring soon. We are considering skipping 5th, trying for the Nature Academy and if we don't get in district transferring back to his current teacher's program for another year, undoing the skip, and then trying again the next year. It gives him double the chance of getting in at 6th.

I have absolutely no qualms about playing hard and fast with paperwork and silly things like grade levels. My main concern is that this would be a full day school program, something he's never had to deal with before and it would be middle school. The Nature Academy has smallish classes and the kids work in the same groups from the time they enter till the time they go on to high school, so it's not quite as social intense as regular middle school. It also tends to pull in the kids in the GT program and other bright kids.

He'd be ahead of the curriculum in all subjects except math and handwriting. He'd be at grade level in math. Most of the rest of the academics would be review, but it would be in a group setting which might make it different enough for him to deal with it. He's not against the Nature Academy, but he's also not jumping up and down excited about the prospect either. Age of students has no weight in his opinions at all as far as I can tell.

So if Wolf was your kid what would you do with him?

Just a thought - while you may have no qualms about "playing hard and fast with paperwork and silly things like grade levels" - the folks at the lottery school might not be so open-minded If you decide you want to lottery in with the grade skip and your ds *doesn't* get accepted in the first drawing of the lottery, have you looked into whether or not the school keeps a wait list? We've left our kids on waiting lists for lottery schools in our district (as well as known other families who've also left their kids on the waiting lists) and eventually they've gotten in - even if they were fairly far down the list, simply because a lot of other families opted to stay wherever they'd landed rather than switch schools after starting at one school.

Re whether or not to consider the program, I'd make that decision based on what you know about your ds and what you know about the program. Also be sure you aren't just judging the program based on a one-time school tour or reading whatever they have written up about it - try your best to find parents who's kids have attended or are attending the school and find out as much as you can about it.

polarbear

I've actually talked to a student who has attended the program and parents trying to get into the program. I'm going to ramp up investigating it if we decide it might work.

I think they do have a wait list, but it is a VERY desirable program and if we don't get in I'd have to push the district transfer through double speed (and probably strong arm some people) to get him back into the program we know he is thriving in before the start of the school year. There is no program in our district that can give him what he has with his current teacher.

I have no idea what the program would do with a situation like I described, but technically as long as all the rules are followed they can't hold it against him any more than they can hold it against a kid who was held back due to educational delay issues. The grade skip forward will be more of an issue in this district than him being "held back" for whatever reason. There is a reason we have a district transfer.

If he is not that advanced in math, he might have trouble skipping 3 grades or so to a science academy. He might also find the written work alot if he doesn' t write alot now. Also, if he has never done an all day school, that could overwhelm him. I would not do it.

He wouldn't be skipping three grade of math. He's just finishing 4th grade math right now so he'll be at 6th grade math if he does a grade skip to 6th.

He writes a lot and well, he just has age level handwriting. He also types.

Here's my somewhat jaded advice based on bitter experience with my kids and with education in general.

Public schools are bound by NCLB. Low test scores can mean they lose their funding or their charters. This means that they're legally mandated to look out for low-performing students first.

They can say that they have a lot of 8th graders doing 9th and 10th grade math, but what does this really mean when you probe into the curriculum?

I found a Nature Academy school in California. If this is the one you're looking at, my advice is that you dig deep into their curriculum. For example, they seem to claim that a lot of their 8th graders are doing geometry. Do they use Holt California Geometry? If not, do they use another California textbook? My son's school uses the Holt book. It's a joke as far as real geometry is concerned. Doing proofs means filling in the blanks in a prefabricated proof. The textbook has minimal text, yet features distractions on every page. The problems are simplistic. Etc. Make sure you look at the textbooks before making any decisions.

IMO (and the Holt textbook and others like it are evidence supporting my O), our schools have watered down math and science classes in the name of "accessibility." This is especially bad in public schools, though some public schools teach good courses and some private schools don't. Either way, the kids get As in geometry, do fine on state tests, and then get to college and wonder why engineering is so hard.

Nature Academy's website says they do a lot of writing. Does the English teacher correct all this writing? Or do the kids just write stuff for its own sake, like at my son's school? It's great that some of their students have been published, but what percentage get published? Or was it just a couple kids a few years back and they're still talking about them in their PR copy?

What does the school mean by "rigorous?" Does it mean "lots of homework," or "we use textbooks with A-, B-, and C-level problems, where the A set gives you straightforward practice, B makes you think a bit, and the C ones are pretty tough?"

Remember also that your definition of a "good school" is very different than that of most other people. A school that's fantastically wonderful for students with IQs in the 110-125 range is very different from a school that's wonderful for students with IQs north of 140.

Do you really have to withdraw him from where he's at before you know if he's successfully lotteried in at the other school? Is that because it's a transfer between districts?

polarbear

Are you sure you want to pull him out of a place where he's thriving for an unknown situation?

Thank you very much for that run down Val! I'll keep a copy of it and make sure I hit all the points as I research.

I have to renew the transfer every year and as far as I have managed to figure out you can't apply for a school in your district and have a district transfer in the works at the same time. It's possible this isn't the case, his teacher and I are trying to figure out the details.

The reason we are considering the move at all is because his current teacher will be retiring before long and a new teacher has a very good chance of changing the fit for him. In addition his peers (the middle schoolers) are moving on to high school and unless things change dramatically he will be the only child actively attending the optional on campus classes which kills the socialization aspect of it. His current teacher is the one who recommended the program although I'm pretty sure she doesn't know exactly what textbooks are currently being used there. (I do know my district uses earth science books close to 20 years old though.)

Will Nature Academy let you and your son sit through their classes for a day? That would give Wolf some data to form his own opinion about which school he likes better. It would also give you a chance to check out the structure and curriculum questions. You might even be able to speak to a teacher or two after school to explain that your son is a little unique and ask how the school would support him?

For us, it is the flexibility of the school that matters in handling a unique kid. If the teachers or other students are very rigid in their thinking or not very accepting to differences, then it tends to be a bad fit. That is just something that you can't determine without seeing a class or two. Maybe this applies more to us since we have a 2E kid who does not blend in very well at all!

Wishing you the best of luck! I know that the prospect of changing schools for an unknown is stressful. You just need to gather as much data as you can and hope for the best. We changed schools last year, and it was the best move we could make.