Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Gifted in High School

I wanted to get some feed back from all of you that have gifted kids at the high school level, or those that teach gifted programs at high school. In my school district there are no special magnet programs for gifted/high ability learners. The push among parents seems to be directed towards early college / concurrent enrollment high schools.I am not convinced that this is the best option for very gifted learner - I like education to be broadened, not fast forwarded. IB diploma program looks very interesting . Does anyone have any experience, good or bad , as far as HS choices? Private schools are not challenging at all, so this is not an option where I live.
Ania

IB, from what I hear, has a tremendous amount of homework. I would imagine that taking a college course can broaden education. Gap year programs are also important parts of the puzzle. Science fairs and the various academic competitions can be useful. Mentorships and Internships can be used. This isn't a bridge I've crossed yet, but I've been keeping my ears open. My understanding is that in HS it's the extracurriculars that expand horizons. Does your child have a special interest that can be met that way?

Best Wishes,
Trinity

Gifted students often are underserved in middle schools but that is less a problem in high schools. In most high schools, there are the normal track and the honor track. The honor track consists the honor/AP classes (or pre-IB/IB classes if offered). If your kid stays with honor/AP classes, then he should be properly challenged.

IB and AP classes are roughly comparable in the eye of colleges. We did some research on IB vs AP issue before my kids enter high school. In the end, we choose a school with AP program for some other reasons. IB with its international root is an excellent choice if your kids intend to study abroad. But it is less known to US colleges. Ivies know IB well and so do large public universities such as UCs. The problem is with middle-tire colleges. You need to check the college's IB policy. They are all different.

Although they are different, you kid can be successful with either one of them.

Does your child have a special interest that can be met that way?
Trinity [/quote]

Well, my DS is 11 going on 12 so his interests change accordingly. I quess he will be into diffrent things by the time HS comes :-) But I am still entertaining an option of skipping 7th grade, so HS is getting much closer. For now he is into violin and fencing (probably in reversed order :-), also should mention drama. His greatest strength though is math and sciences, although he is not into real problem solving yet.
A HS with a great math teacher and a very strong math team would be my delight for him.
Ania

I did fencing my first year of HS as an afterschool club - what fun!

Grade skips are such a tough decision. If it's any help, I can clearly state that the research that says "skips are much harder if the last year in a building is missed" has shown itself to be true for my son. I still think he's much better off with the skip even missing that bridge to middle school, but if I had the choice to skip him last year, it think (won't ever know) it would have been a smoother transition. Have you looked at the Iowa Acceleration Scale Manual? (It's about 20$ from Amazon.com) I found it very interesting,as it gives an excellent explaination of what the various types of tests mean. BTW - It only addresses up to grade 8.

Best Wishes,
trin

Our school is K-8, so by skipping 7th grade I am not forcing him out yet ;-)
I do not know what I will do, for now I am not very thrilled with 7/8 grade team. For example, LA teacher main focus is spelling - and DS always gets the words right without much practicing. Also, next year will be Algebra II and then pre-calc. I do not know if I really wan't to go that way. But my son is getting older and he has more and more to say in that respect, so maybe ultimately it is going to be his choice. Anyway, you are right, it is tough.
Ania

My oldest son goes to high school next year. In our small town there are really 3 choices (excluding religious schools, which I'm not doing). One choice is great academics, military-style boarding school. My son is young because of late summer birthday and a grade skip and he doesn't want to leave home (nor do I want that, but I'd sacrifice if he wanted it), so that's out, at least for a couple years. The other two are kind of like out of a TV show with the slightly privileged and the "other side of the tracks". We live in the area feeding the privileged school, but zone exemption is possible. Believe it or not, the other side of the tracks is supposed to be a better school, particularly for math and sciences. My dilemma is whether I should send him to the other side of the tracks (sorry to keep using that euphemism, but it fits) where he'll encounter gangs (not maybe, but definite) and may not connect with a social group at all, so it'd be purely for the academics, or to the privileged school. I think he'd be able to succeed academically either way, but I don't know whether I'd be doing him a disservice in the big picture of life by sending him to the "other" school. Both schools offer some APs and honors courses. Only the "other" offers science clubs/competitions and they seem to have a better, more interested staff & admin.

I've always scorned parents who make school decisions based on "friends", and here I find myself agonizing on precisely that. My kid is not particularly sociable as I'm sure most PG kids have trouble finding a peer group with common interests, but he's been isolated in small class settings all through his schooling, that I just thought he should have some social opportunities in high school. I guess part of me is also afraid that if he doesn't get some experience with friends and fun in high school, he might go wild in college when he should really focus on academics. Any insights/suggestions?

I think friendships are important, but it's hard to know in advance where the friendships will come from. Can you get a graph of SAT scores from both scores? The means will tell you something, but the tail will tell you more.

What kinds of colleges do kid in the high tail at either school attend, that will also give you some insight.

I wouldn't worry about your child "going wild" in college, since I don't think there is any data on way or the other about what the causes or antecedants of "going wild" are. My guess is that your son is going to have to "cast a wider net" than either high school for friends who get him.

OTOH - active clubs and afterschool activities are another possible way to choose. See if you and your son can sit in on meetings of the Math Clubs and Chess Clubs of both high school. If you bring the pizza, you may get the info you need.


If you son doesn't seem responsible enough to go away to college at HS graduation you'll have to face that when the time comes. How many normal children are "close enough" to ready when they go away to college? Apparently many parents see college as a time when it is safe and appropriate for their children to "go wild." I strongly disagree.

Best Wishes - There are sure to be advantages and disadvantages with either path.

Trinity

Thank you Trinity.

I appreciate your advice. Sometimes these decisions seem so major and then a few years down the line you wonder--Why did I agonize about that so much? I think we'll go visit both schools after the holidays and maybe talk to the gifted advisors at each. See where that leads us.

Cym

My son started High School this year. We live in a rural area with a small High School. They do not have an honors program, no IB program and only limited AP classes. They do have Early Start classes which are also the AP classes. So the student can take the class for college credit and pay the fee or they can take the class and then take the AP exam for credit. Either way they take the class for an entire semester. They run quite slowly and the school will only allow 11th and 12th graders to take them. So we found a better way. We went to homeschooling. He is allowed to take 3 classes at the high school each day. Then he goes to the community college here in town. He can take the same classes they offer at the high school for early start credit, but since the college is on a trimester schedule, they run a lot faster and he can take more classes during the year, which he loves. This also enables him to participate in all the extra-curriculars at the high school and allows him to keep in contact with his friends at school. This program also allows him plenty of time during the week to do any courses he wants to persue at home.