Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Middle School Options

Ds will be in 4th grade next year. In our district, middle school starts in 6th, and the decision must be made by October of 5th, so it's definitely time to start considering our options for that placement. Basically, it comes down to the following two choices:

1. Advanced Academics Program at overall crappy, lower SES school with many behavior problems (not in the gifted program, but in the school as a whole). Ds would have all four core subjects (math, English, social studies, and science) with other advanced students, but he would be mainstreamed for foreign language, gym, one elective, and at lunchtime. I have had clients in this school and know that it has some problems with bullying and inappropriate behavior. This school requires an application, but there is no doubt about his ability to gain admission.

2. School without an identified "gifted program" but offering honors courses for advanced students. Much more pleasant environment overall. Closer to home (he could walk there with friends) and likely to draw the majority of the kids he knows from elementary and the neighborhood. Guaranteed placement as it is our neighborhood school.

I am thinking of going to meet with the principal of the neighborhood school and asking him about options for a gifted child. I know they are trying to build a program that, if less formal, will compete with the other school's AAP. Thoughts? The neighborhood school would be much more convenient, and he'd be surrounded by familiar faces-- generally polite and bright (if not gifted) kids. In the Advanced Academics Program, he would likely find more true academic peers and teachers who are very experienced in working with gifted (not just good) students, but the larger school environment leaves everything to be desired.

I'm not a fan of homework either--at least not busy-work.

master of none, I believe that additional projects are the core of the AAP, as well. They are required by state law to teach the same curriculum, but they enhance it with "enrichment" (what this means, I don't yet know). I will definitely check into the homework issue as that would NOT work well for our son or our family as a whole.

I echo what Master of None said. Our middle school gifted is exactly as you describe (4 cores, with a double block of language arts; PE, music, lunch, etc with entire grade). The curriculum is a year ahead (2 in math), but sometimes I feel like the main difference is homework. I don't mind the challenging work, but the busy work is enough to make us scream. For a kid who is involved in a lot of outside activities (right now he has a sport every day after school and music three early mornings), it leaves very little time for anything else. My ds13 is very organized and hardworking, but I worry how it will work for my ds11, who is entering MS next year. He is really smart, but I doubt he'll get straight As because he just isn't willing to put that much time in. Sometimes for Ds13, I wonder if it would be better to be in the regular curriculum and whip through the work and be a little bored, but have more time for things that are actually challenging to him, like his AoPS class. The in class curriculum is nice, but I don't really know if the kids in this placement are happy. They don't seem to focus on the social emotional needs nearly as much, and they don't do a lot of the fun activities that the non-gifted kids do. It's a hard balance and for now we've chosen to stay with the gifted placement, but our other option is very basic. If I could get a moderately challenging curriculum without the "these gifted kids have had it too easy and I am going to challenge them" (meaning, give absurd amounts of homework, not actually challenge), I'd definitely consider it.
If possible, talk to other parents and kids in both programs.
Good luck!

We had a similar decision to make although I wouldn't call our neighborhood MS perfect as it probably has it's own share of bullying/fights. Apparently this is common in MS, I must have been oblivious when I went through it.

In 5th grade, we had tours set up for the MS choices both for the kids and parents. The GT kids visited both schools. Our DD had already made her choice since she had already taken a class at the magnet but I know the tours were helpful for many families. DD had friends choose both ways. The neighborhood schools have also been trying to phase in many of the themes from the magnet for their advanced classes so just talk to as many former parents/kids as you can from both programs and try to apply it to your family/kid.

wrt homework, it is highly likely that in both MS programs there will be more homework than there was in Elementary school. I had heard many horror stories about homework amount at the program DD chose.

Our experience: So far it hasn't been that bad. Yes she has some math every day, but most other subjects have a lot of stuff done in class or studyhall. For the most part DD comes home and gets her work done by 5 and is ready for whatever else is on for the night. There are nights where there is a project or some type of writing assignment is due that requires evening work but these have been less than 10 days the whole year. They really do give the kids plenty of time to do the assignments without going crazy. There is an adjustment period where they learn how to manage time and use the study hall wisely (after all most of them have been breezing through). While I don't think all of the assignments are value added many of them do get the kids to think deeper about the "why" of their answers vs just filling in worksheets. To me this was the point, to make it not quite so easy breezy but not kill them with it either.

As I said, DD had friends who chose both ways. It really depends a lot on the personality of the kid.

My kids turned down the gifted middle school that was the same set-up you describe. I think it would have worked extremely well in the core academic subjects. But in the other subjects-- PE, especially, I was concerned and so were my boys. The school has a terrible reputation for bullying (I know two kids who are/have withdrawing because of being bullied), and my boys didn't want to be around that. Fortunately we found what seems to be a great alternative-- we'll find out next year!

In your case, I would definitely opt for the neighborhood school if you can get the principal onboard with differentiation and other challenge.

I think it's impossible for any of us to know since we don't actually have children in these schools, but, like others have posted, we also chose not to send our EG ds to our district's HG gifted middle school program because the parents I knew who'd sent their kids through it all had the experience that the interpretation of what to do with HG/HG+ kids was to pile on more homework and the kids had very little time for any kind of extracurricular much less time (either in school or outside of school) to just *BE* and to nurture their own amazing imaginations and creative abilities.

So - talk to anyone and everyone you can. Checking in with the principals (and counselors) at both schools is a good idea, as well as networking with as many other parents as you can. One pp mentioned parents will complain about homework no matter which program because homework in general across the board increases in middle school - that's true, there are going to be higher expectations across the board for homework no matter what school your child attends, but listen to what parents have to say - it was easy for me to quickly see that the homework load at our gifted program was out of sync with homework load in other schools by asking a few simple questions about how long their children spent on homework most nights, was their homework over the weekend typically, over breaks, and what type of homework were their children doing.

Another person who was a helpful resource for me when we were going through the middle school decision was ds' gifted program teacher from elementary school. We didn't go with her recommendation, but I took to heart something she said and then went my own way from there - she was telling me all about the wonderful things about the honors track in my neighborhood school (which is populated with a ton of gifted kids).. and she said one simple thing in answer to a question I had "Your child is going to be bored no matter what school he goes to." That was the first time for me that I'd realized any teacher had realized my ds needed something "really more" - up until then his teachers just communicated that clearly he was smart, but he needed to be doing what everyone else was doing. Hearing that from his gifted teacher, for whatever reason, gave me the extra motivation I needed to move forward and look into what I needed to do differently for him, and we ultimately went with a school program that was academically advanced by one year across the board, had a high percentage of gifted kids, and also had teachers who were very willing to challenge ds and let us (parents) help encourage him and give him opportunities to go above and beyond. Note - it's *not* a gifted school and advertises that it's important to challenge all kids, no matter what their intellectual ability. The key is that the teachers are very attuned at meeting the child where the child is as an individual, and they don't translate HG into "let's pile on more projects and extra homework".

Good luck as you look through your options!

polarbear