Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Will applying to Davidson help me with the ps?

DS10 took the Explore this past year and had a composite of 20...he qualifies in every category. The required composite is a 17. We currently homeschool and I am getting concerned about his re-entry into ps next year or the year after for 7th or 6th grade.

My concern comes from the fact that ds12 starts school on Monday. We have gone through the IEP process. The only ability grouping is done in math and a compressed reading course so they can fit in gifted class 2x/wk. I am wondering if I apply for ds10 to Davidson and he is accepted whether it will be at all helpful to me in getting ds10 accommodated as he re-enters. Partly the issue is I don't really believe he is PG so I hate to apply, but if it will help with the school then I guess it will be worth the effort. On the other hand, I am not even sure what accommodations I would want for this child. I do not want him to grade skip.

Brownie

I'm mostly bumping for you, because the only way I know anything about US public schools is by absorbing stories here.

Still, on that basis and given that you don't want him to skip - no, it won't help.

Davidson can be very helpful with a whole host of things not just grade acceleration. We have addressed a variety needs with them. We haven't done a whole grade acceleration. Can I ask why you don't want acceleration to be considered? We stayed away from it because my DS was not interested in doing it. He had been in school with the same kids since pre-k and had no interest in leaving his friends behind. We did do subject acceleration and some of it more radical. It has worked for him. Davidson has been helpful in navigating some of that and long term planning. The consultant was willing to contact the school and give them more information about our DS's individual needs.

What are you hoping to have the school do? By middle school it's particularly difficult for most schools to individualize any curriculum. My DS had one Science teacher do a good job of it before we accelerated him. I am in a fairly GT friendly district. It still would be a stretch to expect the regular teachers to do much for gifted kid. In our school, they are seeing 120 to 150 kids a day and its unlikely they are going to individualize curriculum for one student.

Davidson has been helpful for us. They gave us a lot of information to help us make decisions in planning for DS. I disagree they can't be helpful unless you accelerate. It more that the options buying acceleration are limited as they get older. If a child already knows Algebra 1 material sitting in a Pre- Algebra class, what exactly is the teacher supposed to do? Acceleration starts to look like the only option in some scenarios . Years ago, I would have never considered some of the things we've done with DS. I would have seen them as risky and radical. Over the years, I have come to see them as necessary for him. I am much more open to whatever options are needed for him or DD as she gets older.


Do you have IQ testing as well? If you have qualifying scores the application isn't that much work. Applying with a portfolio is probably a lot more work.

Sorry to have gone off topic a bit. I am just curious about the types of accommodations you are looking for? I do think Davidson can help just about anyone to figure out what an individual child might need.

Yes.

One kind of radical idea that-- truly-- had never really crossed my mind until then was something that another parent (to a pair of HG+ teens) pointed out:

you do know that your child is entitled to TWELVE YEARS of appropriate education, right? NOT "twelve years of curriculum" but twelve school years of appropriate education.

Still processing that one-- but I figured I'd throw it out there. Most parents are not going to be very well-equipped to advocate for that with a school system that isn't cooperative and frankly extraordinarily well-informed re: the needs of gifted learners... so yes, Davidson seems helpful ESPECIALLY in those kinds of situations, IMO.

oh, snap! i'm stealing that one for when i pick up the kid from her grandparents' today. i'm waging a bit of a war, there. thanks for passing this on!

Yeah, well, color me amazed, too, because I'm the parent of a kid who will have extracted just 8 years from this system from start to finish. {sigh}

i really love your kid. i know that's weird, but the stories about her have given me a lot of hope in this very difficult year. i have no idea if DD5 will keep up her blistering pace or if she's a flash in the pan, but the path you've taken with your kid has shown me that if we do wind up in the same neck of the woods, there's a lot to look forward to.

The thing is that the word appropriate means something different to the public schools that most people think. It does not mean the perfect education for every child. It specifically targets children with disabilities (not giftedness) and simply means means (among other things) that when possible the child will be offered an education that *meets* grade level standards. Schools are under no obligation to exceed grade level standards even if it would be appropriate to do so with a gifted child. It is assumed that children in general ed are getting an "appropriate" education because they have been placed at grade level in the least restrictive environment.

Kai-- in some places, though, it's possible to classify GT children as Special Education-- while they may not get federal funding to meet those needs, an IEP does specify individual learning benefit to the student.

I just hadn't ever considered it quite that way-- in terms of the TIME, not just the curriculum.

Much depends upon how your state/province defines its responsibilities for educating children.

I don't want him to leave his friends behind, be exposed to alcohol and drugs and driving friends a year earlier, go to college at 17 and miss out on HS sports because he is talented enough in his real year but not in his accelerated year, etc...
That's why I pulled him out to homeschool after kindy...I knew when I fought for math acceleration they were going to push for whole grade acceleration because he was years ahead in reading too and that's just easier for them.

We live in a very competitive school district and I believe we will not have an issue being challenged once HS hits. However, they don't really differentiate until HS except math. Even then as soon as you are on track to hit calc before junior year, you start to run into scheduling issues because we have a 9/10 campus and an 11/12 campus. In fact this really creates issues across the board bc most of the cool courses are at the 11/12 campus.

I do not have qualifying IQ scores. When the school did them 5 years ago he was something like a 134 on the WISC. So either homeschooling rocks or the scores are off or more likely a combination of both. So it's not worth the expense or effort or both for me if it's not going to help with the school...and honestly I'm not sure what I want them to do. Brownie