Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Home School, Charter School, Private School...Why?

I'm a public school teacher (7th grade Math) but I'm also the parent of a 9 yo 5th grade gifted child (as such, I'm always going to work to find the best school setting for my child) so my reason for asking this question is two fold.

If you home school your child, send your child to a charter school, or send your child to a private school: where do you send them and what are your reasons for choosing this educational environment for your child instead of public schools?

My school system has noticed a good number of parents choosing charter schools (especially in one area of my county) over public schools and they're trying to figure out some specifics as to why parents choose a different educational setting for their children.

I've got my own opinions that I've voiced to my administration but I'd love to get some feedback from others.

Thanks for any helpful feedback you can give!

TripleB

Here is my experiences with a highly rated public school system. It actually took quite a bit for us to actually leave. We tried very hard to make it work.

The public school did not meet the academic needs of HG child, even with much parent advocacy. It's not that they didn't do anything, but did not do nearly enough.

They value fitting in.

The teachers in charge of the gifted programming were very overworked.

Classroom teachers were overwhelmed with other responsibilities and when they prioritized, they put gifted students last. Some teachers were just did not have enough training on gifted education.

The public school admins and some teachers discount parent input about their children.

The public school allowed bullying as par for the course and then blame the victim instead of addressing it.

Structure of public school taking away recess and adding busywork and extra homework that parents do not agree with.

We went with small GT private school right from the start because DS missed the age cutoff by 1 day (there is no flexibility here with that age cutoff), and we could not justify him spending 2 years in private K then going to public K - and because DS asked us to change schools/daycare at age 3.5 - it was too boring for him and he was too unhappy so the school we found has a pre-k entry level and from day 1, he loved it.

So even though he is now finally eligible for public schools, we are keeping him where his placement will fit him better than what public school will allow and where the student/ratio is more than 1/2 of our local public K (hard to beat 8-10 students with full time teacher and teacher's aide over 20 kids with one teacher and no aide). He loves his current school and teachers - and the school community and values are in line with ours. They place kids at their level for subject areas without us having to fight for it (even at the K level, kids move up to next class if math is not challenging, and they have materials up to early chapter books in that room so advanced readers are encourage to keep making good progress). They do a lot of social/emotional intelligence work along with academics.

We may look into public school options when he is older but for now, we have both kids in the same GT school. Where they love to go, and where their passion for learning is embraced, whatever speed it happens to be at.

I agree with what Howdy said. Our "highly rated" public school experience was not positive. We now have our children in a charter school. The charter school administrators seem much more open to parent feedback and communicate more. They have accelerated my son well beyond what the public school was willing to do. It's not perfect, but it's been an improvement.

My now-9-year-old MG/HG son was in public brick-and-mortar elementary school for 4K - 1. Each fall he tested beyond grade level. He had 3x week pullout out for reading, but he was with other advanced children. Only he was far more advanced than the others so it was not meeting his needs. The summer before 2nd grade, they offered him 3rd grade math instruction - but they had tested him at mid-way through 4th grade level for math. In sum, the elementary school was not able/willing to meet his needs in spite of their use of advanced cluster classroom, free use of differentiation, normalizing pull-outs for all students for various reasons, and written acceleration policy.

I switched him to the same district's public virtual charter where they were willing to subject acceleration without hassle. They just asked him to read a section from a 4th grade textbook and ordered 4th grade curriculums for him. We stayed with the virtual charter for 2.5 school years. Officially, grades 2, 3, and 7. They did a formal 3 grade skip the last year which allowed him to take high school courses for credit. However, because of budget limitations, they also have a policy that students need to be getting good grades before they can enroll in electives. My son refuses to so easy work, his grades suffer, and he can't take electives. The high school classes were too easy for his tastes, as the virtual school network in my state is geared towards at-risk students.

Now he is homeschooled, heavy music electives, and studying for AP and/or CLEP exams. He wants to enter college early and has taken placement test at the local community college, but I'm holding out until he takes AP or CLEP tests and scores well.

The virtual charter was never a good fit for us, but I'm very thankful for it. At the time, my XDH (shared custody) was completely against homeschooling. The virtual charter school was the best fit within the constraints I was working with. Now my XDH is supportive of homeschooling, so I'm free to do homeschool.

I'm on the governing board for the virtual charter school my son attended.

The reasons we see students enrolling at high school level tend to be bullying - especially due to gender issues, academically struggling students, or severe medical problems that interfere with school attendance.

At elementary level it's primarily wanting to homeschool but not knowing how. At elementary level reasons are more like wanting to spend time with kids, avoid unnatural "socialization", and religious reasons.

I am also a public school educator, but my children have never attended public school. Our home district is highly-regarded (though not elite). I knew when we moved in (prior to children) that their rep was excellent for bright average, adequate for average, variable for special needs (depends on the need), and questionable for GT. I also knew that the district was no better and no worse than most of the surrounding communities, with the exception of the nearest mid-size urban center, which is considerably better for both extremes (but probably slightly worse for average learners). Having lived here for some time, subsequent observations have been consistent with my initial impressions.

For example, there is a consistent rigidity regarding allowing children to access learning standards above their nominal grade placement, even by a single grade, and even when there is a whole group of children in the same class who are, on the teacher's own assessments and by his/her own admission, performing well beyond the state-mandated standards for that year. Of the likely HG+ students I know who have attended the PS, all of them have reported being used as teaching assistants ("in-class peer tutoring" or "cooperative learning groups" where they did all the work) for much of their education, instead of being provided with instruction anywhere approaching their levels. Some have been bullied over years, to the point of clinical depression.

We enrolled the first child directly into a tiny private, but eventually ended up uniformly home schooling. My experience on the inside of multiple public school districts (spanning both low-performing urban and elite suburban) indicated to me that the amount of time and energy that would need to be invested in GT advocacy (let alone 2e advocacy, which it emerged that we would have needed with one of the children) would be better spent encouraging and educating the children themselves. And skipping the potential conflict seemed like a healthier choice than attempting to shield them from it. We were in a position to homeschool, so we did. Our homeschool community is vibrant and engaged in the community (and, to be fair, the local school district is supportive of this, with relatively un-burdensome reporting requirements, and a generous ala carte policy with regard to hybrid home schooling), which has helped to make the decision to continue home schooling an easy one.