Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Am I the only one living in the dark ages?

I just heard from a friend that the elementary school is going to try something new this year. They are going to group the highest readers together in a one class. That's in the neighboring district to mine. In my district, my Ker who by the teacher's word is advanced, will sail through 1st grader, will knock the 1st grader teachers socks off, etc etc etc got assigned to the teacher my oldest son had for K. Differentiation was not in this teacher's vocabulary. And my Ker's teacher had requested he be kept w/ one of his friends in his reading group, the highest group. there were 3 boys in the group and they all got along well. Well, all 3 boys were split up. When my oldest was in K, there was no one at his level in class so the teacher sent him out for reading w/ 2 other boys from 2 other classes - as you can imagine, w/ no consistent scheduling between the teachers, this happened about once per month. The rest of his time was spent coloring in items which begin w/ G etc. How can some schools be so up to date, and others seem so far behind? Also, all rising Kers are tested before school starts for placement. The tester was shocked that DS fluently read all the little books she had. Did they use this info to group the readers together in 1 class? No, they did the opposite and made sure no two were together. I ended up HSing my 3rd grader last year and will now be adding my 1st grader to the mix....I guess I should put that LOI in the mail today 8-)

sigh.......

Here, the teachers get together as a group and decide the 'best fit' for the next year. So, I'm wondering how GS got teacher 'B' for 4th grade when the wonderful(I mean that sincerely!) 3rd grade teacher who thought GS should have teacher 'A' for 4th grade? And GS, who doesn't really like to be singled out, was the only kiddo in his classroom that went out for the gifted pullout class every day. I really think it's roll of the dice here, but they do try really hard not to group kids by ability in the average classroom through the 5th grade.
Aahh well, a new school year starts in 1 week. The teacher he has this year has the best teacher website at his school, imo. She has tons of interesting links, that's impressed GS & me. I don't know if any of the other gifted kids are in his classroom but his BFF from last year is in his class again. He's not identified as gifted, but he's a good and concientious student, that's good for GS.
One more year and we get the the middle school, and hopefully more challenge.

Sadly, you are far from alone. Our principal is all about heterogeneous grouping. The only ability grouping I've seen to date is for reading - and, in DS's group, the teacher would listen to them read aloud for about 5 minutes, then give them some topic to discuss while she went to work intensively with a lower group. Um, they're 7. They don't "discuss literature," they fool around and crack jokes and poke each other.

We have a new superintendent this year, and the assistant supt. is also the curriculum director and, from what I hear, has personal experience with gifted kids - so I have (unrealistically) high hopes for change in the coming years.

Nope - not alone...we homeschooled last year and DS6 wanted to try public school this year and I am sadly disappointed so far with how public school has done some things that really seem totally backwards to me.....I am going to give them a few more weeks and we will be in your same boat again with homeschooling unless a small miracle occurs :-)

I'm just flabbergasted that the neighboring district thinks grouping the high readers into a single class is something novel?????

So many ideas in education are recycled. I am glad this is happening. Not only does it benefit our kids, but it is easier on the slower readers. They feel under pressure when reading to good readers.