Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments guides/cklist for possible new school?

My kids are in private school. I just contacted our public school county gifted coordinator and she said the teachers just went thru training and are doing some inclass differentiation and have 5hrs wklly G&T pull out required. Everyone with 95% on Standard testing gets IQ and achievement testing. Wow.

So I want to look more into this school. I need a guide or checklist so I find out what I need to know. I need a good plan. Can anyone make reccomendations? This could be what we need but I really need more info. before we make a move.

Not sure what you are asking? You can go to your state education site though. Most have some sort of written documentation on there rules.

I was looking for a guide on what to look for or ask about to see if schools are good for a gifted student.

I guess some of the things I would want to know would be these:
-Would they accept your outside testing if you have it?
-What further testing they would do, if any?
-Generally how many kids are in the pull-out program?
-Is the pull-out grouped by grade or is it mixed age?
-What is the range of abilities that is typical at that school in the GT program?
-Are there other accomotations such as acceleration available to GT kids if it is needed, or is the pull-out expected to be all that is necessary for everyone?
-Is there a policy in place for the school or district that targets different levels of accommodations based on different ability levels and academic needs?
-What kinds of activities do kids do in the pull-out?

Are these the kinds of questions you were wanting?

yes,I really want to try to ask all the right questions. If we were to make a change I want it be worth it.

Great list mnmon! I especially wanted to highlight these. If the program is 'only' 5 hours a week, and that is all that they do with the information, it isn't a good sign that a kid who is beyond the 97.5% is going to get much out of it. Of course there may be an outstanding individual teacher, but that can happen anywhere.

Is there an existing program that you can spend time observing? That would be ideal.
Also - are they willing to look at the documentation you have and offer their testing to your children BEFORE you commit to attending the school?
Also - which tests are they going to use? Are they group tests or individual test, or is there some protocol that involves both?
If the GT coordinator is willing to meet your children and give your feedback about what they think would met their needs before enrollment, that would be ideal.

Best Wishes,
This is potentially a very good thing.
Grinity

I think you would want to find out if your dc's IQ scoress fit into the range of scores the public school teachers have been recently trained to serve. (If the school is targeting 130s and your child is above 140 they still may not know what to do with him.)

Also, I wonder about the fact they are "recently" trained and just starting differentiating in the classroom. Maybe the teachers would be really open to suggesting you have about how to meet dc's needs. Or maybe they are just going to follow a new proceedure to the T.

I would try to talk to some other parents from the school to hear if the school administrators and the gifted coordinator have good track records with follow through.

I really hope this works out for your family!
Chrys

I'm going to play the skeptic here, mostly because I've learned the hard way about how easy it is to get excited about a school that doesn't deliver what you thought it would.

Some points to ponder and other random ideas:

1. What, precisely, do kids in the GT pullout do? Games and puzzles? Extra grade-level work? Horizontal enrichment that's also on grade level? Or do they get bona fide acceleration? I agree with the person who suggested sitting in on a class or two. I'd also ask to see examples of what the kids do.

2. As someone else asked, what's the school's policy on grade and subject acceleration? Get it in writing. Don't settle for verbal assurances. I've been burned by these more times than I care to count. This means that sometimes an idea seems so obvious to everyone in the conversation, you forget to get stuff in writing.

3. What are the IQ cutoffs for this program, and does the school understand levels of giftedness? There's a huge ability difference between someone at the 95th percentile and someone past the 99th. Sports analogy: if athletes at the 95th percentile of ability could compete well against people past the 99th, millions of people would compete at the Olympic games.

Now that I think about it, this point may be one of the most critical ones. If the school is defining gifted as students with IQs at the 95th percentile (some use the 90th), and your kids are past the 99th, your kids' abilities will still be way past most of the pullout kids. This means their needs may still not be met.

4. Does being in the gifted pullout mean a child has to miss other stuff that might be fun and/or educational? Like PE or art or whatever?

5. What, precisely, is in-class differentiation? Does it just mean a greater volume of the same stuff the other kids are doing? Does it mean doing things that are only marginally more difficult, if at all (e.g. 6543 + 5891 instead of 728 + 142)? You might want to ask for examples of differentiated work and then compare to non-differentiated work.

6. Public schools are completely wrapped up in test scores. Getting more GT children will help their scores, which may inspire them to market the school to you. Beware of promises made by the marketing department.

7. Is the funding of the GT program guaranteed? If so, for how long? Some GT programs are losing funding right now because of the economy.


Last, and most importantly, GET STUFF IN WRITING. If they say they'll accelerate your child, get it writing. If they say they'll let your child write about what she's learned about nuclear physics instead of making a list of solids, liquids, and gases, get it in writing.

Wow thank you. those are just the considerations/questions I need. The gifted teacher said they tie the accelloration to what is going on in class. I can see I need to ask more questions.