Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Please help us decide between two schools

I am hoping that someone will be willing to share advice with us concerning our school choice for next year. Our DD6 will be entering 1st grade in the fall and we will definitely be changing schools. Her current school is not meeting her needs at all. We have two (hopefully) good choices and are having a difficult time deciding between the two of them. We are trying to decide between a GT center at a public school and a private school.

The GT center is a self contained class of GT kids that tested high enough to qualify for the GT center rather than pull out programs at their neighborhood school. (Stanines 8 & 9 on the CogAt and Naglieri). The GT center accelerates and compacts the math and language arts curriculum and generally works about a grade ahead. They mix with the non-GT classes for history and science but are "expected to work at a higher level and go into greater depth". I am having a difficult time determining if the school will truly keep her challenged. If she does not attend there this coming year, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get her back into the program later as they have a large wait list. A big con for this school is that the neighborhood that feeds into it is not great and so the school has a higher than average (for our area) incident rate for discipline problems - no violence or substance problems though.

The private school is very expensive, but we qualified for enough financial aid to barely make it possible. We will have to re-apply for aid each year, and the amount may change but they said that they wouldn't just 'cut us off' unless there is a big change in circumstances. It has extremely small class sizes and ability groups in each subject. Each child is frequently assessed and given individual learning plans. The private school always works a grade ahead on their curriculum, and some ability groups will go beyond that. They score an average of two grades ahead on the Stanford achievement tests. The school is not exclusively GT, but about 90% of each grade is GT and I know there are at least 5 other kids in her grade that are working around her level. I am concerned that we are buying into the hype too much and that we could get there and then be disappointed and then won't be able to get her back into the public GT program. I highly doubt that we would be offered such a good package, if any, if we turn them down this year and then try to reapply. We also have two other children who will be entering school in a few years, and we would either have to come up with more tuition money or take them to a different school.

Our DD scores at the low end of HG on the WPPSI, reads at a 4th grade level and loves math and science. She scores higher in math than verbal, but is not as far ahead there. She is very shy and sensitive and likes to do what the other kids are doing rather than work at her own level.

We'd greatly appreciate any thoughts or advice you might have!

I have two kids (DD10 and DD8) who are in a GT center program at our local public school, one scored HG+, not sure about the other since we did not do testing beyond CoGat and Naglieri with her (99th percentile in quantitative, 97th verbal on CoGat, 99th Naglieri) . The program seems to meet the kids at their level for reading and writing. In math they are only accelerated one year -- something that we have been working to change but have not succeeded yet. The program provides a lot of social/emotional support including regular class meetings with the school psychologist to address gifted issues. I have heard frustration from parents of EG kids that the program is not accelerated enough. If your kid is on the low end of HG, it might work for you.

Sounds like a hard choice. But it's nice to have two viable options!

I am wondering about the ages/abilities of your other kids and what grades the two options go up to.

I think if you were talking about an only child I would say go with the private school, even knowing only what you have posted. But with the needs of two other children to consider...that makes it harder.

I would imagine that if your relationship with the private school remains good they will work with you to modify your aid package when the time comes for you other children to attend school. Do you think this is possible?

We are looking at a public school GT center that sounds similar to what you are describing (but we don't know yet if our kids will be admitted). One of my concerns is the neighborhood of the school. My kids have been pretty sheltered up to now. In our case, the kids in the GT program are completely isolated. If they weren't, I would have some concerns. I'm not sure how my kids would do in a gym class with kids who live in violent, crime-ridden environments. Maybe that doesn't sound PC, but I'm pretty sure my bookworm kids would get their butts kicked. We live in a city - it's a small city, but it's a city and the parts that are "bad" are truly bad.

OTOH, it's a good thing for kids to understand the world they live in.

The program that you're describing sounds similar to the program my dd is in.
She is in an all GT 3rd grade classroom that occasionally does special Social Studies activities in which they mix with the 3rd grade general ed classes.

For my dd, it has been great. The accelerated academics at least help avoid the lag that she experienced in a general classroom while the teacher did review after review. In the GT classroom, they expect the kids to get it the first time and they just move on. They did not teach cursive or multiplication/division tables like they spend so long on in standard 3rd grade curriculum...they just expect that the kids can pick it up as they go along and I would guess that 95% of them do.

But most importantly, my dd seems to have really found her "people" this year, and that is more important than academics to me. Nothing compares to being surrounded by kids who think in a similar way. They all have a passion for learning and have their own little quirks and obsessions...so no one is singled out for being different.

In our county, the GT centers are also often in less than desirable neighborhoods and/or lower performing schools (perhaps to boost the school's overall test scores), but we are fortunate that our GT center is actually in an upper-middle class neighborhood.

I completely agree with supercrunch that the peer group is one of the best things about the GT center program option. If you ask my DD10 who is in 4th grade what she likes best about her class, it's having friends who enjoy the same types of books and who also enjoy making up crazy math problems for fun.

It seems that it's worth it to try the public school option first, my hunch is that the private school will always be availible, particularly as you have more children 'in the wings.'

Great advice so far - what grades do these schools go up to before one has to travel for higher classes?

Yes, it is common for Gifted Centers to be located in schools with 'issues.' I think that it's usually easier for GT kids from other neighborhoods to get to the poorer neighborhood than it is for kids from poor neighborhoods to get to the more affluent neighborhoods - so from that perspective I think this policy makes sense.

I would try very hard to observe the recieving classroom teachers. A wonderful teacher can make so much difference! One thing that might sway me is to count the teachers/per grade in both schools. To my mind a school with at least 2 classrooms per grade has two big advantages:

1) If there is a persisitient classmate bully, you can avoid them
2) If there is a teacher who is just plain miserable, you can avoid them. (Most teachers are wonderful, but I think every school has one that is pretty scary.)

Both schools sound pretty good, and as CFK notes - you have a lot of years ahead of you! And things do change.

We also found that private schools have more flexability - but then again, I have a cousin who's child is full grade skipped at a public gifted school - so you never know when the flexability you need will come your way even in a public school enviornment - it just takes one ally.

Best Wishes,
Grinity

Such great advice so far, thank you!

We do feel very fortunate to have two good choices this year, especially since we didn't have much to choose from for K.

Our other two children are twin toddlers. They are advanced in some areas (problem solving, puzzles) and behind verbally. We just have no idea what to expect with them with respect to giftedness. It would be nice to have them all at the same school, but not strictly necessary. Both the public and private schools go up to 6th grade, so there would be some years of overlap when the twins are in school too. I believe the private school would offer a discount & further financial aid for our younger children, but it would still add up to a hefty sum for all three kids. Not sure we could swing it.

I believe that DD would find intellectual peers at both schools initially, but may become harder with the private school as their enrollment in the upper elementary grades is much smaller and eventually the grades become combined classes, e.g. 5th/6th.

The public school has only one GT class per grade (and 2 ND classes). The private school may initially offer more than one class per grade, but they haven't officially decided if they will be adding a class for first.

I have observed a bit at the private school, and liked what I saw. My DD also liked the teacher, which is saying something since she is very shy. I have visited with the public teacher and liked her as well, but have not had the opportunity to observe her teaching. I need to call the school and see if I can do that...

Yeah, yeah - seeing the teacher in action in the classroom is a whole different experience. Plus you want to check out what the children are learning, what books are availible, how the teacher deals with disruptive behavior, etc.

I would agree that the private school sounds too small long term, a combine classroom is great when the child is in the younger of the 2 groups, but a problem for most kids when they are in the older half of the group. Even if the teacher was terrific about getting the material to fit, there is still the problem that half the kids in the class are younger. Assuming that it's a school aimed at Optimally gifted kids (I never liked the term 'Moderately Gifted') who make up the vast majority of the gifted population, if your dd is HG, she is going to be scraping the barrel to find same-aged likeminded kids anyway.

Twin toddlers! How fun! Remember that giftednss looks quite different on each child, and twins, well, they are a whole another experience. Enjoy!

Grinity

Cricket2 made a post about Skyview Charter recently (their request was denied) and we chatted about Broomfield Academy as an option for her. I remember you were considering Broomfield last year. Did you end up going there or to public?

Madsdad