I guess what I'm trying to say is that I would not necessarily go through testing (ie, SCAT or IQ) unless you have something firm that says the school will pay attention to it-
The situation in my neighborhood elementary school in a Boston suburb is similar to yours, but I have different advice. In many schools, one can safely make the assumption that schools will do NOTHING extra for gifted kids, just tracking in math starting in middle school and for ability grouping high school. They will not try to identify gifted students, because they might have to DO something with them. Thus, it becomes PARENTS' job to manage the education of their gifted child, and the first step is identification. Therefore it is a good idea to have kids take the SCAT and/or EXPLORE, even if the school ignores the results. (I'd suggest IQ testing too if it were not so expensive -- it depends on the parents' finances.) Using results from tests like the SCAT, EXPLORE, and SAT, parents can decide whether any of the following options make sense:
(1) afterschooling in an area of strength (for example using EPGY or Singapore Math or Life of Fred for a gifted math student)
(2) enrolling in private courses (in my area, for example, Math Club
http://www.themathclub.com/ or Russian School of Math
http://www.russianschool.com/ )
(3) enrolling in a private gifted school
(4) homeschooling
(5) entering college early
I view the public schools as just a resource and will try to avoid letting them limit the educational progress of my children.
