I think that with *any* educational setting, gifted school or not, how well a curriculum or concept works depends on how it's implemented, and that can vary tremendously among staff and schools and school districts. My youngest dd is in a private school that "goes deeper" - their phrase, but it's essentially "wide not up". We moved her to the school because it has a challenging overall curriculum, but also had hoped to accelerate her in math, which is clearly an area of extreme strength for her. The school does not believe in accelerating. The things we liked and placed value on at the school took priority over losing math acceleration, so we enrolled her knowing she'd be in the regular classroom learning the same math as everyone else with the potential for the "deeper" learning wherever she needed more challenge. In spite of my skepticism, I have to admit, it's worked out well for her - the teaching staff has been very aware of where her learning levels are at and she's received quite a bit of individual attention and challenge. She's been pulled out with a small group of other kids who are working ahead and given challenging "deeper" work, and most importantly, *she's* been happy with the level of work she has been given. She's only been in this school for one year, so whether or not she'll stay happy is anyone's guess at this point, but for my sample of one for one year of 2nd grade, it seems to be working ok so far.
My ds, otoh, was also in an elementary school that emphasized challenging students where they were at as core to their school philosophy, and was bored to tears much of the time and never challenged. Part of it was the school simply didn't have the resources or the motivation to truly "meet kids where they are", a larger part of it is most likely due to his being a much higher level of giftedness and different type of giftedness than my dd.
polarbear
