Hi NJgirl,
I definitely understand what you're saying about the enrichment program. Do you actually live in NJ, if so you live in a state that appears to have mandated (though not funded) gifted education.
http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/state_policy_new_jersey_10032.aspxI guess my first idea would be to find out what the state laws are for your state, and if there is a state gifted program. It seems like at this point you might want to explore seeking some outside advice or advocacy. Is your son a DYS or would you consider that as an option?
To get into the enrichment program at the elementary school where my 3rd grader goes, you have to satisfy 3 items of a list of 6. One of the 6 is their screening test scores, but it's not a requirement. For the classroom grades item in that list of 6, you only have to be in the top 90% of your class. Same with state assessments, only 90% is required of the state testing. (And they appear to spend the majority of the time from January until the spring tests going over the material and practice testing.) And my DD's teacher keeps marking her spelling test items wrong when they are right (it's a constant back-and-forth) or when DD copies the spelling words wrong in her book the teacher marks them as correct all week, then since DD has practiced them wrong all week she gets them wrong on the test. When this started happening we have to watch everything likes hawks to keep DD on track. Spelling is the only thing that comes home regularly, no math or anything else, so we can't really watch anything else. DD said her teacher looked at her state assessments and the teacher made remarks to me about how DD did, so I'm a little worried about that...my understanding is that the tests are supposed to go right into an envelope and sent to the state.
Weird things like that.
For the school's enrichment program screening test, they only test some of the kids that are recommended. Recommendations can come from teachers, parents, peers, and community members. As you can imagine all of this leaves much room for politics. Gifted education is not mandated where I live, however all children are supposed to be screened for giftedness but they leave it up to the individual districts as to how they do this. In our district they leave it up to teachers to "screen" by observation.
In my DD's class of 21, there are 5 kids in the pull-out enrichment. The enrichment kids are basically all the same group...their parents run all the groups at school, they're all in the same scouts groups, sports teams, dancing...
I know at least one of classmates is in the lowest reading and spelling groups, and one other is not hitting basic targets for 3rd grade. I have seen the enrichment program kids and what they do when I volunteer at school and I can tell you my DD is not missing anything. HOWEVER, and it's also what you're concerned about, those kids get tracked to the higher level classes in middle school. I don't know what the heck the middle school teachers do with some of these kids when they get there. I guess the helicopter parenting has to continue up there also.
So I can definitely get your concern. I guess if I were you, and you've tried all those things before and have that background with the school, I'd try to get some outside help from people that know your state laws and who are experienced working with gifted kids.
(p.s. if anyone's curious about how I know about the other kids in class and their levels, it's because people talk about the details of their kids...alot...too much. But I guess they are very confident in their abilities to keep their child on a good track despite all this. I would not want to be a teacher with a great deal of integrity in this school, I think the parental power is quite overwhelming.)
