Hi again NJgirl,
You don't have to post it here, but I'd really urge you to find out about the gifted laws in your state (to the left on this board is the "how gifted is your state?" link.
But with so much loosy-goosy stuff going on, it probably indicates the gifted ed isn't mandated. At least I'd hope that's the case, but alot of schools do whatever they want, it seems...
If gifted ed is mandated, you can match up your history and what they're doing to actual laws are and see how they come out. Sometimes the state has mandates but leave the details to the individual districts (like the screening issue).
The enrichment program at our school does cause some bad feelings in that when the kids are pulled out twice a week, they do miss the classroom instruction and for the ones that are not up to speed, it makes the classroom teacher's job harder and is it really fair to ask them to tailor to those kids? I guess they see it as going with the territory for this school (the salaries are higher than other districts, so I guess it goes with tailoring more to parents?)
The enrichment program here seems mostly a "badge of honor" and a bragging right, even the enrichment kids in my daughter's classroom have told her she's not smart because if she was, she'd be in enrichment because the smart kids are chosen for that.
Tricky trying to explain those comments to my daughter. It's so much about adult politics.
The ticket to starting out on a higher footing in middle school is more serious though.
Anyway I like to find out as much info as I can, and it might be the case that the gifted association can help you. Or maybe not.
