Do you know how the placement decisions are made for middle school honors courses? For instance, in our district (not in NJ) the kids who are in the gifted program in elementary school are automatically allowed to choose honors courses but children who haven't been identified are let in based on standardized testing that is done at the end of elementary school (not state testing).
The place to start is to know exactly what the policy (in writing) for admission into the gifted program in elementary and the honors classes in middle school. Granted, what is in writing isn't necessarily what is followed in practice, but in order to advocate in a difficult situation you always need to know what is stated in the actual policy and you can *always* use that in advocating whether or not it's used by the school routinely in practice.
The next thing that would probably be helpful is if you had any kind of ability testing for your child, and I'm guessing you would need to have that done privately. That would give you another strong data point if his ability was clearly high.
I also don't know anything about NJ, but I know in our state that high scores state testing is *not* a strong measure to use in advocating simply because the state testing is actually testing a rather low ability level compared to what high achieving kids are capable of.
You've also mentioned that English is your second language - do you sometimes feel that puts you at a disadvantage in talking to the school staff when advocating? If so, (and this is true for all parents, not just in the situation of potential language challenges) - try to do as much of your advocating as you can in writing. We're in a slightly different position in that we were advocating for a ds who was 2e but we found it extremely helpful to be able to ask for advice in how to communicate with the school from a parent's advocate. If there is anyway you could get advice from a local advocate who knows your local schools it might be extremely helpful.
Last thought - I am sure it's tremendously discouraging to see children included in the enrichment program who seem to be there because their parents politicked to get them into it. The flip side to that is - those parents had a voice. They most likely squeaked and squalked loudly and perhaps made a stink, but however unfair it might be... it means that a parent who advocates does stand a chance of getting their kid into the program... and if you squeak and squalk loudly enough *and* have data to back up your request, you stand a good chance (hopefully) of getting your child into the program too.
polarbear
Thank you for your reply.
I know the policy for enrichment and honor classes. I do know that it is mandated in state, but school could define their own rules for entrance into the program.
There is always a lot of room for improvisation, for subjective desision. For example, one year , even DS all required scores in tests were very high , he was not accepted to enrichment. I contacted school. Expalnation was , his language score is a little bit lower than they "Feel!" he needs for this program. For sure , many kids with much lower language score that his were in the program. There is a lot of favoritism that plays role in the school and I feel totally lost.
Yoe are absoluteley correct since English is not my native language it is difficult express myself when I'm talking espessialy , when I'm nervous.
What tests you would recommend ?
