George, my EG ds was in this type of school for his elementary years. It was a charter school, project-based learning, and although the school claimed to differentiate it really didn't happen, partially due to teachers not caring, partially due to a huge district-wide emphasis on bringing up achievement scores on the low end of the spectrum to meet NCLB goals. Because the school felt strongly that they could meet the needs of all students within the classroom, there was no gifted program and students were not referred for the district-wide elementary gifted pull-out program. We had to push to get our ds into that program, and his teachers were thoroughly convinced that he would get nothing more out of it than he did in his regular classroom and that it would be a huge disruption to his week (it was a half-day pullout once a week).
My ds isn't here in the room with me at the moment to read the article, but if you were to ask him about his experience, I know without a doubt (because I've heard all about it lol!) that he would tell you that the VERY BEST part of his school days in elementary school were the gifted pull-out. Not because of the actual work - he did projects that were as interesting, if not more interesting, in his regular classroom. The difference was being in a classroom with all-high-IQ kids. It was *huge* for him. Why? It was a combination of things - discussions were more in-depth, discussions were not bogged down by what he saw as "obvious" concepts, learning was at a faster pace overall, and the kids in the classroom were there because they wanted to be, hence they were engaged learners, rather than kids goofing off and causing distractions for the teacher and fellow students.
So if you asked my ds, he would most likely say that he'd recommend advocating for more opportunities to be in a gifted-pace classroom with gifted peers.
From my perspective, I think it's important to remember where the need for inclusion for children with special needs grew from - not so long ago, children with LDs/etc were denied FAPE through the policies that placed them in separate classrooms and programs. Then ask yourself - is a high-IQ child in a broad-range of abilities classroom being allowed to learn/work at their own pace? With the right teacher who cares enough to see that it happens, yes, that can happen. But is it happening *with* peers? That was the gotcha for my ds - project work with his classroom peers wasn't satisfying his intellectual curiosity and needs.
Hope that makes sense,
polarbear
