aj614, you've received a lot of good advice above - I have just a few randomish suggestions, in no particular order:
* You haven't shared the results of his previous testing with the school. I would share - it's an important data point that separates you from other parents. We saw just about every other parent in our childrens' K-1 classrooms insisting that their child was gifted and needed differentiation - which most likely means you aren't the only parent who's requesting something extra for your child. What you have that most other parents aren't going to have is proof (in the previous testing) that your ds is capable of more and you aren't just an over-eager parent.
* Recap what's happened so far with a brief summary email, request end-of-year-testing, and attach a copy of the previous testing with the email request.
* If you can't get the school to provide the end-of-year testing, one way to get proof of math achievement is to have an evaluation at a private math tutoring service. I won't mention names, but one of the national chains that operates here gives every student who's considering signing up a very widely recognized-by-schools achievement test, and they test above grade level for kids who are capable. It will cost money, but not as much money as going for a complete ability vs achievement set of testing. Another testing option might be to check and see who your local homeschool community uses for testing - we found very affordable ability vs achievement testing that way.
* Don't discount what your ds' teacher says about where your child is or how they are coping with the "long day" etc - get the details behind what's been said. Not every gifted child is gifted across all subjects and all situations - and there may be something your ds is struggling with that you aren't seeing. I doubt it, but it did happen to us - so it's something that I just suggest trying to be aware of. I was all too eager to brush off concerns from our ds' teacher in K-2nd grade simply because he was so smart, but ultimately he also had a challenge which was causing him a lot of stress at school.
* Try to spend time in your ds' classroom if you can. It might help to know what the environment is like - are the other students on task or are there a lot of behavior issues in the classroom? What's the teacher like in action, not just in conferencing? When do they eat? Is your ds hungry at the end of the day? Is he really having to learn phonic sounds rather than phonics for spelling? What is he like in the classroom?
* Find out if there is a gifted program coordinator at your district level (above the school level). Contact the supervisor and ask for advice. It's possible there is some type of programming/help out there that isn't advertised, and the gifted supervisor is going to be (hopefully) much more familiar with the testing your ds has had than his school teacher is likely to be.
* Are there any other school options available to you other than the school he's in and homeschool? We were also huge proponents of public school until we had issues, and finally left for a private school. It wasn't even a "gifted" school yet it made *all* the difference in the world for our ds.
* If the school can't offer differentiation, can you offer anything yourself as a parent volunteer? When our children were in early elementary (in a school with no gifted program) there was a parent who volunteered once per week and ran a math pull-out for the higher level math students, and I used to volunteer once per week helping students with writing and spelling.
Hang in there!
polarbear
