Call me a cynic, but I've always believed that "differentiation" is a lot of handwaving intended to sound good and avoid extra effort. Saying that "all learners require special accomodations" is a way of dismissing the needs of the very bright ones.
I just learned about a local kid going into 5th grade who works at a 2nd-3rd grade level. She was supposed to have an IEP in 4th (this was last October) and when the parents went to the 1st PT meeting in November, they were told everything was okay. At the next one in April, they learned that nothing had happened since October. The teacher said "I forgot." The parents have been, ahem, advocating firmly, ahem, since then.
I don't know about others, but I had kind of thought that once slow learners get IDed as needing an IEP, things work out better because the help system is already in place. I was naively assuming that IEP problems experienced by people on this list were due to the schools not recognizing GTness in the 2E kids.
<sigh>
Val
