My son was tested twice with a big range between 132-150 in WPPSI-IV. The first time he took the test, I was informed that he quit participating after some sections, which resulted in his score of 132. We are trying to choose the best elementary school for him. We live in Southern California. We are currently in the best preschool in the area we could find, but he has no peer who can converse with him about all the engineering topics he loves. He ends up talking to teachers and admin more than his preschool classmates.
I’d greatly appreciate this community’s advice regarding the below two options.
Option 1: Public elementary school. Beautiful campus setting. Used to be a full time gifted magnet school, but converted to a regular school as there weren’t enough gifted kids to fill the school. All teachers are GATE certified. Offers part time gifted pull out once a week starting 3rd grade (the school hasn’t answered my questions about what actually happens at these pull outs). Tries to cluster gifted students in the same classroom. I don’t think this is more than a few students per grade. The definition of gifted is “ Qualifying Cognitive Ability score > 95th Percentile or > 93rd Percentile with Multiple Measures”. Some parents left bad online reviews that the school didn’t challenge their HG / PG kids. Glowing reviews as a normal school. PTA funding is about $65k a year. There is a district wide educational foundation that provides some funding as well. District annual budget is around $16500 per kid. Supposed to be under 30 kids per class. % of students passing state standard is 76% math, 75% English, and 69% science.
Option 2: Public magnet school, K admission is by lottery. K students are evaluated throughout the year, then starting 1st grade, split into 35 kids in a high performing classroom and the other 35 kids in a regular classroom. Starting 4th grade, kids are officially screened for giftedness based on undisclosed criteria, and the school maintains 1 classroom full of kids in each grade that are supposed to be gifted. PTA funding is about $230k a year. District annual budget is around $15500 per kid. Facilities are extremely dingy and I didn’t feel as much warmth from the teachers. All teachers are GATE certified, and the district has a ton of information about giftedness on their website FWIW. % of students passing state standard is 82% math, 84% English, and 76% science. The school has a robotics team that my son would love.
