Our school district is huge, with a variety of G&T programs and schools. DC goes to the zone, neighborhood elementary school, which emphasizes project-based work and an individualized approach to teaching. Reading is based on kids picking their own books to read. Math emphasizes problem solving.
The school website and administration giving tours emphasize the "individualized" approach and parents touring the school can see all the amazing work on display.
I think that parents who think their kids are more than just a little gifted took a look at the city's gifted programs, which in our district appear to run maybe one year above grade level, but with a lot more homework, and opted instead to go to a school that provided "individualized" instruction and opportunity for fun.
I think this promise has drawn in parents of a number of students who would fall in the 98-99 gifted range, I suspect. I think the school administration doesn't really recognize the difference between privileged, coached, gifted and more gifted. And now that these fast learners are here, it isn't quite sure what to do with these kids. In DC's class of approximately 20 last year, three kids were reading at least five years above grade level. Several kids were above grade level in math and at least one was probably three years above grade level in math. And that's just in DC's class, in an urban school that doesn't do ability grouping, with a huge socio-economic range, including about half of kids getting reduced or free lunch.
A group of parents met with admin last year to discuss math enrichment for all students, including providing accelerated or enriched math for highly able students. We were told that
there's a big gap in math understanding in the early grades because some kids' parents have taught them more out of school and it pretty much all evens out as the slower kids catch up to the pushed kids.
They declined to commit to any enrichment that didn't reinforce state standards and curriculum (i.e., wouldn't help out with the standardized tests for the child's grade level) and insisted that the new version of Chicago math (TERC?) that they will be getting next year provides enrichment for able students in its supplementary computer disks, so that should take care of enrichment. When parents attested to the large numbers of students they had observed who exhibited some signs of being capable of accelerated or higher-grade-level math, admin stated that such children didn't have a "thorough" understanding of the concepts and would miss out if they didn't stick with the curriculum and limit enrichment to whatever enrichment TERC offered for their grade.
At any rate, I am reading the ditd.org guidebook on advocating for highly gifted children, with a goal of advocating for the many gifted, and (I suspect) several highly gifted children at the school. On the plus side, the admin was welcoming of parents' general ideas about providing math enrichment for the general school population, through family math days and math games days.
