Most schools in the area have less than 1000 kids total in all grades, k-12. (there's only 120 kids in DD's k-6 school)
But, yes there is a huge mismatch going on.
Thanks - that's the info I was looking for. So - assuming that your average kid locally is close to 100 in IQ, which is a big assumption and could be wrong, you are saying that only about 2 in 500 kids are being identified, so thatis just under the top half a percent.
ok, so we are sayng that the majority of MG kids, the top 5%, or 3%, who could really benifit from a pull out class, or enrichment get nothing, and only the Highly Gifted or PG kids, who are really beyond 'enrichment with agemates' are being identified. These are the kids who really would be expected to benifit from gradeskips or subject accelerations. I'm not saying that enrichment with MG kids who are older wouldn't be wonderful also, but most school are looking for the cheapest way possible.
It does puzzle me that your school even has gifted coordinators, when they have so few identified kids. With such a small target group, they could practically individually design each child's curricula.
It doesn't actually suprise me that the idea of 'LOG' hasn't really penetrated your school. LOG is a pretty new idea and hasn't solidly taken hold beyond the parent-community. But it explains a lot of mysteries and frustrations. Trying to define 'Gifted' is like the fable about the blind folks describing the elephant. Each person's perspective really depends on the local situation. And local can be as small as 'oh we skipped a child once and he was miserable.'
In a way a small school can be a great place for a HG kid, as in the 'one room school house' when small can mean flexable. Your school might be a bit too big for that, though. Do the High Schools use distance learning to widen their offerings?
Love and More Love,
Grinity
