I think that (public) schools aimed at gifted kids should just have open admissions. The important thing would be to ensure that there is absolutely, positively, no watering down of standards.
So, for example, anyone can sign up for the gifted kindergarten, but promotion to the first grade in the same school would require that students meet certain benchmarks (set, say, at around what kids at the 98th percentile would be capable of doing). The kindergartens would use ability grouping and could use materials that are designed for different ability levels (e.g. SRA for reading and/or reading buddies in a higher grade).
Kindergarten might have tons of kids, but all those kids need to be in kindergarten anyway, so a city could adapt by having lots of feeder kindergartens. For example,schools with multiple K classrooms could reserve one room for the gifted program, and kids who clearly don't belong there could be moved into regular K classrooms quickly. Others who struggle through the year could be moved into grade 1 classes in the same building, and the gifted ones could start first grade in a school where everyone is at or above the 98th percentile.
This approach would get around the testing mania, everyone would get a chance, and the HG+ kids would be served.
Obviously this idea would require a lot of planning, but it would serve gifted kids and get around all the problems related to diversity, test prep, and so on.
Val
