Here is an article on Cluster Grouping:
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/newsletter/spring96/sprng964.html.I too am curious about the concerns - are they concerns that the grouping exists, or concerns that they aren't grouped enough? I'm also curious what the definition of gifted is and how many kids there are. If there are 5 classrooms of 20 first graders, you would likely have only 1 or 2 classrooms with a gifted cluster.
It is considered a very good way of meeting the needs of gifted children, without some of the problems of completely different classrooms. That being said, like anything it won't work well if the teacher isn't educated in and interested in gifted education and trained in differentiated instruction.
Seating arrangements shoudn't make a difference. At my DS's school at least, the kids rearrange themselves (or the teacher does) into any number of groups during the day (we don't have cluster grouping, but there are often small groups, like reading groups). It doesn't really matter who you sit next to for art, or writing practice. Maybe they intentionally do that if the gifted kids are together at other times, so that they get to know and interact with a number of different students?
Cat
