Thanks, Grinity and MoN.
From what I understand from the meeting, the students will be grouped within the classroom by ability and there are various strategies the teacher will use, many of which are not student-choice, but assigned and led by the teacher. There are Independent Study elements, but they are one option of several that the teacher plans to use. For Math, students who get 4/5 of the most difficult questions correct on the homework will either get different Math homework or none for that day. I love it. I can't say how many days I struggled with forcing DS8 to take his time to make the Math neat, when he just wanted to whip through it because it took no thought.
Grinity listed some of my concerns, like what about next year's teacher. The school is being very supportive of this strategy by bringing in the author to talk with the entire teaching staff, so I'm hopeful, but I understand that this is VERY dependent on the teacher. I know I'll need to start working early in the year to figure out about next year. Frankly, I need to worry about DS6 as well, and see if this year's teacher (if he gets the one we want, we really like her) can employ these methods as well.
All-in-all, the school has given us reason to stick it out and give it a try. At the very least, DS8 will have a wonderful teacher this year, and she seems open to discussing whether the strategies are providing sufficient challenge for DS, which seems like such a blessing. I am pleased that they plan to offer all the kids this opportunity since there are at least two kids in this grade other than DS who I know will benefit.
I know it's not optimal, but it is better than what we had, and now we neeed to see whether it is enough. For now, we have our fingers crossed that things work out.
