The teacher assured us that he would not hold anyone back, and yet there was absolutely no differentiation. After our son spent 3 months doing review (despite us asking the teacher and the principal numerous times), we've finally decided that it was not working.
I am not sure how many times I've had the staff at our school tell me ds10 will get different work then of course it turns out he has to finish the other stuff first (he is not a speed demon so this never happens).
...but it was a while before I even realized that he had the option of reading about the topic first because the program didn't require that you get instruction before attempting problems.
I noticed that when we did an Aleks trial several years ago. The EPGY courses seem to have an excellent level of verbal instruction from a (nice sounding) instructor, along with a video of what he/she is writing. And the info comes in bite-size chunks, then problems, then more lesson...I prefer that, and I know ds has been doing well with it. (just for future ref.)
I mentioned EPGY to our ds' gifted teacher and she was pretty excited to know they had courses for younger kids now, much to my surprise.
We are in a similar boat for middle school. Ds is interested in the math/science magnet but pretty sure he doesn't want to 'start over' making friends, which I agree
is a big deal for him. The chances of getting into one of the few slots for the transfer to the magnet are small, but we applied anyway, almost hoping for a 'no' so we can just be ok with the regular school (lol!). That is odd too, because it is only going to be his school for 1 year, there is a new school opening in 2012 so he will move again (unless he goes to the magnet). Probably most of his buddies will move to the new school, however.
Thank goodness the regular high school is probably exactly the right one (technology magnet).
