Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion New....ish.

In addition to it being difficult to predict what a high school will be like in 5-6 years, many of the schools highlighted in US News are magnets, charters and exam schools. Even if you move to the area, there is no guarantee that you will get into those schools. For example, I live in the Denver area. The only "gold medal" US News school is Peak to Peak charter. It is a lottery based K-12 school in the Boulder Valley school district and very difficult to get into.

Aside from the lottery issue, it is difficult to know what type of high school would be most appropriate when your child is so young. Our local high school is a US News silver medal school, IB school and extremely overcrowded. For my high achieving DD12, it may be an appropriate choice. For my highly creative, HG dysgraphic DD9, it probably would be a disaster. There is a very good chance that my kids will go to two different high schools.

At the elementary level, there are many different options in the Denver metro area -- gifted charters, gt center programs (school within a school), etc. Which one would be most appropriate? It depends upon your kid. Many cater to high achieving gt kids. Some only accelerate one year -- period. Some use block scheduling to allow movement between grades. I know of one that bills itself as highly individualized so better for PG and 2e. Once again, a lot of these schools are a lottery and/or have testing requirements.

There is one school district, Adams 50, in the northern part of the metro area that has eliminated age-based grouping/grades and instead groups according to ability. It might be worth a look if you are considering the area anyway. It has garnered a lot of attention in the local press but I don't have any personal experience with it or the immediate area.

I agree with polarbear, you should look for a place that you would like to live and then try to figure out the school options available.

I know it's not my thread to be airing my own concerns.  but.  I talked to a district gifted director about early entry (didn't get it this year). When I explained that my kid will very likely be able to read a book and write a book report or read an article and write a report on it by the time he's in the first grade the district gifted director said the public schools will probably never serve our needs at that pace.  However Wren lives in NYC and she said her daughters first grade writes reports.  
My concern is that I'd rather have my kids go to school to learn, like a normal kid.  Right now he's looking at twelve years of teachers helper.  I was told they offer credit by examination up to one grade per year.   Even that is going to put him with different classmates each year (not too concerned, most young kids make playmates quickly unless I see otherwise); he will still not find a group of kids to keep pace with during elementary school.  At the rate of one grade skip per year he will not be at his educational level that quickly.  

We're not moving to NYC, but I am disappointed to hear that I'd likely be disappointed with that Dallas school. We were vaguely considering the Dallas or the Los Angeles school, given that some circumstances lined up.  

I wish we had a hug smilie! When dd13 was ided as gifted in the realm of "general intellectual ability" in 2nd grade, I too thought that maybe they'd be able to meet her needs now. I was told by the GT coordinator for the district at the time (she was retiring and probably being more blunt than would be typical), and this is a direct quote,

"Highly gifted kids don't last long in the public school system, have you considered homeschooling?"

When I asked about options w/in the public schools, she told me that the higher ups in the district were "philosophically opposed" to meeting the needs of kids like dd. That said, we have had some years that have worked reasonably well with some very dedicated GT teachers and coordinators who have gone to bat for dd and modified their class work specifically for her and a few other kids.

It has involved a lot of advocacy (both mine and from administrators/teachers) and a lot more changes than I ever would have anticipated making in her schooling given that we've lived in the same house the entire time. She's attended school in two different districts, attended a charter that was chartered through the state, homeschooled briefly, subject accelerated, grade accelerated, went to three different elementaries... It really isn't as easy as finding the right school and having it be a good fit throughout with HG+ kids often.

Now I'm really curious Polar Bear. I've seen a lot of posters who were happy with Montessori except theirs only went up to 5th or 6th grade. I think the Montesori children's houses sound cool, the pink towers and the golden beads the seasons and the nature studies and the life skills. What does Montessori look like in highschool. What kind of materials do they use?

La Texican, one thing I learned the most regarding Montessori is that they're not all created equal. They all use the name but alot of the school's character etc. depends upon the director and the majority of the people who go there. So you have to go on a tour, take a good long look at how the kids interact with each other and how they "look". That’s really true of any school tour. One Montessori I went to, the projects and stuff on the walls for the primary room were fantastic and amazing, but most of the kids seemed kind of hollowed out, I was a little disturbed.

Cricket2’s advice and insight about the higher ranking schools is...amazing to see in “black and white”...It’s super advice. Also with higher incomes (such as goes with some high ranking suburbany schools) comes more likelihood that certain kids will “get away” with things like bullying, influencing teachers (and those kids will know exactly where they stand) and substance abuse, since they have the money to pay for it and do what it takes to cover things up nice and smoothly. Not things that people really like to admit or talk about, but this can be the reality nonetheless.

The lottery issue is very true. When we moved here we had a choice of moving within city limits but the basically one G/T magnet and a couple of charters with great reputations are so hard to get into it was really taking a huge gamble. (And the charters don’t have bussing service, and I’ve since heard nightmare stories about the city bussing that supports that one G/T magnet. )

With hindsight, I guess we should have rented again like the last place we lived and taken a “wait and see” attitude. But we just wanted to get settled and caved into all the enthusiasm for the higher ranking school outside the city limits. You’d think they’d be so excited to have a student, who if educated appropriately, could really make them look good! But maybe going outside the tried-and-true formula is just too much for them.

Getting a decent education for your child seems to be pretty hit-and-miss. Private schools are sooo expensive and faith-based schools aren’t for everyone. Everyone has to carve out a system that works for them.