Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments School shopping

I could post the same thing as NotSoGifted....to the extent that I wonder if we're in the same school district!

The one thing I would add in our experience is that even though the gifted offerings are not terrific in early years, my kids have a lot of peers. All three of our kids are in the elementary school gifted program, where requirement for entry is 130+ on WISC. (I have one MG, one HG and one EG.) There are approximately 10-15 kids per grade in that pull-out program. So even while the program is limited (2x week pull-out), they all have peers in their regular classroom and there is clear differentiation going on within each classroom.

After spending a few days looking at houses and timing potential commutes, the less affluent but more "gifted is grouped together" district is pulling ahead in the decision making process. The commute is about half the other option. In researching the district more closely I came across another program they offer that might work for my son. It is not a gifted program per se but it does seem like it could address the needs of a gifted learner by being flexible. Here is the summary:
    
"The program provides an elementary school option emphasizing parental involvement, teacher continuity, and program flexibility. It serves students in grades one through six, from throughout the School District, who want a different educational delivery system than the standard school setting.

The program presents a meaningful, rigorous curriculum based on School District and State Standards, utilizing School District adopted textbooks and real-world materials to accomplish curriculum goals for a broad range of learners. Acceleration, enrichment, and reinforcement is provided as appropriate.

A student remains in the program from year-to-year, working with the same team of teachers.  The program has opportunities for multi-age learning to help students develop team-building and leadership skills.

Parents expand the learning team by providing the equivalent of two hours of volunteering per week. A strong bond is created between the home and school allowing parents to reinforce daily learning.  Volunteering opportunities are abundant and varied.  Working parents may arrange to volunteer after working hours."

The program uses positive discipline and a lot of hands on learning which I know will work well for my son.

There is also a Montessori program in the district which does multiage groupings.

So there are a few more reasons to like this district for the elementary years. We'd have some options.

Interestingly enough, the high school in this district had more National Merit Semifinalists than the smaller affluent school.

Thanks everyone for the input.

I am just venting.
So we are still looking at houses...

DH called Option B's gifted coordinator. It didn't go well. Gems from this conversation included "There is no such thing as a gifted kindergartener" and "We never look at outside testing because parents can buy the scores they want"

I was lucky enough to connect with some moms of 2e students from Option A that warned me away from there.

We love the little private school he attends now but it isn't a long term option.

We are looking at a house today in a 2A district that does cluster grouping for gifted kids. I guess I will call it Option C. The one thing I can say with certainty about this option is that DS5 would love the after school programs there. They include an environmental club responsible for the school's garden, landscaping and stream, a strategic games club and Destination Imagination.

It is frustrating because I won't know if a school will "work" until we try it.

Bummer! Things can be made to look so good on a website. Unfortunately, the truth is sometimes a bit different. That's such a strange comment for a gifted coordinator to say about "no such thing...." I guess if you ended up liking the houses in that district you could investigate further, trying to find out what they do with kindergartners who are working at x level (without mentioning the G word).

Any chance your state allows open enrollment? In MN, as long as there is space available, you can send your kid to any public school you want. We are also doing some school shopping, and I can relate to your frustrations. We are going to try to find a house that is sort of centrally located near a few decent school options. Our DS9 is currently in a full-time GT program that ends in 5th grade. This district doesn't extend the program after that, but does provide other options for the kids who have been through the program (many honors programs in middle school). I would prefer more of a continuation of the sort of program DS is in, so we will be looking around. The fulltime GT program, self-contained or clusters in the classroom, is very important to us. There is a huge range of abilities even within the HG classroom -- i cannot imagine that a teacher in a regular classroom would have much time to spend differentiating for the kid who already gets it. Also, in a FT program, the pace of instruction can be sped up, which many GT kids need.

But if those types of programs are unavailable, the best thing in my opinion is a flexible principal and teachers who are willing to work with you. Do they allow subject or full-grade acceleration? Are there other kids with similar abilities that can be grouped so that your kiddo has at least one peer? (Many schools deal out all the top kids to different classrooms.)

I hope Option C turns out to be better. Destination Imagination is a wonderful program, and the other afterschool programs sound great, if nothing else!

Seems like a good idea to avoid the school where they let teachers work while intoxicated.

Parents can also "buy" high group test scores and probably more easily than high IQ scores in that the tests aren't as tightly controlled and there are ways to get ahold of them and prep. While I, too, like the spiel you mention on the website about gifted not being about high achievement, I would be very leery of a district that thought the best and only way to identify giftedness, especially in 2e and underachieving kids, was to use the CogAT. I've seen way too many high achieving but not gifted kids get high scores on that test to believe that a program populated with kids identified that way would meet the needs of a HG+ kid.

My dds (ages 12.5 and 14.5) will be going into 8th and 11th grade in the fall and the best we've done with public school in terms of meeting needs has been:

1) grade skip for the less 2e one
2) choicing to schools and a district with a higher percentage of high achieving and above average kids

In regard to #2, the benefit was that there were enough privileged kids and pushy parents that programs existed more readily for subject acceleration, pull out replacement "GT" math and reading classes that met daily in late elementary school, etc. These programs and classes weren't filled with gifted kids anymore than the GT options were at our less affluent assigned schools, but they met more frequently and had higher expectations none the less because the parents were more educated and had more money to throw at getting their kids up to the level to perform in classes with higher expectations.

It hasn't been perfect and we've definitively had some issues with getting our more 2e kiddo's needs met (they recognize the gifted aspect b/c she is performing at the level of the other kids in the subject accelerated and honors classes, but they don't see the LDs as much since she isn't below grade level or failing and that's apparently the only time they notice LDs).

No kidding.

Where TF do they think gifted first graders come from? The "Cloud"?

This is classic, "You can't be gifted because you haven't shown us, X-Y-Z yet." syndrome!

Can you just stay where you are and continue with the private school?

Val, we can stay and our son will go there for the 2013/2014 school year.

We are not sure on the 2014/2015 school year. DS's OT who knows him well says we should look into enrolling him elsewhere. She works at this school and has a son that has been there several years. DS had a bad preschool experience at this school and apparently the teacher he would have for 1-8 is very rigid like the preschool teacher.

Another reason we are house hunting is the house we are in is just not good for my joints. It is three stories with bedrooms on the top, kitchen, laundry, dining and small living room in the middle and large room and office on the bottom. I am up and down stairs all day and it hurts. I am one of the ones on here with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome which is genetic. DS5 is undiagnosed at this point (will see a geneticist in 2 months) but even he complains that the stairs hurt his legs.

Anyway, the search continues.

There is no such thing as an informed person who believes this.